Book Review: Hyperion by Dan Simmons

Hyperion by Dan Simmons
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In the four centuries since Old Earth was destroyed the Hegemony of Man has grown, but there is a planet in the outback beyond the Hegemony’s borders that confounds those who learn about it. Hyperion is the first book of Dan Simmons’ Hyperion Cantos and features seven pilgrims on a journey to the Time Tombs to meet the legendary and deadly Shrike.

The planet Hyperion is about to be the scene of the beginning of an interstellar war between the Hegemony of Man and the Ousters, those humans who live outside the Hegemony after migrating away from Old Earth, but the Hegemony along with the Church of the Shrike organizes one last pilgrimage of seven to visit the Shrike. The seven selected pilgrims tell their stories to one another so they can pick up clues on how to survive their encounter with the Shrike who is said to kill six pilgrims while granting the wish of the lone survivor. The pilgrim’s stories are Simmons’ framing device for giving background information to his universe while also propelling the narrative towards a climax that makes the reader want to know what happens next as they haven’t met the Shrike. The story-within-a-story a la The Canterbury Tales and allusions to English poet John Keats within the science fiction aspect of the book were interesting choices by Simmons as connecting devices throughout the book and fun to find. The overall writing and story are pretty good, and one can see why this is a highly regarded book in its genre.

Hyperion is considered one of the best science fiction novels of the 1990s and after reading the first book of Dan Simmons’ Hyperion Cantos, I can see why that is so and I’m intrigued about how he follows up in the immediate sequel.

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