Take Advantage Of La Caduta Di Hyperion Conceptualized By Dan Simmons Produced In Digital Format
trouble with reading a book like The Fall of Hyperion is that whatever book I read next will likely seem like a load of ol' crap, In fact, in a Shrikelike manner this book traveled back in time and slashed my opinion of the book I read prior to this one which now looks shabby by comparison.
The first sitelinkHyperion book ends on a musical cliff hanger, The Fall of Hyperion carries on from there though the first chapter is narrated in the first person by a "new" sitelinkcybrid protagonist Joseph Severn.
While he is not in the previous book he is derived from the same John Keats template as "Johnny", the wavy hair cybrid and lover of the badass Brawne Lamia P.
I. , one of the seven pilgrims who traveled to confront The Shrike a real cutting edge guy possibly descended from Freddy Krueger, The wonderful world building from the previous book is further developed in this book, we get more expositions about the Hegemony, the TechnoCore and a little more about The Shrike, not to mention the further adventures of our favorite pilgrims.
The Fall of Hyperion is structurally different from its predecessor, it is entirely linear though narrated from several different points of view, While I enjoy the way the first book is structured sitelinkThe Canterbury Tales style, where the stories are very strong on their own this more conventional structure also works well for me, it is nice and cohesive and a pleasure to follow.
The Hegemony and the TechnoCore remind me of sitelinkIain M, Banks Culture society and the AIs that mess about with the poor humans living in these societies, The citizens of the Hegemony are similarly pampered but are not watched over with paternal fondness by the AI like in Banks' books, The Hegemony government is done by human politicians with an AI representative, led by the awesome Meina Gladstone who I picture as resembling actress Maggie Smith at her sternest, The high technology tend to be of the more handwavium variety with FTL travel achieved by "Farcaster" portals, and instant Fatline FTL communication, all compliments of the TechnoCore, The social ramification of this technology is very well thought out, the novel is to some extent a cautionary tale about over reliance on technology,
Dan Simmons' prose is deservedly lauded as one of the most literary best in the scifi business, at times lyrical, often witty and evocative, Most of the central characters are already well established in the first book, they are further developed here and the relationship between the pilgrims are much strong stronger, Their loyalty to each other, which slowly developed in the first book, make them much more appealing, even the two that don't get along like Brawne Lamia and Martin Silenus though the "mouthing off / shut up" running gag gets a little old after a while.
The back story of each of the five Pilgrims form plot strands that converge and then beautifully woven together by the epic conclusion, My favorite section of the first book, the poignant story of Sol Weinthrob and his backward aging daughter is particularly well concluded, I am also glad to see my favorite character Brawne Lamia get spend more time on the centre stage,
I love the literary and pop culture references, To be honest what I know about John Keats and poetry can be written on a postage stamp and leave enough room for the Queen's entire head, but things like The Wizard of Oz movie references are more my neck of the wood and I find them very amusing.
The Fall of Hyperion is an entirely satisfactory conclusion to the classic sitelinkHyperion, I look forward to reading sitelinkEndymion and sitelinkThe Rise of Endymion in the near future, “I wish we had the technology to fight God on an equal basis, To beard him in his den, To fight back for all of the injustices heaped on humanity, To allow him to alter his smug arrogance or be blown to hell, ”
A fascinating continuation of the powerful first installment, Dan Simmons' The Fall of Hyperion Hyperion Cantos follows the characters we met in the first book as well as several others, but with a different perspective of the galaxywide ramifications of this fateful pilgrimage.
The stories behind those ramifications take a different structure than the pilgrim's story used in the first book, I thought that structure had worked perfectly, Instead, the story bounces back and forth between the Hegemony government and our characters with much of the weight of the storytelling falling on a nearly omniscient narrator/character, This was probably necessary to tell the bigger story and provide closure to all the unanswered questions from the first novel, but it was a bit jarring, especially in the early going.
