Nutshell: how-to manual that recommends radical luddite social restructuring in order to defeat slave uprising.

Abandons chaucerian structure of first installment and instead alternates between first-person and third person bits. Opening places narration at center of setting (barf) by popping first person narrator adjacent to president. This centralizing of narration is raised to an affirmative law of science fiction here, via repeated quotation of Yeats, and through the proclamation that “right now we have an obligation to be where things are happening” (327).

Love that Simmons catches one of the stupidities of modern science fiction: “Even the spate of recent war [films] showed great fleets battling it out at distances two ground soldiers would find claustrophobic, ships ramming and firing and burning like Greek triremes packed into the straits of Artemisium” (73), which nicely captures how Star Wars and Star Trek are just Napoleonic warfare with rayguns. It’s not like we see a well-described alternative in this story, though when stellar distances regarding combat are noted, it’s usually presented in terms of AU, so the distinction is implicit.

We are given a neo-Marinetti, who avers that “warfare is on the threshold of becoming an art form” (105).

Not sure what the big deal about the Shrike has been the whole time. The resolution of that strand is fairly silly. Conceptually, it’s annoying: apparently it’s part of a far future contest between humans and AIs sent back in time to find something for the human end of the conflict. It’s all very nebulous and juvenile.

As though I weren’t annoyed enough by the ruling class protagonist, when that protagonist receives perspectival chapters, they are coy, such as when “All she had to do to save a hundred billion lives was return to the Senate floor, reveal three decades of deception and duplicity” (153), but without informing the reader what the deception and duplicity happen to be. This is simply unpardonable faux suspense. Why use the rhetorical sleight of popping the narration on the president of the galaxy, and then give ersatz access? It’s just not effective.

Amusing moment when lyrical computer machine explains the entire macroplot, noting that “we constructed your civilization carefully so that like hamsters in a cage like Buddhist prayer wheels each time you turn your little wheels of thought our purposes are served” (282), which is just taking Douglas Adams and playing him straight (Earth-as-computer was destroyed both times, NB).

Still a very cool setting overall, packed with plenty of more crap about poet Keats. Am pleased to have my hypothesis confirmed that AIs as part of story will produce an AI rebellion.

Recommended for those rich in resurrection insurance, readers who desire a cleansing fire when the forest has been stunted and allowed to grow diseased by overplanning, and people who scribble graffiti on outhouse walls.

I finished this book feeling both a sense of relief and a vague disappointment. As much as I liked the first book, I had a hard time connecting to this one and I found my mind wandering on a number of occasions, and had to go back and reread sections. Part of the problem was that I never liked Joseph Severn as a central narrator where I did like the Consul in that role in the first book.

The overall story is quite good with a grandly epic scope and lots of mind-expanding concepts. The various factions make for a pleasingly complex world, and of course the stakes are high. Simmons doesn't shy away from having billions of people die, and entire worlds be thrown into complete chaos or utter destruction. I particularly liked Meina Gladstone's character and her tenacious navigation of the hopeless situation she was put into. Simmons addresses some deep concepts, and even his handling of religion within the extremely scientifically advanced world was mostly well done. However I was completely unimpressed with his "resolution" of the problem of Abraham.

For the most part the writing was excellent, with a couple exceptions. When describing Moneta he used the cliched phrase "the skin so pale as to be almost translucent" which made me roll my eyes in a cliched manner. Simmons also had this weird tic with Severn in which he was "amazing myself with the question" or "shocked me that I had spoken it now."; this happened at least 4 times if I remember correctly, maybe more, and perhaps it was deliberate since Severn was a cybrid but I don't know. Third he had characters chew on stalks of grass - who the fuck actually does that? ok, maybe it was only twice but still, that's at least one time too many. Grass just doesn't taste good, and yes, I have tried it.

So I'm torn between three and four stars, but since I always round up, I'll go with four. I am planning on reading the next two books set in this universe. And one more thing, he gets bonus points for mentioning specific food.

