Hyperion gets 5 stars, no questions asked. It's a unique and overly enjoyable read. This is classic sci-fi literature with elements of politics, thriller and mystery which I love.

n  n    “[H]istory viewed from the inside is always a dark, digestive mess, far different from the easily recognizable cow viewed from afar by historians.”n  n

n  Hyperionn is this collected tales told by the pilgrims on their final voyage to the mysterious time tombs on 'Hyperion' to seek answers to the unsolved riddles of their lives. Each story is written with a unique style and diverse as an interstellar war to a detective thriller to softer personal tragedy and they all slowly reveal bigger pieces of the puzzle leading to Hyperion and the Shrike.

The world-building is mindboggling. I am fascinated by this enormous world Simmons creates. A world that can be at its best while also it's worse. Simmons questions humanity while sharing lots of insights and big ideas that may be too much for my little brain to comprehend.

n  n    “A philosopher/mathematician named Bertrand Russell who lived and died in the same century as Gass once wrote: “Language serves not only to express thought but to make possible thoughts which could not exist without it.” Here is the essence of mankind’s creative genius: not the edifices of civilization nor the bang-flash weapons which can end it, but the words which fertilize new concepts like spermatazoa attacking an ovum.”n  n

Hyperion is a masterpiece and truly astonishing. Everyone should read it, and a must for any sci-fi fans.

On the eve of interstellar war between the Hegemony of Man and the barbarian Ousters over the fate of Hyperion, seven pilgrims embark on a journey to the Time Tombs and their mysterious protector, The Shrike, a three meter tall, four-armed monster covered with blades. One pilgrim will have his wish granted and the others will be impaled on the Shrike's Tree of Pain. Only one or more of the pilgrims isn't what he appears to be...

I first read Hyperion almost seven years ago as part of the The Hyperion Omnibus: Hyperion / The Fall of Hyperion. When I found the ebook on the cheap, I decided it was time for a reread.

Hyperion is an epic tale that's hard to quantify. Borrowing its structure from the Canterbury tales, Hyperion is a literary sf tour de force, encompassing much of what I love about reading in the first place. There are literary references, far away places with strange sounding names, three dimensional characters, and a universe that is anything but black and white. There is also artificial intelligence, faster than light travel, robots, lasers, and many other spectacular sf concoctions.

As I said before, Hyperion is really a multitude of tales in one. Seven people have been selected to go on what is possibly the final Shrike pilgrimage. Along the way, they tell their stories, stories which run the gamut of genre tales. There's romance, humor, action, adventure, sex, and violence, everything I love about genre fiction. Simmons really flexes his writing chops in this, from Martin Silenus' verbose tale of being a writer to Brawne Lamia's Raymond Chandler homage. World-building is often intrusive and wielded like a club but Simmons' world-building is more like a massage, doled out in bite-sized chunks during each of the characters' tales.

While the world-building is staggeringly interesting, it's the characters that really fuel this fire. A repentent soldier, a conflicted diplomat, an old man with a child aging in reverse, the captain of a treeship, a burden-carrying priest, a detective in love with a poet, and a poet in love with the past.

There isn't enough space to write down everything I loved about this book. The only gripe I have is that it ends abruptly once the Consul's tale is told and the real ending is in the second volume, The Fall of Hyperion. For my money, Hyperion stands alongside The Dark Tower as on of my favorite fantasy/sf works of all time.

I originally read this way back in 2011 and it was one of those wonderful books that eclipsed many of the books before it. On the second read, it still is. Five out of five stars.

“The Hegemony Consul sat on the balcony of his ebony spaceship and played Rachmaninoff’s Prelude in C-sharp Minor on an ancient but well-maintained Steinway while great, green, saurian things surged and bellowed in the swamps below.”

After reading this stunning first line I was intrigued by Hyperion. By the end of the first page I was hooked. By the conclusion of chapter one I was a craven addict, my Hyperion-obsessed mind now fit for a series of cautionary posters titled "This is your brain on genre-defining science fiction".

Hyperion is Sci-Fi to make your breath quicken, to pull you from excitement to sadness to awe in the space of a single chapter. This is genre done as well as the best capital-L literary fiction- the grand scale and imagination of SF wedded to intelligent and ambitious plotting and writing.

