If you read Hyperion and want to know what happened next, save yourself from hundreds of pages of travelogue, Keats' poems in loop ad nauseam, confusing/overexplained scenes that did not move the story forward, and even more unanswered questions at the end, just read the wikipedia entry instead. Or you could always skim the book after halfway when it turns into a galactic word vomit.
Overall, an imaginative, thought-provoking concept, albeit with poor execution.

n  n
Christmas 2010: I realised that I had got stuck in a rut. I was re-reading old favourites again and again, waiting for a few trusted authors to release new works. Something had to be done.

On the spur of the moment I set myself a challenge, to read every book to have won the Locus Sci-Fi award. That’s 35 books, 6 of which I’d previously read, leaving 29 titles by 14 authors who were new to me.

While working through this reading list I got married, went on my honeymoon, switched career and became a father. As such these stories became imprinted on my memory as the soundtrack to the happiest period in my life (so far).

n  n    The Fall of Hyperionn  n was one of the six award winners I had read before starting my Glorious Locus Quest (along with 3 other Simmons books, an Asimov and a May).

Occasionally another reviewer sums up your opinion so perfectly; there seems little point in repeating the sentiment.

I felt the same way as Kemper about n  n    Falln  n:

“Mr. Kemper had read Simmons before and knew he likes to put a lot of big ideas in his books. But this time, apparently Simmons broke into his house and managed to directly implant much of the book directly into Mr. Kemper’s brain via some kind of crude funnel device.”

“His wife said she found him having convulsions and leaking brain matter out his nose and ears.”

“He had told several people that Hyperion was just so good that he had to know how it ended, even if it killed him.”

But n  n    Fall of Hyperionn  n is so Shrike-damned good that I must, out of overwhelming respect, at least try to express my admiration and awe at this accomplishment.

It’s a bit of cliché to describe a complex plot in terms of a circus ‘plate-spinning’ act but it’s the most appropriate metaphor that’s coming to my sleep-deprived mind this morning. It’s the familiar slack-jawed feeling of hypnotic wonder at an artist who knows exactly how long he’s got left on each plate before it starts to wobble, exactly how to stabilise that wobble, and exactly how much impetus to impart to allow him to work his way around all the plates before returning again. It’s the skill of a juggler with all the balls in the air, but with more calm-control and less frantic energy.

To stretch the analogy even further, Simmons seems to work with plates of different sizes, colours, materials and shape – on sticks of different heights and widths. He takes a difficult job, integrating an intergalactic multidimensional time-travelling space-opera narrative, and makes it even more difficult by populating his universe with intelligent, diverse and contrary characters.

Some of his ideas articulate my deepest held ideals about far-future hi-tech becoming indistinguishable (to us, now) from magic – much as modern tech would be incomprehensible to early man. I already mentioned the awesomeness incarnate that is the Shrike, the Poet and the Cruciform in my review of the first book, but here I’m particularly referring to the Keats cybrids, the treeships and the TechnoCore.

It’s a book I would dearly love to re-read, but it looks like I’m going to have to re-buy first because I leant the whole Cantos to a friend who’s since moved house and taken it to the other side of the country... (I'm looking at you, Mark)

n  n    Fall of Hyperionn  n won the Locus Sci-Fi award in 1991. I’m flabbergasted that the Hugo that year went to n  The Vor Gamen! I’ve since read n  The Vor Gamen , and I also 5-starred that, but good as that was, this is better. What’s even more peculiar, is that the Nebula that year went to n  Tehanun – a mid-series fantasy novel? Clearly I'll need to read it to understand that decision! Ah well, at least my trusty Locus Sci-Fi award recognised and rewarded Sir Simmons' creative genius.

After this I read: The Endymion Omnibus

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

This is a difficult book to write a review for. Like the first book, it is many things at once. Drama, action, sci-fi, philosophy; a reflection on what it means to be human and a stunning space opera; musings (possibly critique) on religion, and adventure through the galaxy. There is so much here; so much to think about with an unbelievably well fleshed-out universe, all wrapped up in a 500 page package. We get the joys of being alive (and aware), mixed with moments of crippling existential dread. But let’s back up.

This novel starts right where the previous book left off, and in the interest of remaining spoiler free, that’s all I’m going to say about the plot. The less you know about the Hyperion books going in, the better. Let them grab your brain, twist it into a dodecahedron, and toss it out somewhere in the orbit of Vega. I believe the summaries for these books are vague for a reason, as any paragraph-long summary could never do justice to what is in these pages.

