Hyperion

It’s kinda funny; I actually didn’t finish this book the first time around. I don’t even remember why. I tend to juggle a lot of books and sometimes get distracted, and to be fair, this book doesn’t necessarily start with much of a bang. But man, oh man, was I hooked on the journey once I sank my teeth into the seven pilgrims’ stories and really got going. The worlds are fantastically imagined, and the mysteries (of the Shrike and of everything else) kept me turning pages in the best way possible.

Love or hate the rest of the series,… show more.

Hyperion is stimulating, mind-blowing, and always surprising. It is loaded with fantastic storylines but also somehow easy to read. You will never know what will happen next—a spellbinding world.

The narratives of the seven main characters could each be a book of their own. Mesmerizing world-building. No wonder it is a science fiction classic! I immediately went next to its sequel.

My boss raved about this book so I checked it out. He was right. It’s a truly wonderful sci-fi novel featuring a creature called the Shrike (aka Lord of Pain), who is made out of knives.

The novel tells the story of 7 travelers, and each tale is more gripping, interesting, and heartbreaking than the next. There are multiple timelines, kids that grow in reverse, and, again, a creature made out of knives. Sci-fi + monsters = a pretty winning combo.

Number one on my list has to be Hyperion.

Hyperion is a novel that from the jump, steeps the reader into another whole league of suspense. From a story about a priest who can’t die, to a man who is investigating his own death, then a daughter who is aging backward, each of these interconnected stories raises the stakes of the other. And that’s the rub, even though the previous story was intense, the subsequent (interconnected) story manages to make the previous story even more nail-biting.

I’m trying not to spoil anything but there are some really big ideas… show more.

This book is a mix of science fiction and polemic. Simmons’ best known work other than The Terror (which would also fit on my list) is the story of a group of pilgrims on a world that promises actual immortality—or an excruciating death at the hands of a truly memorable and horrifying robot.

It takes its form from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, with each pilgrim relating their life story through a different genre lens. The best of the lot is the hardboiled noir detective, but they’re all compelling.

Some people find the ending of the story frustrating, but the road… show more.

This is, quite simply, excellent storytelling. Seven people go to Hyperion, each with their own tale to tell. They are going to the Time Tombs, which move backward in time, and where they will be confronted by the terrifying spectre of the Shrike. They know the dangers, but each is compelled to join the pilgrimage for reasons of their own. The author’s rich imagination gives immense depth and breadth to this tale, in which the stories of the seven travellers converge toward a tense climax. If you enjoy this book as much as I did, you’ll be pleased to know… show more.

Hyperion taught me how to be afraid. The feeling I get when I read Hyperion is quite similar to how I feel when I watch Alien, my favorite movie. I see the Shrike as the ultimate literary sci-fi horror monster, much the same way as the Xenomorph is the quintessential movie monster. These creatures create the fear that I crave from my media, and the fear I hope to incite within those who read my works.

Who can forget the Shrike? So treacherous. So invincible. I lost sleep waking up from nightmares about the Shrike. An absolutely unforgettable character, yet never even spoke a word of dialogue. And virtually all of the many other intriguing characters are tied to the Shrike in some fascinating way. I was particularly enamored with Martin Selinus, the poet of Hyperion, author of The Dying Earth, which sold over 2.5 billion copies. But I will never forget the Consul (far more than a government official), Brawne Lamia (the detective), Sol Weintrob (the scholar), Kassad (the soldier), Johnny Keats (the… show more.

Interesting to read a pretty hard-core science fiction novel like Hyperion that injects English-major-type things into the science. Poetry crops up, the main character is a poet, but more to the point, Hyperion‘s structure is the Canterbury Tales'. Moreover, poet John Keats ̶ that is, a re-animated simulacrum of John Keats ̶ is a character. The book’s title, in fact, comes from his poem, Hyperion.

Religion abounds, as in A Canticle for Liebowitz, but Canticle is post-apocalyptic, and religion is to be expected in regressing societies. In Hyperion, however, though Earth has been destroyed, technologically… show more.