The Hyperion Omnibus is the two books of Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion and should always be read consecutively. At 779 pages it is a real undertaking to commit to and not one to be taken lightly. Despite which it is worth every minute to savour the intricacies of the tales it tells. On a basic level this is a collection of tales told from differing perspectives, different worlds and spanning many ages in our past and distant future. My favourite is the story of Rachel who becomes affected by the time tides on Hyperion and ends up growing younger and younger each day. It is impossible to tell you how the sum of all these tales is greater than any one individual tale and then some, you’ll have to try it yourself to see. The magnificence of The Hyperion Omnibus is its vast unending imagination that matter-of-factly explains everything from Farcasting to Ousters to the nightmarish Shrike in such a simple way that as a reader you simply accept it as fact. This is a fabulous book that foretells of the hegemony of mankind in a far-flung future where men and women still make the same mistakes. Everything repeats with such a glorious repetition and in a way still connected with our current life that it all feels very real and possible. Having reread this epic many years after I first found it, it still thrills and boggles my mind. Possibly one of the very best Science Fiction stories every written in my view and one that doesn’t feel justly judged by awarding only five stars.

“Sol remembered the dream, remembered his daughter’s hug, and realized that in the end—when all else is dust—loyalty to those we love is all we can carry with us to the grave. Faith—true faith—was trusting in that love.”

What makes a good book? In general, a good book will present you with an intriguing question and let a captivating cast of characters lead you to the answer. Typically. But a truly great book will bring those characters to life and let them show you the beauty is in the question. Not the answer.

The Hyperion Cantos is definitely the latter. It’s a story of humanity, our nature, and our destiny. An exploration of religious faith and its consequences. A cautionary tale of technology run amuck and our crippling dependence. An illustration of a parents boundless love for their child. And yes, it’s also a love story.

On the surface this is a story of a group of strangers joined together on pilgrimage to meet with the ambiguous and deadly creature known as the Shreik. With the hope of saving humanity as it approaches the eve of war. A galactic catastrophe which may lead to the end of mankind. But Simmons weaves the stories of these characters together to render a vibrant and complex society that draws the reader into thought provoking and awe inspiring encounters. Hence stretching the imagination.

But there’s more! The ample amount of conflict and action, with some scenes bordering on horror kept me fully engaged . And I was really impressed by the cinematic quality of Simmons writing in these sequences. His superb imagery brought this book to life!

I’ve read quite a bit of sci-fi and I’d always wished someone could blend the dynamic character work of Dune with the prophetic concepts of Foundation. Here Simmons has done that and more. Of all the science fiction I have read, the Hyperion Cantos is now king. I urge you to pick up a copy an experience its majesty! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

The opening half of this novel is so, so good, but the second is so, so not. I love the lived-in feeling of the world depicted, and the cornucopia of ideas and images. The stories are compelling (some more than others) and the pace is addictive.

Alas, Simmons is not in authorial command of the material. In a similar work, such as The Book of the New Sun, Wolfe keeps the narrative in hand until the very end, captivating with a blend of exoticism and horror, and the reading of the book becomes an experience. Hyperion goes off the rails once all the plot machinations start churning away. The ideas are interesting, but the story isn't.

I loved, loved, loved this book when it came out, but time has not been kind...to either me or the book.

DNF... mi arrendo momentaneamente...non è un libro brutto!anzi ci sono molti spunti interessanti!!!ma in questo momento faccio fatica a leggerlo... chissà magari in futuro lo riprenderò...

Dan Simmons ist für mich der unangefochtene Meister der Science Fiction.
Er hat eine ähnliche Art Charaktere zu erschaffen und zu beleben wie Stephen King.
Ich fühle die Personen und Handlungen in seinen Geschichten so sehr.
Die Science Fiction der Hyperiongesänge wird mit einer Leichtigkeit eingewoben, dass ich mich zu keinem Zeitpunkt von Wissenschaft und Technologie erschlagen gefühlt habe. Und trotzdem geht er unglaublich tief in die Materie. Er hat bis zu den letzten 200 Seiten (von 1400 Seiten) ein großes Mysterium um die Vorgänge aufrecht erhalten können. Wir springen in der zweiten Hälfte sehr häufig zwischen den vielen Personen hin und her. Dadurch wird im entscheidenden Moment wieder ausgeblendet. Ich hätte ihn dafür verkloppen können

Rarely do I enjoy hard Science Fiction novels. Some are so long and involved that I lose track amid all the new names and places and technologies. However, although I got lost a couple of times in this long series, The Fall of Hyperion proved to be worth the effort.

