Notes:

- 4.5 Stars for Narration by Victor Bevine
The rest of the series is narrated by VB and does not have a group narration cast like Hyperion.

- I loved the last half of the book or maybe a good chunk in the middle and the last is more accurate. I may up the rating on a re-read.

- Recommend: Read Hyperion & the Fall of Hyperion together.
#2 was a direct continuation of the story that was started in #1. I wish I had followed up with this book right after re-reading Hyperion.

There’s a lot going on here.

Dan Simmons’ wildly popular and successful Hyperion Cantos continues from the first Hyperion to this 1990 publication. While some readers of the first book were a little miffed at that books truncated ending (ahem) word on the street was that Simmons delivered the plus size behemoth in one package and the publisher was the one with the bright idea to split it in half.

Either way, Simmons’ incredibly ambitious tale of the pilgrims on Hyperion continues and his megalithic world building is as impressive as in the first half.

Full to bursting with classical and biblical references, this also reveals inspiration from Frank Herbert, Asimov, Clarke and maybe even Tolkien. Blending elements of science fiction, fantasy and horror, this could also take a page from Bradbury. The numerous allusions to John Keats work also demonstrates Simmons unique ability.

The theological underpinnings and the meaning of the Shrike and his nefarious and mysterious effect on this work will inspire much discussion. The Lord of Pain (I’m a Police fan so I sang King of Pain whenever he took the stage) adds a further depth to this already multifaceted narrative.

A phenomenal work of speculative fiction.

Beautiful continuation of the first installment. I have no words to say how wonderful and thoughtfully constructed this book is - finished with a sense of having just touched something pretty close to perfection. Read this after you read Hyperion - it's definitely worth it.

The narrator, Victor Bevine, is one of my favorites. He narrates all the other audio versions of the Hyperion Cantos, including the first, dramatized version of Hyperion itself. I gave five stars to the underlying written work. I only subtract a star for this audiobook because Mr. Bevine isn't quite up to the task of doing all the characters--particularly all the Shrike Pilgrims--by himself. Still, this audiobook is a great way to re-read Fall of Hyperion.

Merged review:

Having read Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion twice each, and now having read Endymion and Rise of Endymion, the third and fourth books in Dan Simmons' so-called Hyperion Cantos, I can say my initial reaction to the first two books stands: they're the best pair of books I've read regardless of genre, certainly the most influential books to me personally. Indeed, I now consider the first two books required reading for anyone who enjoys reading contemporary fiction, science fiction, and even non-fiction in the religious, theological, and philosophical veins.

One could read the first two books of the Hyperion Cantos and stop there; they represent a complete, satisfying story that gives you plenty to think about beyond the actual plot-lines themselves. But if you want to get the full meaning, see the entire subtle complexity, understand Dan Simmons' fears for a sickening and stagnant human future as well as his hopes for the fulfillment of human potential, an optimistic utopian outlook that seems at once utterly attainable and so far away, I suggest you read all four books.

I would love to write more about each book individually and the four books taken together, but they are simply too important to me. I read these books over the course of 2010, which is turning out to be the best year of my life in many ways, and the Hyperion Cantos have had an important and positive influence on my thinking about God and religion and love and family. Simply put, these books are close to my heart, and nothing else I say will do them justice.

Oof. How the mighty fall.

This is the second half of Hyperion, which I thought was clever, inventive, and intriguing. I think it was, generously, about twice as long as it should have been, and about 1000X too preachy. Goddamn. This book needed way more cornflakes and soccer, because it did not stop enjoying itself for nobody.

The first book is a spin on old tropes (tropes that were old when it was written, and even older now) which was refreshing. The mystery was alluring. The pacing was fine for where we were going.

This one has literal chapters--20-30 pages at a stretch--where no plot happens. I know, because I counted when I started skipping them. I think in reality there are about 12 chapters that have any forward momentum for the story whatsoever, everything else is infodump or orgiastic drivel about the sins (in a distinctly Catholic sense) of mankind and Keats and the poetry that the author thought might be at the same level as Keats. GUESS WHAT MY THOUGHTS WERE ON THAT.

