These stories are, individually, mind-blowingly good - in concert, they are little short of breathtaking. This is science fiction at its very best, and its avoidance of simple answers satisfies me deeply. I can't wait to read the next book.

Note: The rest of this review has been withdrawn due to the recent changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this decision here.

In the meantime, you can read the entire review at Smorgasbook

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

This first novel in the Hyperion Cantos easily surpassed any sci-fi I've ever read. While the presence of cool space-ships, strange planets and gun-fights in space are all going to be familiar to fans of the genre the typical adventures, rebellions and funny/evil aliens are nowhere to be found. Instead we get a tale of incredible complexity, deep, brilliantly realized world building and a mature and intelligent exploration of morality, philosophy and what it means to be human with a ridiculous amount of allusions to the great works of literature ingrained throughout the story for good measure. 6 tales effortlessly segue between times, places and even genres but all contribute to our understanding of this world, an incredibly complex and layered vision of humanity hundreds of years in the future and to a gripping plot filled with danger and mystery. These are the stories told by a group of Pilgrim's on their way to meet with a mysterious being who may be an angel of salvation for humanity or the agent of it's destruction.

The main narrative of this story concerns 6 mysterious pilgrims on a journey to meet with a dangerous and powerful entity while the galaxy at large teeters on the cusp of destruction. However this plotline mostly just served as a framing device for the stories of the 6 pilgrims. Despite what was ostensibly the main story being reduced to interludes between the tales I still found these sections to be enjoyable. There was danger, mystery and some cool world-building but mostly these sections served to set up the Pilgrim’s tales and to help the reader process them.

The Priest's Tale - 5 Stars

This story used a weird narrative frame with the Priest pilgrim reading from the journal of a missionary. The start of this tale was interesting with an ageing priest on a journey to find a mysterious people in an isolated rain forest. After reaching his target I thought the plot slowed down a bit however just as I was starting to lose interest there was a massive reveal and from then on this story was extremely intense and compelling, filled with revelations, suspense and mystical overtones. The ending was extremely moving. A major theme in this story was the exploration of the place of religion in society and I thought it was handled in a really intelligent and interesting way.

The Soldier's Tale - 3.5 Stars

I found Kassad to be the most interesting of the pilgrims in the interlude sections so I was really psyched for his tale. Unfortunately it proved to be a disappointment. After a great start with a gripping and surprisingly historically accurate portrayal of the Battle of Agincourt the rest of this section felt rushed. A number of important events in Kassad’s life are recounted in a dry, perfunctory manner. I thought that his childhood and his involvement in the Battle of Bressia especially could have made for great sections and I was really disappointed that they were so lazily glossed over. These sections definitely could have been expanded (although tbf I would have been happy if his entire story had just been a series of intense, realistic recreations of historical battles like Agincourt at the start…). However this story did have some cool action scenes at the end and I found the exploration of how the military, it’s culture and role in society had developed in this world to be really interesting although, again, it felt rushed and should have had more screen-time.

The Poet's Tale - 5 Stars

I wasn’t expecting much from my least favourite pilgrim but the poet’s story was in turns gripping, funny and moving. The poet narrated his story brilliantly with inventive descriptions, distinctive methods of storytelling and wry observations. The story itself reminded me of a really good memoir with the Poet taking us through his life from his indulged but isolated childhood to being sent hundreds of years into the future with his vocabulary reduced to 7 (hilarious) words where he produced his finest work to his meteoric rise to fame and struggles with all that came with it. The Poet’s tale was a stark counterpoint to the Soldier’s. While it lacked on paper anywhere near as much action as the story that preceded it, this tale was brilliantly written to be fleshed out and engaging. This story also had 2 great characters in the form of the Poet’s tough, acerbic editor and the awkward, stuttering and ultimately heroic Sad King Billy.

The Scholar's Tale - 5 Stars

A friend of mine observed in his review of this book that (paraphrasing) no matter how much weird sci-fi stuff is going on the human element is always the beating heart of the story. That was shown nowhere better than in this tale. This story opens with a brief overview of the early life of Professor Sol Weintraub. The author paints a vivid picture of his contentment in his job and home and most importantly his warm and loving family. However that all changes when his 26 year old daughter travels to the planet of Hyperion and begins to age backwards. This story could have easily been written as a simple oddity or wrung for all of the drama the author could manage, but neither of these things happened  with the possible exception of when Sol’s wife was killed in a random (hover)car accident, which just felt like kicking the dog imo , instead this is an understated story of sacrifice and family with an undertone of humour and warmth even at it’s most tragic.