Членовете на поклонението вече са в Гробниците на времето, тръпнейки в зловещо очакване за срещата си с Шрайка. И всеки един от тях има своето индивидуално преживяване. Междувременно, в космическото пространство над тях Хегемонията подготвя яростна атака срещу Прокудените, докато ИИ от Техноцентъра се опитват да дирижират цялата обстановка.
Втората част на Хиперион е едно величествено и шеметно приключение и с нетърпение чакам да видя как се разгръща историята в "Ендимион".

P.S: Между другото, става интригуващо разбулване на личността на Монита( любимата на Касад и довереница на Шрайка), което ме остави много изненадана. Не съм допускала, честно. Дан Симънс страхотно е навързал събитията във време- пространството.

=====

"...когато всичко друго е прах- верността към онези, които обичаме, е единственото, което можем да отнесем в гроба. Вярата- истинската вяра- се уповаваше на тази обич." ( стр. 318)

One of the best sci-fi books I’ve ever read.

I don’t think I’m capable of fully articulating this sheer work of brilliance. From the prose, characterization, back story development, sci-fi world building, plot twists, artificial intelligence, time paradoxes and all the big feelies I had while reading this is too much for my brain to process. The sequel to the stunning classic Hyperion must be read if you’re going to embark on this journey. I can say without a doubt that The Fall of Hyperion is one of the best books I’ve ever read. Period.

Every age fraught with discord and danger seems to spawn a leader meant only for that age, a political giant whose absence, in retrospect, seems inconceivable when the history of that age is written.

As opposed to the first installment which has the structure of Canterbury Tales, The Fall of Hyperion has a little more traditional storytelling spanning an intergalactic hegemony in the far human future and that its faced with its own uncertain future against a hostile alien force, a hostile AI force, a hostile far-future force and also… ghosts and gods? It sounds weird but wow does Simmons stitch all these fantastic concepts together in a sweeping tapestry that is nothing more or less than a literary work of art. Each character and their actions impact the story development.

The Great Change is when humankind accepts its role as part of the natural order of the universe instead of its role as a cancer.

The reason this pairs so nicely with the first book is because it expands on the wonderful back story that was laid down. We know each of the pilgrims—their motivations, their flaws and perhaps the reason they were chosen for this bizarre pilgrimage. The horror, uncertainty and chaos that flows from this story is more personal and it makes everything just that much more frightening. The atmosphere is haunting and incredibly engaging. I could see these images and scenes vividly in my mind.

The enormous intergalactic world is incredibly well done on par with someone like Peter F. Hamilton. From communications, to travel and what an intergalactic culture looks like, this is an immersive and believable version of the future. The impact of AI, the singularity and how it is inseparable and domineering from humanity was incredible and a likely version of the far future. What Simmons does with time is awesome. The arrow of time and hints of the multiverse are a big part of this story. Pitting the future against the present and at the same time not making the plot and resolution feel pre-destined was so well done. Simmons ability to predict futurist trends as someone who wrote this in the 1990s is truly a remarkable feat.

The politics, statecraft and warcraft on an intergalactic scale was not intimidating like other similar worlds like this that I’ve read. The decision making on the intergalactic scale and how it impacts billions of peoples and cultures was felt by the reader with every single decision that was made. The religions, cults, governments and cultures presented are messy, realistic and incredibly compelling to read.

God is the creature, not the creator.

The resolution and plot twists at the end of this second installment were jaw dropping and revealed the depth of Simmons’ careful story crafting. He was cognizant of every development and how character backstory played into the ending. The mysteries presented—like Hyperion, the Shrike, the Core—it’s all explained, at least in part and it is one of the coolest over-aching plot lines I’ve ever seen in a book like this.

Love was as hardwired into the structure of the universe as gravity and matter.

The only issue I can see some having with this book was the pacing. There are many POVs told and some of the plotlanes are frankly stagnant even over several hundred pages. Simmons will freeze a scene for one character while letting other plotlines catch up. This may be jarring for some readers but I didn’t mind it.

I highly, highly recommend this book. It will stay with me for a long time and is a series I will definitely finish and probably re-read. This needs to be made into a movie or a series—I think it’s doable in the right hands.

