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Type of bind: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9780553283686
ISBN number: 0553283685
Label: Spectra
Manufacturer: Spectra
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 512
Printing Date: March 01, 1990
Publishing house: Spectra
Release Date: February 01, 1990
Sale Popularity Level: 10148
Studio: Spectra
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Product Description:
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.
Amazon.com Review:
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.
A stunning tour de force, this Hugo Award-winning novel is the very first volume in a remarkable new science fiction epic by the author of The Hollow Man.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
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I originally ordered Hyperion 10 years ago here in Amazon. When I very first read it, I found it slow and pondering and finished it without really absorbing it. I re-read it again, and with the added knowledge of 10 years, I found it enlightening, profound and exciting. Hyperion is basically the set-up to a Sci-Fi Universe imagined by Dan Simmons. It introduces the seven main characters of the Hyperion Cantos and by telling their tale, the reader learns about the Hegemony, TechnoCore and the Ousters. Each tale is an opportunity for Dan Simmons to show his mastery of different literary genres - from Kassad's military sex-fi to Brawne Lamia's noirish cyberpunk tale to Sol Weintraub's heartbreaking story to Silenus' anarchic and comic saga. However, Hyperion ends up like that - Simmons' showing off. From the way it is structured, it seems contrived that each Pilgrim gets to tell their tale and too coincidental that each detail is revealed depending on the order of the pilgrims, considering they drew lots. It lessens the suspense since you'll know further information about a galactic conspiracy will be revealed in the subsequent tale. In this case, the strings behind the curtain is simply showing. Still, Hyperion is a good read and an infinitely better start for an excellent tetralogy. Just get past the sum, since the parts are good in their own right.
Rated by buyers 
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Yeah, I'm gonna be that guy. I understand that this book won the Hugo...and that it is "neat" because it uses the Canterbury tales as a "model". But so what? Yeah, I guess it was pretty cool having it split up into a bunch of different narratives, but I felt like the stories were longer than they needed to be. I know I know...I'm supposed to think it was super-cool that all these different stories were "woven together", and I can see that...but I just don't think it was done all that interestingly. Ok so they all had something to do with the Shrike and Hyperion, etc etc. It just didn't impress me. Simmons as a writer seems fine.
I do think, however, that he's one of those authors whose prose often falls victim to "over-describing" things. I dunno if this is just something that's changed about my own tastes or what, but I'm starting to get tired of authors who will spend 4 lines of a paragraph describing a sunset, something like "and the orange glowing soft ball of the sun settled behind the soft purple curve of the hills, like a blahl blahblhalbha". I mean yeah...I can appreciate someone's ability to elaborate on a description like this, but why do it just to do it? Do we really have to do it for every sunset? Every scenery? This kind of stuff can really over-stretch the narrative when it doesn't add anything to the story. And what's even funnier to me is that more often than not, people take it hook line and sinker and assume that it's "good" writing...I'm not saying he isn't a "good" writer by the way.
But don't get me wrong...the book is a fine piece of "space-opera" scifi, but unless you're going to fall for the "it's cool because it's like the Canterbury tales" line, you probably won't find it earth-shattering. I'm just overly skeptical about stuff like this. If you want me to really be skeptical when reading a book...tell me it won the Hugo, then show me a bunch of screaming 4 and 5-star Amazon reviews about how great it is because of the fact that it's broken up into short stories. I didn't dislike the book, but I probably won't read it again. In fact the most positive thing I can say is that it did leave me wanting to know "what happens next" which...yes, a good story should do that, but a great story should do a lot more...and this just doesn't, not for me anyway.
Rated by buyers 
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I'm not planning on analyzing the plot or anything of the sort, merely commenting on its descriptive characteristics. Although, in my opinion, it takes a couple tales to really grasp your attention (as most stories do), once this book gets rolling it is nearly impossible to put down. Pages fly by with out you even realizing it. For me, half the time this did not seem like reading a book at all. It seemed more like the pages past by as a movie played in my mind. The whole Hyperion Cantos as well as the Endymoin Omnibus set a bar quite high as far as descriptive quality. I certainly recommend it to anyone and in fact already have. None of them have been disappointed.
Rated by buyers -
I just finished Hyperion and was amazed. I've read one other book by Dan Simmons - The Terror, which I absolutely loved - and I'm going through the rest of his books, starting with this one. The most powerful story has to be The Scholar's Tale - I was reading it during my lunch hour and had to choke back tears.
Rated by buyers -
Admittedly, after reading Father Hoyt's tale, I almost quit reading. That tale alone is perhaps the most disturbing piece of "horror" fiction (from a philosophical perspective) that i've ever read. However, i'm grateful to have stuck it out because Hyperion did not disappoint. I found the book absolutely BRILLIANT in the way it slowly wove together pilgrims' tales. Some were heart-warning, some tragic, some vastly disturbing like that of Hoyt. All were meaningful in some way. However, the brilliance of Hyperion rests on the fact that it does not rely on simply an intriguing story...
While entertaining the reader, Hyperion also tackles age-old philosophical issues such as the meaning of life, the problem of pain & suffering in our world, the place of religion & church, etc. The book does not seem to be shoving any agendas so much as exploring several of them with a fair hand. For a religion major such as myself, I found it nothing short of fascinating. However, as I explained above, the book delivers on a human level as well & you won't find yourself short of horror, intrigue, suspense, and even a warming heart as the pilgrims journey on.
There are only a few noteworthy faults. 1 - Some may be turned off by the widespread use of profanity throughout the book. I'm quite used to language myself but Silenus disgusted me on multiple levels. The profanity does further the character development though & therefore serves a purpose. Also 2 - after 500 some pages, I was amazed to find that there was simply no conclusion. While i'm grateful for a sequel, having not realized its existence until far into the book, I have to admit the suspense nearly killed me. I just hope that Fall provides a sufficient answer to my many questions.
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