Dan Simmons is quickly becoming a favorite author of mine. I know some people have issues with him-his alleged politics being the main complaint. I don’t know, and I’m not here to comment on that. He has an incredible imagination, and he’s written some of the most unique novels I have ever read, all delivered with beautiful prose. Bottom line-the guy is a top tier writer.

“First, Abrahams path of obedience can no longer be followed, even if there is a God demanding such obedience. Second, we have offered sacrifices to that God for too many generations...the payment of pain must stop.”

Abrahamic religions once again play a notable role-the role of religion, of varying sorts, has been a part of our species since we were first able to look up at the night sky and ponder our own existence. It should be no surprise that centuries in the future, this is an issue that humans are still grappling with. In my interpretation, this is reflected in multiple aspects of this story, both directly and through metaphor. I don’t know that Simmons is making any kind of “bold statement”, or offering any kind of easy answer to these questions, as much as reflecting on the role religion has played and will continue to play going into the future.

But wait! Religion, philosophy, blah blah blah. I thought this was a kick-ass sci-fi story?!? Yes; first and foremost this is a sci fi story that even without the existential deliberations stands on its own. No, this isn’t light reading. It’s dense, but in all the best ways, and remains very readable. I’m not a heavy sci-fi reader, but this contains all the elements I’d imagine one would look for in such a book-it’s filled with exotic planets, awesome space battles, and plausible and thought-provoking technology of the future (both sentient and not). It is meant to get your gears turning, and it does.

The pictures it paints are vivid and wondrous, the novel is populated with great characters, and overall this has been one hell of a journey that I couldn’t recommend more. I am aware that this type of novel isn’t for everyone, but for me the Hyperion Cantos has really hit the sweet spot. The genre-bending, heart wrenching and at times shocking mixture of timeless human stories and smart science fiction ended up landing at the top of the heap, so far. And I couldn’t be more excited that there are still two more books in this series.


Kwatz!

¿Es un mal libro? Ni de broma, pero...
No ha sido el momento adecuado para leerlo. Y lo se porque me ha parecido algo confuso, porque tenía que releer algunas partes, porque no me enteraba de lo que estaba leyendo, había días que no me apetecía coger el libro, etc.
Quizás en un futuro lo relea y cambie mi percepción de esta historia -ojalá sea así, porque siento que me he perdido algo muy bueno por no leerlo cuando debía.

This is the second book in Dan Simmons’ Hyperion Cantos. I liked the first book better. There were sections where I was really interested in what was happening, but also sections that I struggled through. In this book we learn more about what’s going on in the larger universe instead of focusing exclusively on the pilgrims. I was theoretically interested in that larger universe stuff, but somehow I often found it dull to read about. Parts of it were definitely interesting, but I was usually more interested in the parts focusing on the pilgrims.

This book makes a lot of references to Keats and his poetry, as well as some references to poetry in general. I have minimal knowledge about Keats (well, I have more now, I guess!) and I lack much appreciation for poetry. It was apparent the author did some pretty clever things here, but I wasn’t really the right person to appreciate it. I did appreciate some of his non-poetical cleverness, but it also sometimes felt like too much random stuff was crammed into one story. There’s a stronger cyberpunk vibe in this book, or at least it seemed so to me, and maybe that affected my enjoyment as well. The “too much random stuff crammed into one story” is something I’ve come to associate with cyberpunk and it’s a large part of the reason why it’s not one of my favorite subgenres.

Some things made sense, and some things didn’t. I guessed several things in advance, so there was some logic to the story and its conclusion to allow me to do that. I didn’t feel like the author just threw a bunch of random answers together at the end that came out of nowhere, but I didn’t buy into all of it. I liked the way some things were wrapped up, but a big part I had trouble with was the stuff surrounding Lamia’s unborn baby. For example, before Lamia knew there was anything special about her baby, she was told to “trust”. She had no idea what she was trusting, but somehow she had the power to walk on water and defeat the Shrike because of her baby. And then when she lost her unspecified “trust”, she could no longer walk on air and fell. I felt like I’d turned the wrong page and ended up in a fantasy novel for a while there. I also didn’t feel like there was ever a satisfactory explanation for the Shrike(s), nor did I feel like the explanation about Rachel/Moneta was very solid, although I had guessed early on that they were the same person. Maybe there are stronger explanations for those things in the next books.

I don’t plan to continue to the second set of books. I think there’s definitely stuff to like here, but I also don’t think this is really in my wheelhouse and I’m not feeling any temptation to learn more or see what happens next. This one became a slog for me at times, and I think it would get more sloggy if I tried to continue.

