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Hyperion Book Review

Hyperion is a 1989 science fiction novel by Dan Simmons. It is one of the best and most authentic works in this genre.

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“There is a fullness and calmness there

which can come only from knowing pain“

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On the titular planet awaits a creature called the Shrike. Some worship it, others fear it. Seven pilgrims set forth on a final voyage to Hyperion seeking answers and each of them holding a huge secret. First published in 1989, the novel ended up winning the Hugo Award the next year and is now regarded as one of the best SF books ever written. I wholeheartedly agree with that assessment.

There is a lot to dissect here, but let’s first analyze its structure. In what was a brilliant choice from the author, he decided to frame this story as just the beginning of a much larger tale. Thus, this first novel functions pretty much as a prequel or more so a prelude to the big story at hand. As each of the seven pilgrims tells his or her tale, we are transported through flashbacks to their time and place of the tale, and the results are fascinating.

So, the book consists of these six tales of the pilgrims with the in-between sections comprising either their conversations with each other or details from their voyage. Undoubtedly, this structure isn’t for everybody as the novel really is just the prelude as Simmons leaves the meat of the story only for its sequels to explore, but for the patient readers who are mesmerized by this world, this will prove to be a truly unforgettable reading experience.

The ending was quite memorable and the beginning was instantly intriguing, though difficult to comprehend as the author threw so many details and ideas right from the start. But eventually everything gets explained while still building up for the sequels in such a thrilling fashion, making me so excited to read the rest of this series.

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There is no doubt about it, The Priest’s Tale is by far the greatest tale in this entire novel. Having to leave this particular story and move onto others was difficult for me as I was utterly enthralled by the magnitude, originality and emotional investment of this powerful tale. So yes, the book never quite reaching that level of brilliance again was an issue for me, but then again this tale is so incredible that it would be almost impossible to ever rival it.

It is about a priest who researches an island on Hyperion and the creatures known as the Bikura. These creatures never die, but eventually it is revealed that they are infected by an alien parasite, thus every time they die, they are resurrected but with dire consequences as they lose all of their humanity and individuality. Without spoiling anything, how this story ended was truly unforgettable. It was one of the most brutal and shocking conclusions that I have ever witnessed in any medium and it just goes to show how Simmons is such a gifted storyteller.

Not only is that ending downright disturbing and wholly unforgiving while also being the most memorable and iconic moment in the novel, but the first half of the story is so intriguing that I was riveted by the mystery of these creatures and why they behaved as they did. This is the essence of science fiction storytelling – exploring different civilizations, the concepts of humanity and lack thereof as well as dealing with the themes of life and death.

The Soldier’s Tale is unfortunately the weakest of the seven stories. Coming right after the best tale was always going to be tough, but this story just wasn’t that appealing to me as it dealt too much with warfare, a subject I am not sure will be particularly relevant in the distant future of humanity. The only part of this tale that was effective was the crazy psychosexual exploration of the protagonist’s love affair and his deranged sexuality. The sex scenes here were truly disturbing, once again signifying that Hyperion has quite a lot of horror influences in it.

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There is one minor criticism that I have against this book and it was best showcased in this second tale and that is the highly difficult to believe ideas that religions and nationalities will be important in the distant future. The very idea that classic religions that we currently have and see declining will be practiced at all centuries from now is a ludicrous one, but even worse the protagonist of this tale is of Palestinian descent and he is aware of it. Why would somebody in the 28^th century be aware of his descent when the Old Earth is long gone? That would be akin to all of us being aware and honoring our Anglo-Saxon or Viking ancestries. It doesn’t make any sense and this bothered me throughout this story.

The Poet’s Tale isn’t the best of the stories, but it’s an effective one nonetheless as it explored the importance of art in any century and how art and consumerism will probably never be able to peacefully co-exist. The protagonist of this tale also extended his life significantly and that was also very well explored. The Shrike moment was here unexpected and quite shocking.

The Scholar’s Tale is the second best story in Hyperion without a doubt. A Jewish professor tries desperately to save his daughter, who is aging backwards due to the disease that she contracted while visiting the Time Tombs. This was by far the most emotionally engaging, truly heartbreaking story as it asked readers is there anything worse than seeing your own child wither away and return to the baby form and you lose all those precious moments that you’ve had with her and she constantly forgets her own memories. It was a true hard SF concept that was brilliantly explored here. Simmons also attacked some of the worst Bible stories and beliefs in this tale, in particular focusing on the God asking from his follower to sacrifice his own child’s life, concluding that only a truly evil God would ask such a thing from his worshippers.

The Detective’s Tale is all about artificial intelligence and memory. What is your memory and is memory stored inside you of a long dead poet your own memory and what is, thus, your identity are just some of the questions posed in this very well told tale. The detective mystery is also memorable and getting the first true glimpse inside AI and how it works in this world was very interesting.

The Consul’s Tale deals with time dilation and a powerful, moving romance at its core. It is one of the most important stories in terms of world building as it explains all these different important fractions in this world and how they correlate with each other. The Consul himself remains the most mysterious pilgrim of the bunch and his story was quite intriguing.

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Speaking of the characters, Martin Silenus the poet is so far the most memorable and fun of the bunch as he is the most confrontational one. Others also got terrific arcs and backstories, though not the most memorable personalities, but for a science fiction novel the characterization is much better than average. Easily stealing the show is Shrike himself, a powerful villain who is almost like a cult figure in this world. He is so visually memorable and so intimidating whenever he appears that he just might be one of the best villains in the history of the genre.

Hyperion is thematically rich and diverse. Religion is by far the subject that consumes the mind of Dan Simmons the most, and although he verged on obsessive at times while dealing with it, his complex depiction of religion is still quite commendable. He criticized the worst practices from all religions, but he also emphasized the importance of spirituality and religion in a world where humans have spread everywhere in the galaxy and have lost the morality compass and sense of identity. His obsession with religion is odd for this genre and the distant future, but it still led to a timeless, epic and interesting metafiction narrative that ultimately it was worth it.

Mortality is also well explored and how death is unavoidable even in the future while sex itself is a powerful tool in many of the stories. Betrayal is depicted in the last story and the moral conundrum showcased there was quite interesting. What it means to be conscious, what is identity and how warfare and art function in this future world are all very well explored too.

Dan Simmons has such a concise writing style and a great flow that reading this book was always a treat. He is an amazing storyteller and he is particularly gifted at descriptive passages and at world building. The scale of this series is absolutely massive and it was such an ambitious undertaking that it will be interesting to see whether or not it fully pays off with the sequels. His dialogue is also terrific, though somewhat sparsely used in this first entry.

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The first person perspective was so well utilized in order to give more emotion to each story while the characterization, pacing and structure are all fantastic. The emotional engagement in this book is almost unprecedented for the genre, the tone is diverse and the imagery described is constantly intriguing. Hyperion is obviously uneven for a book that is structured like a collection of stories, but they ultimately felt superbly connected with each other and they all felt coherent and seamlessly incorporated into this well imagined world.