The Fall of Hyperion
On the world called Hyperion, beyond the law of the Hegemony of Man, there waits the creature called the Shrike. There are those who worship it. There are those who fear it. And there are those who have vowed to destroy it. In the Valley of the Time Tombs, where huge, brooding structures move backward through time, the Shrike waits for them all. On the eve of Armageddon, with the entire galaxy at war, seven pilgrims set forth on a final voyage to Hyperion seeking the answers to the unsolved riddles of their lives. Each carries a desperate hope--and a terrible secret. And one may hold the fate of humanity in his hands.
Stats for nerds
20recommend
39mentions
36people
2010–2026years
54% recommend41% neutral5% critical
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- I recommend everyone read Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion. The messages about AI and human stagnation are highly relevant to our current world.
- RIP, truly one of the greats.
His early stuff contains some real masterworks. Hyperion is still to this day, going to show up at the top of my scifi recommended reading list, most of his horror novels were also great in their own ways.
PS: I thought Fall of Hyperion should have been the end, it was just too final. There was plenty of space for some prequels but while the sequels contained some interesting ideas, they just never got to the level I felt justified reversing the finality of Fall. And Olympus/etc was pretty forgettable, but I don't regret the time I spent reading pretty much everything he wrote, sometimes more than once. So again, RIP.
- A lot, but my favorites of the year:
- Children of Time
- Hyperion & The Fall of Hyperion
- Red Dragon & Silence of the Lambs
- Cat's Cradle
- The Book of the New Sun
- A pair of books I’d recommend for 2024, which I didn’t get the chance to reread this year, would be:
- The Ocean at the End of the Lane (Gaiman), which is beautiful in a way I can’t quite describe
- Century Rain (Reynolds), which is best described as a hard boiled 1930’s noir hard science fiction novel.
Books I read this year which I really enjoyed:’
- Exploding The Phone (Lapsley): Super engrossing description of the phone phreak scene almost from its start to its end
- Hyperion and sequels (Simmons): Probably one of my favourite science fiction series now, and I’ve already felt the need to go back and re-read passages from it. Also really enjoy how each part of the series (Hyperion, then Fall of Hyperion, then the Endymion books) re-invent the style and the story.
- The Annotated American Gods (Gaiman, Klinger): 1000’s of footnotes is a great way to revisit the story :)
- Dan Simmons' Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion
- Dan Simmons: Hyperion, Fall of Hyperion
Peter Watts: Blindsight, EchopraxiaRead them (if you haven't already) before any HBO serialization or movie can forever ruin them for you.
Stanislav Lem: FiascoStrong concept and incredibly fleshed-out world building, reminds me of Lem.An inverted first-contact scenario.
