La miglior saga fantastica che abbia mai letto.
Scritto magnificamente dalla prima all'ultima parola, zeppo di personaggi memorabili e di idee a dir poco geniali.
La Fantascienza al suo massimo.
E no, non sono d'accordo sul fatto che i seguiti non sarebbero all'altezza dei primi due volumi: Endymion e Il risveglio di Endymion devono essere letti per comprendere appieno le vicende e godere fino in fondo della smisurata inventiva di questo straordinario scrittore.

The best syfy series I have ever read in my life. Bar none. There is absolutely NO ONE out there that can do what Simmons does.

There are no words that are adequate to describe these four books. I am not even going to try. I read all four and tried to write semi-competent reviews about them when I read them and feel I did a terrible injustice to these books.

If you read the first one, you will read all four and NOT be disappointed. There is nothing more to say!

Whaaaat?!!

This was my reaction to the reveal of Moneta's identity. I guess when you have both time and space continuum at your disposal, you can create all kinds of crazy twists. I am at awe how Simmons can step across genre boundaries and dazzle in multiple literary planes. I have known him as a master horror storyteller, and now he is up there with Herbert and Asimov in the field of mind-blowing sci-fi. Hyperion and its sequel are more like two parts of one book, so I would definitely recommend reading them both in quick succession to appreciate the entire story in all its glory.

The first part is structured similarly to The Canterbury Tales of Chaucer. There is a group of pilgrims on a journey to mysterious planet of Hyperion to meet the fabled entity called The Shrike. Each character tells a story of their past that has led them to this journey, therefore revealing more of the novel's universe and history. The majority of the second book is told from the perspective of cybrid John Keats - a clone of the famous poet equipped with an AI intellect, - and his dreams of the pilgrims. As you might already guess, Hyperion Cantos is full of literary allusions and direct references. Among many others I noted Shakespeare, The Wizard of Oz, Charlie Chaplin, and Greek mythology. How fun is that?

The novels themselves are incredibly multi-layered and imaginative. There are conspiracies, prophecies, the man vs machine arguement, philosophical discussions of theology and identity, the looming end of humanity, ecological footprints and colonialism, death and rebirth, and of course poetry. Is it weird that my favourite character is Ummon, who speaks mostly in koans?