Still, The Fall of Hyperion is an epic novel that addresses how our humanity can evolve even as it faces serious peril,. "Nurse, this patients chart is very confusing, ”
“Which patient, Doctor”
“Uh, . Mr. Kemper. Hes the one in the vegetative state, ”
“Oh, thats a very sad and odd case, ”
“According to the patient history, he was admitted a few weeks ago with cerebrospinal fluid leaking from his nose and ears, but it seemed like he should recover.
But yesterday he was brought in again, barely conscious and then he lapsed into a coma, The really odd thing is that I see no signs of injury or disease, ”
“Thats right, Doctor, It was a book that did this to Mr, Kemper. ”
“A book How is that possible”
“From what we can figure out, the first incident occured after he read Hyperion by a writer named Dan Simmons.
I guess its one of those scifi books and apparently the story is quite elaborate, Anyhow, Mr. Kemper had read Simmons before and knew he likes to put a lot of big ideas in his books, But this time, apparently Simmons broke into his house and managed to directly implant much of the book directly into Mr, Kempers brain via some kind of crude funnel device, ”
“I find that highly unlikely, Nurse, ”
“Most of us did, Doctor, But Mr. Kemper kept insisting that Simmons had some kind of grudge against him, He even had a note he said Simmons had left that said something like Dont you ever learn If you keep reading my books, Ill end you someday, ”
“Assuming that I believed this story, I guess that Kempers current state tells us that he didnt heed the warning”
“Apparently not, Doctor, His wife said she found him having convulsions and leaking brain matter out his nose and ears again, A copy of the sequel, The Fall of Hyperion was on the floor nearby, ”
“I cant believe that reading a silly scifi book could turn an healthy man into a turnip, Nurse, ”
“Well, when they brought Kemper in, he was semiconscious and muttering, Someone wrote it down. Let see, he kept repeating words and phrases like: Shrike, Time Tombs, the Core, God, uhno, two gods actually, farcasters, Ousters, religion, pope, death wand, space battles, interplanetary trees, old Earth, AI, mega sphere, data sphere, The Canterbury Tales, poetry, John Keats, Tree of Thorns, and Lord of Pain.
”
“Jesus! What does all that mean”
“Someone looked it up on the web and all of that is actually in the book, ”
“That poor bastard, No wonder his gray matter is fried, No one could absorb all that without permanent damage, ”
“Yes, Id think that book should have some kind of warning sticker or something on it, ”
“One thing I still dont understand, Nurse, If Kemper knew that this book would probably do this to him, why did he still read it”
“I guess he had told several people that Hyperion was just so good that he had to know how it ended, even if it killed him.
”
I think the word epic was invented to describe this book,
What Simmons began in Hyperion finishes here with a story so sprawling and massive that it defies description, In the far future, humanity has spread to the, and maintains a web of worlds via farcasters, Think Stargates. On the planet Hyperion, mysterious tombs have been moving backwards in time and are guarded by the deadly Shrike,
Seven people were sent to Hyperion on a pilgrimage that was almost certainly a suicide mission, but the Ousters, a segment of humanity evolving differently after centuries spent in deep space, are about to invade.
The artificial intelligences of the Core that humanity depends on for predictions of future events and management of the farcaster system cant tell whats coming with an unknown like the Shrike and Hyperion in play.
Battles rage across space and time and the virtual reality of the data sphere as varying interests with competing agendas maneuver and betray each other as the pilgrims on Hyperion struggle to survive and finally uncover the secrets of the Shrike.
But the real reasons behind the war and its ultimate goal are bigger and more sinister than anyone involved can imagine,
I cant say enough good things about the story told in these first two Hyperion books, This is scifi at its best with a massive story crammed with big unique ideas and believable characters you care about, Any one of the pieces could have made a helluva book, but it takes a talent like Simmons to pull all of it together into one coherent story, Oh my god.
Masterpiece.
Phenomenal.
