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Hyperion
by Dan Simmons
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Read in January, 2008
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Read in March, 2008
HYPERION BY DAN SIMMONS: Hyperion is the first book in Dan Simmons’ epic Hyperion Cantos tetralogy. In this opening tale, seven unique travelers are brought together on a journey, a pilgrimage to the distant and mysterious planet of Hyperion, where they will face the Time Tombs and perhaps the dreaded Shrike. The galaxy is on the brink of Armageddon, and the pilgrims hope to somehow save it, and ultimately find their destines on Hyperion.
Employing the structure of the Canterbury Tales, S...more
Employing the structure of the Canterbury Tales, S...more
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Read in January, 2007
recommends it for:
science fiction readers and those who enjoy short stories
Hyperion, by Dan Simmons
A number of reviewers focus on a perceived likeness to Canterbury Tales. This is only one aspect of the writing and a loose one at that. Chaucer wrote most of his tales in verse, this is all prose. The “frame” technique is certainly older than Chaucer and the fact that Chaucer uses pilgrims is probably the only other similarity to Hyperion.
The title is probably a reference Keats' poems Hyperion and the fall of Hyperion, which referred to the Greek titan by t...more
A number of reviewers focus on a perceived likeness to Canterbury Tales. This is only one aspect of the writing and a loose one at that. Chaucer wrote most of his tales in verse, this is all prose. The “frame” technique is certainly older than Chaucer and the fact that Chaucer uses pilgrims is probably the only other similarity to Hyperion.
The title is probably a reference Keats' poems Hyperion and the fall of Hyperion, which referred to the Greek titan by t...more
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Read in December, 2006
I really, really, really hate books like this.
Oh, it's not a bad book, don't get me wrong. It's just that nowhere on the book did it indicate that this is the first Hyperion book. Which means that I got to the rather abrupt, Wizard of Oz ending and then nearly threw the book across the room in rage.
So yeah, it's a good book. And now I have to go and hunt down the next one. Bastards.
Anyway, Simmons has pulled out one of the oldest storytelling devices in English literature, and made i...more
Oh, it's not a bad book, don't get me wrong. It's just that nowhere on the book did it indicate that this is the first Hyperion book. Which means that I got to the rather abrupt, Wizard of Oz ending and then nearly threw the book across the room in rage.
So yeah, it's a good book. And now I have to go and hunt down the next one. Bastards.
Anyway, Simmons has pulled out one of the oldest storytelling devices in English literature, and made i...more
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Read in May, 2007
I loved this book.
It follows roughly the same format as Chaucer's "The Canterbury Tales": several separate stories all related to each other.
On the planet of Hyperion there exists a being called "The Shrike". It is a being made out of shiny metal covered with spikes and has four arms and a deadly reputation for killing people. Fortunately, it's constrained to a small area of the planet Hyperion. The Shrike is so mysterious that a church has been formed around it a...more
It follows roughly the same format as Chaucer's "The Canterbury Tales": several separate stories all related to each other.
On the planet of Hyperion there exists a being called "The Shrike". It is a being made out of shiny metal covered with spikes and has four arms and a deadly reputation for killing people. Fortunately, it's constrained to a small area of the planet Hyperion. The Shrike is so mysterious that a church has been formed around it a...more
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Read in July, 2008
okay. i just finished this book literally two minutes ago, and i have fair bit to say. this book took FAR too long to read, for several reasons, only a couple of them actually book related.
first, if i could give this book a 4.5 instead of 5, i would.
dan simmons is one of the finest authors that i've read. seriously, this guy is on his A-game.
i dont want to give anything away, but i will say this story is about a few pilgrims on their way to the Shrike on a planet called Hyperion, an...more
first, if i could give this book a 4.5 instead of 5, i would.
dan simmons is one of the finest authors that i've read. seriously, this guy is on his A-game.
