
I think the Poe story is Masque of the Red Death. Funny, when I was reading the scene, before they even mentioned Poe, I was thinking of the movie...when he was describing all the different coloured rooms I thought hey that's like "Masque of the Red Death" where's Vincent Price?! - so when I got to the Poe reference it totally freaked me

yep. That's the story for that sequence. So very apt. I can still see parts of that scene in my head, and just shiver. Dan Simmons really did a remarkable bit of writing there. I have two of his other books, Illium and Olympos in Mt. TBR so I'll be hunting up more of his work in the future.