As the pilgrims seek the Shrike the ominous thing in the eerie Valley of the Time Tombs, avoided by the frightened inhabitants here on the planet Hyperion, it does not appear, what to do? Days pass but still the creature has remained hidden, the letdown effects them they expected to be killed... The six seekers, the dying priest Hoyt , disillusioned soldier Kassad, sad scholar Weintraub ( and infant daughter, Rachel, who becomes dangerously younger, daily) unstable poet Silenus, heartbroken detective Lamia, the no name Consul, he is strangely moody, and the little known Starship Captain Masteen, who vanished on the boat coming here, is he alive? But his presence is felt, something is out there is it Masteen or some monster, they become anxious, frustrated, their provisions get low nerves fray, they start to argue with each other violence becomes inevitable their unity is gone. This haunted lonely place in the middle of the arid desert, the sun beats down wind storms bringing sand that cause their skin to turn raw blind their eyes, gross dirt in their mouths they can't breathe. And the universe is about to explode into chaos the barbarian Ousters have invaded the alliance, CEO Meinia Gladstone on Tau Ceti Center (its capital) the legendary head of the 150 billion citizens of the Hegemony, in 200 dispersed worlds believes the key to victory is these few humans. War which began because of this isolated planet both want, threatens to destroy 500 years of progress even the existence of the race of mankind. "Farcasters" portals to the stars, a type of wormhole which instantly transports people and objects, food, merchandise, warships, anything essential to the survival of civilization to distant locations without it darkness. However the powerful artificial intelligence machines control these, are becoming tired of being second to the less intelligent, arrogant, weak, unreliable, silly, corrupt people who call themselves their masters! A widespread secret conspiracy between the Shrike, Ousters the tree loving Templar Brotherhood and evil machines to eliminate the rule of the descendants, of the lost Earth... Some pilgrims begin to disappear the Shrike finally is seen, the eight mysterious Time Tombs light up, explored by the group but they find nothing inside. And the battle for the great prize Hyperion, is observed by the calm pilgrims her cities pulverized, vulnerable residents, slaughtered while the rapid spaceships maneuver above in the night sky, as crew members fight for life a light show of death for the unfortunates ones , yet strangely below, they are quite indifferent to the outcome, welcome to the 28th Century...A cybrid part human and the other machine, the reincarnation of famous English poet John Keats dreams about the outcome on crucial Hyperion, Gladstone needs him to discover the truth what she can do to win, maybe...Dan Simmons again show how talented a writer he is, well educated with a way with words readers will learn too not just magnificent amusement.

[He] noted the distortion, the bulk of mass above and too-long legs, the play of starlight on carapace and thorn, the shadow of arms under arms, and especially the ruby glow of hell-lighted crystals where the eyes should be.

Fall of Hyperion is the second half of the story started in Hyperion. Where the latter introduced us to the seven pilgrims and told us their back stories, this book tells us what happens to them during their pilgrimage on Hyperion. You absolutely can not read this book if you have not read Hyperion, and by the same token, if you have read the first book, you absolutely have to read this one.

Apparently, it was written as a single book, but the publisher had it divided into two parts. It does make the page count more manageable, I suppose, but it also detracts from the overall experience (I am fairly sure there are lots of people out there who have read Hyperion but who haven’t read Fall of Hyperion, and it’s a crime).

Now, enough of that and back to the review.

[He] found himself standing upon a vast lunar plain where a terrible tree of thorns rose five kilometers high into a blood-red sky. Human figures writhed on the many branches and spikes: the closer forms recognizably human and in pain, the farther ones dwarfed by distance until they resembled clusters of pale grapes.

It is a challenging story, not just because of the grim imagery, but because of the nature of the plot. What is real? What is simulated? What is metaphor? Nothing about this story is simple. The plot has a number of significant twists and “oh hell” moments. Also, any book with time travel elements can quickly turn into a headache, what with possible causal loops and bootstrap paradoxes (et al). Of course, most is revealed at the end, and the author quite deftly weaves a tale of far future interstellar drama on a grand scale. Fall of Hyperion is a very literary Science Fiction novel (in more ways than one) and masterfully written.