It could have been great, if only its attention rose above its navel for more than a paragraph at a time. I shall remember this book next time I wonder where editors are "these days." It turns out they've been pushed to the side much longer than I'd like to think about. Sorry editors. I have your back.

CONTENT WARNING:  rape, loss of a child, lots of religion, loss of a loved one, torture, imperialism, tuberculosis

2nd Read: I wish I had been able to reread it faster in order to nail down the larger concepts, but never-the-less I feel better prepared to continue the journey.

I need to read that again.

My goodness it was dramatic, the end of an era! But I was so happy for Maui Covenant, they deserved the happy ending. I have the next two audiobooks, but again, I think this needs a reread before I dive in.

WOW. I read Hyperion a few years ago, and I always intended to pick up this book.

Where Hyperion was a collection of several impactful yet self-contained stories, The Fall escalates everything into a much grander scale. I've never read a book that dives so deeply into religion, morals, the meaning and core of humankind, the implications that AI could have on future human development...

Also, Meina Gladstone. She's is one of the most formidable badasses in the history of fiction. Atlas had the weight of the world on his shoulder - this woman had the weight of thousands of worlds on her shoulders, and she handled it with honor, dignity, and grace.

Longer review to come when my mind stop spinning from how amazing this novel was.

5+ stars and highly recommended to everyone! Both this and the prior book!

My relationship with Dan Simmons has been ambivalent. We've had bad times and even worse times. We've also had some good times, namely with Hyperion. So I went into The Fall of Hyperion feeling pretty good, and if anything my opinion of this series has only improved. Any ill will I bore Simmons for the books I didn't like has dissipated thanks to his masterful presentation of this epic science-fiction series. The Hyperion Cantos hits an impressive number of tropes that appeal to me in my science fiction. Introspective, existentially-minded main character? Check. Ineffable, almost omnipotent artificial intelligences? Got it. Wormhole-connected human civilization? Oh yes. Crazy mind-bending temporal logic? Sadly, oh so much. The Fall of Hyperion preserves the flavour of its predecessor, and to its credit, it is also much more complete than Hyperion.

One thing I need to mention: I really like the cover art for both this book and Hyperion, with the exception of the depiction of the Shrike. In reading the first book, I missed the fact that the Shrike has four arms. (I don't pay a lot of attention to physical descriptions, because I don't visualize characters.) I clued into it in this book, however, so seeing the all-too-humanoid Shrike on the covers is irking me. I don't know what the artist was thinking—the cover version does look menacing and cool, but the discrepancy bothers my inner consistency monitor.

But I digress.

I liked Hyperion (after re-reading my review, more than I recalled, apparently). One of the things I enjoyed about the book were the overt allusions to John Keats' poem of the same name. By way I've disclaimer, I haven't actually read Keats' Hyperion, nor am I anywhere close to familiar with most of his work. Still, Simmons establishes a literary mood that I, as a reader, enjoy. The tone of the work is erudite without becoming overbearing about its literary qualities; at its heart, it is still science fiction. But it's high quality science fiction, the kind you buy from a shady dealer in the dive off the darkest alleyway, looking furtively in either direction as he reaches beneath his trenchcoat for his last copy even as you rock back in forth, muttering under your breath about how you need your next hit. Yeah, Hyperion and its sequel are definitely my type of drug.

The literary quality to the book also helps liken it to the myths that Simmons references. In another author's hands, the comparisons might be heavy-handed, but he pulls it off deftly. In my review of Hyperion, I discuss what we learn about the AIs, the TechnoCore, and "how irrelevant they consider humanity to the grand scheme of the cosmos". I could not have been more wrong! Without going into spoiler territory, let's just say that humanity is essential to the TechnoCore's plan, at least in the short term, for a variety of reasons. And the TechnoCore's role as antagonist becomes much more apparent in this book. To accompany this plot, Simmons talks about the war between the Titans and the Olympian gods of Greek mythology (the subject of Keats' poem), putting the human Hegemony in the role of the former and the usurper AIs as the Olympians. By including this literary dimension, Simmons elevates his conflict beyond the typical AI rebellion plot. The struggle is more than mere survival, more than epic, even more than myth: it's the fulfilment of a grand, cosmic theme. It's poetic.