Simmons sets up a vast and convincing 27th century tableau. Humanity has spread across the galaxy, forming an empire known as The Hegemony, which is ruled ostensibly via democratic process with a CEO at its head. Allied to this leadership is an amorphous grouping of massively powerful AIs known as the Technocore.

The major worlds of The Hegemony are linked with instantaneous travel portals called farcasters, allowing people and armies to step from one world to another, and for wonders such as the River Tethys, which flows through multiple different planets. Outside this network are fringe worlds, isolated from The Hegemony proper and reachable only via slower ships. One of these worlds, Hyperion, is the home of a series of mysterious structures, known as Time Tombs, which are travelling backwards through time from the future. Guarding these relics is a murderous creature of inestimable power and unknown capability called The Shrike.

The tombs and the Shrike have been known of for many years, but strange things are now occurring. The Shrike is ranging further from its usual hunting grounds. The Time Tombs appear to be on the verge of opening, and Hyperion is threatened by an invasion force of ‘Ousters’ - humans who live outside The Hegemony’s control. The Hegemony decides to send both a force and a group of pilgrims to Hyperion, several individuals who are drawn towards the world, their lives somehow linked to this strange, distant planet.

Simmons apparently used the structure of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales as his inspiration for the way he structured the stories that make up the threads of Hyperion’s scintillating narrative. The protagonists range from a tortured priest to a semi-retired diplomat, and their journeys will pull you in and leave you sleep-deprived from late night page-turning.

This is a book to fire your imagination. There are hundreds of great ideas in Hyperion, and I found myself musing on them for weeks after reading it (even now I still daydream about having a portal in my house that leads to a bathroom platform floating peacefully on the endless waters of an ocean planet - a luxury enjoyed by one of the characters).

In my opinion this is Simmons’ greatest work. Illium and Olympos are great reads, and Carrion Comfort is pretty cool (let’s try to forget about Flashback) but Hyperion is his opus, and I have given this book as a gift several times, knowing that it will be loved by anyone with even a passing interest in SF. Each friend who has read it has come back with the same wide-eyed wonder I had when I first read the novel, eager to discuss what they have discovered.

The only criticism I have of Hyperion is that Simmons leaves the story unresolved, setting things up for the sequel - The Fall of Hyperion. As a result, I suggest that you buy both books at once, cancel your appointments, close the blinds and settle in for two days of pure reading pleasure - this is science fiction at its absolute best.

Deep in the shady sadness of a valet
Far sunken from the healthy breath of morn.

Hyperion...

Imagine a universe where the Earth has been destroyed and humanity is spread out across hundreds of planets. Combine the artful poetry of John Keats with a science fiction retelling of the Canterbury Tales. Add tons of references to the myths and legends of the three Abrahamic religions, and what you have is Hyperion. A masterpiece of literature.

Seven pilgrims come together aboard the treeship Yggdrasil to make a journey to the remote planet Hyperion, outside the authority and jurisdiction of the Hegemony of Man. Each and every one of them has been specifically chosen by the Church of Final Atonement to undertake a pilgrimage to the enigmatic creature known only as the Shrike. And each and every one of them has been chosen because of a personal connection with the planet itself. Thus begins a quest to uncover the lost secrets hidden within the Valley of the Time Tombs, a place from which no pilgrim has ever come back alive.

This book deserves to be hailed alongside the greatest works of science fiction. While Dan Simmons’ writing is not something memorable in itself, he certainly makes up for it with the creation of his characters, his setting and most importantly his story.

The most fascinating part of the book is definitely the mystery of the Time Tombs themselves, huge structures that supposedly move backwards through time, originating in a distant future. Thus the book explores the concept of time itself, and the unforeseen consequences the effects of the Tombs have had and will have on the pilgrims' lives and the universe as a whole.

Hyperion is more a collection of short stories with an overarching frame story than an actual novel. That structure is part of what makes the book so much of a joy to read. Every chapter has one of the pilgrims tell his or her tale to the others in order to share information that will be vital for their survival and the success of their mission. And each tale brings the group closer to the Valley of the Time Tombs, where the Shrike is waiting for them.

The Priest, the Soldier, the Poet, the Scholar, the Detective, the Consul and the Templar. All of them with a with a story to tell and a part to play.

