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Hyperion - August 2025 Book Club Reading

Falselogic

Falselogic

Lapsed Threadcromancer
(they/them)
Hyperion, written by Dan Simmons and published in 1989, is a Hugo award winning science-fiction novel. The book relates the tales of numerous pilgrims sharing their story as they make their way to the planet Hyperion, to visit 'time tombs' places where time moves backwards to make requests of the Shrike, a metallic creature that is said to grant one wish to each pilgrim. The narrative is broken into six 'tales' and an epilogue.

Hyperion is the first book in what is called the Hyperion Cantos which consists of four books, this one, The Fall of Hyperion, Endymion, and The Rise of Endymion.

The title of this book is taken from one of John Keats's poems, the unfinished epic Hyperion. The novel contains numerous references and allusions to the Keat's, and others, works.
 
I have attempted to read this book on several occasions, I am hoping the book club helps with my carrying through this time. As always, if you are having trouble sourcing a copy please let me know and I will assist with finding you an e-copy.

@Paul le Fou if you'd like, please do share with us why you selected this book for one of your reading choices!
 
I tried to read this book several times growing up, but finally managed to. That time, of course, I loved it, and ended up reading the other three books as well.
 
Gotta be honest, I selected this one just because it's been on my to-read pile for a long time and I figured this would be a good way to force myself to read it. (This is how I make most of my recommendations.) Plus I've been on a sci-fi kick for a little while so thought this would fit right in.

I started this book after finishing the last one I was reading, to get a head-start since it's on the longer side as mentioned elsewhere, but I've only made slow progress so far, maybe 10% or a little less. I'm hoping it picks up a bit. It's very Classic Sci-fi so far, although the idea of the tree ship is pretty cool. (Very early spoiler for a bit of the setting.)
 
I'm a little less than 20% into the book now and happy to report that it did in fact pick up, and I finished the first tale. Someone described it to me as "Canterbury Tales in space," made up of each character's individual stories, so I guess we'll see if they're all about the same, or if some are more or less interesting.
 
I read this one a few years ago. The only story I really remember is the scholar’s tale/ part 4. That one made me feel a couple things.
 
I'm also in the boat of "been aware of this since childhood, never read it". Curious to see how it turns out! There are a few holds ahead of me at the library (which is surprising for a book of this vintage), so I'm not sure exactly when I'll get started, but I can't imagine it'll take too long to get my copy.
 
I read this for the first time last year and really enjoyed it. The use of the different POVs does a great job of building up the mystery of what is happening and why everyone is gathered together. It also pretty deftly blends some high-concept science fiction and horror with more down-to-earth stories of peoples' daily lives.

Bit of a content warning, though. This is a book from 35 years ago and there are a few spots where it feels really dated. Specifically in the first tale, when Duré meets with a group of people living on Hyperion, they are described in terms that are downright offensive by modern standards. I don't think that attitude pervades the rest of the book, but it's a pretty stark reminder of how much social norms and language have changed in only a few decades. This is a somewhat common pitfall with older science fiction, like when Ghost in the Shell talks about computers running in "autistic mode" =|
 
I finished Rise of Endymion (the last book of the series) earlier this year because I had been putting it off for, oh, 2 decades or so. I won't go into the feelings about it because, of course, this isn't about that. That said, when I read the first book back in the day it really did sink in pretty hard. I remember most of the plot points, though I really remember Fall of Hyperion more so (not just because I swear No Doubt's album Tragic Kingdom is basically the soundtrack of that book).

Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion are great and work as a great pair together. I don't think you can really read Hyperion without reading the sequel because it's the same story. It rolls all the characters and story lines from the first book to their conclusion. Without it, Hyperion just kind of stops. It's not a cliffhanger, not really, it just doesn't keep going. I will say you do NOT need Endymion in the same way, I skipped both Endymion books for, yes, 20+ years and they didn't really add anything ultimately. Your mileage may vary.

I do remember my sister reading it and not liking it. I don't remember if she had a reason why. I think the issue was the jumping POVs, but I'm not sure.
 
Haven't gotten too far in this yet but I'm liking it very much. The writing is that sweet spot of made up scifi words with enough context or explanation that you understand what they are without feeling like you're being lectured too or need a dictionary.
 
I'm about 3/4 of the way through, on the 5th tale, the Detective story. I do like that the genres of the stories shift around, especially after the first two or three, depending on your definitions. (The 4th and 5th definitely play with genre, at the very least). And I find myself enjoying the writing style's descriptions too. The book started very slow for me but it's definitely picked up and kept me interested since.
 
The woman described as being super muscle-y is named Brawne, lmao

(this is not a spoiler, she's introduced on like page 15)
 
Just starting the Poet's Tale and I do love me some classic literature references like this, it's so fun. And anytime Beowulf gets thrown in I'm extra happy.
 