The Detective's Tale - 5 Stars

The Detetive’s tale started out as a pretty formulaic crime story but developed into something more. The story opens with a beautiful stranger walking into the office of a tough P.I. with a request to investigate a murder. I’m not particularly fond of or familiar with the Detective genre so it was only in reading a review after finishing the book that I realised that there was a cool subversion in that the tough P.I. was a woman and the stranger a guy. Anyway the start was pretty dull (although fans of the genre might like it) but as the story progresses it improves dramatically. The world-building with regards to the AI Technocore and it’s politics was awesome and I suspect will be really important in the rest of the series. The ending was also great with some epic action scenes.

The Consul's Tale - 3.5 Stars

This tale got off to a really weird start with prelude that was a story within the story about a character we’ve not seen before in the story. Also the story skips around in no chronological order. Mindfuck. Anyway the prelude (which ultimately takes up about 2/3rds of this tale) came together fairly well for a finish. The narrator was kind of a selfish dick, but his best mate Mike was cool and funny and his love interest Siri was awesome- strong, wise and compassionate. Her only real fault was putting up with the annoying protagonist so much. The second half of the story was a recap of the Consul’s life. While it had some really cool revelations that put a lot of the grand politics in a much different and more complex light it also rushed and forced, much like the Soldier’s tale earlier. The two parts that especially could have benefitted from more exploration were his family and his relationship with the Ouster’s. In his POV’s in the interludes we’ve been teased with the mysterious, tragic death of his son years earlier which sent him into self-destructive spiral of alcoholism. And yet all we really get in his story is ‘I got married, had a kid, a while later they died. I was bummed out, honestly hadn’t been that sad since my pet dolphin died when the Hegemony colonised my home world. Flipper will be avenged! Sorry where was I?’. Also after being told for the entire duration of the book that the Ouster’s are evil bloodthirsty savages the Consul tells us that they apparently have an incredibly rich culture but doesn’t bother to spend more than a few lines exploring it.

Overall this was a great read; the depth of the world-building, the complexity of the plot and the intelligent exploration of morality, religion and the place of humanity in the world has raised the bar for any sci-fi I read in the future and I’m really interested to see where Dan Simmons takes this series from here.

He dudado mucho entre ponerle las 4-5 estrellas. Finalmente después de mucho pensarlo creo que se quedan en 4.5-5.
Los cantos de Hyperion de Dan Simmons es un libro que llevo demasiado tiempo viéndolo expuesto en las librerías. Su portada al ser bastante colorida me llamaba bastante mi atención. Sí, es cierto que no hay que tomar un libro por su portada, pero la verdad es que es súper bonita, no me lo podéis negar. Un día, cansada de verlo, lo tomé y me dije, “tengo que saber de qué va de una vez por todas.”, pero cuando lo leí su sinopsis me quedé como antes. La reseña no me aportaba casi información y la poca que me mencionaba era muy ambigua. Así pues, lo dejé pasar y me fui.
Pasado un tiempo, mencioné ese libro a mi grupo de amigos con el que tengo un pequeño club de lectura. Era mi turno de elección y no sabía que elegir y me acordé de este libro. Les comenté entonces que llevaba años queriendo leer algo de Dan Simmons, en concreto Hyperion y si les parecía bien la elección. Cuál fue mi sorpresa al responderme que ellos tenían pensado poner algún libro de Dan Simmons cuando fuese su turno. Así lo decidimos. Este mes de noviembre de 2019 tocaba como libro Hyperion.
Ellos empezaron mucho antes que yo a leerlo ya que mis estudios me lo impedían. Lo poco que podían decirme es que el principio era una maravilla y que estaban bastante encantados. Cuando llegó mi turno , ya tenía las expectativas muy altas. Fue nada más leer las primeras páginas del prólogo, no sé qué me pasó pero me quede embelesada. (Espero que no cuente mucho como spoiler). Lo primero que se nos muestra es a uno de los personajes principales en un planeta bastante alejado de lo que es el sistema solar. Se encuentra en el balcón de su nave, rodeado de una selva tropical, con unas plantas de todos los colores más llamativos que puedas imaginar. Está tocando el piano y una tormenta se acerca a lo lejos. Justo en ese momento me sucedieron dos cosas: la primera que en mi cabeza se estaba imaginando la escena con el protagonista tocando claro de luna de Beethoven y la segunda que estaba frente a un cuadro del romanticismo. Fue en ese preciso instante en que me di cuenta me di cuenta que Dan Simmons estaba jugando con las palabras del mismo modo que lo hicieron muchos autores del siglo XIX como Émile Zola, Balzac, Stendhal entre otros, donde con sus palabras creaban cuadros vivientes.
Pero eso no es todo, a medida que pasaba la historia me di cuenta de más cosas: el autor no solamente jugaba con los colores sino que también hacía bastantes referencias a la mitología ( Yggdrasil, Hyperion, Lamia…), a otros autores y a sus obras. Para ser sincera, la mitad de ellas no las pillé pero las pocas que hice, solo pensaba: Dan Simmons que arte tienes.
Cuanto a los seis personajes que aparecen en la novela, hay que destacar que cada uno narra desde su punto de vista. Pero no todas las narraciones están escritas de la misma manera, al contrario, el autor adoptó siete maneras de escribir a lo largo del libro. Con esto sinceramente se ganaba otros puntos de más a mi favor.
Sin embargo, lo que pierde puede ser un poco la historia. Esta comienza de una manera espectacular pero poco a poco esta va siendo un poco más difícil de seguir. Las últimas 200 páginas me costaron y se me hicieron un poco más cuesta arriba. A mis amigos les pasó lo mismo, me dijeron que la historia en general estaba muy bien pero que las últimas páginas se les hicieron interminables.
Ahora una vez que lo he acabado y reflexionado sobre la novela me he dado cuenta de una cosa. Este libro puede leerse desde dos perspectivas diferentes: la primera como una historia de ciencia ficción como otra cualquiera, y la segunda desde un punto de vista más filológico donde se ve claramente que es una novela con bastante trasfondo literario-artístico.
En conclusión solo puedo decir que me encuentro ante una obra de arte sin lugar a dudas.

