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Conor's Reviews > Hyperion
Hyperion (Hyperion Cantos, #1)
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by
Still singing loudly, not looking back, matching stride for stride, they descended into the valley.
This first novel in the Hyperion Cantos easily surpassed any sci-fi I've ever read. While the presence of cool space-ships, strange planets and gun-fights in space are all going to be familiar to fans of the genre the typical adventures, rebellions and funny/evil aliens are nowhere to be found. Instead we get a tale of incredible complexity, deep, brilliantly realized world building and a mature and intelligent exploration of morality, philosophy and what it means to be human with a ridiculous amount of allusions to the great works of literature ingrained throughout the story for good measure. 6 tales effortlessly segue between times, places and even genres but all contribute to our understanding of this world, an incredibly complex and layered vision of humanity hundreds of years in the future and to a gripping plot filled with danger and mystery. These are the stories told by a group of Pilgrim's on their way to meet with a mysterious being who may be an angel of salvation for humanity or the agent of it's destruction.
The main narrative of this story concerns 6 mysterious pilgrims on a journey to meet with a dangerous and powerful entity while the galaxy at large teeters on the cusp of destruction. However this plotline mostly just served as a framing device for the stories of the 6 pilgrims. Despite what was ostensibly the main story being reduced to interludes between the tales I still found these sections to be enjoyable. There was danger, mystery and some cool world-building but mostly these sections served to set up the Pilgrim’s tales and to help the reader process them.
The Priest's Tale - 5 Stars
This story used a weird narrative frame with the Priest pilgrim reading from the journal of a missionary. The start of this tale was interesting with an ageing priest on a journey to find a mysterious people in an isolated rain forest. After reaching his target I thought the plot slowed down a bit however just as I was starting to lose interest there was a massive reveal and from then on this story was extremely intense and compelling, filled with revelations, suspense and mystical overtones. The ending was extremely moving. A major theme in this story was the exploration of the place of religion in society and I thought it was handled in a really intelligent and interesting way.
The Soldier's Tale - 3.5 Stars
I found Kassad to be the most interesting of the pilgrims in the interlude sections so I was really psyched for his tale. Unfortunately it proved to be a disappointment. After a great start with a gripping and surprisingly historically accurate portrayal of the Battle of Agincourt the rest of this section felt rushed. A number of important events in Kassad’s life are recounted in a dry, perfunctory manner. I thought that his childhood and his involvement in the Battle of Bressia especially could have made for great sections and I was really disappointed that they were so lazily glossed over. These sections definitely could have been expanded (although tbf I would have been happy if his entire story had just been a series of intense, realistic recreations of historical battles like Agincourt at the start…). However this story did have some cool action scenes at the end and I found the exploration of how the military, it’s culture and role in society had developed in this world to be really interesting although, again, it felt rushed and should have had more screen-time.
The Poet's Tale - 5 Stars
I wasn’t expecting much from my least favourite pilgrim but the poet’s story was in turns gripping, funny and moving. The poet narrated his story brilliantly with inventive descriptions, distinctive methods of storytelling and wry observations. The story itself reminded me of a really good memoir with the Poet taking us through his life from his indulged but isolated childhood to being sent hundreds of years into the future with his vocabulary reduced to 7 (hilarious) words where he produced his finest work to his meteoric rise to fame and struggles with all that came with it. The Poet’s tale was a stark counterpoint to the Soldier’s. While it lacked on paper anywhere near as much action as the story that preceded it, this tale was brilliantly written to be fleshed out and engaging. This story also had 2 great characters in the form of the Poet’s tough, acerbic editor and the awkward, stuttering and ultimately heroic Sad King Billy.