Still singing loudly, not looking back, matching stride for stride, they descended into the valley.

Всички знаем на какво е способен Симънс . В Хиперион той доказва отново себе си : портали във времето , култа към кръста , любов през вековете , и една мисия във времето която ще намери отговор на много въпроси .Цялата тетралогия е уникална и в мн отношения актуална и днес .

Fantastic world-building, intense and memorable characters, dense and compelling prose…. What else to say? A few things stand out in this novel. The writing is really immersive and exciting, but even more so when you realize that the different sections, each telling the story of a different character, is written in a different style. It is incredibly skillful, the way each story-telling mode gives additional insight into that character, and it allows for this sci-fi epic to have a little bit of a genre mish-mash going on. The characters are also exquisitely drawn. We have our main group but then within each of their backstories we meet dozens of ancillary characters, and every character fits. The main characters feel real, there is a weariness about them that only increases as the story progresses, and while the ancillary characters don’t have quite the same depth, they still feel like they have full and complete lives, it never feels like a one-dimensional character filling in for mediocre prose.

The story twists in on itself and feels like a puzzle box. I appreciated that aspect, and the way it ended, without giving concrete answers to every question, I also liked. However, I do wish our characters had more to do with each other. The story is very serialized, with a little bit of connective tissue serving to move the characters along in their quest and set up the next character to tell their backstory. We don’t really get to see a lot of interaction between the characters. We get some, certainly, and there is a clear connection between their personal histories and how they act within the group, but I really would have liked more. The main narrative of the story is relatively short, compared to all of the personal histories, and I was invested in their quest, I wanted to see them working together to problem solve instead of just kind of move from one place to another. Similarly, I would have liked to see character growth and development as a result of their quest, but really their quest is not but a few days and all their growth and development happened before they met one another.

It is a small critique, because I was hooked into the individual stories as well as blown away by the writing the whole time. It does leave a lot unresolved, and while there is something poetic about reading this novel on its own, I can appreciate it may be too open-ended for some people. I started this novel intending to read the whole Hyperion Cantos quartet, so it didn’t bother me. Even with that ambiguity this story brings up so many wonderful ideas, about faith, family, duty, art, identity, autonomy, rebellion, and more. Simmons does a phenomenal job building this complicated and expansive world and then uses all different aspects of that world to ask, through the individual characters’ journeys, exciting and interesting questions. It is challenging, never holding your hand or offering any simple platitude, and instead leaves you with a lot to think about.

3.5 Stars
Video Review: https://youtu.be/9q64BSnOQBg

This novel had a slow start. I will admit I was not very invested. One of the biggest challenges is that I found the stories to be tied to themes like religion and war, which have been rehashed so many times. I think I would have appreciated this one more if I hadn't read so many similar stories. Thankfully, the second half really pulled me. The story was not particularly mind-blowing but simply leaned into narratives that I was interested in. The ending really left me wanting to jump into book two.

Hyperion…I don’t know where to begin. It is too simple to say that this novel blew my mind, that I had literal chills as it ended. This narrative was all consuming, and when it ended, I felt like I had lost 6 friends. And maybe that is where I should begin.

It is a tale of 7 characters selected for The Last Pilgrimage to the Time Tombs on the outback planet of Hyperion. These are relics from the future, which have been sent backwards in time. They are believed to be a weapon from a final war, a settling of scores by changing the past. It is here that the mystic Shrike reside, The Lords of Pain, who grant the request of a single pilgrim and kill the rest. Their bodies are built like a blade, all metallic sharp edges, and they move faster than the eye can see. But this Last Pilgrimage is like no other. The Shrike have left their tombs and started killing the people of Hyperion in the thousands. At the edge of the planet’s atmosphere, two empires of human wage war on each other to access and take control the Time Tombs.

Despite that so much is happening in the present timeline, the bulk of the book is dedicated to the stories of each of the pilgrims, who share their history and reasons for taking the deadly pilgrimage. It is amazing how Dan Simmons creates multiple incredibly vivid and detailed worlds in each story, with a plethora of new characters, without the reader ever feeling unable to keep up or impatient to get back to another timeline. Some of these stories really cut at the core. They felt personal and were incredibly immersible.