This was super fun. An experimental work that combines all sorts of different stories, types of horror, looks at love and at space colonization, and makes it at once epic and intimate.

It's not a full book, as many kindly made sure to tell me, so don't expect answers. But do expect deep character studies surrounding a very interesting moment (?) in time.

My complete review is published at Grimdark Magazine.

Hyperion, the Hugo Award-winning 1989 novel by Dan Simmons, is one of the greatest classics of grimdark science fiction. An interstellar coalition of 29th-century humans known as the Hegemony of Man is allied with the TechnoCore, an association of self-sentient artificial intelligence (AI) beings. The Hegemony and the TechnoCore join forces against the Ousters, a group of genetically modified superhumans bent on intergalactic domination.

The main plot of Hyperion involves seven travelers making a final pilgrimage to the distant planet of Hyperion before an expected invasion by the Ousters. Hyperion is famed for its legendary Time Tomb structures, which are believed to have originated from the future. The Time Tombs are guarded by a fearsome godlike creature known as the Shrike, who has a cultlike religious following.

Hyperion adopts the same narrative structure as The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer’s fourteenth century epic featuring stories told by a group of pilgrims who journey together to visit the Saint Thomas Becket shrine at Canterbury Cathedral. In Hyperion, six of the seven travelers share their stories leading to their current pilgrimage to see the Shrike. Dan Simmons adeptly adjusts his writing style for each of the six novellas within the outer framing story, spanning everything from horror to romance. The ominous, omnipotent presence of the Shrike is felt in the background of each story, haunting each of the narrators.

Oh, and one of the narrators is actually a spy in league with the Ousters.

The line between humanity and AI is blurred in Hyperion, most notably with the development of cybrids, AI-controlled beings with bodies grown from human DNA. In this sense, cybrids are the opposite of cyborgs, which have a biological consciousness but with a machine-enhanced body.

The stories in Hyperion are steeped in religion and references to classic literature. The first novella, “The Priest’s Tale,” is a horror story detailing the journey of two Catholic missionaries on Hyperion who are infected with a wormlike parasite known as the cruciform. The cruciform parasite takes the shape of a cross beneath their skin, leading to indescribable pain. After killing its host, the parasite can resurrect the host’s body, repeating the cycle of grief and suffering.

The second story, “The Soldier’s Tale,” features a Palestinian soldier engaged in military training through a series of simulated battles, where he is saved by a mysterious woman who becomes his lover. The central mystery of the story involves whether the woman is real and her motives for manipulating the soldier.

In “The Poet’s Tale,” a poet obsessively seeks artistic perfection by writing The Hyperion Cantos (also the name of Dan Simmons’s series of novels) using the Shrike as his muse. Whereas the narrators of the two previous stories represent major monotheistic religions, the poet takes a more pluralistic approach to theology, having embraced and rejected a surprising number of faiths throughout his life.

