Song of Kali

Dan Simmons

Apr 2014 · Open Road Media

About this eBook

The World Fantasy Award winner by the author of the Hyperion Cantos and Carrion Comfort: An American finds himself encircled by horrors in Calcutta.
 
Praised by Dean Koontz as “the best novel in the genre I can remember,” Song of Kali follows an American magazine editor who journeys to the brutally bleak, poverty-stricken Indian city in search of a manuscript by a mysterious poet—but instead is drawn into an encounter with the cult of Kali, goddess of death.
 
A chilling voyage into the squalor and violence of the human condition, this novel is considered by many to be the best work by the author of The Terror, who has been showered with accolades, including the Bram Stoker Award, the International Horror Guild Award, and the Hugo Award.
 

Ratings and reviews

It is a rare occurrence to stumble upon something that terrifies you without you realizing it. The Song of Kali is that something for me. Dark, subtle and bases on the human psyche, both as individuals and as well as collectively, this book digs into a part of your subconscious and doesn't let go. Having never been to Calcutta before, I already have a sense of fear, if not revulsion, of this Seat of Kali. That is the power of it's writing. It not only demonizes a city but makes you believe in it.

The story gives a different kind of chill; one more visceral, more easily approachable to the reader. This is a good read. The events which impact the main character are such that the reader can sympathize rather easily. The prose is straightforward, with masked bits and pieces of insightful, poetic and relatable truths. The overall theme is akin to interminable darkness; an underlying sense of dismay which envelopes everyday life. Highly recommended.

Beautifully written and hard to put down. The author reaches into the deep chasms of our human darkness and pulls out the [also] very human resilience to pursue the the golden threads of life in the face of that darkness, as malevolent and immense as it may appear in the form of a Great and Terrible Hindu goddess.

About the author

Dan Simmons, a full-time public school teacher until 1987, is one of the few writers who consistently work across genres, and perhaps the only one to have won major awards in all of them. He has produced science fiction, horror, fantasy, and mainstream fiction, and is now launching stunning works in the thriller category. His first novel, Song of Kali, won the World Fantasy Award; his first science fiction novel, Hyperion, won the Hugo Award. His other novels and short fiction have been honored with numerous accolades, including nine Locus Awards, four Bram Stoker Awards, the French Prix Cosmos 2000, the British SF Association Award, and the Theodore Sturgeon Award.

In 1995, Wabash College presented Simmons with an honorary doctorate in humane letters for his work in fiction and education. He lives in Colorado along the Front Range of the Rockies.