i dont want to give anything away, but i will say this story is about a few pilgrims on their way to the Shrike on a planet called Hyperion, an...more
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So I used to be obsessed with this sci/fi writer John Shirley, and whenever I went to a bookstore, I would look for him on the scifi shelves, but this guy was not a huge name, he wrote in different genres, etc etc, anyway, there were rarely any Shirleys there. But one book that was always right next to or around where I was looking was this Hyperion book with a coolass monster thingy (I guessed) on the cover. SImmons, always where I wanted my SHirley. So after what must have been years, I fin...more
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Read in July, 2008
More like: ★★★⅔
SHORT VERSION: a scifi redux of the Canterbury Tales; six densely packed, interlocked, interwoven tales that create a whole that is epic in scope. Gripping and creative with all the right literary nods. And yet oddly anti-climactic and maybe even a little unsatisfying.
NOTES IN PLACE OF A REAL REVIEW:
* A strong, engaging (if somewhat vague) opening chapter; but the vague elements seem to be in line w/ some scifi conventions so...
* the pace...more
SHORT VERSION: a scifi redux of the Canterbury Tales; six densely packed, interlocked, interwoven tales that create a whole that is epic in scope. Gripping and creative with all the right literary nods. And yet oddly anti-climactic and maybe even a little unsatisfying.
NOTES IN PLACE OF A REAL REVIEW:
* A strong, engaging (if somewhat vague) opening chapter; but the vague elements seem to be in line w/ some scifi conventions so...
* the pace...more
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Read in August, 2008
Dan Simmons' Hyperion drew me in slowly but completely. Once I was drawn in to the world Simmons creates--through the combination of the stories of several pilgrims to the planet of Hyperion and the Time Tombs there (a mysterious and dangerous site)--I didn't want the book to end.
Especially where it did.
I enjoyed the various pilgrims' stories, each quite different in style and genre. Some were moving, some intriguing, and some disturbing, but all added to the larger frame narr...more
Especially where it did.
I enjoyed the various pilgrims' stories, each quite different in style and genre. Some were moving, some intriguing, and some disturbing, but all added to the larger frame narr...more
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Read in January, 2006
recommends it for:
Anyone and everyone
This novel won the Hugo award in 1990 and rightfully so. Hyperion can best be described as a futuristic Cantebury Tales . There are so many well thought out stories and ideas in this book, that in the end will leave you breathless. From cyberpunk, to poetry, to military sci-fi, to a study on the corruption of religion, to the legendary traveling Jew, and many more. I was mesmerized by how moving each singular story was and how they all connected together on a far-off foreign wor...more
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As different as we are, there is a common bond we all share. More than our planet, more even than our humanity, we are all thinking beings who participate in some vast dance of cosmic thought and causality.
In Hyperion and the three books that follow, Dan Simmons shows us a future society, the Hegemony of Man, and it's attempts to shape its own future. From within, it is challenged by its own chimerical nature as various planetary societies assert themselves and their individualities...more
In Hyperion and the three books that follow, Dan Simmons shows us a future society, the Hegemony of Man, and it's attempts to shape its own future. From within, it is challenged by its own chimerical nature as various planetary societies assert themselves and their individualities...more
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So this is probably the first space opera I've liked in years. More importantly than that, it actually IS a Canterbury Tales of the genre, and not just because it uses the storytelling framing device--every tale is written as tribute to a major genre or period of the field, from cyberpunk-detective story to first-contact biological horror to literary-referential New Wave to military SF to quasi-Flowers for Algernon. Plus, the plot is killer, and you learn it agonizingly in the background of all ...more
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Read in February, 2001
I cannot put into words how much I hate this book. A friend of mine gave me this book as a birthday gift, so I had to read it. I kept telling him I don't "do" most sci-fi, but he said based on other books I liked that I would probably like it. I did not. Oh boy, I did not. I also almost vomited on the bus when I got to the part about the cruciform. And there is an actual vagina dentata in the book--I totally laughed out loud because I thought, "Really? Dan Simmons, you are ...more
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Read in April, 2008
As far as I can tell this book won the Hugo award in 1990 for pretension. Or, perhaps I'm not being fair. Up until about 50 pages from the end I was thrilled with the book. It was riveting. The characters and world were drawn with incredible skill, though with allusions and "literary" bits drawn a little to completely from other great works. Nevertheless, everything seemed to be building to a stunning conclusion. Except, it never came. Mr. Simmons left the story hanging and didn'...more
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Read in June, 2008
I avoided this book a long time because of the cover which suggested a book dealing with fantasy, which I don't like all that much.