The Scholar's Tale - 5 Stars
A friend of mine observed in his review of this book that (paraphrasing) no matter how much weird sci-fi stuff is going on the human element is always the beating heart of the story. That was shown nowhere better than in this tale. This story opens with a brief overview of the early life of Professor Sol Weintraub. The author paints a vivid picture of his contentment in his job and home and most importantly his warm and loving family. However that all changes when his 26 year old daughter travels to the planet of Hyperion and begins to age backwards. This story could have easily been written as a simple oddity or wrung for all of the drama the author could manage, but neither of these things happened (view spoiler), instead this is an understated story of sacrifice and family with an undertone of humour and warmth even at it’s most tragic.
The Detective's Tale - 5 Stars
The Detetive’s tale started out as a pretty formulaic crime story but developed into something more. The story opens with a beautiful stranger walking into the office of a tough P.I. with a request to investigate a murder. I’m not particularly fond of or familiar with the Detective genre so it was only in reading a review after finishing the book that I realised that there was a cool subversion in that the tough P.I. was a woman and the stranger a guy. Anyway the start was pretty dull (although fans of the genre might like it) but as the story progresses it improves dramatically. The world-building with regards to the AI Technocore and it’s politics was awesome and I suspect will be really important in the rest of the series. The ending was also great with some epic action scenes.
The Consul's Tale - 3.5 Stars
This tale got off to a really weird start with prelude that was a story within the story about a character we’ve not seen before in the story. Also the story skips around in no chronological order. Mindfuck. Anyway the prelude (which ultimately takes up about 2/3rds of this tale) came together fairly well for a finish. The narrator was kind of a selfish dick, but his best mate Mike was cool and funny and his love interest Siri was awesome- strong, wise and compassionate. Her only real fault was putting up with the annoying protagonist so much. The second half of the story was a recap of the Consul’s life. While it had some really cool revelations that put a lot of the grand politics in a much different and more complex light it also rushed and forced, much like the Soldier’s tale earlier. The two parts that especially could have benefitted from more exploration were his family and his relationship with the Ouster’s. In his POV’s in the interludes we’ve been teased with the mysterious, tragic death of his son years earlier which sent him into self-destructive spiral of alcoholism. And yet all we really get in his story is ‘I got married, had a kid, a while later they died. I was bummed out, honestly hadn’t been that sad since my pet dolphin died when the Hegemony colonised my home world. Flipper will be avenged! Sorry where was I?’. Also after being told for the entire duration of the book that the Ouster’s are evil bloodthirsty savages the Consul tells us that they apparently have an incredibly rich culture but doesn’t bother to spend more than a few lines exploring it.
Overall this was a great read; the depth of the world-building, the complexity of the plot and the intelligent exploration of morality, religion and the place of humanity in the world has raised the bar for any sci-fi I read in the future and I’m really interested to see where Dan Simmons takes this series from here.
This first novel in the Hyperion Cantos easily surpassed any sci-fi I've ever read. While the presence of cool space-ships, strange planets and gun-fights in space are all going to be familiar to fans of the genre the typical adventures, rebellions and funny/evil aliens are nowhere to be found. Instead we get a tale of incredible complexity, deep, brilliantly realized world building and a mature and intelligent exploration of morality, philosophy and what it means to be human with a ridiculous amount of allusions to the great works of literature ingrained throughout the story for good measure. 6 tales effortlessly segue between times, places and even genres but all contribute to our understanding of this world, an incredibly complex and layered vision of humanity hundreds of years in the future and to a gripping plot filled with danger and mystery. These are the stories told by a group of Pilgrim's on their way to meet with a mysterious being who may be an angel of salvation for humanity or the agent of it's destruction.
The main narrative of this story concerns 6 mysterious pilgrims on a journey to meet with a dangerous and powerful entity while the galaxy at large teeters on the cusp of destruction. However this plotline mostly just served as a framing device for the stories of the 6 pilgrims. Despite what was ostensibly the main story being reduced to interludes between the tales I still found these sections to be enjoyable. There was danger, mystery and some cool world-building but mostly these sections served to set up the Pilgrim’s tales and to help the reader process them.