Simmons sort of uses a frame story here, but it's nowhere near as explicit or as strong as the Canterbury Tales-like setup in Hyperion. Rather, one of the main characters, another Keats cybrid under the name of John Severn, "dreams" what's happening to the pilgrims on Hyperion. Simmons plays a little fast-and-loose with what Severn can dream; after finishing the book and becoming privy to all the facts (such as they are thus far), I think it's possible to explain it all. But I'm just as happy handwaving it as artistic license. Although some of the characters—Brawne, later on the Consul, and maybe Sol—play important roles in the overall plot and have interesting subplots in their own right, some of the other characters are less interesting (though probably still important). If The Fall of Hyperion has a single major flaw, it's the way the main cast of the first book gets sidelined. Most of Hyperion comprises the tale of each pilgrim, so we get close to each character and his or her reasons for braving the Time Tombs and seeking the terrible Shrike. In this book, although their roles are still important, Simmons focuses a lot more on the larger scale political consequences of the Hyperion conflict. Unfortunately, the pilgrims get lost in the shuffle.

Severn is involved, mostly as an observer, in the larger plot concerning the Hegemony's defence of Hyperion against the invading Ousters. We also meet Meina Gladstone, the "CEO" of the Hegemony and a formidable woman in her own right. Gladstone is herself complicit in the eponymous fall, for she is playing her own long game in the style of Paul and Leto Atreides. Unfortunately, like the rest of humanity, she fails to perceive the true scope of the TechnoCore's betrayal and how this relates to the Time Tombs and the Shrike. So the climax and conclusion of the book become a race against time to change course mid-plan and attempt to save the scuttling of the Hegemony. That's right: we aren't trying to save the human empire in this book; we just want to make sure it breaks the way we want it to break. Which is fine. The Hegemony might have cool wormhole travel, but it's an imperialist, destructive entity that brooks no competition. What little we see of its most serious challengers, the Ousters, makes them look appealing: their society certainly seems more egalitarian (but maybe we don't get the whole story). By contrast, Simmons goes out of his way to illustrate how the Hegemony is ruled by the select powerful and rich few—hmm, sounds familiar. We see that the ruling class is decadent and self-absorbed. We aren't supposed to mourn the Hegemony; we mourn the chaos into which its billions of innocent citizens will plunge after it collapses. According to Gladstone, it will all work out for the best. But we can never be sure, can we?

(Well, we can. Because Simmons wrote more sequels. Isn't reading great?)

The Fall of Hyperion makes heavy use of the role of religion in society. Father Paul Duré is back, in a big way, and with it comes the small cult of Catholicism and Duré's own musings about the eventual fate of humanity. We can also call the TechnoCore's motives "religious". All their roads lead to the Ultimate Intelligence, an AI that would essentially be God. Yet even as they manipulate humanity, they are divided, both on whether they want to realize a UI and what to do with humanity. Severn/Keats, an AI reconstruction of a centuries-dead poet, also has to reclaim his identity and decide what role he wishes to play in this conflict (as he discovers, he has been groomed to perform a certain task). Finally, the pilgrims each have their own conflicts of faith and must decide to embrace faith or reject it, in very personal ways. Simmons involves conflicts of faith at a variety of levels, which overall adds to the complexity and rich texture of this book.

Given the antagonist and the emphasis on faith, the casual reader might detect an anti-technology theme to The Fall of Hyperion. I know that, at first, I was wondering why Simmons was down on the bit-mongers. But it's much deeper than that. Simmons is criticizing the Hegemony's dependence on the sentient TechnoCore for its technology and the maintenance of that technology. The story goes: humanity invented the Hawking drive, but the TechnoCore gave us the farcasters. Guess which one became the primary mode of transportation? That's right, the one that moves people instantaneously from planet to planet. Since the establishment of the Hegemony, the Core has been there, suppressing any radical developments in technology that might upset the balance. In a way, the TechnoCore is a depiction of what the Minds of Iain M. Banks' Culture novels could be, if they were of a more domineering bent. (There are other factors, of course, not the least of which is the fact that the Hegemony descends directly from humanity and Earth cultures, whereas the Culture is a "pan-species" civilization old when humans are still learning to sail.) Technology itself is awesome, and becoming dependent on a technology is OK, but surrendering one's freedom and self-determination because someone else is doling out technological goodies leads down a bad road.