[He] looked up, and the viewing filters of his skinsuit polarized to deal with terrible energies that filled the sky with bands of blood red and blossoms of fierce white light.

The backdrop, of course, is war. But there is more to it than meets the eye, and events taking place on the planet of Hyperion (and in the Hyperion system) will determine the fate of humankind.

Hyperion / Fall of Hyperion deserves every accolade, award, award nomination and five-star review that have been thrown at it. It is quite an achievement, albeit a bit intimidating. If you are a serious Science Fiction buff you should read this, even if it is just to sate your curiosity or to earn the right to criticize, but chances are you will really, really like it. There are some pretty big ideas here, but the drama mostly takes place on a human scale. There are some strong philosophical and religious undercurrents that are central to the plot (in many ways), pertaining to the nature of God, or the Ultimate Intelligence.

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
-tWilliam Butler Yeats, The Second Coming, Excerpt

Saturn is fallen, am I too to fall?
Am I to leave this haven of my rest,
This cradle of my glory, this soft clime,
This calm luxuriance of blissful light,
These crystalline pavilions, and pure fanes,
Of all my lucent empire? It is left
Deserted, void, nor any haunt of mine.
The blaze, the splendour, and the symmetry,
I cannot see—but darkness, death and darkness.
-tJohn Keats, Hyperion (a fragment), Excerpt

Recommended
5 stars
Added to Favourites

Terminada la duología de "Hyperion" la conclusión es obvia: absoluta obra maestra de la ciencia ficción y un libro que, al menos para mí, ha supuesto una inflexión literaria. Añadiré unas breves y esquemáticas observaciones.

1.- Sobre el libro "La caída de Hyperion" en particular:

- Inferior al primero; éste, en algunos tramos, es terriblemente denso y abigarrado, con un exceso de información accesoria alarmante y un uso desaforado de "points of view".

- Reiteración tediosa de las cuestiones esenciales de la trama. Dan Simmons se marca un libro de 735 páginas (edición de NOVA) dándole vueltas y más vueltas a los tres ejes principales que vertebran su historia. Innecesario, a veces menos es más.

- No obstante, con la salvedad de estos puntos negativos, el libro es genial, tiene momentos asombrosos y la resolución de las incógnitas es satisfactoria y coherente. El libro, en sí, pivotaría sobre las 4,25-4,5 estrellas.

2.- Sobre la biología "Hyperion" entendida como un único libro, sin perjuicio de su calificación de obra magna y de lo referido en la reseña del anterior libro:

- En pocos libros habrá una mezcla tan descomunal, completa y apasionante de tecnología, ciencia, filosofía, religión, ética, arte, literatura, sociología y acervo ficticio del autor. Es deslumbrante la maestría de Simmons en este aspecto; pues aglutinar tantos elementos en un libro y que estos operen de forma armoniosa y congruente es digno de elogio.

Y creo que ese es el fuerte de "Hyperion", lejos de ser un libro de personajes o acción es más una obra que espolea la imaginación y el intelecto del lector. Y eso es escaso, muy infrecuente; y por ello ostenta un valor inmenso.

One of the biggest quandaries I have when dealing with novels (or any stories really) is wondering how it is that one novelist can so totally zeitgeist me on one thing and leave me cold in other areas. A mild example of this is Rob Thomas with Veronica Mars, where nothing beyond the TV series (including the movie) has ever really captured my interest or fancy nearly so well as that show did. Sure, there are plenty of great writers who always grab me in everything they do (Joss Whedon, JK Rowling....), but there's a lot of writer who, I feel, have this one great book that they write, whether or not it was "THE ONE NOVEL THEY WERE ALWAYS WRITING" or something that sneaks up on them and ends up being utterly fantabulous.

