Ilium by Dan Simmons was an exceptionally good read, if you're looking for another review. Often people just haven't heard of him, even well and widely read people, though he has several great series.

I don't read info on books ahead of time, and sometimes don't even read the summaries. I've read a LOT of scifi, must be in the thousands of novels by now, but I was completely unsure what was happening for the first 4 chapters at least, and in a very, very good way.