The trouble with reading a book like The Fall of Hyperion is that whatever book I read next will likely seem like a load of ol' crap. In fact, in a Shrike-like manner this book traveled back in time and slashed my opinion of the book I read prior to this one which now looks shabby by comparison.

The first Hyperion book ends on a (musical) cliff hanger, The Fall of Hyperion carries on from there though the first chapter is narrated in the first person by a "new" cybrid protagonist Joseph Severn. While he is not in the previous book he is derived from the same John Keats template as "Johnny", the wavy hair cybrid and lover of the bad-ass Brawne Lamia P.I., one of the seven pilgrims who traveled to confront The Shrike (a real cutting edge guy possibly descended from Freddy Krueger). The wonderful world building from the previous book is further developed in this book, we get more expositions about the Hegemony, the TechnoCore and a little more about The Shrike, not to mention the further adventures of our favorite pilgrims. The Fall of Hyperion is structurally different from its predecessor, it is entirely linear though narrated from several different points of view. While I enjoy the way the first book is structured (The Canterbury Tales style), where the stories are very strong on their own this more conventional structure also works well for me, it is nice and cohesive and a pleasure to follow.

The Hegemony and the TechnoCore remind me of Iain M. Banks Culture society and the AIs that mess about with the poor humans living in these societies. The citizens of the Hegemony are similarly pampered but are not watched over with paternal fondness by the AI like in Banks' books. The Hegemony government is done by human politicians with an AI representative, led by the awesome Meina Gladstone who I picture as resembling actress Maggie Smith at her sternest. The high technology tend to be of the more handwavium variety with FTL travel achieved by "Farcaster" portals, and instant Fatline (FTL) communication, all compliments of the TechnoCore. The social ramification of this technology is very well thought out, the novel is to some extent a cautionary tale about over reliance on technology.

Dan Simmons' prose is deservedly lauded as one of the most literary best in the scifi business, at times lyrical, often witty and evocative. Most of the central characters are already well established in the first book, they are further developed here and the relationship between the pilgrims are much strong stronger. Their loyalty to each other, which slowly developed in the first book, make them much more appealing, even the two that don't get along like Brawne Lamia and Martin Silenus (though the "mouthing off / shut up" running gag gets a little old after a while). The back story of each of the five Pilgrims form plot strands that converge and then beautifully woven together by the epic conclusion. My favorite section of the first book, the poignant story of Sol Weinthrob and his backward aging daughter is particularly well concluded. I am also glad to see my favorite character Brawne Lamia get spend more time on the centre stage.

I love the literary and pop culture references. To be honest what I know about John Keats and poetry can be written on a postage stamp and leave enough room for the Queen's entire head, but things like The Wizard of Oz (movie) references are more my neck of the wood and I find them very amusing.

The Fall of Hyperion is an entirely satisfactory conclusion to the classic Hyperion. I look forward to reading Endymion and The Rise of Endymion in the near future.

4,5 / 5

Recogiendo el testigo del final de Hyperion, La Caída de Hyperion nos sitúa instantes después de los últimos sucesos, cuando nuestros peregrinos ya han alcanzado las Tumbas de Tiempo. En esta segunda parte de este primer ciclo de Los Cantos de Hyperion, conoceremos el final de la aventura de nuestros peregrinos, tendremos la aparición de nuevos personajes con mucho más protagonismo y descubriremos que una gran amenaza asola a la Hegemonía, el gobierno de la Red.

A través del cibrido Joseph Severn y sus “sueños”, visitaremos a todos los personajes y conoceremos los detalles que le ocurren a cada uno de ellos, danzando entre las Tumbas de Tiempo y Centro Tau Ceti, foco de gobierno de la Hegemonia de la FEM Meina Gladstone. El estilo de Simmons cambia radicalmente, pasando a ser una novela más al uso, con capítulos cortos, cargados de acción y de giros y tramas entrecruzadas de manera espectacular. Aparte, ya no tenemos historias cortas como en Hyperion, si no que será a través de un narrador omnisciente del que conoceremos de primera mano todos los sucesos, con rápidos cambios de puntos de vista cada pocas páginas.

Para mi este ha sido un punto en contra y lo que la pone un peldaño por debajo de su antecesora, ya que deseaba continuar con ciertas historias cuando de repente me llevaba a otras que no me interesaban tanto. Aún así, el conjunto de ambos libros es impresionante, entretejiendo una trama de unas 1300 hojas en un universo muy rico tanto en elementos como en personajes, y que además casi cada punto de la novela queda hilado y concluido. Queda claro que Simmons tenía planificada su obra con bastante antelación, si no es imposible cerrar de tal manera una historia tan basta.