Dan Simmons is one of those conundrums. Or he used to be. The dude has written two dozen novels (on top of many short stories) and yet Hyperion is lauded as his best and brightest, with even the subsequent Hyperion novels (this one and the two in the Endymion duology) considered a law of diminishing returns. Stop after the first one. Or stop after the second one. That's what I always hear. Nothing is ever mentioned of his myriad other novels (even though he had one come out this year for god's sakes). It's not like people say "Hyperion is a great book but it's not even his best." No. Hyperion is consensus best, and, while he certainly has enough fans to sell enough books to keep getting published, I have not ever heard word one about any of his other books. After reading Hyperion, this was unthinkable. That book was such a tour de force of LITERATURE, a contemplation on the nature of time, religion, faith, death, resurrection, ecology, love, loss, alzheimers, art, robotics, the future, the past, and causality all through the lens of far future science fiction and horror alongside some of the most insane time travel I've ever seen. It was a book that made me go "well looks like I have a new author I need to follow."

And then I read this book, The Fall of Hyperion, and all I can say is "Hah. Nope."

To be honest, this book has all Hyperion's delicious ingenuity turned down to the lowest of simmers (the type of simmer where you have to check to see if the burner is even on) while that book's worst impulses are unleashed with the full force of an unbridled id. It has almost none of what made Hyperion such a compelling, couldn't-put-it-down novel. It's as if Fall of Hyperion is the story Dan Simmons wanted to tell and Hyperion was merely the excuse for him to get there, much how Ender's Game was a gateway for Orson Scott Card to write Speaker for the Dead. This book has none of the charm of Hyperion, which used its characters to inform the massive far future galaxy Dan Simmons had developed in his head. Here, the galaxy is the map and everyone is just a piece doing things for plot purposes. And yes, in the overall scope of the narrative each and almost every character has a role to play. Lenar Hoyt and Paul Dure both actualize impossibly well when you look back on it, and The Consul's final role is terribly important to the plot...

But that's, quite frankly, not good enough. Fedmahn Kassad spends over two hundred pages in a fist fight. Brawne Lamia goes missing for large swaths of time, around merely to have things explained to her. And god forbid we talk about the role of Martin Silenus in this, losing all of his charm and doing nothing in the entire novel simply because Simmons has absolutely no role for this character in his tale. Even Sol Weintraub (who does some really nice philosophizing in the end) spends the entire novel within the same 100 yard space.

And fine. When you're servicing six different main characters that you decide to split up and scatter to the four winds instead of, you know, having them be all be together and work together like, you know, the last book ended with so beautifully and cathartically, it's quixotic to think that everyone would be given equal weight in terms of storytime. We can't all be Joss Whedon writing The Avengers.

However, when you decide to continue this story by introducing a brand new, who-gives-a-shit character and using that character as the window through which we experience all of OUR characters I.... struggle. I really struggle. Because I don't care about this guy. I don't. I couldn't tell you much about him or what he was doing in this story, or if he was cool enough to be the backbone of this entire story. Every time Simmons cut back to him I rolled my eyes because all I could think was about how much Simmons was infatuated with putting John Keats in a sci-fi novel. And... it's not enough. It only detracts from telling the story of the six pilgrims from Hyperion, because every second we spend on his story (or even the story of Meine Gladstone) is another second we spend away from the characters I'm invested in.

There might be precedent for this, some commentary or reference Simmons is making that I am totally blowing by. The idea that M. Severn might represent the shifting landscape of television, able to change the channel and dip in on the latest soap opera unfolding in real time, catching up with "his characters" in the midst of all hell breaking loose and the end of civilization. Sure. I guess. But that isn't nearly as interesting or compelling as "Sci-Fi Canterbury Tales", and in retrospect, nothing was ever going to be. But blowing out the scope this much, focusing SO MUCH on the galaxy's politics and sacrificing his characters in the process?

It's an insane miscalculation in terms of his interpretation of what is interesting to me as a reader. I don't care about a mythology for its own sake, nor do I care for a big ideas about humans, a techno core, ousters, a Shrike that ends up meaning nothing, and governmental politics about how to save the human race for their own sake. If I wanted "answers to questions" or "contemplations on mythology" I would read an essay online or a wikipedia article. Those aren't stories about these characters. And sure, there's plenty of of things in here that I can see people liking. Totally. The story of an intragalactic space war in which the humans have to fight against their own extinction is inherently interesting, but it's not what I signed up for. This is a book about answering questions and navel gazing at an author's own nerdy mythology. I don't care. I don't like stories that are about answering questions, that don't have emotional gravitas or ignore the emotional gravitas they so clearly have in spades.

