Dan Simmons


Dan Simmons is an American science fiction and horror writer. He is the author of the Hyperion Cantos and the Ilium/Olympos cycles, among other works which span the science fiction, horror, and fantasy genres, sometimes within a single novel. Simmons' genre-intermingling Song of Kali won the World Fantasy Award. He also writes mysteries and thrillers, some of which feature the continuing character Joe Kurtz.

Biography

Born in Peoria, Illinois, Simmons received a B.A. in English from Wabash College in 1970 and, in 1971, a Masters in Education from Washington University in St. Louis.
He soon started writing short stories, although his career did not take off until 1982, when, through Harlan Ellison's help, his short story "The River Styx Runs Upstream" was published and awarded first prize in a Twilight Zone Magazine story competition, and he was taken on as a client by Ellison's agent, Richard Curtis. Simmons' first novel, Song of Kali, was released in 1985.
He worked in elementary education until 1989.

Horror fiction

Summer of Night recounts the childhood of a group of pre-teens who band together in the 1960s, to defeat a centuries-old evil that terrorizes their hometown of Elm Haven, Illinois. The novel, which was praised by Stephen King in a cover blurb, is similar to King's It in its focus on small town life, the corruption of innocence, the return of an ancient evil, and the responsibility for others that emerges with the transition from youth to adulthood.
In the sequel to Summer of Night, A Winter Haunting, Dale Stewart, revisits his boyhood home to come to grips with mysteries that have disrupted his adult life.
Between the publication of Summer of Night and A Winter Haunting, several additional characters from Summer of Night appeared in: Children of the Night, a loose sequel to Summer of Night, which features Mike O'Rourke, now much older and a Roman Catholic priest, who is sent on a mission to investigate bizarre events in a European city; Fires of Eden, in which the adult Cordie Cooke appears; and Darwin's Blade, a thriller in which Dale's younger brother, Lawrence Stewart, appears as a minor character.
After Summer of Night, Simmons focused on writing science fiction until the 2007 work of historical fiction and horror, The Terror. His 2009 book Drood is based on the last years of Charles Dickens' life leading up to the writing of The Mystery of Edwin Drood, which Dickens had partially completed at the time of his death.

Historical fiction

The Terror crosses the bridge between horror and historical fiction. It is a fictionalized account of Sir John Franklin and his expedition to find the Northwest Passage. The two ships, and, become icebound the first winter, and the captains and crew struggle to survive while being stalked across an Arctic landscape by a monster.
The Abominable recounts a mid-1920s attempt on Mount Everest by five climbers—two English, one French, one Sherpa, and one American —to recover the body of one of the English characters' cousin.

Literary references

Many of Simmons' works have strong ties with classic literature. For example:
;Hyperion Cantos series:
  1. Hyperion – Hugo and Locus Awards winner, BSFA nominee, 1990; Arthur C. Clarke Award nominee, 1992
  2. The Fall of Hyperion – Nebula Award nominee, 1990; BSFA and Locus Awards winner, Hugo Award nominee, 1991
  3. Endymion – Locus Award shortlist, 1997
  4. The Rise of Endymion – Locus Award winner, Hugo Award nominee 1998
Short stories:
;Seasons of Horror series:
  1. Summer of Night – British Fantasy Award, 1992
  2. Children of the Night – Locus Award 1993
  3. Fires of Eden - Locus Award
  4. A Winter Haunting – Locus Award nominee, 2003
Short stories:
;Joe Kurtz series:
  1. Hardcase
  2. Hard Freeze
  3. Hard as Nails
;Ilium/Olympos series:
  1. Ilium – Locus Award winner, Hugo Award nominee, 2004
  2. Olympos – Locus Award shortlist, 2006
;Stand-alones:
Collections:
Uncollected short stories:
In January 2004, it was announced that the screenplay he wrote for his novels Ilium and Olympos would be made into a film by Digital Domain and Barnet Bain Films, with Simmons acting as executive producer. Ilium is described as an "epic tale that spans 5,000 years and sweeps across the entire solar system, including themes and characters from Homer's The Iliad and Shakespeare's The Tempest."
In 2008, Guillermo del Toro is scheduled to direct a film adaptation of Drood for Universal Pictures. As of December 2017, the project is still listed as "in development."
In 2009, Scott Derrickson was set to direct "Hyperion Cantos" for Warner Bros. and Graham King, with Trevor Sands penning the script to blend the first two cantos "Hyperion" and "The Fall of Hyperion" into one film. In 2011, actor Bradley Cooper expressed interest in taking over the adaptation. In 2015, it was announced that TV channel Syfy will produce a mini-series based on the Hyperion Cantos with the involvement of Cooper and King. As of May 2017, the project was still "in development" at Syfy.
The Terror was adapted as an AMC TV 10 episode-mini-series in 2018 and received generally positive reviews upon release.

Awards

Wins

British Fantasy Society Award
British Science Fiction Award
Hugo Award
International Horror Guild Award
Locus Award
Nocte Award
Seiun Award
World Fantasy Award
Dan Simmons has been nominated on numerous occasions in a range of categories for his fiction, including the Arthur C. Clarke Award, Bram Stoker Award, British Fantasy Society Award, Hugo Award, Nebula Award, and World Fantasy Award.