Hyperion Cantos
By Dan Simmons
Publisher: GuildAmerica
Published In: New York, NY, USA
Date: 1990
Pgs: 929

Summary:
Humanity has left Earth behind. Thanks to FTL and wormhole tech, humanity has reached out to the stars and made new homes, united under the Hegemony. Hyperion and the labyrinth worlds hold secrets though...secrets and monsters. The Shrike a multi armed killing organic machine worshipped by some, feared by all, walks Hyperion awaiting the end of the world or its next victim, depending on whose dogma you are listening to. War has broken out between the Hegemony and the post-human Ousters, humans who have left planet bound living behind. The Time Tombs in the home area of the Shrike are opening. A last group of pilgrims are on their way. The war. The Shrike. The pilgrims. The past. The present. The future. All are colliding on Hyperion in what may be the last days.

Genre:
fiction, science fiction, apocalypse, space, hegira, war,

Why this book:
I’ve read both the books that make up this book before and love them deeply. I wanted to re-read them again and finding them in the Cantos format was a godsend. This is a huge sweeping space opera covering the future history of man in a mysterious universe with more mysteries than answers.

This Story is About:
It’s about throwing off the yokes of society. In some cases, the yoke is torn away whether the individual character wants this “freedom” or not.

Credibility:
The story is very immersive and drags you along with it causing a well crafted suspension of disbelief as Simmons shows us what he wants to show us and hints at what lies beyond.

Favorite Character:
Colonel Fedmahn Kassad comes across as a man of his time though he has things in his past that would mark him a monster by the other people of his time. And he’s a badass. The Consul is intended in the narrator/everyman role, I believe. He does have a certain attraction as he is “our” viewpoint on the stories of the others and the later events. All the pilgrims are wonderful characters, with the exception below.

Least Favorite Character:
Martin Silenius is the poet. His inclusion seems to be to give Simmons the chance to trot out bits of the classical intermixed with his own poetry. A Loki/Pan figure with a long history because of the time debt that he has accrued during long frozen fugue states on interplanetary voyages, meaning that he has seen a lot and lived through a lot, but slept through a lot of the interstellar future backstory of this world that Simmons is creating. All that said, the Silenius character continually comes across as an ass.
A close second would be Hegemony CEO Meina Gladstone. She’s as much the villain as the circumstance that sweeps through the huge community of Humans over the course of this story. Her plans within plans may “free” humanity, but she may end up killing many of them, millions, at least, if everything works to her plan.
Ummon speaks in verse or koans. Reading his dialogue is painful.

Character I Most Identified With:
Through the early stages of the book, I identify mostly with Kassad and, by the author’s design, the Consul. In the later stages of the book, you see and feel a lot through the eyes and feelings of the pilgrims plus Johnny II.

The Feel:
The story has a real “you are there” feel to it. The tragedy of Sol and Rachel Weintraub is very palpable. I can’t imagine what Sol experienced in those years as Rachel progressed. But, yes, we can imagine it. Simmons gave us good deep insight into the character of the man.

Favorite Scene:
Father Dure’s sense of wonder when he discovers what the Bikura are hiding down below, or rather the first level of what they are hiding, is a great scene.
Kassad’s first visit to Hyperion, especially, when he awakes from fugue and has to fight his way through his fall from orbit.
Kassad’s “final” battle on Hyperion, not the denouement, but when he blows hell out of one of the monuments as he unleashes the full hell of FORCE’s future sci fi weaponry. And his final, final showdown with the Shrike is pure excellence.

Settings:
Hyperion, space, the tree ship, the Tesla forests, Mars, virtual reality battles all through history, Barnard’s World, Hebron, the WorldWeb, The Moon, a replica Earth somewhere in the Hercules Cluster, the Ouster Swarm, the Labyrinths, the Datasphere/Metasphere/Megasphere

Pacing:
The pacing of the story is excellent. Not a roaring page turner, but whenever you put it down, it draws you back. At least, it does for me. You’d think with the introspection of some of the pilgrims’ stories that the pace would drag, but it really doesn’t. The story drags me along through the tragedies of some of their stories and the sheer WTF-edness of what is happening to some of them.

Plot Holes/Out of Character:
N/A

Last Page Sound:
Damn. That is awesome.

Author Assessment:
Absolutely awesome. I would definitely read more stuff by Simmons.

Editorial Assessment:
Tightly done.

Disposition of Book:
This is a Keep it. Hardback. Proud to own it book.

Why isn’t there a screenplay?
I fear that the story would have to be watered down too much to make it fit the screen. There’s just too much story here. Warner Brothers is supposedly developing Hyperion for the big screen.