I have only been aware of Dan Simmons as a horror novelist, but when I came across a review for this book on a book blog, I decided it looked interesting enough to give it a go. I'm glad I did. The novel is complex and completely imagined. The worlds are intricate and believably scientific. While John Keats is a good poet to base a novel on, I'm not entirely sure that it works as the plot device on which to base all of our questions about God, the internet, and the meaning of life in the far future. Poets as Messiahs and prophets? Perhaps. But I'd much prefer a novel based around Percy Bysshe Shelley than Keats, but that's just personal preference talking.

Simmons creates a cosmos that, to me, resembles the mythology of Battlestar Galactica. There are planets and worlds connected by farcaster portals that can transport you instantly through time and space. None of the science is explained but assumed as any good sci fi novel should be and science is not the main character either. The main characters are a group of pilgrims chosen to visit the Shrike Time Tombs in order to find out various questions about life and the universe. The Shrike are mechanical, soulless beings who are bent on making the world and its inhabitants suffer. The pilgrims each have a story to tell and, depending on our predilections, we will have favorites. My favorite is the story of Sol and his daughter Rachel. Sol is there to help his daughter recover from Merlin's disease, which ages her backward to the day of her birth. I've still not thought through all the implications of the pilgrims' discoveries yet, but it is intriguing enough to ponder long after the last page of the book.

I am a complete fan of originality and these novels are indeed original in plot, character, and technology. Keep an eye out for many literary allusions. For that Simmons gets almost full marks.

I'm stunned I've never heard of this before. Perhaps that says more about me than about broader tastes though.

Pretty much every part of the plot and world building is running at peak performance. It's standard scifi ideas made fresh, far flung politics made relevant and stories made essential to a highly scientific world. The construction of the Shrike is particularly impressive, and even the eventual explanation for what's going on with the creature doesn't rob it of it's other worldly horror. After all, when science advances far enough it is functionally indistinguishable from magic.

Certainly worth its status as a classic! I should say immediately that I think this should be read in the Omnibus version, including The Fall of Hyperion. The story feels so unfinished otherwise. It took me a while to get into this, as at first I thought the stories within the story were a distraction from the main mythology and story. But as the gripping individual tales went on, I realized that the point was to get these small glimpses about the mythology and piece it all together slowly. I still didn't read this through all that quickly, just a few chapters at a time usually. It's worth savouring!

«Questa Tomba contiene tutto quello che fu mortale di un giovane poeta inglese il quale sul suo letto di morte, nell’amarezza del suo cuore verso il malvagio potere dei suoi nemici, desiderò queste parole incise sulla sua lapide:
Qui giace colui il cui nome fu scritto sull’acqua.
24 febbraio 1821»

Мне очень понравилась вселенная в целом из дилогии про Гиперион- она продумана, логична, есть подобие интернета и быстрого доступа к общим знаниям. Книги писались в начале 90х, поэтому автору аплодисменты. Единственное, что меня смутило в обеих частях - это мотивация героев в первой и сверхинтеллекта во второй частях. Такие мегаломанские и голливудские ходы, все можно сделать очевидно проще, но тогда книга была бы потоньше и поскучнее, ну, это из серии: чего бы Гэндальфу сразу на орлах не долететь... Я небольшой любитель космических опер (кажется так называется этот жанр), но Гиперион и его падение мне очень понравились, особенно название планковской длины: «пустота, которая связывает»

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Opinión de la primera parte de este libro: Hyperion .

Hasta hace muy poco si me preguntaban por Hyperion se me venía a la cabeza el satélite de Saturno o la editorial de poesía. Ahora, gracias a la novelista Eva García Guerrero, a la que "escuché" hablar maravillas de este libro (en su obra Huella 12 veo influencias muy claras), ya me va a saltar a la cabeza otra acepción.

Porque estamos ante una maravilla. El autor consigue crear un universo futuro (después de la expansión de la humanidad por el mismo y abandonada la vieja Tierra) con tantos detalles y tanta imaginación, y además de una forma tan sutil, sin tener que explicarlo dos veces, que enseguida estás metido ahí hasta los corvejones y solo una unidad de élite de FUERZA es capaz de quitarte el libro de las manos.
Me encanta cuando se inventa palabras que describen perfectamente términos de ese futuro que tiene en su cabeza (naves antorcha, raraleña, teleyector...). No hace falta más (y menos mal, porque el libro es un tocho de los de romperte el puente de la nariz si te quedas dormido leyendo en la cama), porque la palabra es lo suficientemente evocadora para saber de qué habla.