The Priest's Tale - 5 Stars
This story used a weird narrative frame with the Priest pilgrim reading from the journal of a missionary. The start of this tale was interesting with an ageing priest on a journey to find a mysterious people in an isolated rain forest. After reaching his target I thought the plot slowed down a bit however just as I was starting to lose interest there was a massive reveal and from then on this story was extremely intense and compelling, filled with revelations, suspense and mystical overtones. The ending was extremely moving. A major theme in this story was the exploration of the place of religion in society and I thought it was handled in a really intelligent and interesting way.
The Soldier's Tale - 3.5 Stars
I found Kassad to be the most interesting of the pilgrims in the interlude sections so I was really psyched for his tale. Unfortunately it proved to be a disappointment. After a great start with a gripping and surprisingly historically accurate portrayal of the Battle of Agincourt the rest of this section felt rushed. A number of important events in Kassad’s life are recounted in a dry, perfunctory manner. I thought that his childhood and his involvement in the Battle of Bressia especially could have made for great sections and I was really disappointed that they were so lazily glossed over. These sections definitely could have been expanded (although tbf I would have been happy if his entire story had just been a series of intense, realistic recreations of historical battles like Agincourt at the start…). However this story did have some cool action scenes at the end and I found the exploration of how the military, it’s culture and role in society had developed in this world to be really interesting although, again, it felt rushed and should have had more screen-time.
The Poet's Tale - 5 Stars
I wasn’t expecting much from my least favourite pilgrim but the poet’s story was in turns gripping, funny and moving. The poet narrated his story brilliantly with inventive descriptions, distinctive methods of storytelling and wry observations. The story itself reminded me of a really good memoir with the Poet taking us through his life from his indulged but isolated childhood to being sent hundreds of years into the future with his vocabulary reduced to 7 (hilarious) words where he produced his finest work to his meteoric rise to fame and struggles with all that came with it. The Poet’s tale was a stark counterpoint to the Soldier’s. While it lacked on paper anywhere near as much action as the story that preceded it, this tale was brilliantly written to be fleshed out and engaging. This story also had 2 great characters in the form of the Poet’s tough, acerbic editor and the awkward, stuttering and ultimately heroic Sad King Billy.
The Scholar's Tale - 5 Stars
A friend of mine observed in his review of this book that (paraphrasing) no matter how much weird sci-fi stuff is going on the human element is always the beating heart of the story. That was shown nowhere better than in this tale. This story opens with a brief overview of the early life of Professor Sol Weintraub. The author paints a vivid picture of his contentment in his job and home and most importantly his warm and loving family. However that all changes when his 26 year old daughter travels to the planet of Hyperion and begins to age backwards. This story could have easily been written as a simple oddity or wrung for all of the drama the author could manage, but neither of these things happened (view spoiler), instead this is an understated story of sacrifice and family with an undertone of humour and warmth even at it’s most tragic.
The Detective's Tale - 5 Stars
The Detetive’s tale started out as a pretty formulaic crime story but developed into something more. The story opens with a beautiful stranger walking into the office of a tough P.I. with a request to investigate a murder. I’m not particularly fond of or familiar with the Detective genre so it was only in reading a review after finishing the book that I realised that there was a cool subversion in that the tough P.I. was a woman and the stranger a guy. Anyway the start was pretty dull (although fans of the genre might like it) but as the story progresses it improves dramatically. The world-building with regards to the AI Technocore and it’s politics was awesome and I suspect will be really important in the rest of the series. The ending was also great with some epic action scenes.