My absolute favourite thing about this novel was the author’s ability to take a character, introduce them as a relatable, seemingly normal person, then slowly craft them to reveal that they are insane, evil, and just want to watch the world burn.

I would compare this work to Tolkien, with an abundance of cultures, religions, and the politics between different groups of people. There are multiple subsets of humans: the Hegemony of Man who conquer worlds and are connected by their teleportation web, the Outsiers who rejected the Hegemony and live in their zero gravity ships, and the humans who live a more “primitive” life outside both of these empires and are vulnerable to being conquered. Then there is the AI Technocore, artificial intelligence that humans have a fragile relationship with and have no idea where they physically reside outside their empires. Not to mention the different religions and belief groups.

I listened to the audiobook of Hyperion, and I would highly recommend it. Each of the 6 stories are told by a different voice actor. (Yes, there are 7 pilgrims but only 6 stories).

I loved this sci fi classic, Hyperion and want to read the rest of the series now - especially with the massive cliffhanger at the end!
A sort of Canterbury Tales in space, Simmons takes us 700 years in the future with a human race that fled the ineluctable implosion of planet earth in two groups - the Hegemony and the rebellious Ousters. There are, if memory serves, about 25 (or was it 250?) inhabited worlds between which slipships (sp?) use Hawking drive (presumably named for the amazing Stephen Hawkings?) and traveling at light speed leads to time debt from the voyages to take into account the quantum physics of space and time. The story revolves around seven pilgrims headed to a world not connected to the WorldWeb (this being a network of human habitations connected by networks and AI intelligence of the TechnoCore). There is a ton of speculative ideas that were very far-reaching for a book written in 1981 including the aforementioned WorldWeb (think of the World Wide Web that was conceptualized in 1989 and opened to the public in 1991!), farcasting portals for stepping from one world to another using time-space singularities, cybrids which are androids whose AI is seeded with known Earth personalities such as John Keats (whose poetry and life plays an enormous part in the story!) The Hegemony has become somewhat authoritarian amd paranoid following the incredible rise of intelligence in the AI systems and the menace of the Ousters who are now completely comfortable living in deep space and have developed sophisticated weapons that threaten Hegemony worlds. On Hyperion, the destination of the pilgrims, there is mysterious murderous creature called the Shrike who lives near the Time Tombs which are now off limits to the imminent danger. Each of the pilgrims has a specific and important link to Hyperion and to the Shrike and each tells their story during the long voyage.
Needless to say, there is a LOT of material here and telling you more would inevitably lead to spoilers so suffice it to say that there is no question that Hyperion belongs in the upper echelon of science fiction novels and its vision of the future is at the same time quite terrifying and incredibly fascinating.
Looking forward to the next installment! (Since, read and reviewed here on GR!)

Hyperion is generally regarded as a science fiction classic, it tends to be included in most "Best SF Novels of All-Time" lists. I first read it when it was first published in paperback, at the time I had no idea I was reading a book that is destined to become a classic in the genre. When I began to participate in online sf books discussion groups not so long ago (primarily PrintSF these days) I noticed how often Hyperion is mentioned, usually reverent tones. A reread is then in order because I have entirely forgotten what is so good about it, besides I have not read the subsequent books in the Hyperion Cantos. If I remember correctly I could not get my mitts on a copy of The Fall of Hyperion at the time. Anybody who is familiar with the works on Dan Simmons will know how versatile he is. Simmons has published books in several genres including, sf, fantasy, horror, crime, and non-fiction. I can not say that he excels in all of them because I have only read his sf and horror novels but it would not surprise me if he does.

Hyperion is beautifully structured and skillfully built up from gradually introducing the reader to the universe of the book to taking the readers through the adventures of the seven protagonists. It is one of those rare books that is highly readable from start to finish, yet its accessibility belies its complexity. The novel is comprised of brilliant six distinct novella length stories wrapped within a frame story (a la The Canterbury Tales). This book encompasses several different styles or sf sub-genres including space opera, hard sf, soft sf, military sf, cyberpunk, horror, and even literary fiction, each story even manage to encompass multiple subgenres. The different parts combine into a cohesive excellent volume, Simmons' wonderful versatility is amply showcased by the different narrative voice and tone he adopts for each part.

