The sequel, which didn't feel like that much of a sequel, to its predecessor, Hyperion was an entirely different experience. It shredded its Canterbury Tales's style structure off, that perhaps was inevitable for the cosmic tale to move forward, thus losing its magnetic pull which had enraptured me so much previously. Was it inferior to the first book? Objectively, I wouldn't say so. The overall story quality and the potential of the world was probably a lot better in way of space opera than its predecessor, but to me, it was less appealing. Something went wrong for me, reading The Fall of Hyperion. I couldn't really be sure, but it might be the combination of reading it at the wrong time and the very slow pace plot of the first half filled with cyberpunk stuff I had not much understanding of or interest in, and also new faces (except for Meina Gladstone, that was one great personality) I couldn't care less. There were a lot of political people that just dropped inside the book, that were unknown before, sitting around and arguing about the fate of Hegemony people, which I couldn't pull myself to care about, even though it was the entire human species we were talking here. They were making battle strategy, people were about to die, it was impossible options to sacrifice these or those millions of people, and I kept on reading with a straight face, totally indifferent, it was embarrassing, and terribly boring. It was unfortunate, because the whole concept of the series was truly amazing, I could recognize the genius of the world and the huge, intrinsic story lines heavy with intriguing mysteries even when I was slothing through the dull, sluggish plot.
I think the problem was, despite the excellent prose, it failed to engage readers (or maybe just me) emotionally, there was no established connection to the threatened species, no empathy link to pull on, and the execution left much to be desired. Then there was the way answers were revealed. In the first book, the vast, intriguing mystery was unraveled slowly, generated this amazing, fetching tension toward the revelation. But here, it was a huge pile of questions for hundred of pages, then an abrupt answers fell to our lap in pages, it's so underwhelming. My interest only started to pick up 60% into the book, so overall it was still satisfying read, personally. The ending was pretty teary and promising a lot for the next installments.

It's nearly impossible to give this novel the praise it deserves.

It's also a mystery wrapped within an enigma, the conclusion to the grand tale set up in the first book, and it's an amazingly smart ride.

I mean, sure, I could just point at all the great SF goodies packed in here, from black holes eating planets to AI gods creating Ultimate AI gods to an enormous war hitting the known universe for reasons that are delightfully complex and even more delightfully mysterious until the reasons blow us over with those wonderful "aaaah, COOL" moments.

But I won't.

Instead, I'll just point at how smart this book is on a theme and character level. Poetry and the poet is still as important as the first book, but rather than rest on the laurels of such amazing worldbuilding and structure and genre-hopping of the first book, we get into the real meat of the characters and the REASON for it all.

The Shrike. Why all these kinds of peoples from all kinds of planets and walks of life have all come to Hyperion, and why it is the fulcrum on which the fate of humanity and AI life hinges. And let's not forget the amazingly complex discussion about What Is God. Or our place in it. Or the AI's place in it.

There is nothing trite about this novel. The writing is absolutely fantastic. So are all the characters. The plot is twisty enough to give thrillers a scare. And the themes, the structure, and the layout put even modern classics in the traditional literature categories to shame.

In short, these two books are modern classics and remain so for very, very good reasons, and not least because they're wildly entertaining.


Honestly? I put these up there in my top ten books of all time. It's near Dune and Requiem for Homo Sapiens in my mind. As rich, as beautiful, as complex.

I'm recommending these for everyone who likes SF. Period. And those who don't, as well. See what can REALLY be accomplished first before making any judgments.

One word: “Phenomenal”.
I went from enjoying Hyperion to loving Fall of Hyperion! Will definitely continue with book 3, Endymion. Dan Simmons has definitely weaved an atmospheric universe and I can see why the fan following is so big. My only regret is that I waited this long to read these books. If you’re on the fence, give them a try. Well worth it! Easy 5 stars from me ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Mit diesem Band bringt Simmons die Geschichte der Pilger zu einem vorläufigen Abschluß, das Geheimnis des Shrikes und viele andere Fragen bleiben jedoch offen.
War der erste Band noch ein Episodenroman, der die Geschichte der Pilger beleuchtete, beginnt dieses Buch direkt nach den Ereignissen an den Zeitgräbern von Band 1, der Charakter dieses Buches ist jedoch ein völlig anderer, hier geht es im Kern um den Kampf um die Menschlichkeit, der Posthumanismus bedroht die menschliche Art und das Techno-Core, die künstliche Intelligenz die aus der Menschheit hervorgegangen ist, erweist sich als trügerisch

The series is developing more towards space opera and cosmic conflict range after the first part had played with different humanities, ethics, AI, and many other topics.