The Consul's Tale - 3.5 Stars
This tale got off to a really weird start with prelude that was a story within the story about a character we’ve not seen before in the story. Also the story skips around in no chronological order. Mindfuck. Anyway the prelude (which ultimately takes up about 2/3rds of this tale) came together fairly well for a finish. The narrator was kind of a selfish dick, but his best mate Mike was cool and funny and his love interest Siri was awesome- strong, wise and compassionate. Her only real fault was putting up with the annoying protagonist so much. The second half of the story was a recap of the Consul’s life. While it had some really cool revelations that put a lot of the grand politics in a much different and more complex light it also rushed and forced, much like the Soldier’s tale earlier. The two parts that especially could have benefitted from more exploration were his family and his relationship with the Ouster’s. In his POV’s in the interludes we’ve been teased with the mysterious, tragic death of his son years earlier which sent him into self-destructive spiral of alcoholism. And yet all we really get in his story is ‘I got married, had a kid, a while later they died. I was bummed out, honestly hadn’t been that sad since my pet dolphin died when the Hegemony colonised my home world. Flipper will be avenged! Sorry where was I?’. Also after being told for the entire duration of the book that the Ouster’s are evil bloodthirsty savages the Consul tells us that they apparently have an incredibly rich culture but doesn’t bother to spend more than a few lines exploring it.
Overall this was a great read; the depth of the world-building, the complexity of the plot and the intelligent exploration of morality, religion and the place of humanity in the world has raised the bar for any sci-fi I read in the future and I’m really interested to see where Dan Simmons takes this series from here.
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Quotes Conor Liked
“To be a true poet is to become God.
I tried to explain this to my friends on Heaven's Gate. 'Piss, shit,' I said. 'Asshole motherfucker, goddamn shit goddamn. Cunt. Pee-pee cunt. Goddamn!'
They shook their heads and smiled, and walked away. Great poets are rarely understood in their own day.”
― Hyperion
I tried to explain this to my friends on Heaven's Gate. 'Piss, shit,' I said. 'Asshole motherfucker, goddamn shit goddamn. Cunt. Pee-pee cunt. Goddamn!'
They shook their heads and smiled, and walked away. Great poets are rarely understood in their own day.”
― Hyperion
Reading Progress
June 14, 2014
– Shelved as:
to-read
June 14, 2014
– Shelved
December 3, 2014
–
Started Reading
December 3, 2014
–
0.0%
"I don't read much sci-fi but this one sounds intriguing and has been on my TBR for ages. A load of positive reviews from my friends recently has convinced me to start it. Really psyched right now."
December 4, 2014
–
6.0%
" “It occurs to me,” Sol Weintraub said “that our survival may depend upon our talking to one another.”
And so it begins..."
And so it begins..."
December 4, 2014
–
9.0%
" “I was baptized a Lutheran. A subset which no longer exists. I helped create Zen Gnosticism before any of your parents were born. I have been a Catholic, a neo-Marxist, an interface zealot, a Bound Shaker, a satanist and a dues-paying subscriber to the Assured Reincarnation Institute. Now, I am happy to say, I am a simple pagan.”
The religious aspect of the world building so far has been intriguing."
The religious aspect of the world building so far has been intriguing."
December 7, 2014
–
18.0%
" Once a parent to a child now dead, the Consul walked on, knowing once again the sensation of bearing a sleeping son to bed.
The priest's story provided a strong opening to this book and that ending was haunting."
The priest's story provided a strong opening to this book and that ending was haunting."
December 8, 2014
–
36.0%
"The soldier's story opens with an unexpected, but awesome, recreation of the battle of Agincourt. Immersive, intense and nailing a surprising number of the nuances of historical accuracy this was a really strong start."
December 9, 2014
–
42.0%
"The soldier's story was pretty good. I thought it felt rushed though, with the descriptions of a lot of important events feeling kind of perfunctory. His early life and the battle of Bressia both could have been expanded imo."
December 10, 2014
–
45.0%
" “Look,” said Tyrena. “In twentieth-century Old Earth, a fast food chain took dead cow meat, fried it in grease, added carcinogens, wrapped it in petroleum-based foam, and sold nine hundred billion units. Human beings. Go figure.”
...Anyone else not so hungry anymore?"
