Dan Simmons, author of Hyperion, Song of Kali, dead at 77

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Dan SimmonsBornApril 4, 1948Peoria, Illinois, U.S.DiedFebruary 27, 2026 (aged 77)Longmont, Colorado, U.S.OccupationNovelistEducationWabash College (BA)Washington University in St. Louis (MEd)Period1983–2026GenreScience fiction, horror, fantasyNotable worksSong of Kali (1985) Hyperion (1989) Carrion Comfort (1989) The Terror (2007) Dan Simmons (April 4, 1948 – February 21, 2026) was an American science fiction and horror writer. He was the author of the Hyperion Cantos and the Ilium/Olympos cycles, among other works that span the science fiction, horror, and fantasy genres, sometimes within a single novel. Simmons's genre-intermingling Song of Kali (1985) won the World Fantasy Award.[1] He also wrote mysteries and thrillers, some of which feature the continuing character Joe Kurtz. Born in Peoria, Illinois, Simmons started writing stories as a child with the goal of mesmerizing his audience with his story telling.[2] 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.[3] Simmons soon started writing short stories, although his career did not take off until 1982, when, through Harlan Ellison's help, Simmons was invited to the Milford workshop, which Ellison considered to be "the best SF writing workshop in the world".[4] Simmons considered Ellison as a mentor, friend, and the reason he pursued writing full-time.[4] Simmons' 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's first novel, Song of Kali, was released in 1985.[3] He worked in elementary education until 1989.[3] Simmons died from complications of a stroke in Longmont, Colorado, on February 21, 2026, at the age of 77.[5][6] Summer of Night (1991) 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 (1986) 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 (2002), Dale Stewart (one of the first book's protagonists and now an adult), revisits his boyhood home to come to grips with mysteries that have disrupted his adult life. Between the publication of Summer of Night (1991) and A Winter Haunting (2002), several additional characters from Summer of Night appeared in: Children of the Night (1992), 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 (1994), in which the adult Cordie Cooke appears; and Darwin's Blade (2000), a thriller in which Dale's younger brother, Lawrence Stewart, appears as a minor character.[7][8] 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.[9] The Terror (2007) 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, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, become icebound the first winter, and the captains and crew struggle to survive while being stalked across an Arctic landscape by a monster. The novel was adapted into a ten-part television series. The Abominable (2013) recounts a mid-1920s attempt on Mount Everest by five climbers—two British, one French, one Sherpa, and one American (the narrator)—to recover the body of a cousin of one of the British characters.[10] Literary references[edit] Many of Simmons's works have strong ties with classic literature. For example: His 1989 novel Hyperion, winner of Hugo and Locus Awards for the best science fiction novel,[11] deals with a space war and is inspired in its structure by Boccaccio's Decameron and Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.[12] The Hyperion Cantos take their titles from poems by the British Romantic John Keats.[13] The title of Carrion Comfort, as well as many of its themes, derives from the poem "Carrion Comfort" by Gerard Manley Hopkins.[14] The Hollow Man (1992) is a novel influenced by Dante's Inferno and T. S. Eliot[15] "The Great Lover" (1993) is a short story inspired by the World War I War Poets[16] Simmons's collection of short stories, Worlds Enough & Time, takes its name from the first line of the poem "To His Coy Mistress" by English poet Andrew Marvell: "Had we but world enough, and time"[17] The detective in Flashback is named Nick Bottom after a character in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream[18] Hyperion (1989) – ISBN 978-0553283686 The Fall of Hyperion (1990) – ISBN 978-0553288209 Endymion (1996) – ISBN 978-3453315174 The Rise of Endymion (1997) – ISBN 978-0747258933 "Remembering Siri" (1983) - (Novelette), prequel to Hyperion "The Death