Lots of recapping in the first quarter, but eventually it gets going. Very different in structure than Hyperion, but what it lacks in unique structure it makes up for in fascinating ideas. There are so many other works that have remixed these ideas conceptually, or visually: The Matrix, Doctor Who (new who), The Expanse, The Interdependency etc. Whether they originated here or Hyperion just falls somewhere in the middle of the SF idea lineage (almost everything goes back to Asimov and Heinlein, and filtered through Niven, etc) I don't know.

This was a very satisfying conclusion, with just enough bait to get me to read the sequel series.

Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion are two halves of an extraordinarily complex science fiction masterpiece. There are subsequently two more books that appear to follow this series (Endymion and Rise of Endymion), but they aren’t necessary to feel you’ve gotten a complete story. I will absolutely read them in the future. With elements of horror woven through, it’s an extremely twisted vision that takes you to the farthest reaches of science fiction.

The plot is elaborate and multifaceted yet by the end, the many seemingly chaotic inexplicable threads intertwine to a satisfying conclusion. Quite a high wire performance by Simmons. The story surrounds an intergalactic war and a planet key to the various factions. On that planet, there are inexplicable artifacts, environments called the “Time Tombs” that are travelling from the future back in time, but they have not unlocked yet. The various factions feel that when the Tombs open…they will release something so powerful, it will end up deciding the course of the war. Billions of lives are at stake.

A small group of travelers are sent on a pilgrimage from across the human empire to visit the Time Tombs…hence the connection to the “Cantos” from the book titles, a reference to the The Canterbury Tales. Each of these travelers has a unique, and often bizarre reason to have been included on the pilgrimage. As characters, they are almost all quite distinct and well delineated. Simmons is equally deft at integrating character, plot, action, theme, and poetic language, often describing the most fantastical scenes. He does so much right.

I have a few quibbles with the book, but it’s an overwhelmingly awe-inspiring achievement. One, I found the sex scenes described by the character Fedmahn Kassad to walk too far into porn territory. Sex is hard to write, no doubt, without falling back into stereotype. I don’t think Simmons achieved anything new here. My only consolation is that to some degree, the somewhat blatant writing of the sex scenes does play well when they transform into moments of extreme violence and horror. Sex and horror are partners quite commonly in the slasher formula, but in this case it seems to set up rather a contrast or deflation of the pleasure. Even so, I felt those scenes pushed me out of the narrative.

Two, I was not fond of the storyline of Sol Weintraub. He posed as a sort of Wandering Jew character, and his name alone threw me right off the bat. When put up against so many of the other characters that had either abstract future sounding names (like Brawne Lamia), or modestly generic names (such as Paul Duré) “Sol Weintraub” struck me as extremely old fashioned and stereotypical. Even while religion carried through as a significant theme in the story, I could have done without the retro, stereotypical Jew name. But beyond the name, I wasn’t fond of his storyline, which struck me as too sentimental. It fit, everything fit together quite extraordinarily. And yet, of all the character lines, his was my least favorite.

Thematically, Simmons explores the terrain of technology, religion, faith, morality, and the myth of God. Some of his views are crystal clear, others a bit murky, but in either case, he offers enough meat to ponder our own views on these matters.

If you enjoy far-future science fiction or epic science fiction, then this is a series you must try. Highly recommended.

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".

[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

The Fall of Hyperion, a sequel to Hyperion, although it doesn't feel like it. The first book was mainly about the history of the pilgrims, and this one has a new protagonist named Joseph Severn, who dreams of the pilgrims. As a result I struggled to get into this one, as I was more interested in the fates of the pilgrims than this new character. There were long sections of dialogue as Joseph sits in on war briefings, which I found uninteresting.

However I feel about halfway through the tides changed and I became completely invested in the fates of this world and the people within it as I got to know the amazing character that is Meina Gladstone, CEO of Hegimony, and a woman that holds the fates of billions in her hands.

You ask, what is our policy? I say to you: It is to wage war, in space, on land, in the air, by sea, wage war with all our might and with all the strength justice and right can give us. That is our policy.

Dan Simmons is again at the top of his game, and had me with his beautiful prose even when I wasn't completely interested in what was going on. But unfortunately I can't say I liked this as much as the first, even after the strong conclusion.

“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.”

Interesting... I didn't get as pulled into this one as opposed to Hyperion. Still, a solid novel as is all of Dan Simmon's books.

4.5/5

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.

DNF. I had to force myself to try to read this, in the same vein I forced myself to finish Ice Station Zebra. For a Hugo winning novel, a have to ask why?

Characterization: Its been 4 years since I read the original, which sets up the 7 characters whose stories conclude in this novel. Perhaps its the long interlude, but I simply did not care what happens to each of them. And it doesn't help that many of them become incapacitated or go missing early in the novel. For that matter one of the main viewpoints is M. Severn who is a very weak character (at least after 250 pages). He is merely an observer, has no skin in the game and is never really under any kind of threat. Gladstone is more interesting, but again I simply did not care enough about the decisions she was making.

