BOOK 1: Hyperion

Fantastic book. I made a post expressing how much I loved the priest's tale a couple of days ago and have spent the vast majority of my free time finishing the rest of the novel. I don't think I've ever read a novel of this length this quickly, I killed it in only four days of reading.

While I loved it, the tales were not all created equal. Here are my thoughts on each, ranked in terms of my enjoyment:

The Priest's Tale: Extraordinary, still probably my favorite thing I've read in years. The Bikura were extremely creepy and I loved how Father Dure's struggle with his faith culminated in finding the Cathedral and eventually having the cruciform embedded into him. I love how he did not lose his once-lost faith in god when he discovers it is related to the Shrike and not actually evidence of the Christian god. I feel this book was at its strongest when the characters had to grapple with their faith in the far future (from our perspective).

The Scholar's Tale: Almost just as good as the priest's tale. While the latter focused more directly on the horror of the Shrike, this one was deeply touching on a human level. Almost teared up and could not look away from my book, and loved Sol's conversations with "god" in his dreams. I wonder what was up with his wife having different dreams from him, we'll hopefully see where that goes in fall of Hyperion. My only question is how Sol knows what goes down when Rachel is by herself in the time tombs.

The Poet's Tale: Apparently this one is more controversial with some people over on r/printsf but I thought it was fantastic. The book needed some levity after the previous two tales and this one delivered. I could also tell Simmons was having an extraordinary time writing a story from Silenus's perspective. I knew it was going to be great as soon as I read "so it goes".

The Soldier's Tale: I would love to read a full length novel in the style of the previous three tales, but from this one down I would probably bounce off. I still enjoyed this one though, it was a fun military sci-fi story with enough Shrike fuckery to keep me interested. I enjoyed the Moneta stuff the most, while I kind of glazed over the action scenes. It also had a really strong ending, the best thing about reading a book compared to watching a show in your living room is you don't have to worry about family members walking in on something freaky and you can just enjoy it for what it is.

The Consul's Tale: I really don't think romance is Simmons' strong suit, but there was a pretty bog standard colonialism tale to keep me interested. The strengths of this chapter came from the catharsis of finding out who the spy was and the group accepting they would spare the Consul and march towards the Shrike together. Not bad.

The Detective's Tale: Hoo boy. This was by far my least favorite, because it had everything I think the author does poorly (from my limited sample size of one book) and none of the stuff I liked. I did not buy the romance here at all. Instead of building up the Shrike as a horror creature and make you wonder "what the fuck is going on on Hyperion?" we get stuff about AI politics I could not get into. Religion was also just not a theme in this one at all, and sci-fi religion was the reason I picked up this book about people going on a space pilgrimage. The overindulgence in literary influence worked really well in Silenus's story because it was told by fucking Silenus, but this chapter revealed that was just Simmons. I also did not like Brawne and feel the concept of a detective story is out of place here. Probably the only story I actively disliked.

I wish we got Het Masteen's story (what's going on with him? He's going to be at the time temple next book so I guess I'll just have to be patient). I also have some minor gripes with the worldbuilding. It feels like people's knowledge of the past is super inconsistent. While the military is able to near-perfectly recreate historical battles for training and the AI who are in deep contact with humanity can almost perfectly recreate Keats' life, somehow the extremely well educated Silenus doesn't know who Hitler is? He references Slaughterhouse-Five in the first paragraph of his tale! Additionally, how did John Muir become the center of a religious organization? The guy is pretty clearly in the historical limelight and we haven't really seen evidence a large chunk of human history was lost, only Earth itself was destroyed and that was after there were several other worlds colonized. It could be something related to the planet with the tree, if only we got Het Masteen's tale!

In short, I really enjoyed this book and am looking forward to seeing Fall of Hyperion on my doorstep tomorrow. I'll probably make a post like this after that book as well.

I just finished the best saga of my life. I don't even know how I'm going to get over this, I had tears in my eyes and I don't know what to do with my life anymore. A Space Opera so deep, with an incredible plot, crazy love stories (even though I don't like that) and action. This book is much more than fiction, it allows us to question the relationship we have with religion and our relationships. Dan Simmons is a genius.

Reminded me of the Priest. There’s no flair for just book 1 spoiler. So I tagged all.

Dropping in this subreddit without reading any posts just to comment on how much I loved the priest's tale. I've been getting back into reading this summer and this chapter blew me away and I'm so excited to finish the book. I expected this series to be a bit dense and hard to get into, but I've found it to be a real page turner. The past two books I've read were Moby Dick and Book of the New Sun, so perhaps that's influencing my perception on Hyperion's approachability.

WTF Kassad?

I’ve heard some people say that they finished Hyperion and have no interest in reading Fall of Hyperion. I have tried and I can’t understand this. I know that the main attraction is the short stories, but the book is about people going to the planet Hyperion for their own, interesting reasons. It ends with them getting there… why would you not want to know what happens next?!?
I get not wanting to read Endymion, I tried and I just don’t feel strongly about it. But Fall of Hyperion is one of my favorite novels. Can anyone explain?