My favorite is Part 5, The Detective's Tale: "The Long Good-Bye" which begins as a noir crime fiction then transform into a cyberpunk story with a ton of action with a touch of martial arts and even romance. The difference in narrative voice is particularly noticeable here, Brawne Lamia is the only female protagonist but kicks more asses than all the males put together yet still comes across as feminine. It is a sort of The Long Goodbye in reverse with the woman as the private eye. Part 4, The Scholar's Tale: "The River Lethe's Taste is Bitter" also deserves a special mention as the saddest, most poignant story here, somewhat reminiscent of Flowers for Algernon crossed with The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. All the parts are great, though, these two are just my personal highlights. An earlier story even reminds me of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness before things take a left turn into Twilight Zone-ish weirdness.

Characterization is certainly a strong point of this book, all the characters are complex and believable, moments of humor and irony are discreetly slipped in to prevent the book from becoming leaden. The prose style, as mentioned previously, changes in accordance with the setting and character, as a whole the book is beautifully written. I also love that the book ends on a surprisingly cheerful musical note (though not quite a song and dance number) which is also something of a cliffhanger, and our "heroes" are far from safe.

If you count yourself an sf fan you need to read this. If you just want to read a damn good book this is also for you.

A mise en abyme, at its best!
My most favourite- The Priest, Lenar Hoyt's story. 5 stars. Recalling this story still gives me the heebie-jeebies
The Soldier Colonel Fedmahn Kassad's- interesting 3.15 stars.
Although I hated the character of The Poet, Matin Sileneus , 3.5 stars
The Scholar, Sol Winetraub 4 stars
The detective, Brawne Lamia... okay least favourite of the lot, story wise. So -2.85 stars
3 stars to Consul's story
With one of the most ingenious narratives, an over all 3.5 stars

I'm frankly terrified to review Dan Simmons' masterpiece Hyperion. It is too good and too big for me to do this right. So...if I'm going to do it wrong, I might as well have fun. I thought I would mirror both Chaucer's and Simmons' use of the frame story in my review:


(The opening bit of Keats poetry)

He enter’d, but he enter’d full of wrath;
His flaming robes stream’d out beyond his heels,
And gave a roar, as if of earthly fire,
That scar’d away the meek ethereal Hours

The Overarching Frame

This may be one of my favourite books, ever. The Pilgrimage is the perfect literary tool for bringing together a bunch of characters who appear to have little in common but soon all share the same goal. Simmons does a masterful job at telling each story in different styles. The feel is unique each time. The structure of Hyperion offers something for everyone, even readers unfamiliar with sci-fi. Horror fans will be drawn to the legend of the Shrike, and the Priest's story, while perhaps the slowest to develop, reminded me of Stephen King. There's plenty to love for space opera junkies, and there's mystery, intrigue and deceit. There's also the exploration of the depth of a parent's love for their child. Oh and people get sliced and diced, nah huh.

I'm not at home in a sci-fi or fantasy book unless I'm confused for at least the first few pages, if not longer. The opening scene confronts us with new words ("time-debt"?), odd requests and tantalizing bits of interesting information. Read in retrospect, we feel very comfortable in this scene (which is one I particularly like). That's good, and means we've integrated ourselves into Simmon's freaky world. Although the overarching story is definitely odd, by the end of it you've bought what Simmons is selling; at full price. It's just odd enough for you to be curious, and there's just enough information revealed to encourage you to fly through the pages. Strange can be good, and in Hyperion, it's incredible.

Story Within a Story # 1: "The Freaking Shrike"

I loved the freaking Shrike! I was delighted to learn that its (his?, her?) name comes from a bird that skewers its insect prey on plant thorns. Yeesh! We can certainly discuss it, but word for word (or lack thereof), the Lord of Pain is one of sci-fi's best villains/protagonists. Mind you, I've only read the Hyperion/Fall of Hyperion duology, so who knows, perhaps it's not a really villain. The Shrike reminds me of Darth Vader on a few levels. It's Vader, like the Shrike, that dictates how the story progresses. The actions of all of the other characters are only in reaction to the Shrike. The protagonist in Hyperion is the Shrike; and it never says a word. However, I wouldn't classify it as an anti-hero because it certainly doesn't elicit any sympathy or other positive feelings. One difference: when the Shrike is around, instead of a haunting John Williams score, I hear the crazy part of Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Free Bird". Actually, the opening lyrics to that song make a great pilgrimage tune for the Consul et al.:

"If I leave here tomorrow
Would you still remember me
For I must be traveling on now
'Cause there's too many places I've got to see"

Ehem. I digress. The physical description of the Shrike is cool to mull over: three meters tall, made of razor wire, thorns, blades, and cutting edges, with four multi-jointed arms, and scalpel-like fingers and toes. It's metallic, but it's also organic. Don't forget the ruby red eyes. When I first read that, I was like, "WTF is this thing?", and I'm still kind of wondering that. Definitely makes it on my list of Literary Badasses, perhaps sandwiched between Coltaine, the Wickan Fist of the 7th Army and the Gunslinger Roland Deschaine of Gilead. Come, come, commala Lord of Pain, come, commala.

Story Within a Story # 2: "The Nine Words You Can't Say on Hyperion"

The alcoholic satyr-like poet Martin Sileneus is the scene-stealer of this book, although his best line comes in Fall of Hyperion (in an abundance of caution I'll leave that comment to the review of the sequel). I have to admit that in a potty humour kind of way, I liked Martin's somewhat limited yet colourful vocabulary during his brain-damaged period. Simmon's homage to George Carlin was pretty funny and reminded me of a scene in Iain M. Bank's Use of Weapons when a cab driver who uses a voice box to speak gets the crap kicked out of him and the voice box keeps saying things like "thank you", "where would you like to go" and "I'd like another please".
Through Martin we get a glimpse of what happened to Old Earth. It was a creative method of exposition and obviated the need to have a character suddenly give a misplaced history lesson. Martin gives Simmons an excuse to answer the reader's natural curiosity.

Story Within a Story # 3: "A Parent's Nightmare"

Sol's story, all by its lonesome, is worth the price of admission to Hyperion. Dan Simmons has proven that he can not only tackle tech and space opera with aplomb, but that he can also create vivid characters with whom we no doubt identify. I'm a new father and I found Sol's story to be extremely moving. Plus the freaking Shrike reaching for me in the dark would turn my shorts brown. Sol deserved the cover spot on my edition of The Fall of Hyperion. Don't doooooo iiitttttt!!!!

Story Within a Story # 4: "Farcasters and Farcaster Houses"

Was it me or was the idea of Martin's house where each room is on a different planet completely awesome? If this was real, people like Britney Spears would have enough money for two such houses AND be stupid enough to actually own two. Simmons does something with tech that I think a lot of authors fail to take advantage of: he ensures that the technology he creates and uses in his story does not exist in a vacuum (no pun intended) but that it impacts how society functions. In the opening scene of Hyperion, we're aboard the Consul's ship with his piano. At some point in the story we're told that private ownership of space vessels is extremely rare. I found this fact odd until we were introduced to farcasters and their relatively ubiquitous use. Who the hell would own an expensive space ship when you can go to a multitude of planets in your PJs? I also liked that with power comes increased access to farcaster technology. The fact that the President has a private farcaster makes sense.

Story Within a Story # 5: "The Freaking Shrike…again"

I make use of the Shrike's time-travel abilities to make a second comment here. The scene with Kassad and the Shrike was a very interesting concept of time as a weapon. That cool fight was also a nice little exemplar of how nobody has a chance against the Lord of Pain...

Story Within a Story # 6: "I am of the cruciform"

After reading the Priest's story I wondered how this one could be topped. Reading journal entries is always an interesting way of being exposed to facts because there is a suddenness to each revelation. Things happen while the journal's author is not jotting down his thoughts. Weird things. The opening lines of Father Paul Duré's later journal entries become tensely anticipated.

The Return to the Overarching Story

I was very impressed with Dan Simmons' tale. It rocketed him to the top of my favourite authors list and cemented him as one of my must-reads for years to come. I've since checked out his online writing course and have gained even more appreciation for the structure of Hyperion, the exposition and the prose. Most highly recommended.

The Unsatisfying Wrap-up

You'll have to read my Fall of Hyperion review...