This book abandons what I signed up for, abandoning what I loved in Hyperion, as a band of plucky pilgrims soldier on towards Time Tombs and their uncertain fates while flashes of laser fire and bursts of colorful explosions paint the sky above them with ephemera, reminders of the end of human kind and wars raging worlds away.

Una deliciosa relectura de esta segunda Obra Maestra de Dan Simmons después de Hyperion.

Finalmente Las Tumbas de Tiempo se abren para liberar al Alcaudón y su secreto procedente del futuro. La guerra entre los enjambres Éxter, las inteligencias artificiales del Tecno Núcleo y los humanos de la Hegemonía explota de maneras inesperadas, mientras John Keats renacido asiste a la batalla por el alma de la humanidad que libran los peregrinos.

Una historia que en realidad inicia en el futuro distante y una guerra entre dioses artificiales que regresa en el tiempo... La guerra entre los dioses y sus creaciones. Un tema clásico con el que Dan Simmons rinde homenaje a toda la literatura y como bien dice Peter F. Hamilton, estable el estándar para la ciencia ficción en el siglo XXI.

Si bien el fenómeno literario, estructural y de sentido de la maravilla que te golpea como un rayo al leer Hyperion, es algo irrepetible, en esta segunda parte, que para mi es claramente la segunda parte de un único libro; es donde las cosas realmente explotan y donde tienen su clímax y encuentro todas las temáticas y aspectos de este universo.

La caída de Hyperion está al nivel de Hyperion y en varios sentidos lo supera.

Jamás se dejen engañar por esas voces perniciosas que dicen que sólo Hyperion vale la pena, o peor, que los libros de Endymion son malos. De hecho la conclusión de toda la historia sucede hasta el final de El ascenso de Endymion y no podía ser un final más bello para Los Cantos.

La síntesis de Los Cantos de Hyperion está en la bella cita de John Keats:

"¿No habrá seres superiores que se diviertan con las gráciles aunque instintivas actitudes en que pueda incurrir mi mente, tal como a mí me divierten la picardía del armiño o la inocencia del venado? Aunque una pelea callejera es algo detestable, las energías que en ella se exhiben son loables. Para un ser superior, nuestros razonamientos pueden cobrar el mismo tono: aunque erróneos, pueden ser loables. La poesía consiste precisamente en esto".

A bloody fantastic continuation of the Cantos by Mr. Simmons.

Outstanding. Full review soon. 4.5/5

Pain and darkness have been our lot since the Fall of Man. But there must be some hope that we can rise to a higher level ... that consciousness can evolve to a plane more benevolent than its counterpoint of a universe hardwired to indifference.

The words of  the late and resurrected  Father Dure, a Jesuit priest of the future Hegemony of Man, are for me the most concise and the most precise synopsis of the story. 'The Fall of Hyperion' is not a separate novel, it's the second half of the opening volume, commencing bare minutes after the final events in 'Hyperion'. And it is huge and messy, but what a glorious mess it is! Nothing short of the Fate of Mankind will satisfy its ambitions to be the ultimate epic science-fiction novel.

"The Imagination may be compared to Adam's dream – he awoke and found it truth"

John Keats launches the opening salvo of the hostilities, an obscure quote that will become clear only in the final pages of the story. Keats is not only the inspiration for Dan Simmons to rewrite the tale of the battle between the old Gods (Titans) and the new Gods (Zeus and his clique) as a science-fiction novel. John Keats is actually a character in the novel, first in Hyperion  where he dies and his personality is preserved in a chip inserted in Brawne Lamia's brain  and now in his version 2.0 incarnation as Joseph Severn, an artist assigned as an impromptu attache to the leader of the Hegemony, CEO Meina Gladstone, just as the war with the Ousters is about to begin.

