Posts Tagged ‘Dan Simmons’
Hyperion, A No-Spoiler Review of the Novel
The Beginning of a Mind-Bending Science Fiction Masterpiece
I read Hyperion this summer knowing it was and is one of science fictions’ great stories. Dan Simmons’ imagination of a future where humans have populated space and rule a vast number of planets as the hegemony, gives the reader an idea of human survival in the distant future. The novel also provides the reader a feast of human hubris.
In this novel, there are terrifying villains who judge humanity without compromise.They are, the Shrike. In this first novel of the initial duology, these demons or gods lurk off-stage, and sometimes on.
In the novel Hyperion, the humans who hope to save humanity, are drawn from a variety of different cultures, occupations and planets to make pilgrimage to the Time Tombs and the Shrike Temple on the planet Hyperion. The unfolding narrative will intrigue, but not answer a lot of questions.
The Short Review:
Read Hyperion because it…
- Gives insight into humanity and especially a humanity that has unleashed AI
- Entertains with compellingly strong characters, all on a pilgrimage, most of whom are not fitting into boxes the reader might assume
- Page-turning because the reader is trying to figure out the Shrike and any motive for their actions (not all of those will be answered in this first book)
- The premise sets up an orderly dispensing of stories that fill out a futuristic world of wonders and horrors. (emphasis on horrors).
The Long Review
If you’re serious about reading Hyperion, I think you need to commit to the subsequent novels. There are four.
If you cannot handle all four, read this first and second novel and read or listen to the chatter on the web to understand the “world of Hyperion”. There are videos that elucidate Simmons’ future humanity in this novel-world, the one posted below is 1 hour and 30 minutes of content. That is how much intentionality went into creating Simmons’ imagined future.
Regarding the Shrike. I read the first book (this book) hoping to understand them. The Shrike are mysterious and terrifyingly powerful. At the end of this read, I was not satisfied. I realize Dan Simmons wrote the first two books of this duology to read as one. They were long. The publisher did not want to or could not fathom putting them into one huge book. I will venture to read book two in the coming months.
The tech in this futuristic human existence is particularly fascinating and worth trying to understand. As a purist, you’ll want to read all Simmons’ novels, but if you want a little help, here’s a video that explains many things about the world of Hyperion.