Having compared this series to the Culture novels, I'd also like to refer to Peter F. Hamilton's n  Pandora's Starn and its sequel and related works. There are some superficial similarities: Hamilton has an Intersolar Commonwealth, wormholes, and the SI; Simmons has the Hegemony of Man, farcasters, and the TechnoCore. Yet the differences between the two universes allow their stories to be wonderfully unique. In Hamilton's works, wormhole travel comes from the minds of two human geniuses before the SI is a glimmer in the eyes of programmers. The Commonwealth's government treats the SI with more suspicion than it might warrant, since it seems a lot friendlier and more benign than Simmons' TechnoCore. By contrast, although the Commonwealth isn't all it's cracked up to be, it is much nicer than the Hegemony on a sliding scale. Both deliver the type of mega-scale space opera that I find so enticing, so addictive.

The Fall of Hyperion isn't perfect, but overall it seems designed to appeal directly to me and to my interests. I can easily see why it was nominated for a Hugo and why Hyperion won the award. It's a space opera with a complex plot that draws upon literature and mythology to create an immensely satisfying experience. This is the good stuff, the direct line to the pleasure centre of your science-fiction nervous system.

My reviews of the Hyperion Cantos:
← Hyperion | Endymion →

n  n

4 Stars

Great conclusion to the first Hyperion duology. The story continues right were Hyperion ended and there's a lot happening in this. While Hyperion was more or less a collection of backstories told by each character, The Fall of Hyperion is told by only one narrator and continues the story in the present time. Somehow this made the story move quite slow at times and sadly the audiobook does not have an ensemble of characters anymore (the one narrator in this does a great job though).
The Fall of Hyperion still contains all of the elements I loved in the first book: the characters are enjoyable and diverse, the stories of Hyperion and the Shrike are full of mysteries, the world is well built and interesting and its politics are full of intrigue.
Overall this was an completely satisfying entry of the series, although not quite as awesome as the first one.

3.5 stars

This was by no means a bad book, but it just didn’t grab me the way the first one did. I really enjoyed the first book’s “Canturbury Tales” structure and the way Simmons wove the tales tightly together. The second book is a more traditional novel complete with war, a topic which doesn’t thrill me. It is in some ways tied together by the John Keats cybrid, who narrates his vision of what is happening, but the amount of POV hopping was challenging for me.

I did appreciate the wide field of interests that Simmons must have—of course, Keats’ poetry is referenced a lot. In fact it is his epic poem, Hyperion, which provides much of the structure for these two of Simmons books. Stephen Hawking is honoured by the Hawking drive used in the space ships. John Muir’s environmental philosophy is acknowledged in the Templars, on their planet God’s Grove.

Echoing the Canturbury Tales, there is a priest’s tale and the involvement of the Catholic Church. I am always surprised at the inclusion of religion (and often Catholicism) in science fiction set in the far future, as I don’t feel the Church is all that relevant even today, let alone hundreds of years from now. The emphasis on the presence of gods, either evolved from human consciousness or constructed by powerful artificial intelligences, didn’t interest me all that much, despite its pivotal role in the novel.

There is another connection to the Wizard of Oz movie, when the Consul at the book’s end plays “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and teaches the words to some of his fellow pilgrims. (In the first book, they sang “Follow the Yellow Brick Road,” if I recall correctly).

My absolute favourite reference, however, was when one of the Artificial Intelligences makes a speech in the Hegemony in which he says, “It pains the Core to take any human life…or through inaction, allow any human life to come to harm.” What a great tribute to Isaac Asimov’s laws of robotics, from which the Core AIs have obviously been liberated during their evolution! And of course, the Core represents human creation run amok, a frequent theme in science fiction.