"You are part of both worlds, no? Humanity and TechnoCore?"
"I'm part of neither world. A cybrid monster here, a research project there."
"Yes, but whose research? And for what ends?"

TC2, or TauCeti 2, is the seat of Governemnt for the Hegemony, controlling more than 200 colonized worlds. It is a place of power and a place of wonder, thanks to the technological gadgets supplied by the AI known as the Technocore.

Like River Tethys, the Grand Concourse flowed between military-sized farcaster portals two hundred meters high. With wraparound, the effect was of an infinite main street, a hundred-kilometer torus of material delights.

Farcasters of different sizes have become essential to the economy of the Hegemony, allowing instant teleportation between light-years. The other technological wonder offered by the AI is a sort of internet on steroids, with everybody and their uncle permanently jacked in:

Nothing could be done about it – every human above the lowest Dregs' Hive poverty class had a comlog with biomonitor, many had implants, and each of these was tuned to the music of the datasphere, monitored by elements of the datasphere, dependent upon functions in the datasphere – so humans accepted their lack of privacy. An artist on Esperance had once said to me, "Having sex or a domestic quarrel with the house monitors on is like undressing in front of a dog or a cat ... it gives you pause the first time, and then you forget about it."

Note: Dan Simmons wrote this decades before the coming of Siri, Alexa and other 'smart' appliances.

Few places lie outside this datasphere, but the one where all the eyes are drawn to is Hyperion, the fringe planet where an anomaly in the space-time continuum known as the Time Tombs exists. In the first book, eight pilgrims journey to the Tombs despite countless adversities, there to petition a terrible steel monster known as the Shrike for their deepest desire. You might think they will ask for world peace, what with the two big military fleets about to do battle in the space above the planet. But each of them has a more personal agenda, revealed in the stories they tell along the pilgrimage.

The 'deus ex machina'. What we were talking about earlier. I suspect that this is precisely the reason each of us is here. Poor Lenar with his deus in the machina of the cruciform. Brawne with her resurrected poet trapped in a Schron loop, seeking the machine to release her personal deus. You, Sol, waiting for the dark deus to solve your daughter's terrible problem. The Core, machina spawned, seeking to build their own deus.

So I return to my opening quote, and the search for God in his or her future incarnation. The quest continues as the war with the Ousters begins in earnest and as the Tombs themselves begin to open after centuries of traveling back in time, while CEO Gladstone relies on the hybrid Joseph Severn to keep her up to date with events in the distant valley of the Tombs. Because Severn / Keats, with his half human/half machine brain is dreaming real dreams of what goes on with our old friends Martin Silenus, Sol Weintraub, the Consul, Brawne Lamia, Fedmahn Kassad and Lenar Hoyt. He is Adam, and his Imagination is Truth.

>>><<<>>><<<

This is as far as I can go with my synopsis without giving out major spoilers, so tread carefully from here on, please

>>><<<>>><<<

The first book was all about characters and their backstories. Now its time for that build-up to be put to use, but the developments create almost as many new mysteries as revelations. The Time Tombs and the Shrike still defy logic and continuity. The pilgrims are as much in the dark among the Tombs as they were on the voyage. But the monster is real and it is hunting them. I would advise patience, because all the classical references and the endless philosophical discussions do have a point, although it will become clear mostly in the last chapters.

Instead of looking at individual destinies (this will come later), this second volume takes a step back to consider the big factions.
The Hegemony is in a position of power, with technological superiority over the Ousters, yet its CEO Gladstone is aware that the stakes are much higher than the imminent Ouster attack.

The future branches only two directions. War and total uncertainty, or peace and total certain annihilation. I chose war.

Meina Gladstone is well aware of what she calls the Faustian pact humanity has done with the TechnoCore. The AI furnished the Hegemony with its high end toys, but its has resulted in complacency and total dependency on rogue and independent overlords (' It is hard to create mob passion when people are separated by kilometers and light-years, connected only by comm lines and fatline threads'). She wants to break the connection, even if the cost would rise into billions of lives. Otherwise humanity is doomed.

