On the world called Hyperion, beyond the reach of galactic law, waits a creature called the Shrike. There are those who worship it. There are those who fear it. And there are those who have vowed to destroy it. In the Valley of the Time Tombs, where huge, brooding structures move backward through time, the Shrike waits for them all.
On the eve of Armageddon, with the entire galaxy at war, seven pilgrims set forth on a final voyage to Hyperion seeking the answers to the unsolved riddles of their lives. Each carries a desperate hope—and a terrible secret. And one may hold the fate of humanity in his hands.
This book turned out to be different than how it started and what i'd assumed it would be like. It's about 6 people stories and how they're linked to the world of Hyperion. There's some interesting sci-fi tidbits in there, for eg. i loved the idea of Tachyon trees. Overall a fun read, and i did get hooked to it up until the last story. The ending even though hard to anticipate, was a little weak and abrupt(but i don't like such endings, not to give anything away). I didn't research the book that much, except the fact that it's on a lot of must-read sci-fi lists. So i didn't realize till the end that, there were many other books in the series. I'd still give it 5 stars, since it was definitely a good book and was a pleasant surprise.
Un très grand livre de science-fiction, un de mes préférés dans ce genre, à tel point que je m'étonne de ne jamais avoir écrit de critique plus longue sur ce roman magnifique qui débute une série non moins magnifique.
I love the science of Hyperion with the farcasters, time-debt, the TechnoCore, the mysterious time tombs, the Shrike and the flying carpets. I enjoy reading about the society of this world and most of all I like how the different pilgrims show the world from different angles. So far it's been a very prismatic start into the series, already bought the next one, cannot wait to get started.
I know I was supposed to like this book, but it was hard to. Too long winded. To many contradictions. The author's interest in poetry and Keats seem forced on the story. The time tombs and the effect on Rachel are not very believable.
1) ''Fedmahn Kassad had grown up in a culture of poverty and sudden death. As a member of the minority who still called themselves Palestinians, he and his family had lived in the slums of Tharsis, human testimony to the bitter legacy of the terminally dispossessed. Every Palestinian in the Worldweb and beyond carried the cultural memory of a century of struggle capped by a month of nationalist triumph before the Nuclear Jihad of 2038 wiped it all away. Then came their second Diaspora, this one lasting five centuries and leading to dead-end desert worlds like Mars, their dream buried with the death of Old Earth.''
2) ''In the beginning was the Word. Then came the fucking word processor. Then came the thought processor. Then came the death of literature. And so it goes.''
3)''And after the good-night story, and the lullaby, and the good-night kiss, sure that she was …
1) ''Fedmahn Kassad had grown up in a culture of poverty and sudden death. As a member of the minority who still called themselves Palestinians, he and his family had lived in the slums of Tharsis, human testimony to the bitter legacy of the terminally dispossessed. Every Palestinian in the Worldweb and beyond carried the cultural memory of a century of struggle capped by a month of nationalist triumph before the Nuclear Jihad of 2038 wiped it all away. Then came their second Diaspora, this one lasting five centuries and leading to dead-end desert worlds like Mars, their dream buried with the death of Old Earth.''
2) ''In the beginning was the Word. Then came the fucking word processor. Then came the thought processor. Then came the death of literature. And so it goes.''
3)''And after the good-night story, and the lullaby, and the good-night kiss, sure that she was asleep, he would begin to tiptoe out of the room only to hear the muffled ''Later, alligator' from the blanketed form on the bed, to which he had to reply ''While, crocodile.' And lying in bed himself, next to the softly breathing and possibly sleeping length of the woman he loved, Sol would watch the strips of pale light from one or both of Hebron's small moons move across the rough walls and he would talk to God.''
4) ''I will not try to describe the beauty of life in a Swarm---their zero-gravity globe cities and comet farms and thrust clusters, their micro-orbital forests and migrating rivers and the ten thousand colors and textures of life at Rendezvous Week. Suffice it to say that I believe the Ousters have done what Web humanity has not in the past millennia: evolved. While we live in our derivative cultures, pale reflections of Old Earth life, the Ousters have explored new dimensions of aesthetics and ethics and biosciences and art and all the things that must change and grow to reflect the human soul. Barbarians, we call them, while all the while we timidly cling to our Web like Visigoths crouching in the ruins of Rome's faded glory and proclaim ourselves civilized.''
Wow. Great writing. I generally don't like shifting perspective stories, but each of the seven stories by the pilgrims was so different and held my attention, all for different reasons. I've ordered The End of Hyperion from the library and can't wait to start it.
Also hoping that this series will hold up through all four books. My experience with some fantasy series, even some good ones (looking at you, Tad Williams) has been that it's really difficult to sustain my interest.
spoiler alert
I especially liked the twist at the end, where the bad guys are suddenly maybe not quite so bad.
