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Title: Hyperion by Dan Simmons ISBN: 0-553-28368-5 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 February, 1990 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.48 (349 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: An Entrancing Tale
Comment: I'll admit that when I first read Dan Simmons "Hyperion," I wasn't quite sure what to make of it. I had read it on the recommendation of an English teacher, and I could immediately recognize the talent the author demonstrated, but it took a few weeks before I realized how much I had enjoyed the read. The prose is beautifully crafted. It flows almost lyrically, with vivid imagery supporting an amazingly creative plot (which, by the way, is a loose parallel to "Canterbury Tales"). It is filled with more allusions and references than you can believe, but it isn't written in a style that leaves you feeling lost if you miss one or don't know what is being alluded to. I caught lots, but I'm sure there were just as may more that I read without even recognizing.
"Hyperion" is an English teacher's dream, ripe with all of the classical elements of rich literature, but manages that without becoming a student's nightmare of boring, dry plot and 19th century diction that unfortunately seems to characterize so many such 'literary' books. This book is certainly science fiction, but remains clear of the pitfalls that turn many people away from the genre. The characters are well-developed and the reader has no trouble at all empathizing with them.
As a stand-alone novel, Hyperion could survive as an admirable work, though one with an abrupt and hardly satisfactory conclusion, but more importantly, it is the entry point to the Hyperion series, which is nothing short of an absolute masterpiece.
Rating: 5
Summary: Four books, one story
Comment: As is perhaps clear by most people, Hyperion is the first book out of four book strong quartet: Hyperion, Fall of Hyperion, Endymion and Rise of Endymion.
Placed in a distant future, the four books are actually two inter-connected stories set about 200 years apart:
Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion deals with an inter-galactic war between Humanity of the Hegemony, an advanced galactic civilisation supported by autonomous AI (the techno core), and with travel between planets through instant farcasters. The politics within the Hegemony are incredibly complex, and everything is complicated by two factors: the mysterious and genetically evolved Ousters, known as barbarians to the hegemony, and the mysterious Shrike in the Valley of the Time Tomb. Everything in the Hegemony is planned and checked by the aid of the techno core, but Hyperion defies any clear analysis. All that is known is that a mysterious structure in the Valley of the Time Tombs are travelling backwards in time from the far-far distant future with a terrible message. As Hyperion stands in the balance as the universe is on the verge of intergalactic war between the Ousters, the Hegemony and the AI, a band of pilgrims are selected in order to secure the time tombs and solve its mysteries before it is too late.
In Endymion and Rise of Endymion, the story continues in the much-changed universe as it has become, in the aftermath of the conflicts of the first two books.
Reviewers typically focuses on the action in Hyperion, which is understandable, and some questions the length and level of detail. The reason for the structure of the book - six of seven pilgrims telling their tale as they travel towards the time tombs - is that not only are their stories interwoven into a larger scheme: through their stories hints are given to the reader to solve the actual and even bigger mysteries of the four stories...
And this is what makes the Hyperion quartet such an incredibly rewarding reading experience. I have read all four books two times, and still I am amazed at Simmon's ability to keep track of his story. As a reader, you are introduced to the universe at the same time as you are introduced to the mystery of the universe. As it turns out, the universe itself and the destiny of mankind through incredibyle subtle and oftentimes brutal warfare and struggles of both physical, mental and spiritual kind is the real mystery of the book.
Therefore, as an example, you actually cannot understand the full significance of the Labyrinth worlds of Armaghast, the heretic heroism of Father Duré, the apparently dumb and mindless Bikura, and the apparent innocence of Lenar Hoyt - which all appears in the story of the first pilgrim - untill you notice how the many different peaces fit into the overall scheme. The very fact that they both appear in book three and four, suffering a terrible fate, is a hint as to how subtle everything works out.
It is therefore more appropriate to see Hyperion as an ouverture and a laying out of the pieces to the first mysteries. Entertaining in and of itself but containg clues to the real and horrible and thrilling story that is the true mover of the four books.
Simmons must be given a cadeau for being able to keep track of his story. That alone needs sheer genius. That he manages to keep track of it and resolve most of it (!) by the end of book four, makes this a born classic.
Buy them - and enjoy a mindblowing trip into a possible future for mankind.
Rating: 5
Summary: Poetic and Literate
Comment: This book, as the first in a series of four, sets the tone for what becomes a very lofty struggle that embodies the very nature of humanity in a future time where individuals are becoming less and less human. The tale is thoughtfully woven as a tapestry of interconnected events in the lives of a set of pilgrims on a journey to the most remote reaches of the Hegemony of Man (very Chaucer-esque). Along the way, we learn how each pilgrim's piece of the puzzle fits into the whole of the group, and gradually we uncover a bit of the mythos that surrounds the world of Hyperion, and how it seems that, despite its remoteness, it is at the center of everything.
For these books, I can think of no one more apt to describe the worlds that he has created. In much the same way that Frank Herbert created the desolation of Arrakis, Simmons manufactures plants, animals, and breeds of people to populate his fantastic section of the galaxy. In this way, he generates a certain depth to the book that exists because there is nothing overlooked. As with all great science fiction, he takes the high road and doesn't dumb the book down by writing it for a 20th (or 21st) century reader by explaining every nuance and term used in the book. In fact, over the course of the four book series, there are quite a few things that are never explained, but would logically be perfectly clear to someone who lived during the times covered in the books. This, in my opinion, really gives the book a sense of time and story that comes through as a mature writing style.
This is a series of books that I reread on a fairly regular basis, and the stories are never far from my mind. Highly recommended for a lifetime of enjoyment.
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Title: The Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons ISBN: 0553288202 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 November, 1995 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Endymion by Dan Simmons ISBN: 0553572946 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 November, 1996 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
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Title: Rise of Endymion by Dan Simmons ISBN: 0553572989 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 July, 1998 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
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Title: Ilium by Dan Simmons ISBN: 0380978938 Publisher: Eos Pub. Date: 01 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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Title: A Fire Upon The Deep by Vernor Vinge ISBN: 0812515285 Publisher: Tor Science Fiction Pub. Date: 15 February, 1993 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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