What I found truly impressive was Simmons’ writing in 1990 about a World Web, to which citizens were connected at all times using comlink devices! Remember, this was before our World Wide Web was really much of a thing and well before smart phones which could keep people connected almost all the time. Simmons seems rather prescient about our current reliance on these devices, to the extent that some people in the novel are made anxious and/or mentally unstable when their access to the Web is cut off.

There is so much more going on in this novel—exploration of time travel and its paradoxes, the nature of the Shrike, the choices faced by the Hegemony (shades of Card’s Ender’s Game), the nature of the Ousters. It must have been difficult for the author to keep all of those balls in the air!

n  Book number 291 in my Science Fiction & Fantasy reading project.n

Frankly disappointing

In what will be known to me as the most un-sequel-like sequel ever, Dan Simmons succeeded in moving directly from my list of favourite writers, to my list of not-so-good writers. I admit, I judged him as genius after the awesome Hyperion stunned me into an impassioned declaration of love. Hyperion was incredible – bar an anticlimactic cliff-hanger ending – and I don’t want to take that triumph away from either myself, or Dan, because that book contained within it some of the most impressive things I have read. Yet, The Fall of Hyperion killed every good thing Dan had built.

The Fall of Hyperion is roughly 450 pages of cloudy, baffling filler, followed by a 50 page info-dump explaining everything that happened. Many times, during the oft-confusing narrative, characters themselves uttered the words, “I don’t understand,” and each time I was right there with them. Perhaps Simmons believes this lack of clarity encourages suspense? Maybe he thinks obscuring information from the reader prompts them to want to find the solution to the mystery?

Suspense only occurs when we understand character goals, and what is threatening those goals. Without these two components, there can be no suspense. In The Fall of Hyperion, we know neither the goals of the characters (bar the pilgrims – as we learned in book 1), nor what is threatening their goals. One such character, CEO Meina Gladstone, a soulless, micron-thin pancake of a character, is portrayed like she is some sort of highly intelligent schemer. Yet all she ever does is prattle on for chapters at a time in faux-political arguments and orders people to do “stuff” which we have little idea what for, or what the significance is. So then, when actions are taken, and characters reel in horror at the effects, I the reader am sitting there with raised eyebrows thinking, “So what?”

This is the problem: Stuff happens without any sense of direction. There is no known motivation for what the characters do when they do it. We are not told at all what is going on. The characters appear to understand their goals, yet the reader is not privy to this information. For example, after first hearing mention of “Ousters” in the original Hyperion, we do not learn anything about them in the first book. This is annoying, yet acceptable in the first volume as, from the characters perspectives, very little happens plot-wise besides 6 characters sharing their backstories in a forum. Yet, we do not find out what Ousters are until 400 pages into The Fall of Hyperion. Thus, when their supposed diabolical threat is told (told, not shown) to us, I was at a loss to understand why I should care.

The final scene is occupied by supposedly emotional farewells, but it was so forced and so lacking in depth I just could not stop rolling my eyes. A nice segue:

There is a complete lack of characterisation. This book is full of absolutely flat characters. The charming personalities from the first Hyperion seemed to regress in depth, while the newly introduced characters were blank-canvas, undeveloped bores. I felt no emotional attachment to any of the characters. At times I felt like I was being told to care. Yet, of course, I did not, leading to this air of condescension.

Going on with this theme of not-caring: In Hyperion, the Priest’s tale was, and remains, one of the most frightening things I’ve ever read. Yet the horror of the Shrike turned almost comical in The Fall of Hyperion. This undefeatable machine constantly mortally wounds his victims – victims who cry out in agony, and then seem to forget they’ve been hurt and are suddenly okay! Even a baby at one point, lacerated by the Shrike, definitely doomed, ostensibly recovers with no after-effects. So… if mortal wounds are shruggable, why then should I care!?

Moving on… Another bowel-irritating aspect to this debacle was the constantly changing point of view. Simmons dabbles in First-person, Third-person, present tense, and past tense. It’s a little all over the place, and though there is – if I mentally force myself to see it – a reason for this variation, I found it exceedingly disruptive to enjoying the flow of the book, destroying emersion.