A bit away from the characters, towards the meta big sci-fi is notorious for, the story shows how a strong female protagonist and another one, not sure about spoilering, are wandering through the settings of an epic conflict with vast consequences in the third and fourth part.

Time travel and thereby manipulation of human civilization by higher entities is as credible and thrilling as the personal lives of the characters and I guess that that´s what makes Simmons´works so unique and amazing, because he is an author who can handle and masterfully write both. It could, ironically, also be, that that´s the reason why readers, that aren´t used to behemoths of books that switch narrative styles and focus from plot to character and back, can´t handle the style. There is already a very sharp line between the plot, worldbuilding, infodump, hard sci-fi fraction, and the ones focused on characters, interactions, dialogues, and that there is both and Simmons plays with many elements in most of his works, doesn´t really help.

Next to the galactic conflicts and wars, different fractions within humankind, the perfect fusion of plot and characters to offer both epic scale and worldbuilders´ hottest dreams and deep, emotional connection to the characters, the Shrike is one of the ultimate, best ever imagined überbeings. Ever!

Maybe it´s because it´s a bit reserved because it´s a time manipulating and traveling, reality changing, close to almighty war AI manifested in physical form send/sent/will be sent back from the future and that´s just how they roll, because it´s integrated into bombastic scenes and an ingenious, always credible Chekhov McGuffin combinations, and its appearances are always well prepared and thereby authentic. Creating Lovecraftian terror just with places, descriptions of the monster, and the emotions it and it´s Time tombs awake in the characters, is a sign of a Flying spaghetti monster given talent.

Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...

As the pilgrims prepare to enter the Time Tombs, the war between the Ousters and the Hegemony is just hours from breaking out. Can they enter the Time Tombs quickly enough to prevent intergalactic war and the deaths of billions?

Here we are, the second half of the epic Dan Simmons started in Hyperion. Kassad, Brawne, and the other pilgrims introduced in the previous book meet their destinies. However, the bigger story is the war between the Hegemony and its enemies.

During my initial read, I didn't like this one as much as Hyperion, probably because it lacked the Canterbury Tales-like structure of the first book. However, I've softened upon the second read.

Using the dreams of Joseph Severin as a linking device, the story follows the actions of Hegemony CEO Meina Gladstone trying to avert war with the Ousters and frequently cuts to action on Hyperion. As the zero hour nears, the truth behind what is happening unfolds and it has wide reaching consequences.

I'm dancing around the actual events of the story to avoid spoilers but I can't imagine reading and enjoying Hyperion without devouring this one. People throw the word 'epic' around very lightly these days but Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion comprise an epic of galactic scope.

Gene Wolfe once said “My definition of good literature is that which can be read by an educated reader, and reread with increased pleasure.” Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion definitely fall into that category. The text of both books is peppered with literary references and lots of Christian symbolism, as well as thought provoking philosophical ideas. There's also a pro-environment message, as well as warnings of becoming too dependent on technology.

I get the feeling that Dan Simmons thought it might be his last big chance to show what he could do and he pulled out all the stops, combining heady science fiction concepts with things he gleaned from being an English major in college and years of teaching. I understood far more this time around but felt like there were still a lot of things I couldn't quite wrap my head around. I guess I'll schedule a reread for sometime in 2025. I hadn't planned on rereading the Endymion books but a reread of those is probably happening in 2018.

My second journey to the Time Tombs was even more rewarding than the first. Hyperion retains its place next to The Dark Tower as one of my favorite epics of all time. Five out of five stars.