The next story, “The Scholar’s Tale,” features a Jewish scholar seeking a cure for his infant daughter, who has been aging backwards after being infected by a mysterious illness that reverses the arrow of time. Her illness first appeared when, as an adult archaeologist, she visited Hyperion to study the Time Tombs and had an encounter with the Shrike. Her father hopes that the Shrike will also have the cure. But he must find this cure before it’s too late, since his daughter’s birth would also mean her death. “The Scholar’s Tale” is the most heartbreaking of the stories in Hyperion. I particularly love the way it parallels the Biblical story of Abraham and Isaac.

“The Detective’s Tale” is both a hardboiled detective story and a bizarre romance between a private investigator and her client, a cybrid version of English poet John Keats. The real-life Keats died from tuberculosis in 1821 at the age of 25, leaving behind an unfinished epic poem titled Hyperion. In “The Detective’s Tale,” the cybrid Keats hires the detective to investigate his own murder, where the circumstances of his death are connected to the Shrike. In my favorite part of the story, the cybrid Keats recites the first canto from The Fall of Hyperion – A Dream, another unfinished gem by the real historical Keats.

The last story is from the Consul, the former governor of Hyperion. “The Consul’s Tale” is a love story complicated by time dilation, causing the two lovers to age at different rates. Besides revealing the origin of the Consul himself, “The Consul’s Tale” contains the most important information regarding the history of the war between the Hegemony and the Ousters.

Hyperion is an astoundingly prescient book given its publication date of 1989. Beyond the usual science fiction tropes of space travel and intergalactic politics, Dan Simmons nailed the ubiquitous role of artificial intelligence. Simmons also postulated the development of the WorldWeb, a network granting instantaneous travel and universal access to information. The actual invention of the World Wide Web by Tim Berners-Lee occurred in the same year as Hyperion’s publication.

Reading Hyperion is a transcendent experience. It is science fiction of the highest caliber and a multi-layered allegory of human existence in all its beauty and horror.

Shriking the way towards one of the best epic, old mythology, and literature inspired, mindblowing, amazingly ingeniously written space operas.

The difference between the first two Hyperion parts and the third and fourth Endymion parts of the series is that the first duo is more oriented on classic mythology and literature motives transformed into a sci-fi settings, while the sequel goes full frontal space opera with anything a sci-fi readers´ hearth could wish for.

Tricky not to spoiler, because there are different characters, each one telling her/his own story that often has to do with past events that will influence the future of their mission, but let's say that Simmons does exposition like a boss, especially recognizable if one remembers elements of Hyperion when reading Endymion.

I would name, the classic, Simmons in a line with Irving, Bradbury, Sanderson, and King, because of the very rare style and his narrative competence and talent that lets the reader never lose interest and thereby connection to the world for just one second.

Important to know, if one isn´t such a sci-fi prone reader, one should just read the first 2 parts of the series that are mainly character focused and classic retelling mode with more epic space opera towards the end, much philosophy, and indirect criticism and stuff, while Endymion is more going towards combining the master storyteller characterization with longer, epic sci-fi moments, more detailed worldbuilding, and the meta with fractions, subtexts, history of the world and a big, unexpected revelation towards the end.

I would call this series, and Simmons, some of the best a reader can imagine and wish for, one of the greatest both worldbuilding and characterization with many underlying, deeper topics, and a prime example what the visionary power of one talented, literature loving human can create. A timeless milestone, something that should make him immediately be named in one row with the big three, Asimov, Clarke, and Lem. Sorry, Heinlein and Dick, you never achieved to reach their level. Read, at least the first 2 parts if you still aren´t into sci-fi, epic, unforgettable moments are waiting for you.

Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...

Hyperion deserves it's spot as a Sci Fi classic. While the quality is not always consistent, the incredible command of character voice, lived in and fascinating world, and absolutely out of this world peaks puts this on my top book list of the year.

Hyperion is not really a novel, but it's also not really a collection of novellas. It is an overarching story, where characters end up telling their novella about there story.

The general premise for the over arching story is that seven people are going on a pilgrimage to the planet Hyperion. Only one of the seven of them are expected to survive, but that person will get their wish granted. This is to be the last pilgrimage. They each decide to tell their story to both pass the time, and to try and figure out what connects them.