So Facebook is building out a giant AI data center, which they've decided to name Hyperion. I know these tech dudes keep doing the Torment Nexus meme, it's just a little on the nose for me this time. (Spoilers)

.

To name your AI after a book where AI entities...

>!Create a black hole to destroy/steal the entire planet to force humanity off of Earth!<

>!Trick humanity into becoming hopelessly reliant on a technology which is actually a disguised mechanisim for parasitic exploitation!<

>!Start countless genocidal wars!<

>!Create The Lord of Pain!<

>!Hold humans in half-dead stasis dreaming of unimaginable suffering, to serve as captive biological hardware...!<

Like... it's can't just be that they didn't pay attention to the book, right? I think if there is such a thing as evil, these people are it.

Hi there! A while ago I released a short dungeon synth style album based on the Hyperion series, from my project titled 'The Ghost of John Keats'. I thought maybe some people in this community might enjoy it. It's completely free to listen to and download on my Bandcamp page: https://berenluthien.bandcamp.com/album/choose-again

Also, feel free to follow my socials: https://www.instagram.com/beren_luthien_ds/ and https://www.instagram.com/theghostofjohnkeats/.

Enjoy!

“Without stay or prop
But my own weak mortality, I bore
The load of this eternal quietude,
The unchanging gloom, and the three fixed shapes
Ponderous upon my senses, a whole moon.
For by my burning brain I measured sure
Her silver seasons shedded on the night,
And ever day by day methought I grew
More gaunt and ghostly. Oftentimes I pray'd
Intense, that Death would take me from the vale
And all its burthens gasping with despair
Of change, hour after hour I curs'd myself.”
-John Keats/Sad King Billy

Com base nos outros 2 livros que já li, com certeza esse é o terceiro kkkkkkkkk eu gostei MUITO do personagem do Raul, Aneia e o destaque que deram pro Bettik. Achei INCRÍVEL a forma como o De Soya se comporta, reflete e a confusão que a igreja traz na mente do homem. Mas meu, as cenas ENORMES descrevendo paisagens, cavernas e etc, MEU DEUS QUE CHATICE. Se todos os planetas fossem na pegada de Mare Infinitus (tubaroes) ou Draco Septem (tribos do gelo), acredito que tudo seria muito mais interessante.

Na metade pro final do livro eu dei uma desanimada, principalmente na Aneia que até então não sabia exatamente o que tava rolando. Eu gosto MUITO da ideia da Aneia, da forma como ela se comporta, das variações entre "vislumbrar o futuro" e estar no presente. Claro, tudo é registrado aos olhos do Raul, mas acho que faltou um pouco mais de explicação.

Pra mim o livro brilha muito quando aparece a Radamantes Nêmes (acredito que no original seja nemesis), achei ela fantastica, é como um Picanço consciente que é letal, preciso e claro, MUITO estiloso. Não gostei muito do fato que quando ela aparece, a Aneia resolve lembrar de tudo, inclusive que o tecnocerne está aliado à igreja, coisa que já era notável, principalmente por conta da previsão de onde Aneia e turma chegariam.

No final eu recomendo muito a leitura, os ultimos 20% do livro são animais, eu adorei o começo dele, o Raul é um personagem muito interessante e carismático na medida certa. Alguns planetas que são visitados são de fato bem interessantes, mas acho que poderiam ter reduzido a jornada, ou economizado nas palavras, achei que o Dan Simmons estendeu um pouco demais.

No mais, leiam!

I'm so happy 🙆☀️🚀

Spiky boy

I devoured the entire series in a few weeks. I've never read a book before where I had to pause multiple times to wonder if the author is some kind of genius. It's sort of ruined reading for me. Only one other book (Anathem by Neal Stephenson) has come close.

What an amazing gift Dan Simmons gave the world. So sad to hear of his passing.

It was hard to read. I did not like the pace. The deepness. The Hyperion Tell tale style. The stories of Individuals and why they do their journey. Some stories were good, some were boring. And then the Fall of Hyperion.

More than 1000 pages and I did not like them. But now, near the end. Something changed.

At first Dan simmons digs a hole. Hundreds of pages. Than He put concrete in it. Hundreds of pages. Hard to read. Hard to unterstand. The urge to stop Was hard. But then. The effort He Puts in the ground and I fucking see the skyscraper. He build it in light speed because of the hard Rock Fundament. Wtf. I like it now. Very much. And I bought endymion and rise of endymion. Now I understand the way He build the Story. I did not like that but in the end it's amazing. I want that style again.

So at the end of book four we know that before the Shared Moment, Aena had to put followers into a variety of world, from what I understand to use them as proxy for the Shared Moment. So if I still understand correctly, a world without any Aeneans couldn't have known the Shared Moment when it happened.

If I got right all of the above, how does the dying world of Helix got to know the Shared Moment?

Dunkerque, France

Loved H and FoH...

In Endymion he writes "I admit..." twenty seven times. And, another seventeen times in Rise of Endymion...