On re-read this did not hold up for me but that is mostly because I know more about my reading taste. I still enjoy the plot and world in this duology and I like this installment in the duology more than the first one but I found that knowing what was to come made re-reading worse and not better. I noticed character inconsistencies and some potential plot holes. Nothing that completely ruined my experience but having that paired with a writing style that is a bit denser than my personal preference and all the poetry and Keats's references there is not way this could be a 5 star book by my standards today.

yNunca debí haber dejado pasar dos años para terminar la duología de Hyperion. Si bien nunca olvidé el tamaño de la joya que es la primera parte, sí me olvidé de muchos detalles que bien pudieron haber estado más frescos.

De cualquier modo mi temor principal al leer la secuela no era ése, sino el hacer caso a las voces que decían que ésta decaía mucho al iniciar la secuela.

He de decir que sí decae al perder la estructura narrativa de los cuentos. Esas historias enmarcadas de Hyperion son maravillosas y atronadoras; cada una tan tonalmente distinta a la otra y tan evocadoras de sensaciones disímbolas. Ahora, cambiamos la estructura por historias en paralelo, contadas en dos personas y con el añadido de dos personajes importantísimos: Gladstone (de quien yo me había hecho a la idea de que era antagónica) y el cíbrido Joseph Severn.

Casi todos los misterios ofrecidos en la primera parte son resueltos. Y la manera de resolverlos cambia bastante el tablero: si bien la primera parte puede ser disfrutada por alguien no muy cercano a la ciencia ficción, la segunda requiere bastante más esfuerzo. Simmons nos revela así una obra titánica, hábilmente construida y con conceptos para volarle a uno la cabeza. Particularmente me parecieron de sorpresa El Vacío que Une y los Leones, Tigres y Osos. Puede llegar a ser algo confuso (más con que la trama salta en el tiempo como loca, igual que las tumbas), pero al final hace un sentido hondo y tremendo.

Ésta es una saga de ciencia ficción superior, que araña lo literario y que mantiene henchida y orgullosa su posición a mis ojos como la segunda obra de ciencia ficción más importante jamás escrita, ligeramente por debajo de Dunas y, mátenme, bastante superior a Fundación.

Entonces, veámosla igual que El Señor de los Anillos: partes de un todo que no debió haberse publicado por separado, pero que lo fue porque no había encuadernado que aguantara.

This is a fantastic conclusion to this first arc of the Hyperion Cantos. While not as structurally novel as Hyperion — with its varied genre and narrative styles as stories told by each of the pilgrims — The Fall of Hyperion remains a consistently compelling narrative throughout. Simmons’ writing continues to be beautifully descriptive and evocative, elevating an already enjoyable story to further heights.

There are two more very relevant characters introduced in this book: Severn and Meina Gladstone. Gladstone is the current leader of the Hegemony (which includes most of humanity and its settled planets), focusing on her dealing with the Ouster invasion as well as the larger conspiracy behind the mysteries of the Shrike and Hyperion. Her burden of knowledge about the truth of the war and the resulting conflict of having to make hard decisions and sacrifices to save humanity’s future was very compelling, exploring her character further from the glimpse we did get from the Consul in Hyperion. It was great to see her mind working through the various plans and schemes, always being a few steps ahead of everyone else.

Severn is the primary PoV for a significant portion of this book, as we see the majority of important events involving the Hegemony’s plans through his eyes but also what is happening on Hyperion after the events of the previous book through his dreams and unpredictable visions. It works as a really great device to build tension as we incrementally find out the plight of the pilgrims and their encounters with the Shrike while also concurrently getting the larger picture of the Hegemony vs. Ousters war. As a character, Severn himself is an interesting figure — he is a cybrid, a biological machine construct whose personality is tailored to fit that of a previously living person who is at odds with his dual nature. However, I would consider the things happening around him (that he views and records) as well as the answers we get about the larger conflict and the mysteries of the Shrike and Hyperion through his investigations more interesting than him as an individual character.