Now, returning to the 450 page mark previously mentioned, this is where the [deus ex machina](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php...) begin to make their appearances. To avoid spoilers, let me just say it made for a very unsatisfying ending, as deus ex machina are want to do. It is incredible to me, that Dan Simmons even used the term “deus ex machina” (in its original context – God from the machine) in this book, yet did not see his blindingly obvious use of this plot-ruining narrative tool. Deus ex machina, in my opinion, is one of the most damning and unforgivable literary churches. Not since Harry Potter have I seen so many deus ex machina.

It’s almost as if Dan just… I dunno… made it up as he went along!

Bonus points: Among the many, many ridiculous things hampering the likeability of the plot is a rape scene. Now this rape scene has absolutely no purpose in the plot whatsoever. I suspect some will say, “It makes sense if you read Endymion,” and while that is only speculation on my part, I declare this scene was purely because Mr Simmons was feeling horny that day, and could not “[Kill his darlings]( https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/3711...).”

Good bits:

- Ummon

- The location of the Core

- Any time Martin Silenus is in-scene

And… that’s about it. I’m tempted to say something like “awesome sci-fi concepts” but reflecting back, I’m struggling to identify them. There are some cool things, though. I could not help thinking this book was the Wachowskis inspiration to write The Matrix. Dan also had an excellent ability to create names of people and places.

In the end, I was just super disappointed with this book. Throughout reading, I actually said the words “I hate this” numerous times, which pains me because I thought – I expected – I would love this. The last 50 pages, though one massive info-dump and blatant “telling,” actually redeemed it from what could have been a one-star rating. In science fiction, there seems to be a little more tolerance for telling than say in fantasy of general fiction. Thrillers can also get away with this. So though I am not impressed the last the book had to be saved by a 50 page info-dump, it was still a really good info-dump.

2 Stars. Recommend Hyperion. Do not recommend The Fall of Hyperion.

The Fall of Hyperion picks up directly after the cliffhanger ending to Hyperion. The pilgrims have reached the fabled Time Tombs, which are opening, and await their confrontation with the mysterious Shrike. The confrontations, when they came, made for compelling reading. I was fairly happy with the way Simmons concluded each of the pilgrims tales. The pilgrims were as likable, or unlikable, as they were in the first book. Brawne Lamia and Colonel Kassad benefited from the most interesting story arcs, but none of the pilgrims tales were dull.

Elsewhere in Simmons vast and complex world the three way power struggle between the Hegemony, the Ousters, and the TechnoCore exploded into full on war. For the most part I really enjoyed this aspect of the story. We learned more about Hegemony politics and society. We also learned the true depth of the almost symbiotic relationship between the Hegemony and the TechnoCore. The advent of war provided a great backdrop for Simmons to tell a number of stories that showed both the positive and the negative side of human nature. The besieged and oft out of its depth Hegenomy council dealt with the happenings as best as they could. Political leader Menia Gladstone was a well developed character. She was strong and ruthless at times, but at others compassionate and easy to sympathize with.

The structure of the story was different to the frame story style employed in Hyperion, but was equally successful. This was told from the first person perspective of a new Jonh Keats cybrid. This Keats cybrid had the ability to observe, by way of dreams, the happenings from the pilgrims on Hyperion and a few power players in the world of Hegemony politics. The new Keats was a likable character and Simmons first person narrative was as engaging as it was in the first book. The "dreams" were told in the third person perspective and were slightly less engaging. That said, they were never dull and I liked Simmons chosen storytelling method. It was effective and provided plenty of opportunity to see events from multiple places and characters which offered the story even more depth.

I was not happy with everything. Simmoms is a bit obsessed with poetry and religion for my liking. The latter of which developed into a problem as some revelations took this story in a direction I was not entirely happy with.

On the whole this was a fun read that was similar in quality to the first book in the series. It lacked the emotional punch provided in Hyperion by the Scholar's tale, but benefited from the excellent world building and character development of the first book by being an engaging read from the very first page.

Rating: 4 stars.

Audio Note: I missed the excellent full cast which read the first Hyperion book, but thought that Victor Bevine did a good job of narrating this on his own.