The Ousters are invading Hyperion, and also launching attacks against other systems in the Hegemony, their reasons remain obscure, except to the Consul, who has served as the go-between from Gladstone to the rebel fleet.

Their obsession with Hyperion is real. They think that this will be the birthplace of a new hope for humankind.

The TechnoCore, the assembly of emancipated AIs, is split into factions as far as humanity is concerned. The Stables want to preserve humanity for future study. The Volatiles claim that the AI no longer needs humanity in order to function in the universe. And the Ultimates are concerned with creating GOD, the final intelligence. Which of the factions will triumph remains to be seen, but probably not by human eyes.

The secretive order of the Templars, the ones whose motives remained secret in the first book as their representative disappeared during the journey, are given their chance now to explain their views. I kind of see why it was left for later, in order not to give the game away too early.

"The Great Change is when humankind accepts its role as part of the natural order of the universe instead of its role as a cancer."
"Cancer?"
"It is an ancient disease which – "
"Yes, I know what cancer is. How is it like humankind?"
"We have spread out through the galaxy like cancer cells through a living body, Dure. We multiply without thought to the countless life forms that must die or be pushed aside so that we may breed and flourish. We eradicate competing forms of intelligent life."

So, is humanity doomed or not? Is the Shrike the Avatar of Destruction announcing Armageddon? The pilgrims chose to defy him and what he stands for, and whatever hope is left to us is in their hands.

Kassad is a soldier, so he fights with the weapons he knows, his mysterious companion Moneta once again by his side.
Martin Silenus returns to his true vocation as a poet, feeling all the suffering of mankind literally as he is forced by the Shrike to re-experience the Crucifixion and all it signifies.

We thought we were special, opening our perceptions, honing our empathy, spilling that cauldron of shared pain onto the dance floor of language and then trying to make a minuet out of all that chaotic hurt. It doesn't matter a damn bit. We're no avatars, no sons of god or man. We're only us, scribbling our conceits alone, reading alone, and dying alone.

Note: Lama, Lama Sabachthani!

The Jesuits argue for keeping the Faith alive. The Templars argue that we do not deserve the Galaxy. Sol Weintraub the humanist argues that a God has no right to demand obedience from his followers, but he must follow his heart as the days left to his daughter dwindle down to nothing.

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.

also,
If God evolved, and Sol was sure that evolution was towards empathy – it was towards a shared sense of suffering rather than power and dominion.

Lamia and her cybrid lover petition the Technocore itself for redemption, but the immense intelligences have plans of their own, all except one Ummon who appears to be the TechnoCore version of a poet.

Not a watchmaker
but a sort of Feinman gardener
tidying up a no-boundary universe
with his crude sum-over-histories rake /
idly keeping track of every sparrow fall
and electron spin
while allowing each particle
to follow every possible track
in space-time
and each particle of humankind
to explore every possible crack
of cosmic irony

And the Consul, you may ask? What about the traitor to both the Hegemony and the Ousters? His punishment is to go back to work, towards a better union, one based not on subservience to machines, or to a fickle God, but on a 'covenant of life', such as the one once signed on his home planet Maui Covenant, such as the one the Ousters and the Templars envision.

"Not merely to preserve a few species from Old Earth, but to find unity in diversity. To spread the seed of humankind to all worlds, diverse environments, while treating as sacred the diversity of life we find elsewhere."

Hyperion will fall in the end, as all things eventually do, but I believe it will rise again from the ashes of war. (After all, there are two more sequels to the epic). The search for God is never ending, and your guess is as good as mine as to what form the future one will take. Will it be a machine one, like the Shrike, created to bring about the dominance of AI? Will it be one of consumerism and will to power like the government of the Hegemony? Will it be an Ousters New Age of diversity and tolerance? Or a poet's dream turned into reality?

Sometimes, dreams are all that separate us from the machines.

spoken by the starchy General Morpurgo as he prepares to sacrifice himself so that humanity is freed from the TechnoCore

Until I start on the next book in order to find out, I will leave you in the company of the hardy pilgrims who stroll into the sunset singing yet another classic song: "Somewhere Over the Rainbow"