An enjoyable read but it felt more like a prologue than an entire story. I liked the different stories from the pilgrims, some I liked more than others, but it offered a unique way of showing motive and giving background on the characters. With so long spent on learning about the characters and building up the story it would be a shame to not read the next instalment but I may hold off for a bit and see if it's worth it before putting more time into a series I'm not fully committed to.
I had read it a few years before, but for some reason, it didn't have such a big impact on me at the time; I remembered a few things, but I got much more enthralled with it this time. I guess some periods are better than other for certain books. Hyperion would probably be one of those, because it's very peculiar.
It is the story of a small group of people who have been called on a pilgrimage, the Shrike pilgrimage - the Shrike being some kind of metallic impaling big monster of scare. In the hope that it will help them survive, the pilgrims start telling each other their stories and why they've been called to this pilgrimage.
The book is mainly composed of these stories, which are all in different voices, settings and styles. At times, it felt a bit like an exercise of style in science-fiction short …
I had read it a few years before, but for some reason, it didn't have such a big impact on me at the time; I remembered a few things, but I got much more enthralled with it this time. I guess some periods are better than other for certain books. Hyperion would probably be one of those, because it's very peculiar.
It is the story of a small group of people who have been called on a pilgrimage, the Shrike pilgrimage - the Shrike being some kind of metallic impaling big monster of scare. In the hope that it will help them survive, the pilgrims start telling each other their stories and why they've been called to this pilgrimage.
The book is mainly composed of these stories, which are all in different voices, settings and styles. At times, it felt a bit like an exercise of style in science-fiction short stories, and each of them kind of resonated with some "genre", while not necessarily having much to do with said genre (maybe more a feeling than an actual rational reason?) - I think I'd classify them, hoping to not spoil to much (and without any particular order), into a military story (à la Starship Troopers (the book by Heinlein, not the movie) ), a One Thousand and One Nights story, a desperate quest story, a horror/suspense story (à la Stephen King), a social commentary story (à la Foundation), a detective-in-a-blight-future story (in a Blade Runner and/or cyberpunk style). Some of my comparisons may seem, objectively, pretty far-fetched though, but that's my overall feeling on them.
And each of these stories was a good one, by itself and in the larger frame of the whole pilgrimage story. And the whole thing kind of gives a weird, but lastingly good impression.
I liked it very much, and I think it's objectively a good book. I was kind of surprised to see that it was published in 1989 - that's actually pretty recent, compared to my "usual" stash of science-fiction, and for some reason I was convinced Hyperion was much older - well, it got its "classic" badge early, I suppose :)
I’ve heard nothing but good things about the Hyperion series for the better part of 20 years. So I finally got round to reading this, the first book. And I won’t be reading any of the sequels.
I understand that there are a lot of allusions in the story to poets and others. Most of them went straight over my head and to be honest I mainly read books to enjoy the story the writer is telling, not catch obscure references anyway.
When looking at the actual story, things fall down. I just don’t care about any of the characters. I don’t hate them. I don’t like them. They are at best cyphers with no depth and precious few emotions at least as presented to me.
Simmons uses the technique perhaps best known from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales of several short stories linked by a bridging story. These short stories are …
I’ve heard nothing but good things about the Hyperion series for the better part of 20 years. So I finally got round to reading this, the first book. And I won’t be reading any of the sequels.
I understand that there are a lot of allusions in the story to poets and others. Most of them went straight over my head and to be honest I mainly read books to enjoy the story the writer is telling, not catch obscure references anyway.
When looking at the actual story, things fall down. I just don’t care about any of the characters. I don’t hate them. I don’t like them. They are at best cyphers with no depth and precious few emotions at least as presented to me.
Simmons uses the technique perhaps best known from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales of several short stories linked by a bridging story. These short stories are intended both as world building and to provide the various characters motivations for journeying to Hyperion. In this, particularly in the world building, they are effective. As stories in their own right, unfortunately I found them dull.
I feel like there are interesting characters and events happening in the universe that Simmons conjures up, but I’m not getting to see them.
I can see some of the things that people like about the Hyperion Cantos, but only at a distance. I couldn’t summon any emotional attachment to the people or events. And without that it doesn’t matter how clever the writing might be.
As I got further into the book I found myself increasingly pushing to get to the end. Not because I wanted to know what happened, but so I could move on to something else. In the end this felt like being back and school and having an assigned read.
Pretty good book. I wasnt sure how I was going to feel as I started reading this one. But it quickly captured my attention and I enjoyed how it was told from different genre viewpoints. I will definitely read the next one, Fall of Hyperion.
I liked the canturbury tales structure allusion. As well the tech names derived from Sci-fi books of yesteryear. But I was left wanting a more satisfying ending.