Casting call:
Fedmahn Kassad would need an actor of Arabic descent who could play early middle age and world weary while maintaining the military precision aura. I know of a few older actors who could do it, but I’m not finding the “perfect” casting choice in my memory. Though I can almost guarantee that in a movie with them wanting to tighten the story, they’d combine some of the characters into supercharacters. I could see Fedmahn and the Consul combined. If Hyperion had become a movie 25 or 30 years ago, I could see Ricardo Montalban in the role, either as Kassad or a combined Kassad and Consul. Vinnie Jones would be excellent in the role. Faran Tahir would as well. UPDATE: Coby Bell from Burn Notice would be perfect as Fedmahn Kassad.
For the Consul, if he maintained his character from the book, I could see a Ewan McGregor or a Joshua Jackson...type.
I have a picture of Sol in my head. But I’m not sure there is an actor currently acting who fits with what I see in my mind’s eye. I see an old man slipping toward ancient. The dome of his head is bald with a fringe of white flyaway hair. I went through an image search of bald actors and can’t find someone who would be perfect..
Johnny Lee Miller could be Martin Sillenius. His Sherlock on Elementary makes me realize that he could inhabit the character of the poet out of time who remembers Old Earth before the Big Mistake. ...and the gravitas and sadness and madness that would inevitably characterize a persona that has lost so much.
Judi Dench could play Meina Gladstone, CEO of the Hegemony.

Would recommend to:
Genre fans. Space opera fans. People who like a crunchy plot with lots of characters and lots of action spread over a wide range.

«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»

Die Geschichte um Hyperion besteht eigentlich aus zwei Büchern, "Hyperion" und "Der Fall Hyperions", die in den Hyperion-Gesängen vereint sind. Die alleinige Lektüre des ersten Bandes ergibt auch wenig Sinn, da die Geschichte mittendrin endet.

Wir befinden uns in der Zukunft, die Menschheit hat sich in der Galaxie ausgebreitet und unwirtliche Planeten mittels Terraforming bewohnbar gemacht. Wissenschaftlicher Fortschritt machte dies möglich, führte aber auch zur selbstständigen Weiterentwicklung der künstlichen Intelligenzen, die nun als eigene Population existieren sowie zur Zerstörung der Erde. KIs und Menschheit coexistieren, die KIs haben den Menschen sogar die Technologie der Farcaster zur Verfügung gestellt, mit denen diese innerhalb von Sekunden die größten Distanzen im Raum überwinden können.
Hyperion ist ein Planet, im Outback, auf dem vor einiger Zeit die Zeitengräber gefunden wurden. Große Monumente, um die sich die Zeit krümmt, und die voller Geheimnisse stecken. Bewacht werden sie von einem Monster, dem Shrike. So mystisch die Gräber wirken, haben sich über die Jahrzehnte Legenden und Religionen gebildet, Pilger machen sich auf den Weg zu diesen sagenumwobenen Gräbern.

Die Geschichte startet mit einer letzten Pilgerreise zu den Gräbern. Von der Hegemonie ausgesucht, machen sich die Personen auf ihre Reise mit ungewisser Rückkehr. Während wir im ersten Band hören, wie die einzelnen Pilger mit Hyperion verbunden sind und ihre Geschichten nur noch mehr Fragen aufwerfen, vergrößert sich der Schauplatz enorm in Band zwei. Krieg, Intrigen, das Überleben der Menschheit, Verrat, ...

Ich weiß gar nicht, wo ich anfangen soll, bei diesem Feuerwerk. Der Ideenreichtum und das Worldbuilding sind großartig. Auch der Aufbau der Geschichte, vom Kleinen ins Große hat mir echt gut gefallen. Die Geschichte ist aufgrund der Mysterien und Intrigen durchweg spannend, gerade weil fast alles wirklich erst am Ende aufgelöst wird.
Simmons macht es einem jedoch nicht einfach, die Welt zu betreten und zu durchblicken. Was am Anfang noch etwas überfordern wirkte, lässt einem später jedoch Raum für eigene Vorstellungen und Überlegungen.
Auch wenn am Ende vieles aufgeklärt wurde, war doch nicht alles zu 100% greifbar für mich. Was für mich jedenfalls wie ein Versprechen ist, dass ich beim nochmaligen Lesen mindestens genauso viel Spaß haben werde!
Das Buch ist auch eine Hommage an John Keats - der Titel, das Auftreten der Figur. Generell findet man immer wieder diese direkten Verweise auf unsere Kultur und Geschichte - tauchen doch plötzlich Mozarts Sonaten oder Zitate von Churchill auf.
Einen Stern ziehe ich ab, weil es ein paar Szenen gab, gerade im ersten Band, die auf mich befremdlich und unangenehm wirkten (vermutlich aber gar nicht diese Intention hatten) und mich das Gesicht unnötigerweise verziehen ließen.
Unterm Strich aber ein spannendes und in vielen Facetten schillerndes Buch, das sich lohnt zu lesen.

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.

Capolavoro assoluto della fantascienza.

Simmons riesce a creare un'opera dove, con una struttura molto intelligente, riesce a toccare tutti gli elementi tipici della fantascienza, inclusa la sfera del cyberpunk.
Il volume contiene i primi due libri de I Canti di Hyperion, in un'edizione (quella Mondadori) che personalmente non mi dispiace.
Consigliato.