I love this. What a crock of shit, I loved the first book and gave itstars, This one man, I hate it. It's nothing even like the first book, It's just a bunch of political/religious/philosophical nonsense, The Pilgrims from the first book are basically secondary characters here, They aren't really even the focus of the story anymore, I spent almost the entire book just wishing the Shrike would slaughter everyone so this book would be over,
Too much poetry
Too much boring descriptions of people traveling walking really far, endless descriptions of farcaster travels, really boring descriptions of traveling in the datacore etc.
Too much tedious political backstory details
BORING TEDIOUS BORING
sitelink
Christmas: I realised that I had got stuck in a rut, I was rereading old favourites again and again, waiting for a few trusted authors to release new works, Something had to be done,
On the spur of the moment I set myself a challenge, to read every book to have won the sitelinkLocus SciFi award, Thatsbooks,of which Id previously read, leavingtitles
byauthors who were new to me,
While working through this reading list I got married, went on my honeymoon, switched career and became a father, As such these stories became imprinted on my memory as the soundtrack to the happiest period in my life so far,
sitelinkThe Fall of Hyperion was one of the six award winners I had read before starting my Glorious Locus Quest along withother sitelinkSimmons books, an sitelinkAsimov and a sitelinkMay.
Occasionally sitelinkanother reviewer sums up your opinion so perfectly there seems little point in repeating the sentiment,
I felt the same way as sitelinkKemper about sitelinkFall :
“Mr, Kemper had read Simmons before and knew he likes to put a lot of big ideas in his books, But this time, apparently Simmons broke into his house and managed to directly implant much of the book directly into Mr, Kempers brain via some kind of crude funnel device, ”But sitelinkFall of Hyperion is so Shrikedamned good that I must, out of overwhelming respect, at least try to express my admiration and awe at this accomplishment.
“His wife said she found him having convulsions and leaking brain matter out his nose and ears, ”
“He had told several people that sitelinkHyperion was just so good that he had to know how it ended, even if it killed him.
”
Its a bit of cliché to describe a complex plot in terms of a circus platespinning act but its the most appropriate metaphor thats coming to my sleepdeprived mind this morning.
Its the familiar slackjawed feeling of hypnotic wonder at an artist who knows exactly how long hes got left on each plate before it starts to wobble, exactly how to stabilise that wobble, and exactly how much impetus to impart to allow him to work his way around all the plates before returning again.
Its the skill of a juggler with all the balls in the air, but with more calmcontrol and less frantic energy,
To stretch the analogy even further, sitelinkSimmons seems to work with plates of different sizes, colours, materials and shape on sticks of different heights and widths, He takes a difficult job, integrating an intergalactic multidimensional timetravelling spaceopera narrative, and makes it even more difficult by populating his universe with intelligent, diverse and contrary characters,
Some of his ideas articulate my deepest held ideals about farfuture hitech becoming indistinguishable to us, now from magic much as modern tech would be incomprehensible to early man.
I already mentioned the awesomeness incarnate that is the Shrike, the Poet and the Cruciform in sitelinkmy review of the first book, but here Im particularly referring to the Keats cybrids, the treeships and the TechnoCore.
Its a book I would dearly love to reread, but it looks like Im going to have to rebuy first because I leant the whole sitelinkCantos to a friend whos since moved house and taken it to the other side of the country.
. . I'm looking at you, Mark
sitelinkFall of Hyperion won the Locus SciFi award in, Im flabbergasted that the Hugo that year went to sitelinkThe Vor Game! Ive since read sitelinkThe Vor Game , and I alsostarred that, but good as that was, this is better.
Whats even more peculiar, is that the Nebula that year went to sitelinkTehanu a midseries fantasy novel Clearly I'll need to read it to understand that decision! Ah well, at least my trusty Locus SciFi award recognised and rewarded Sir sitelinkSimmons' creative genius.
After this I read: sitelinkThe Endymion Omnibus,