Me quedo con ganas de que se publique ya el segundo ciclo de esta gran tetralogía, Endymion y La Caída de Endymion para conocer los sucesos que acontecen 300 años después del final de esta novela.

Hyperion won the contest for my favourite book of last year. How could anything possibly live up to that? The Fall of Hyperion is even more a straightforward science fiction book, without the literary experimentation of the Canterbury-Tales-style first book. It's got to be a lesser book, right? Right?

Wrong. This is one of those very rare few sequels that almost equals the first book. And when the first book is the kind of masterpiece that I would argue Hyperion is, it's mind-boggling.

Note: The rest of this review has been withdrawn due to the changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this decision here.

In the meantime, you can read the entire review at Smorgasbook

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"

Executive Summary: While the ending was satisfying the book as a whole wasn't nearly as enjoyable for me as Hyperion. 3.5 stars, rounded down because it was just too slow at times.

Audiobook: After how great the audiobook for Hyperion was, this one was a bit of a letdown. Victor Bevine does a good job, but to go from an ensemble to a single narrator was hard. Given the structure of this book compared to the last, it makes sense to only have 1 narrator, but I wouldn't have missed it if they had only used Mr. Bevine for the first as well. Still, audio is a decent option here in my opinion.

n  Full Reviewn
After finishing Hyperion there was no way I couldn't jump right into this. I just had to know what happened next.

However, the format of this part of the story was largely different than the last book. Instead of several different stories with different narrators combining into one larger story, we had a single narrator acting as our conduit to several different subplots.

However the format change wasn't my main issue. I just found the story moving far too slow. Maybe it is the format's problem. If I wasn't liking one story, it wouldn't be too long before a new one started that I might enjoy better. This was just one contiguous story (albeit one that jumped around between subplots rather frequently).

Many of the elements I enjoyed from the first book are still present. The mystery of Hyperion and the Shrike. The politics of the Web worlds and the Ousters. Battles and intrigue. And the well written prose. But I found my attention wandering, and there were several points when I hoped things would just move along faster.

Overall, I was happy with the ending of this. The main question/theory I wanted answered was done so by the end. In fact I feel like I could stop here and not read the next two. I do plan to read them eventually, but for now I'll be content taking a break to focus on other stories.

A chaotic mess sprinkled with rubies...

(The first book, Hyperion, is a masterpiece)

This continuation of the Hyperion saga seems to have been written by Dan Simmon's agent, pushing for more pages, using a neural whip on him for more cash. Ugh.

Very long-winded and dull chapters, repetition, clumsy interaction between the pilgrims and other players, religious claptrap flowing endlessly....

Simmons is clearly very (very) literate, hurray. We know that, and his inclusion of endless references to famous works and people sadly seem to be only a means to extending the page count, much of the time. (Sometimes, the poetry and references are brilliant, to be fair).

And along with all this, some genuine rubies (about half-way through) from the most interesting characters: Sol and Brawne. The Kassad romantic sequences with Moneta are often wonderful, but the battle sequences are tiresomely repetitious.

Of the overlong ending, which somehow seems rushed (strange), the stories of Moneta, Sol and Rachel are the most surprising and enjoyable.

A good editor would have stripped 150 pages from this book, and enforced a more even pacing and style on Simmons (and his agent).

Hyperion was a work of true genius. The Fall of Hyperion is merely a work of commerce.

After enjoying Hyperion more then I thought I would because it turned out to be a book you can think about a little as well as just enjoy for the story, this was a let down. The whole Canterbury Tales deal was jettisoned, and it was mostly running around and space battles and Keats (yeah, I'm not sure why Keats either... I can't even think of a reason that there would be an organic shift from Chaucer to Keats). So basically what you got was your average space opera mixed in with some literary allusions that don't fully connect and also time travel, which never really bodes well for anyone (except Marty McFly). As an entertainment it's okay, which is why the two stars.

(you know what's funny, I think that he could have stuck with Chaucer and really done something with The Parlement/Parliament of Birds/Fowls/Foules, the ideas of love and competition and searching for knowledge and partnership and nature and hierarchy would have worked well with the plot. I mean, yeah, a little bit of a push but way less so then Keats (who I might mention is a character in the book, admittedly he was in the first one too, but I chose to ignore that since I could) and it would have been so elegant)