Hyperion (Hyperion Cantos, Book 1)

Hyperion is phenomenal! The writing is so eloquent that it was actually shocking to believe that this was written in 1989, it felt like this had easily been written and released this year because nothing felt dated about the story, the characters or really anything involved with the storyline. It’s described as The Canterbury Tales in space, though I’ve never read The Canterbury Tales, I can’t exactly say that. What I can say is that this was truly something unique to me, as I’ve not really experienced a type of story telling like this where it felt like six different novellas tied into one large story. After reading this I can truly say that Simmons is a master of the science fiction genre by writing such a masterful tale that had me reading every chance that I got and frothing over his beautiful writing style. Hyperion’s setting of a 29th century world has such an intricate plot with a very rich and detailed universe where humanity has colonized numerous planets. One of my favorite things is spotting references, and Simmons has a lot of them placed within the story, at one point I would say “oh this reminds me of this” and then Simmons would point that out later letting you know that’s why it’s similar, part of that is using historical themes such as Greek and Biblical Hebrew to help tell a part of the story. Hyperion has a perfect pacing that never felt sluggish or too fast moving at any point and if you’re looking for a story that is much more character driven than plot, as the focus is on learning about the characters, this is definitely the story to read. Within each story, Simmons does a great job of weaving in action and drama with stories of political power, familial love, religion and fate. What intrigues me the most is that while the story of the characters is happening, a war is underway with the Ousters, that could destroy Hyperion. “Words bend our thinking to infinite paths of self-delusion, and the fact that we spend most of our mental lives in brain mansions built of words means that we lack the objectivity necessary to see the terrible distortion of reality which language brings.” The story follows six pilgrims and their expedition to Hyperion, my worry with how this story was told is that I could end up not liking one or more of these stories within, but that was not the case, each story is well established and thought provoking while also being dark and tragic to their own extents and always leading back to one thing, the Shrike, a terrifying creature that is sent back in time. The differences in the style of each story is what made this so unique, one story felt somewhat like Westworld or Ready Player 1, one was a bit more comedic, another one felt like a nod to Isaac Asimov’s iRobot, while another had a Benjamin Button, 50 First Dates quality about it to give multiple parallels to how different each one of these characters are. Simmons attention to focus on these characters that are deeply complex and so very flawed is what makes this stand out the most, on top of that there is the mysterious Shrike creature that is sent back in time, a creature that is described almost like Galactus the world eater, but with a more sinister xenomorph look to it. With everything that’s been revealed about the characters, there’s still quite a bit of mystery still left to figure out in the rest of the series and its sequel since the story ends on a bit of cliffhanger with the group reaching their destination as all their stories have now been told. I’m not a big fan of cliffhangers, but this series is old enough that all books are available, so there’s no reason for panic. Another thing I’m always leery about is multiple narrators, because if one is bad, it can put a damper on the story, but again, this was not an issue because all five narrators, Marc Vietor, Allyson Johnson, Kevin Pariseau, Jay Snyder & Victor Bevine were terrific. They made this story even better with superior performances that got me in my feels and had my spine tingling from theme sheer terror that they felt, this was perfect in every way imaginable. As Dwight would say, perfectenschlag.