of the Centaur" (1990) - (Novelette) "Orphans of the Helix" (1999) - (Novelette), sequel to The Rise of Endymion Summer of Night (1991) – ISBN 978-0312550677 Children of the Night (1992) – ISBN 978-1250009852 Fires of Eden (1994) – ISBN 978-0061056147 Darwin's Blade (2000) – ISBN 978-0380973699 A Winter Haunting (2002) – ISBN 978-0380817160 Banished Dreams (1990), collects three prophetic dream sequences that were expurgated from the published edition of Summer of Night, entitled "Dale's Dream", "Kevin's Dream" and "Mike's Dream" Hardcase (2001) – ISBN 978-0312980160 Hard Freeze (2002) – ISBN 978-0316213509 Hard as Nails (2003) – ISBN 978-0312994686 Ilium (2003) – ISBN 978-0380817924 Olympos (2005) – ISBN 978-0380817931 Song of Kali (1985) – ISBN 978-0312944087 Carrion Comfort (1989), expansion of the eponymous novelette published in Prayers to Broken Stones – ISBN 978-0913165386 Phases of Gravity (1989) – ISBN 978-0553277647 The Hollow Man (1992) – ISBN 978-0935716641 The Crook Factory (1999) – ISBN 978-0380973682 The Terror (2007) – ISBN 978-0316017442 Drood (2009) – ISBN 978-0316007023 Black Hills (2010) – ISBN 978-1849160902 Flashback (2011) – ISBN 978-0316006965 The Abominable (2013)[19] – ISBN 978-0751550283 The Fifth Heart (2015)[20] – ISBN 978-0316198820 Omega Canyon[a] (unpublished, original publication date 2025)[21] – ISBN 978-0316198912 Prayers to Broken Stones (1990), six short stories and seven novellas/novelettes: "The River Styx Runs Upstream", "Eyes I Dare Not Meet in Dreams" (novelette), "Vanni Fucci Is Alive and Well and Living in Hell", "Vexed to Nightmare by a Rocking Cradle", "Remembering Siri" (novelette of Hyperion Cantos series), "Metastasis", "The Offering" (novelette), "E-Ticket to 'Namland" AKA "E-Ticket to Namland" (novelette), "Iverson's Pits" (novella), "Shave and a Haircut, Two Bites", "The Death of the Centaur" (novelette of Hyperion Cantos series), "Two Minutes Forty-Five Seconds", "Carrion Comfort" (novelette) Lovedeath (1993), collection of five novelettes and novellas "Entropy's Bed at Midnight" (novelette), "Dying in Bangkok" AKA "Death in Bangkok" (novelette), "Sleeping with Teeth Women" (novella), "Flashback" (novelette), "The Great Lover" (novella) Worlds Enough & Time (2002), collection of five novellas/novelettes: "Looking for Kelly Dahl" (novella), "Orphans of the Helix" (novelette from Hyperion Cantos series), "The Ninth of Av" (novella), "On K2 with Kanakaredes" (novelette), "The End of Gravity" (novella) Uncollected short fiction[edit] "Presents of Mind" (1986, with Edward Bryant, Steve Rasnic Tem and Connie Willis) "Dying Is Easy, Comedy Is Hard" (1990, with Edward Bryant) - (Novelette) "The Counselor" (1991) - (Novelette) "All Dracula's Children" (1991) - (Novelette) "My Private Memoirs of the Hoffer Stigmata Pandemic" (1991) "This Year's Class Picture" (1992) (Appeared in The Living Dead, an anthology edited by John Joseph Adams) "Elm Haven, IL" (1992) - (Novelette), from Freak Show series "One Small Step for Max" (1992) "My Copsa Micas" (1994) - (Novelette) Madame Bovary, C'est Moi (2000) Muse of Fire (2007) - (Novella) The Guiding Nose of Ulfänt Banderōz (2009) - (Novella) published as a chapbook and set in Jack Vance's Dying Earth setting The Final Pogrom (2024) Going After the Rubber Chicken (1991), a collection of three convention guest-of-honor speeches by Simmons Summer Sketches (1992), Simmons reveals how his travel experiences have allowed him to instill a feeling of place in readers of his fiction Negative Spaces: Two talks (1999), about science fiction 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 Iliad and Shakespeare's The Tempest."[22] In 2008, Guillermo del Toro was scheduled to direct a film adaptation of Drood for Universal Pictures.[23] As of December 2017, the project is still listed as "in development".[24] In 2009, Scott Derrickson was set to direct Hyperion Cantos for Warner Bros. and Graham King, with Trevor Sands penning a script adapting Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion into one film.[25] In 2011, actor Bradley Cooper expressed interest in taking over the adaptation.[26] In 2015, it was announced that TV channel Syfy would produce a miniseries based on the Hyperion Cantos with the involvement of Cooper and King.[27] As of May 2017, the project was still "in development" at