...Anyone else not so hungry anymore?"
December 11, 2014
–
51.0%
"M. Silenus' story was brilliant. I didn't expect much from my least favourite member of the pilgrimage but it combined tragedy, comedy, action and more great world-building. Also Sad King Billy was an awesome character."
December 12, 2014
–
59.0%
" It was her last or her first smile.
Jesus, that was intense. The Scholar's tale was a well-written, powerful story with some really interesting musings on philosophy and morality and towards the end there were moments where I had a genuine lump in my throat. Really moving."
Jesus, that was intense. The Scholar's tale was a well-written, powerful story with some really interesting musings on philosophy and morality and towards the end there were moments where I had a genuine lump in my throat. Really moving."
December 14, 2014
–
72.0%
"I'm kind of conflicted about the Ousters right now you guys. On one hand they're a bunch of 2-dimensional, evil wankers whose only contribution to the story so far has been to murder, burn and pillage a lot. On the other hand they're space(!) barbarians(!) which is a combination of 2 really cool things."
December 15, 2014
–
74.0%
"All the references to him in this book have made me want to look into the life and works of 19th century poet John Keats. First time I've researched a poet/poetry that wasn't for an English essay. LOOK AT WHAT YOU'VE MADE ME DO DAN SIMMONS!"
December 15, 2014
–
76.0%
"Really liked Lamia's tale. At the start it was a pretty typical, kind of dull, detective story. But the world-building with regards to AI's and the revelations and action scenes at the end, were really awesome."
December 17, 2014
–
83.0%
"Confusing opening to the Consul's tale. Telling a story within the story about a character we've not met. And the story is skipping all over the place in no chronological order. I've read 5 Malazan books but I can't recall ever being jerked around as much at the start of a story. Mike's a cool character though."
December 18, 2014
–
85.0%
" I ’cast to Fuji and lost most of my ready marks betting on the bloody samurai fights there.
Have to be honest you guys; that sounds friggin' awesome :D"
Have to be honest you guys; that sounds friggin' awesome :D"
December 18, 2014
–
96.0%
"After a weak start the first part of the Consul's tale came together alright. The main character was a knobhead but Mike was cool and Siri was just awesome. The second part felt rushed. There were some cool revelations about the plot and pieces of world-building (especially about the Ousters) that really should have been better explored. Also the Consul's motivations and conflict were interesting but glossed over."
December 20, 2014
–
99.0%
" Still singing loudly, not looking back, matching stride for stride, they descended into the valley.
That was an ending definitely intended to set up the sequel but I still enjoyed it."
That was an ending definitely intended to set up the sequel but I still enjoyed it."
December 20, 2014
– Shelved as:
sci-fi
December 20, 2014
– Shelved as:
favorites
December 20, 2014
– Shelved as:
hyperion-cantos
December 20, 2014
–
Finished Reading
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Too many books to read? Yeah, I know the feeling :D This one is well worth a read though. I'm about halfway through and really enjoying it so far. And yeah I really like that pic. Whoever did it is crazy talented and it's also one of the coolest scenes from my favourite series. We've never actually gotten to see what happened at Ruby Ford in the series but that image really brings it to life.
I'm reading this now, too. I'm just about through Kassad's part. It's very intense.
I'm so glad you loved it! The series is just amazing.
YAY!!! You liked it!!! Awesome review, my favorite tales were Lamia and Kassad.
Liam: Yeah a lot of the stories were pretty intense. Especially the Priest's, the Poet's (towards the end at least) and the Scholar's.Heather: Yep, it was awesome :) Really psyched for book 2.
Athena: Thanks :) I was really disappointed by Kassad's because of how awesome it could have been but instead it felt rushed and dry. Lamia's was awesome though. tbh I couldn't pick a favourite tale between the Priest's, the Poet's, the Detective's and the Scholar's. They were all great.
PS: love your profile picture. Ruby Ford *sigh