Hyperion

Canterbury Tales. In Space.
Hyperion tells the story of a vast intergalactic society through the series of seemingly random POVs- Much like the Canterbury Tales. The scope of the book is vast, and each POV incredibly unique.————————The book is so varied, with topics that i would never connect to each other, that i like to guess/assume/joke that this book came around as a dare.You see, i bet the author and a buddy were sitting around drinking… and boasting.Author: I can write about anything, and it will sell.Friend: Ha! Keep telling yourself that.Author: Im serious, come on, give me an idea. Anything.Friend: Hmm… Ok. You know how i love the poet Keats? So i want you to write a book about Keats. BUT! It has to be Sci-Fi, and in interstellar space.Author: Well…that’s interesting…hmm…Friend: And, you have to include a real life account of the battle of Agincourt. And there has to be immortal androgynous humans. And electric/tesla trees. And an inter-dimensional death entity. AND. AND. DINOSAURS. REAL LIFE DINOSAURS.Author: Hold my beer.————————A Catholic Priest, a Jew, a drunk poet, and a military Colonel walk into a bar… sounds like the start of a bad joke- But these characters, along with a detective, a mysterious EcoFriendly-Templar, and a Consul/Planetary-Governor form a expeditionary group to make contact with the Shrike, and investigate time capsules. At best, only one of them will survive, and history shows that none are likely to… and yet all seven go willingly.The story begins with the Consul, abit of a recluse, who is the only living person on a wilderness planet dominated by reptiles. The story beginning/prologue is perfect and not one to rush read. A descriptive painting, it describes an extremely vivid picture that not only sets the tone for the rest of the novel but gives a ton of subtle hints about our POV character.The novel quickly pivots and gives short stories for each character. These stories are interesting in themselves and serve as both characterization and as clues to the mystery of the Shrike. While it is a totally different genre, there are interesting parallels to Agatha Christie’s “And Then There Were None”- and “The Canterbury Tales” both in setup and execution.Positives:+ POV/Characters. Each POV reads completely unique versus the one before it. Not only does each character act different, but the writing in each section changes to perfectly match the current POV character.+ Plots. Each plot is unique, some even floored me. For example, Sol’s story? Wow.+ Storyline. The story isn’t linear, but more a series of random snapshots. Have you ever seen one of those image mosaic compilations from Mars/Ceres/Pluto etc, where a number of pictures are joined together to show a whole? Think of each of these frames being revealed one by one. That is how this book is structured. While completely unique in there own right, each story also reveals one frame of the whole. As the reader progresses through the book, more and more connections are made, and when finished, the picture/mosaic/storyline is awesome.Negatives:- Bit of a cliffhanger at the end.- The structure of two of the plots. The Catholic Priest’s plot is from a series of journals, which makes it distant and hard to connect with. The Consul’s jumps around and isn’t linear, which is a bit confusing.Neutral:+/- The reader is thrown into the story, and has to learn on the fly, because of this there are alot of terms etc which the reader has to infer.+/- Mature themes. Sex, gratuitous violence, etc.+/- Religious references.

A wonderful start to an amazing series
This is a (mostly) spoiler-free review of the entire Hyperion Cantos–all 2300 pages of it.The Hyperion Cantos is a commitment that pays off for the patient and attentive reader. Dan Simmons has created what may be the most believable, rich and vibrant world in fiction since Tolkien. This is world-building at its grandest, and yet for all the factions, planets and races, the novels rarely lose their focus on the people. But readers need to be warned–this is complex, intricate stuff. Having spent the better part of two months in the world of Hyperion, I couldn’t tell you how many characters, places, and cultures this story encompasses–easily a 150 or more. This is not light reading.The first book, Hyperion, is a terrific read. It is almost more a collection of short stories, all happening in the same universe but with wildly different tones and themes. Each story leaves an impression, which is essential not just to this book but to all of the books in the series. it requires patience, since each detailed story stands alone with little overlap, other than that the character telling it with other characters on a journey. I was disappointed in the ending, or non-ending, but as noted by the author, Hyperion really isn’t a book unto itself but merely the first half of a story that continues in book two.The second book, The Fall of Hyperion, concludes the story begun in the first, introducing still more characters and zipping back and forth through time. Unlike the first book, this is a more cohesive novel, as the characters that were introduced so independently in the prior book finally come together, fall apart, live, die or disappear in mysterious ways.The third book, Endymion, marks a fresh start–connected to the first two, but with mostly different characters and a more episodic style of storytelling. The depth of Simmons’ universe is still here, with actions and reactions occurring in very distant and diverse settings. I couldn’t help but feel that Simmons got a little caught up in exploring church politics in this novel, which, while important for the plot, began to feel like a few details too much in an already exhaustive universe.And the minor flaws of the third book explode into serious problems in the overly long, slow and frustrating fourth book, The Rise of Endymion. While the story finally gets around to concluding in a fitting and emotional fashion, it sure takes its time. Everything wonderful about Simmons’ world-building becomes a pitfall in this novel. The poetry and philosophy that lifted the other novels begin to feel like a university course, the wonderfully complex Hyperion universe becomes an unnecessarily crowded and obsessively detailed place, and the wonderfully creative plot begins to feel overstuffed with too many meandering subplots and unnecessary detours.I was almost angry reading the last book. Having committed to 2,000 pages, it felt like a slog to get to the end. I wondered if Simmons had an editor, since I couldn’t shake the feeling that two or three hundred pages could’ve been cut not only without losing anything but maybe even improving the focus of the story. Huge portions are dedicated to the adventures of the character telling the story in flashback, so Simmons’ constant attempts to create tension about whether he lives or dies is wasted since–news flash–he lives to tell the story. A hundred pages or more are spent on exposition as characters try to explain in awkward ways what the hell happened and is happening. And Simmons’ desire to create living places becomes almost obsessive. In one scene, a character learns that the enemy has arrived and determines he must rush to warn others–but instead of rushing, what occurs is a half dozen pages of insane detail about the geography of the planet as THREE DOZEN individual peaks, ridges, cities, temples and moons are named, almost NONE of which have anything to do with the subsequent plot.The disappointing conclusion didn’t prevent me from enjoying Simmons’ world and story. The Hyperion Cantos works as both a marvelous story and an amazing accomplishment of rich, viable, science-fiction world building.

Ficção científica de altíssima qualidade que irá encantar os amantes do gênero. Para os novos leitores que irão se aventurar, acho interessante citar que a história é contada através de vários contos de personagens que, apesar de muito diferentes, possuem um fator comum: Hyperion. É um livro intrigante e misterioso que possui um dos melhores vilões e mais assustadores que eu já vi na minha vida. Terminei o livro, querendo saber mais sobre aquele mundo e os personagens que nele estão.

I like the overlap of histories in the stories of pilgrims and the overall world structure is complex and fascinating.