So you learn person by person why they are willing to go on a pilgrimage with a 6/7 chance of death.
I think the actual current story is really good. I think one of the things Dan Simmons did best is the command of voice. Despite having 7 named characters right away, who each add more named characters in their story. I basically never forgot who anyone was. Dan Simmons is as good at character voice as anyone I have read. That includes Joe Abercrombie and Robin Hobb. This is for both dialogue, and that each short story is written differently.

I'm going to talk about the tales from least favorite to favorite quickly.

The Detective Tale: The story about this one is somewhat interesting. An AI hires a detective to solve their own murder. However I just was less engaged by the characters in this then the other stories. It has some worldbuilding revelations which are cool, and the actual premise is cool, but as an actual character The Detective is in my opinion the least human or fleshed out. I enjoyed reading it, but it was nothing special.
7/10

The Soldiers Tale: This one is just.......wtf. Dan Simmons, go to horny jail.

I actually really like the character of the Soldier, so still enjoyed this quite a bit. But the premise is just....how and why was this created. Basically there are ancient war simulations, and this guy keeps seeing the same mysterious girl in his simulations, and every time they proceed to have sex. That is what drives the narrative.

Somehow I still thought it was good, don't question it.
8/10

The Consul Tale: This got a bit confusing, but ended up being a great example of non linear storytelling. Thematically the most focused on things like the destruction of the environment. It is also a story of how faster then light space travel would effect a relationship. As one person is aging much slower then the other.
This was really good.
8.5/10

The Poet's Tale: This is the most fun tale. It is fun because The writing style and voice for the Poet is one of the most entertaining narrative voices I have encountered. Bunch poetic and vulgar.
This one focuses a lot on art itself, and the value of the word. It is a poet telling it, what do you expect.
I almost cried about a manuscript, it's really really good.
9.2/10

The Priests Tale: A man goes to investigate an isolated society. And we get this absolutely horrifying story. This is written largely in journal form, as the Priest is reading from someone else journal. It goes from
Hey, this is a really interesting and weird story, to
HOLY CRAP CRAP CRAP.
Back half of this is basically perfect.
9.5/10

The Scholar's Tale.
All of this is perfect, every word is the right word. I basically cried for half of this, very thought provoking, and worked perfectly with the current ongoing narrative. This could also be called The Father's Tale, and it was one of the best things that I have ever read.
10/10

Overall, the overall score is going to be higher then the average. Both because the current story, and how they are connected makes them greater then the sum of their parts, and because I care more about how good a book is at it's best then how boring it is at it's worst.

This hits just about as high of a peak I have seen. With the Scholar's Tale and the back half of the Priests tale.

9.2/10

The updates I posted while reading this book pretty much capture how I felt the entire way, so rather than just rewrite them, I'll focus on my overall impression upon finishing Hyperion.

It's about the journey, it's not about the destination.

I was deeply disappointed that there was no resolution, once the pilgrims arrived at the Time Tombs, but I don't see how there could have been a satisfying resolution without adding at least another 100 pages to the book. So I just reminded myself that this book was about the journey, and not the destination.

I almost wish they'd left the entire Ouster/Spy/Galaxy-is-on-the-edge-of-Armageddon story out, and simply focused on the pilgrims and their story, letting their individual tales hint at the wider galaxy and its various conflicts. I guess the Consul's story wouldn't have been as meaningful without the greater understanding we got about the Hegemony and the Ousters, but if not knowing that meant not having this disappointing unresolved feeling that I have right now (I just finished the book a few minutes ago), I think it would have been a fair trade. If the whole thing is telling us about these people going to see The Shrike, fading out just before they do is like dropping Luke into the trench on the Death Star, and never letting us know what happens next.

I understand that much of the resolution I currently find lacking is provided in [Book: Fall of Hyperion], but every book, even those that are part of a series, should provide an entirely satisfying experience to someone who reads them in isolation of the other volumes. To that end, Hyperion succeeds, I think, even if it doesn't tell us what happens when they finally get to the Shrike (or if they even do) as long as we accept that it is about the journey, and not the destination.

I still loved it. I still thought it was a wonderfully-written novel that absolutely deserved the Hugo. I wish I could give it 3.5 stars, but thinking back on how much I enjoyed it while I was reading it (instead of how unresolved I feel at this moment) I'm bumping it up to 4.

After reading the first chapter in a "try a chapter book tag" a few months ago I'm finally back to reading this.

I'm gonna give the audiobook a shot and see how it goes!

Update: Audibook is definitely NOT the way to go with this one... I'll read my physical copy instead!