At the outset, let me say that I have not yet read The Fall of Hyperion. I was aware before I read Hyperion that this was the first part of a two part work. Actually, I am now not sure whether the story really concludes with the Fall of Hyperion, or this story line is in fact a series. According to Wikipedia; “The Hyperion Cantos is a series of science fiction novels. The title was originally used for the collection of the first pair of books, Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion, and later came to refer to the overall storyline, including Endymion, The Rise of Endymion, and a number of short stories.” Given my understanding that the story line continues for some time, I am going to assume that there is not going to be some nice neat conclusion where everything that has gone on before falls into place. This is certainly not unusual in the science fiction genre. To say that there is a lot going on in Hyperion would be putting it mildly. Clearly, the main story line focuses on the 6 characters, not including Het Masteen, who are making the pilgrimage to the Shrike. The pilgrimage takes place within what appears to be the larger story of the Ousters, the Hegemony and the TechnoCore. How all of these apparent competing interests relate to one another and which one might be in the best interests of humans remains a mystery to me. Actually, there are also other things going on or that have happened in the past that are not clear to me. For example, what exactly is/was the Hegira? While most of the story is grounded in traditional science fiction, it certainly appears to me that Hyperion might also be described as a horror story within a work of science fiction. For instance, the Shrike, whatever it turns out to be, reminds me of something that might be found in a Stephen King novel. Be prepared that the author uses flashbacks to tell some of the stories being related by the pilgrims. Accordingly, when a pilgrim’s tale begins you may initially have no idea what is going on. Nevertheless, things begin to focus as the story unravels. This is especially true with the Consul’s story, as there is also an element of time displacement that underlies his story. Another thing that remains as somewhat of a mystery to me is why poets seem to have such a central role in the story. One of the pilgrims is a poet who will break out into poetic verse during exchanges with his fellow pilgrims, and whose own tale seems to involve a poetic connection to the Shrike. There is also the reincarnation of the poet John Keats in the cybrid named Johnny and Hyperion itself has a city of poets. If there is some reason that this poetry theme is essential to the story, I don’t know what it is. As somewhat of an aside, I have to give credit to the author for including self-sustaining superintelligence in the storyline. I note that Hyperion was written in 1989, and to the best of my very limited knowledge, the perils of superintelligent machines were not well known at that time. As has now been recently reported, both Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking have stated that they believe AI is a threat to humanity. In my opinion, Dan Simmons is a very talented writer. Mr. Simmons has definitely conjured up a future that can only be the work of someone with an extraordinary imagination. I enjoyed reading Hyperion and did not feel let down by an ending that did not resolve the issues in the main storyline.

Very enjoyable read and no issues with the print.

Dan Simmons has the ability to send vivid images to your imagination, and make them come alive. The story itself, composed of intertwining plots, unravels as each one of the protagonists offers his or her own version of events. This is the first book of the Hyperion Cantos. If you like it, be sure to check out The Fall of Hyperion, which brings the first part of Dan Simmons' Hyperion History to a close. There are two follow up novels, Endymion and The Rise of Endymion, which are a continuation of the narrative arch initiated with Hyperion. These books are all full of intertextuality and are laced with (English) literary, historical and philosophical references (apart from the one Simmons invents). If you like reflexive Sci-Fi you will fall in love with the Hyperion Cantos.

Premier volume des Cantos d'Hypérion, ce livre est pour moi un de mes grands classiques de la SF. C'est un incontournable.

Vale cada centavo, excelentes condiciones.

I enjoyed the first book in the series a lot, but my main criticism of it was that while I the pilgrim's stories were all well written there wasn't much revelation in the core mystery of the story. I'm pleased to say that that mystery is revealed in this second book. I didn't agree with some of the direction, but it was at least thought provoking and didn't cop out in the same way as similar stories have - yes I'm looking at you Nights Dawn Trilogy! :-) This is a much busier read than the first book with quite a lot to follow. Luckily each thread has its own texture so it's quite easy to slip from one to the other. It also handles the time travel aspect quite well, which is something that usually puts me off a story but is used to good effect here. While there are many individual threads the story loosely groups into two - the first being the personal stories of the pilgrims. As with the first book these are the strongest aspect to the story. There is great drama here and great sadness, so much so that at one point I renamed the book to a litany of suffering. The different characters blend together well in these threads and each cast a different focus on what it means to be human. I noticed a different quality to the writing here as well, the author deals with personal circumstance and tragedy in a fluid manner that really speaks to the emotion of the events. The father and the daughter with Merlin's disease really stands out as an example of this. Less strong is the grand overview thread, or the space opera aspect if you prefer.While this has some nice ideas, it just doesn't come across as well as the individual tales of the pilgrims. What does work is how it draws the different threads together and comes together for a cohesive conclusion. I love stories that make you think and science-fiction is a goldmine for that type of stories and here we have a wide range of different philosophies and concepts that give pause for thought. As I mentioned earlier I didn't agree with some of the direction, but that's just personal taste, in the end I enjoyed where the patterns took me. In summary this is an excellent read and a stronger more rounded book than the first and I've already bought the next in the series to see where it takes me.