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

En realidad són 4,5 estrellas.

"Los Cantos de Hyperion" de Dan Simmons es una obra maestra de la ciencia ficción que logra tejer una trama compleja y fascinante a través de la interconexión de historias individuales de personajes en un universo rico y detallado. Esta novela, que forma parte de una serie, se destaca por su capacidad para fusionar elementos de la mitología clásica con la ciencia ficción de manera magistral.

Al igual que en la mitología griega, donde los gigantes cayeron en una épica batalla contra los dioses olímpicos, los personajes de "Los Cantos de Hyperion" se enfrentan a desafíos titánicos y enfrentamientos de proporciones épicas en su lucha por la supervivencia y el entendimiento de los enigmas del universo.

"Pero mientras la faena es pesada y repetitiva, según descubrí, la mente no sólo está en libertad de viajar a climas más imaginativos, sino que huye a planos superiores.

Por otra parte, la alusión que hace el autor con la canción "Somewhere over the rainbow" del clásico filme "El Mago de Oz" se entrelaza sutilmente en la trama de la novela. Al igual que el arcoíris representa un puente entre mundos, las peregrinaciones de los personajes a través del espacio y el tiempo en Hyperion son análogas a esa búsqueda de un lugar mejor, un destino más allá de las adversidades y desafíos. Así como Dorothy anhela un lugar donde los sueños se hacen realidad, los personajes persiguen sus propios anhelos y deseos en un universo en constante cambio y peligro. La canción de Judy Garland sirve como un recordatorio constante de la esperanza y el anhelo de un futuro mejor, un tema que resuena a lo largo de la obra de Simmons.

"Las turbas tienen pasiones, no cerebros".


Lo que me llama la atención, de manera especial es la manera en que Simmons aborda cuestiones contemporáneas (la novela fue escrita en los noventa) y las proyecta en un futuro distante (no tan distante). Simmons nos confronta con dilemas éticos que desafían las percepciones convencionales del bien y el mal. Los personajes enfrentan decisiones difíciles y a menudo se ven obligados a cuestionar sus creencias y valores fundamentales. La ambigüedad moral es una constante a lo largo de la novela,

En resumen, "Los Cantos de Hyperion" es una obra que trasciende los confines de la ciencia ficción, mezclando la épica de la mitología griega con la exploración de los límites del conocimiento y la condición humana en un futuro distópico.

Simmons logra así crear una experiencia literaria que es tanto intelectualmente estimulante como emocionalmente conmovedora. TOTALMENTE RECOMENTABLE. Entra dentro de mis tops de sci-fi. Así pues continuaremos con la siguiente parte "Endymion".

"...cuando todo lo demás es polvo - la lealtad a los seres humanos es lo único que podemos llevarnos a la tumba. La fe -la verdadera fe- consistía en confiar en ese amor."

3.5/5 for me - The heavy use of world-specific terminology and the frequent switching between a slew of characters meant that it took me a couple hundred pages to really engage with this, but when I got there I was pretty invested. The characters are well-rounded with interesting and unique backstories that are interwoven together. Recommended read, though I would strongly encourage reading both Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion together, as this Omnibus presents them.

¿Quiere saber más de estos dos libros, sin spoilers? Visite:

http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...

http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...

Der Sammelband DIE HYPERION-GESÄNGE enthält zwei Bücher, die eigentlich zusammen gehören und eine Erzählung bilden, die ungefähr 1400 Seiten umfasst. Ich habe dann bei etwa Seite 1200 abgebrochen. Die Besonderheit ist, dass das erste Buch (der erste Teil) herausragend gut ist (klare fünf Sterne): Toller Stil, grandiose Charakterzeichnung und hohe Spannung, sowie außerordentlich gutes Worldbuilding. Leider hat mir dann das zweite Buch, welches etwa 60 % ausmacht, im Vergleich überwiegend nicht mehr gefallen und hat dann im Schnitt natürlich das Gesamtwerk stark eingetrübt. Zum Ende konnte ich mich mit den einzelnen Figuren nicht mehr identifizieren und war dann aufgrund der doch deutlichen Längen und ständigen Szenenwechsel auch irgendwie gelangweilt und genervt. Schade. Band 1 ist wirklich grandios, … weshalb dann der Schriftsteller im zweiten Teil alles „so anders“ machen musste, verstehe ich nicht. Ich bedaure es sehr.

Eines der Sci-Fi Klassiker schlechthin - wie ich im Nachwort erfahren habe

Full blown metaphysical science fiction, an all absorbing literary achievement. Heavy on the FI, not so much on the SCI - would classify closer to futuristic fantasy fiction more than SCIENCE fiction - but I say this as a believer in HARD Sci fi which conforms to and can be technically explained within the book by known pysical laws. Closer in this respect to the DUNE series.