This is a complex story but to put it in the least possible words, Hyperion is a science fiction novel told through the perspective of seven traveling pilgrims on a voyage to confront a legendary assassin. Of course, after reading only a few pages, it's impossible not to see that Hyperion is much more than that. For starters, there's also the magnificence of the world it introduces us to. A world conceived and developed to its last detail to evoke memories of a place that doesn't exist but that, somehow, feels familiar.

In this new universe created by Simmons, humans have colonized much of the galaxy and Earth doesn't exist anymore. Most of the colonized worlds (and that MOST is very important) are connected through human-made worm holes. One of the few planets outside this system is Hyperion.

On Hyperion lives the Shrike, a mysterious creature whose existence is killing. Yet some risk their life by making a pilgrimage to where the Shrike wanders because after the Shrike kills all but one pilgrim in a group, that person may then ask for a wish, a petition. At the time the story starts, this custom has almost been abandoned, and traveling to the planet requires permission from the highest authorities.

As a hoard of Ousters—nomadic humans living in zero gravity—nears Hyperion ready to attack, a group, each person with a desperate petition to the Shriek, is put together for one last pilgrimage.

Cleverly, each of the pilgrims comes from a different world, and Simmons unveils his knack for description, making the most of the varied settings by putting the characters in interesting places and fascinating situations, then appealing to the senses to make us feel a part of it. However, in my opinion, the most successful aspect is the constant feel of impending doom surrounding the characters. It's hard to sustain tension for as long as Simmons does in this book, but when an author manages to do it, the reader can't help but keep reading all just to know what's happening, and why. . .

For me this book feels like some of the earliest Asimov's books, not stylistically, but for the immensity of the ideas it presents.

All in all a great book.

La mejor novela de ciencia ficción que he leído. De los pocos libros de género que termino y pienso: "esto no solo tiene que leerlo un aficionado a la ciencia ficción o a la fantasía". El nivel léxico y gramatical es notable, la idea es fabulosa y, lo esencial, la ejecución de la misma es propia de un genio; pues hilvanar una historia de ciencia ficción "dura" a través de incesantes referencias a John Keats no es sencillo, y mucho menos obtener un producto final tan brillante.

En cuanto al libro en sí, y a grandes rasgos, comentar que la construcción del mundo es espléndida, el acervo futurista es rico y diverso y su estructuración en relatos (fisonomía que bebe de los Cuentos de Canterbury) le otorga un ritmo ágil y peculiar. Hay "cuentos" mejores y peores, y ello dependerá, como siempre, del gusto del lector: en mi opinión el relato menos inspirado es del "Guerrero", algo curioso, pues es el más bélico y cargado de acción.
De hecho, los relatos más soberbios son aquellos que persiguen conmover al lector, embargarlo de una sensación de pena y melancolía, haciéndolo partícipe del aciago devenir de los personajes a través de la narración de su pasado, que es, en todos los casos, bastante descorazonador.

Otro punto reseñable es la maestría con la que Dan Simmons interrelaciona los relatos de los protagonistas, en los que una lectura relativamente atenta te descubre conexiones que dotan de integridad y criterio a la novela entendida en conjunto.
En definitiva, mandatoria lectura y posiblemente un libro del que os acordéis toda la vida (como véis, tengo el hype en oferta).

Ah. Hyperion. Quite the achievement. Like its fascination with poetry might suggest, this novel is a piece of art.

There are many themes addressed here, and a re-reading at some stage is likely in order. On one level it's a novel about faith: the loss of faith, and, perhaps, the regaining of faith. On another, it's a novel about retribution. Alternatively, it is nothing of the sort, and just a darn good Space Opera.

As other reviewers have noted, there is a notable element of horror throughout. It is a dark work, and disturbing. It evokes emotional responses and raises questions. I guess that is the whole point. There isn’t a lot of 'hard' science at work here, but there are some tidbits that keep the journey interesting.

Speaking of journeys: this book is actually one big journey. Seven pilgrims set off to see the legendary Shrike on the planet Hyperion. On their pilgrimage they share their accounts of what brought them there. As would be expected, some of the 'stories' are better than others. One or two accounts are particularly brutal and/or moving. There are times when the novel does read a bit like a short story collection, but there are common themes and threads tying everything together.

Hyperion won a number of awards, including the Hugo award for best novel. It seems it wasn't even nominated for a Nebula, although its sequel (The Fall of Hyperion) was. Odd.

Recommended
Added to Favourites