The depth of worldbuilding and detail in this complex and layered plot is astounding. Some of my favourite sections of the book were Severn’s conversations with the AI Ummon. Ummon reveals a lot of very interesting information and lore about the Technocore and its factions and sheds further light on the nature of the Shrike and the Time Tombs. His speech as koans and metaphorical poetry that Severn has to decipher was a great way to disguise a large handling of exposition and make it a more active part of the story, while also being able to slip in some AI comedy. The overall truth of the conflict between the Hegemony and the Ousters is revealed, as well as more about the intentions of each of the Technocore’s factions, and this makes up the central focus of the plot. Other elements such as the nature of the Shrike and the Time Tombs are left more ambiguous although we get a better understanding of their function, which works really well to maintain their mystical aspects to not completely remove that sense of mystery and wonder.

The story being told in Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion is also among my favourite explorations of personal themes. It explores what makes something or someone human, the innate traits of empathy and compassion that extoll the virtues of the human condition contrasted with cold indifference and the violence that can be perpetrated due to being seen as the other, around which hinges the central conflict of the story. Sol Weintraub's ponderings and epiphanies about the nature of human divinity and sacrifice and love are some of my favourite pages in the book.

The John Keats references were integrated well into the story and did not feel artificially stapled on. My complete lack of knowledge of the poet’s works and life story also did not feel like a hindrance, because all the relevant information was provided in the text. So those aspects of the book I actually enjoyed as well instead of feeling like the author forcing his love of Keats into the narrative, which I didn’t think was the case. I think this book even executed those elements better than the Detective’s Tale in Hyperion did, where I occasionally felt lost in the references and overfocus on Keats.

The Fall of Hyperion successfully concludes the story begun in Hyperion. The writing helps land the emotional scenes as well as the adrenaline-filled and unpredictable action scenes. The imagination needed for the vast scale of this story being told in such a compelling and cohesive manner is incredible. And there is still a lot more to be explored in these settings. All the characters get their moments to shine and the story wraps up in a fitting way, events paralleling Martin’s unfinished in-world poem, the Hyperion Cantos. The story arc told over Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion has definitely become one of the most imaginative and compelling stories I’ve read, comfortably among my favourites.

Buddy read with Athena, Desinka, Gavin & Kaora

"The Final Days are here, priest. The prophecies given to us by the Avatar centuries ago are unfolding before our eyes. What you call riots are the first death throes of a society which deserves to die. The Days of Atonement are upon us and the Lord of Pain soon will walk among us."

The shadow of war has fallen on the Web. The Ousters are initiating a full-scale invasion of the central planets of the Hegemony of Man. Chaos rules in the corridors of power on Tau Ceti Center. Out of reach from the clashing empires, the artificial intelligences of the TechnoCore manipulate everyone and everything. And on Hyperion itself, where battle rages in the skies and the streets alike, the pilgrims fight desperately for their lives in the Valley of the Time Tombs.

The Fall of Hyperion removes itself from the style of the masterpiece Hyperion and instead of a collection of short stories with a frame story, we get something a lot more similar to a traditional novel. The second book has only one real protagonist, a character who was also rather significant in the first. Other than that, there are secondary points of view written in third-person narrative through the protagonists's dreams. While very different from the first, this change in style was performed flawlessly by Dan Simmons, and while I did not, and still don't, find the protagonist particularly endearing, this was not a change for the worse.

The storyline was not as enthralling as that of the first book, unfortunately. This is war, pure and simple. And despite that, there are few actual battle scenes. Most of the time, our story takes places in equal parts on Tau Ceti Center and in the Valley of the Time Tombs. In the beginning, the switches between the two locations were praiseworthily interesting, but after a time, very little happened in either of the places. Except for general panic.

Characterisation is in my opinion not one of Dan Simmons's strengths. Even in the first book, there were no truly memorable characters. In a science fiction series an interesting setting can be just enough to keep the reader captivated for one book, but when you get to the sequels, you need to have strong characters who can hold the series on top. And I actually felt that Simmons managed this to some extent. The protagonist, while not my favourite, is an interesting character, mostly because of who he actually is. The Shrike remains an enigma. And while all three of the major powers; Hegemony, Ousters and Core; are difficult to root for, they are all incredibly to find out more about.