En cuanto a la trama, este primer libro está dividido en 6 grandes relatos, cada uno con un protagonista y ambientado en una serie de mundos: una mezcla de "La misión" y "Alien, el octavo pasajero"; una de soldados de élite espaciales con un súcubo que se trajina al protagonista (y cuanto más guarro y cansado está éste, mejor); una de poetas malditos y borrachines; un relato altamente lacrimógeno con una mujer que envejece al revés y el esfuerzo de su padre por curarla; Blade Runner cambiando a Harrison Ford por una tía negra y empoderada; y tal vez mi favorito, un alegato ecologista con una historia de amor muy bonita pero trágica, consecuencia de las leyes de la física relativista. Quién puede pedir más.

Y parece mentira que el libro sea de los años 90 (sí, han pasado más de 30 años) porque habla de un montón de cosas que ahora nos parecen totalmente normales: los comlog, que son unos smartphone de muñeca o las IA y su repercusión en nuestras vidas. Cuando abra mi clínica de tratamientos rejuvenecedores basados en los telómeros del ARN la voy a llamar Clínica Poulsen :).

Y todas las historias, atadas a un hilo común: ese planeta tan misterioso en el que ha aparecido el Alcaudón (ver foto de la portada). Remedo de Godzilla y Hellraiser. Que parece que no será un McGuffin esotérico en el próximo libro. Éso espero.

Me dirijo en la gironave al siguiente tomo: La caída de Hyperion. Ya contaré cuando llegue.

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La Caída de Hyperion

Es verdad, como todo el mundo comenta, que esta segunda parte decae algo respecto a la primera. Pero también es verdad que viendo como evolucionaba la historia pensaba que me iba a quedar con cara de cinco duros con tantas cosas sin cerrar, y al final, de una forma sorprendente, todo ha encajado.
Es una trama densa y algo complicada, llena de giros, traiciones, dobles traiciones, sorpresas, revelaciones...pero sin posibilidad de pérdida si no pierdes interés.

Mantener el pulso narrativo de la primera parte era una tarea titánica, pero creo que el autor despacha la novela con un gran sobresaliente. Y no era fácil.

En esta segunda parte, los protagonistas de la primera, ya se meten en faena para lo que sea que están destinados. Y entran en juego las Inteligencias Artificiales (a partir de este momento IA).
Aquí me vuelvo a quitar el sombrero ante Dan Simmons para aplaudir, y ya de paso para pensar si este tío realmente no vino del futuro para escribir todo lo que escribe. Lo mismo es un simple narrador que se metió en las Tumbas del Tiempo siguiendo a su perro en un paseo vespertino.
Nos alerta de un hecho que ya es casi una realidad (en los 90 era pura Ciencia Ficción y Terminator plantea otros escenarios más burdos): las IA controlarán absolutamente todo y nosotros nos aburguesaremos en las comodidades que ello nos brinda. Ya se está viendo: artistas que son reemplazados por un algoritmo; actores digitales en vez de los de carne y hueso; bandas musicales que hacen hits como churros y que son capaces de imitar estilos. Y ésto es sólo el comienzo.
En unas décadas habremos pasado de la indignación al conformismo y veremos con indiferencia como dirigentes políticos son sustituidos por máquinas. Y de ahí a lo que cuenta el autor en este libro poco camino hay.

Por poner algunas pegas:
- El Alcaudón. Que un grupo de IA's en el futuro lejano hagan una especie de guerrero para luchar contra la "humanidad" y le salga un robot Frankenstein hecho con restos de un desguace no lo veo.
- Lo de Keats para arriba y Keats para abajo tampoco me ha gustado. Está bien resuelto y lo hace encajar, pero me ha parecido demasiado forzado.

Así que poco más que añadir a esta magna obra, llena de mundos posibles y posibilidades futuras.

Me piro, vampiro, que diría la pequeña Rachel.

A scifi book that contains almost every single possible element it could. I cannot lie, it did slow down at some points and I had to push myself to keep going. However, I really appreciated it. It is a massive book that does not really waste a lot of pages on unimportant stuff. It also deals with philosophy and religion in interesting ways, sometimes a bit heavy handed. The final 250 pages contain so many plot points, and I could not put the book down. It did seem as the first book of the two-book collection this is, was kind of slower, not in a negative way. The concept of it was unusual but enjoyable anyway. I would not however appreciate reading the first book without the second one being right there, at the next page over. The first book ends at a point where you cannot just stop there, you have to find out what will happen.
All in all, I really appreciate the characters introduced. The universe was pretty interesting, even if at points some sci-fi jargon was too much for my liking. Also, there was a pretty strong focus on connecting the universe with concepts, religions, characters and events of current world history, which was a bit irritating due to how often it seemed to occur. That did not significantly impact my enjoyment of this book.