Although I’ve read a bit of sci-fi and usually enjoy it, I’m hardly a sci-fi fan. I’d never heard of Hyperion or of Dan Simmons, so I picked this one up a bit randomly, with low expectations.

I wasn’t convinced by the first few chapters, with the pilgrims meeting and getting ready to tell their tales. I feared this would be a generic, if gimmicky, story set in a detailed but ultimately shallow future.

But by the time the catholic priest had reached the lost tribe of strange, low-IQ humans deep in the jungle and been introduced to the mysterious “Cruciform” they worship, I was hooked.

Although some of the tales are a bit uneven, far from being shallow, the world and its history that Simmons has created is integral to the story, and to the big ideas it introduces. And yes, it does introduce some big ideas of technology, philosophy and religion, ideas that are actually interesting.

Also, I’m a sucker for Simmons use of literary references: from the Canterbury Tales/Decameron-structure of the narrative, to obvious references to William Gibson and J.G. Ballard (at least, that is my theory of Simmons liberal use of the obscure word “vermillion”, which I’ve only heard of in the context of Ballard’s “Vermillion Sands”). And, of course, the poetry of Keats is key to the whole story - “Hyperion” is one of his unfinished poems.

I rarely read all the books in a series (the first is usually enough to sample its ideas, and far too often the subsequent ones fail to tickle my curiosity), but I went immediately on to read the next in the series, The Fall of Hyperion (the two need to be read together), and have the two final ones on my reading list.

(By the way, I listened to the Audible audio book, which had one actor for each of the pilgrims. I found this a bit annoying, and it didn’t quite work for me, even though the actors were mostly good. Others might like this.)