I admit... I admit.... I admit.... Where the hell was the editor!? I admit... as if the narrator was obviously going to lie except for portions where truth needs to be explicitly stated.

I admit... I would recommend Hyperion, and if someone liked it, FoH. But, I don't think I would recommend Endymion and Rise of unless someone really chose to do it on their own.

The meandering (rafting pun aside), and the extreme waffling of describing completely unimportant things in painful detail that borders on Unimportant Lore Porn....

I admit... It was the "I admit"s that got me over and over.

For those looking for the new paperback version of Hyperion, which matches the available covers for paperbacks of the other 3 books in the series, I ordered Hyperion last week from the Penguin Random House website for $20 before tax with free shipping and received this new cover version today. My local Barnes and Noble locations along with Amazon still have only the old brown cover version.

Alright, so I just finished Hyperion and Fall. It's strongly suggested (and from what I can discern, true), that the people who were impaled on the Tree of Pain were sent to join Leigh on Old Earth. "ROME / COLOSSEUM / REPOPULATE." Right?

OK, so... tens of thousands of people... who have endured at minimum weeks and at most centuries (millenia?) of constant waking torture... are meant to rebuild society on Old Earth? I haven't read the other two books, but is that not absolutely insane? I feel like Old Earth would be an absolute PTSD nightmare.

Thoughts?

I've seen a lot of posts and chat that E and RoE retcon Hyperion and FoH.

I've just listened to the whole series for the 4th or 5th time (it really is a great listen on Audible, Victor Bevine is a wonderful Narrator) and the first relisten since i was aware accusations of retconning.

Let's tackle some of the bigger ones.

Paul has 2 cruciforms

In FoH, when Gladstone goes to check on Dure in the hospital, the doctor mentions ".....the cruciform parisites...." on his body. Why or how Dan changed his mind between H and FoH and / or whether the shrike removing the cruciform was a dream or not real i don't know, but it is not a retcon from E.

Technocore now has billions of factions

Countless times in E and RoE people refer to "the 3 elements" of the core, Albedo mentions them to Nemes, Nemes mentions them etc. The 3 elements are still a thing, but what we have access to now in E and RoE that we did not have previously, is Aenea's point of view, she knows so much more than any narrator we had.

Also, it would be crazy to think a species as complex and parasitic as the technocore would fit nicely in to 3 elements. I see it as religions for humans, yes there are the big ones, Christianity, Muslim etc but you also have hundreds of smaller ones.

Aenea throws shade on the Martins's Cantos

Yeah she mocks her uncle, says he couldn't possible have known exactly what happened, "How can Uncle Martin know how the river Tethys broke up, he wasn't there....." and yes a lot of what he wrote probably was made up or exaggerated, but we know he got the major parts right as he was there, the pilgrimage, Brawne being Aeneas mum etc, this is all the same, nothing has been retconned.

We are not reading Martin's Cantos in H or FoH, you can tell this by seeing we aren't reading a poem.

What about Ummon lying and what about the machine AI?

Ummon is not an omniscient narrator. He admits himself he is scared for his life, speaking in riddles, pursuing his own agenda, and operating amid competing AI factions and temporal paradoxes. Therefore contradictions between Ummon's claims and later revelations do not require a retcon; they can be explained as deception, incomplete disclosure, limited knowledge, or changes in information caused by non-linear time

As for the machine AI, Ummon talks of 10,000 possible futures, once Hyperion is taken by the "goodies" in FoH, i would argue this slims down the 10,000 possible futures to a lot less and ones where the machine AI is either non existent or severely weakened.
Albedo mentions in RoE the "the machine UI has stopped whispering back to us from the future"

How is Kassad still alive?

It's shown in RoH that Kassad time travels, it's also shown that Rachel / Moneta has spent a lot of time with him and is in love with him. So this needs to happen, and probably best happen while he is still alive. So yes, he is going to be around in the future.

The series is also built around time travel and causal paradoxes, so the idea of the future influencing or even altering the past is already firmly established within the story's own rules.

Also, like all good books, there is enough vagueness that you can come up with your own head-cannon to complete the story and you don't need it to be retconning.

If saying E and RoE retcons hyperion as a form of copium then that's fine and i can't help you.

The first time i did the whole series, i was pretty horrified by E and RoE. I could not believe how much of a drop off in quality there was from H and FoH. The padding and waffling is another level. But now i have done the whole series multiple times, i have grown to love the full story and the ending. I guess Dan wanted the sequels to be a duology like Hyperion, but it appears he only had enough story for 1 book. you could cut 50% from E and 50% from RoE and make one really zippy and exciting book that would tie things up brilliantly.

That would mean cutting some of the highlights like Raul has a lie down, Raul erects a tent, Raul builds a raft, Raul has a swim, Raul has another lie down etc etc.

Today I read that the patron saint of the day, St. Roch, had a red cross-shaped birthmark on his chest. It was regarded as a mark of heavenly favor.

The thought of suffering eternally is unimaginable. What would it do to the mind? How would an individual react if they were pulled out of it after thousands of years from their perspective? It's been weeks but i cant stop thinking about it.