And there is one character who stands out from among the rest. Meina Gladstone, Chief Executive Officer of the Senate of the Hegemony of Man and arguably the most powerful human in the universe. Gladstone was a very minor character in Hyperion, but rose to the centre of the scene here in the second book. Gladstone is a sometimes ruthless political realist, but all her intentions are as noble as they get. It's amazing to watch her try to save a society crumbling in the flames of war, and remain a beacon of hope for billions of Hegemony citizens.

Writing a sequel to Hyperion must have been a difficult job for Dan Simmons, and it shows in the book. The Fall of Hyperion is just not as good as the first book. Both the beginning and the ending were up to it, but there's a rather large part in the middle where there is no plot or character development and it's more or less dreadfully boring. Some of the most important scenes in the book could also have been much more climactic if they had been written better.

Still, this was far from a bad book. The Hyperion Cantos has still got me firmly on the hook, and I am definitely excited to unveil the rest of the mysteries of the universe Simmons has created for us. His writing is extraordinary at times, and as a taste of it I'll leave you with my favourite passage from the series so far, which is very reminiscent of a certain fantasy author I've read a lot of books by this year.

In the dead city, screams echoed for another minute, growing fainter and farther away. Then there was a silence broken only by the doves returning to their nests, dropping into the shattered domes and towers with a soft rustle of wings.

The wind came up, rattling loose Perspex panes and masonry, shifting brittle leaves across dry fountains, finding entrance through the broken panes of the dome and lifting manuscript pages in a gentle whirlwind, some pages escaping to be blown across the silent courtyards and empty walkways and collapsed aqueducts.

After a while, the wind died, and then nothing moved in the City of Poets.

3.5 stars

This is the sequel to Hyperion, but unfortunately I didn’t find that it could live up to the majesty of its predecessor. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy it, it’s just that I can’t rave about it frothing at the mouth like I did for Hyperion.

The tale continues with the travelers but also we have a story in parallel about what is going on with the greater universe. We meet two of my favorite characters in this series. Meina Gladstone is the CEO of the Hegemony and a complex and fascinating character; there are some shocking revelations about her as the story goes on and in many respects I look up to her for her foresight, but it’s also not all good. She is a political leader worth studying.

Then there’s Joseph Severn, who is another cybrid of Keats (the character Johnny, from the first book, was also a cybrid of his). But Joseph Severn has dreams, dreams of the group of pilgrims on Hyperion that are actually reality. This turns out to be of major import to the plot, as CEO Gladstone is able to receive remote information on the happenings on Hyperion through him.

As expected, there are developments on the planet of Hyperion. Sol Weintraub’s daughter, Rachel, continues to age downward towards age zero, and that tension gets palpable by the end. We also learn more about the Shrike and about the identity of Monica, the mysterious woman from Colonel Kassad’s story. Likewise, the characters continue to die one by one in appalling ways.

And that story does have some rather satisfactory loose ends tied up by the end. It takes a while to get there, though, and there’s a lot of brooding and wondering about when the Shrike is going to turn up, and not being able to do anything about it but just worry about it. There’s lots of wandering around in storms and the group keeps getting separated. I found this story to sag in the middle but grow compelling towards the end.

Although even at the end, it never quite felt like absolutely everything was explained, such as the true nature of the Shrike.

But while that story is going, there’s a second story going on with CEO Gladstone, Joseph Severn, and the unfolding war with the Ousters. That story actually has quite the enjoyable, epic arc. It starts with utmost confidence in the war and ends in disaster of Biblical, epic scale.

And it turns out that that whole bit about the AI TechnoCore doing some weird stuff with a copy of Earth? And trying to invent the Ultimate Intelligence? That turns out to be pretty relevant. So I was glad to see that a lot of those things weren’t wasted. There was a point to some of those earlier stories with the original Hyperion book.

I felt like, once these two books are taken together, there definitely is an epic scope, there is a lot about it that is satisfying, but somehow the second book just didn’t feel as neatly wrapped up as the first. Still glad I read it, but I guess it’s hard to compare to the first book when it’s such a masterpiece.

Only Dan Simmons could take a spaghetti bowl of plots and characters and weave them together in such an eloquent, addicting story. This is a hearty book indeed. (Thanks for the recommendation, Brandon!)