To be my pleasant surprise it was a science fiction novel about a group of travelers going to see the Shrike in hopes of saving the universe.
I enjoyed how the book was setup with the narratives by the main characters with several pages squeezed in to keep the story moving in the present. I appreciated how Simmons switched gears from story to story - a classi...more
To be my pleasant surprise it was a science fiction novel about a group of travelers going to see the Shrike in hopes of saving the universe.
I enjoyed how the book was setup with the narratives by the main characters with several pages squeezed in to keep the story moving in the present. I appreciated how Simmons switched gears from story to story - a classi...more
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Hyperion is one of the most intelligent science fiction novels I have read in a long time. It is a complicated story that bridges both light years and time lines and drops literary references all over the place. 7 pilgrims are on a journey to visit the mysterious Shrike, a god to some, a monster to others, but death to most it encounters. Each pilgrim has an interesting background that has led them there so the all share their stories. The novel and it's sequel, The Fall of Hyperion, bring up so...more
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A great sci-fi story told in the "frame story" format. (Like Canterbury Tales.) Seven very different people are on a pilgrimage together to Hyperion and each of their back-stories unfolds the plot.
What I liked best about this story is that in addition to being a great story and setting, (common in good sci-fi/fantasy) the author happens to be a great writer (not so common even in good sci-fi/fantasy). You can tell that the author has a love of science and futurism but also a love o...more
What I liked best about this story is that in addition to being a great story and setting, (common in good sci-fi/fantasy) the author happens to be a great writer (not so common even in good sci-fi/fantasy). You can tell that the author has a love of science and futurism but also a love o...more
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Read in December, 2007
recommends it for:
everyone.
I read these (4) books when they first came out and read them again in 2001. I finished Simmons' Ilium and Olympos this summer and was finding "reminders" of Hyperion and Endymion popping up all over the place and I just could not resist another reading.
I find myself smiling when I am amidst a passage and feel as though I'm remembering an event with an old friend.
These novels are smart, deep and thought-provoking on all levels of the "big" topics: sex, drugs, relig...more
I find myself smiling when I am amidst a passage and feel as though I'm remembering an event with an old friend.
These novels are smart, deep and thought-provoking on all levels of the "big" topics: sex, drugs, relig...more
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First in a 4 book series by Dan Simmons. I read all four books in 2002. I'm rereading them now, I'm finishing book two The Fall of Hyperion.
This is the only Science Fiction novel I've read, and it's one of my favorite books. If you like JRR Tolkien you might like this series. It's an engaging story about a crisis of humankind and a believable mystic explanation of the universe.
This is only book one, You learn about the history of human society through the stories of 7 individuals who a...more
This is the only Science Fiction novel I've read, and it's one of my favorite books. If you like JRR Tolkien you might like this series. It's an engaging story about a crisis of humankind and a believable mystic explanation of the universe.
This is only book one, You learn about the history of human society through the stories of 7 individuals who a...more
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The first book in the four book series, this was fantastic; rich, intriguing, poetic and WAAY deep, this book begins 700 years into the future where, thanks to AI and wormhole technology, humans have begun to colonize planets throughout our arm of the galaxy. It's hard to describe the full scope of this series in this space. What I CAN tell you however, is that this book has everything I could ask for in a book: Battling forces of God-like AIs and the church in the ultimate good vs. evil tug-o-...more
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