Then there are loooong passages of unmotivated description. Huge swaths of text covering in detail how characters get from point A to B. Were these scenes really necessary? What was the point to Severns brief visit to Hyperion? Or the long retracing of the consuls steps from the time tombs back to the main city? Pages and pages of boring description which do not advance the plot.

Finally I just gave up. This is not why I want to read. Clearly Simmons can write, the exposition is complex and sophisticated. But the sloooow plot development, and lack of attachment to the characters means, for me, the fall of hyperion.

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.

A friend gave me these books (the Hyperion/Endymion series) about six years ago. They're more 'fantasy' science fiction - other worlds, alien races, etc - than 'hard' science fiction (by that I mean, could happen here and now) so I found them interesting, but you've got to like this style of material to get thru it. This book could have told it's story in half the space and still have been just as compelling - if not more so. If you want to ponder the philosophical meanings of existence, these are fine - and occasionally entertaining at the same time. But if you're really a 'Seeker,' then read quantum physics books and neurology journals (granted, probably NOT entertaining at the same time). I do the latter, but I find it entertaining, too.
Although personally this series was not my thing, from a critical standpoint it is superlative and profound. There is a beautiful mastery of language and imagery here. Lush and poetic. Deeply etched characters, and a truly inspired premise. The premise is what kept me reading. I mean, "...the mysterious Time Tombs are opening," and a bizarre being called The Shrike? That would grab anyone!
This book (and series) is quite obviously literature in the true sense of the word. Hugo Award winning even. But the writing is very dense and descriptive, and I think this is where it sacrifices some of it's (dare I say) entertainment value. What could be said in three pages is often times said in thirty. I'm just not into dreaming robots. However, I will say that the pathos of Sol and his desires for the well-being of his daughter have stayed with me to this day. Unfortunately, I had to reach the end of the book to get it.
If you like your fantasy/science-fiction in the mold of Browning and Keats, delve in. I don't happen to like that mold, but I'm glad I read these. Maybe I'll go back and try them again. A lot has happened to me in six years, and I may have a different perspective.

n  "In the end--when all else is dust--loyalty to those we love is all we can carry with us to the grave."n

The Fall of Hyperion, the second part of the amazing (and I do mean AMAZING) Hyperion Cantos, by the superb Dan Simmons. Why, oh why did I wait so long to read this book? Honestly, I feel like I should be guilty of a criminal offence with a hefty prison sentence.

First things first. You really need to know this book is the second part of a series. Can it be read as a standalone? No! Not under any circumstances. It will make absolutely zero sense if you do. By all accounts the two books were written as one story and the publisher talked Simmons into splitting them up. So you understand why that's the case.

A brief word about Hyperion (the first book) before we move on. That book is sensational. One of the best books I've ever read. An absolutely amazing literary achievement as the author blends six stories into a cohesive storyline, mashing up genres and crafting a unique and vivid landscape. If you in any way can handle sci fi read it now! Then you can read this one pronto.



n  "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."n

So back to the Fall of Hyperion. This one picks up exactly where the last novel left off, on the verge of intergalactic war between the Hegemony and the Ouster swarm. Simmons left the reader on an absolute cliff-hanger with the pilgrims reaching their destination, leaving a myriad of loose ends. What will happen when the Time Tombs open, what will happen to Sol's daughter, what is the Shrike, will Brawne and Silenus have a fight? The author satisfyingly answers all these question, blending together the different story lines to provide a fantastic, emotional conclusion.

The format for this story is a little bit different. There's initially two settings told from two POVs. We have the introduction of a new character in Joseph Severn, who is a cybrid and has been imprinted with the personality of a character from the first book. He's working with the leader of the Hegemony, CEO Gladstone, as they prepare for war. We then have our six pilgrims arriving at the Time Tombs, minus the inconspicuous Het Masteen, whatever happened to him? Simmons incorporates a link between the two parties and it really is brilliantly written as the story bounces between the two perspectives.



n  "Pain, he discovers, has a structure. It has a floor plan. It has designs more intricate than a chambered nautilus, features more baroque than the most buttressed gothic cathedral. Even as he screams, Martin Silenus studies the structure of this pain. He realizes that it is a poem"n

So what has this story got going for it and why should you read it? The action and plot are non-stop. Simmons ramps up the tempo and keeps his foot flat to the floor. It's very exciting and frenetic. This takes place in perhaps the most creative and well thought out world I've ever come across. The level of detail is astonishing. The story is multifaceted and you get horror, comedy, romance along with great, great sci fi. Add to this a fantastic set of characters that you truly care for and you can see why this book gets such high praise. Honestly, my words will not do this story justice so you're just going to have to read it.

I'll finish by saying I did this as part of a buddy read and I thoroughly recommend it as there's so many mindblowing ideas you'll want to talk non-stop about it. Simmons is a top level writer and story teller and I've never been let down by anything I've read of his so far. But this Hyperion series is on another level. This novel is part of a four book series and I'm absolutely going to be continuing with the next one...Endymion. Who wants to join me? Five of the biggest stars out there.

Wow! What a ride! I'm going to update my rating of the first book from 3 stars to 4 stars.