I've finished the first tale and am apparently in an interlude before the second begins. The book started out a little slow for my taste (possibly a product of it being 35 years old) but once it got into the first tale I started to enjoy it a lot more. Looking forward to seeing how it develops.
 
Finished! I have some thoughts but I'll wait for others to catch up before I dump them. Overall I liked it enough that I picked up the sequel since it was on sale (partially because I want to find out what happens and this book ends at essentially a cliffhanger), but it won't land on any of my best-of lists.
 
Paul le Fou said:
Finished! I have some thoughts but I'll wait for others to catch up before I dump them. Overall I liked it enough that I picked up the sequel since it was on sale (partially because I want to find out what happens and this book ends at essentially a cliffhanger), but it won't land on any of my best-of lists.
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Yeah,
I think together the two books are much better together than on their own. Without the second book, the first one is just pretty good. Again, you don't need the second pair of books, so don't feel rushed for those
 
Finished! I liked it quite a lot, lots of things I'll be thinking about for quite a while. I found the Detective story the weakest, but I think it's also a genre/style I'm not a huge fan of. I think the first story from the Priest is still the most chilling and most memorable. Really glad to finally have read this.

As for the ending, it was weird and unsettling in a memorable way to have everyone start singing the Wizard of Oz, but also damn I loved that. Just so bonkers in such an bizarre way. I also don't honestly need to know what happens when they meet The Shrike. I prefer it ending here. I did glance at summaries of some of the other books and I don't think I'd enjoy them as much.
 
One of my first main thoughts was that I was kind of annoyed at how much of the book was built on references to our-modern-day society and history stuff despite being 800? years in the future. That kind of bugs me in general when it comes to Sci-Fi stuff, and this book was rife with it. (Like, the Wizard of Oz had me rolling my eyes so hard.) But then, in the Consul's telling at the end, he pointed it out: Hegemony space was stuck in the past emulating old Earth, whereas the Ousters had actually evolved and moved beyond that, and I wondered how much of its being in the book was on purpose. The "earth history" stuff felt too pervasive to have been done entirely for that reason, tbh, so it might have just been lampshading a tendency Simmons had, but it definitely gave me something to think about. I liked some of the Tales more than others - Kassad's was barely memorable besides the enigma of Moneta - but the Priest's and the Scholar's in particular stuck with me more.
 
Violentvixen said:
Finished! I liked it quite a lot, lots of things I'll be thinking about for quite a while. I found the Detective story the weakest, but I think it's also a genre/style I'm not a huge fan of. I think the first story from the Priest is still the most chilling and most memorable. Really glad to finally have read this.

As for the ending, it was weird and unsettling in a memorable way to have everyone start singing the Wizard of Oz, but also damn I loved that. Just so bonkers in such an bizarre way. I also don't honestly need to know what happens when they meet The Shrike. I prefer it ending here. I did glance at summaries of some of the other books and I don't think I'd enjoy them as much.
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Fall of Hyperion finishes out each story and gives each of the characters their eventual ending. If you don't need to know, then there really is no point (I would also argue that the Endymion books are even less necessary).

There is quite a universe there, but it is very, very anchored in the modern age references, even the Endymion books have it in spades and they're like 250 years afterwards. It just doesn't go away.

And I do think that's intentional. Rise of Endymion in particular very much points out that the Core has basically been holding humanity back the entire time. It's worse as the cruciforms from the Priest's story are a big part of the Endymion books and while I won't say much more, just keep in mind it somehow can get worse.

I still love Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion. I do think if you enjoyed the first book and want to see the solutions to some of those mysteries (BUT NOT ALL), it's worth reading the second. As for the later two books. . .

Endymion was fine, btw. It feels kind of similar to Hyperion, only with bouncing between worlds so you get small stories on each world but focused on the same cast with some intercuts to the various antagonists. I enjoyed it well enough to start right into the fourth book and well, look, Endymion is a late 20s to 30s year old (no I don't remember) and there's time travel and time debts and such so okay, sure he COULD fall in love with the young girl (12ish) he's sent to rescue who knows the future. Fine. But when he kisses the then 16 year old girl BEFORE that time debt could play out, yeah. It bothered me, and got worse when the flash forward lead to them being very intimate almost immediately. It does make sense due to time travel shinangins and such, but still. It took a bit to get through the last half of the book and the ending was, just okay. The final revelation was, lame honestly. It answered most of the remaining the questions, but I was pretty turned off by that point.

You can skip them. You aren't missing anything.
 
Paul le Fou said:
One of my first main thoughts was that I was kind of annoyed at how much of the book was built on references to our-modern-day society and history stuff despite being 800? years in the future. That kind of bugs me in general when it comes to Sci-Fi stuff, and this book was rife with it. (Like, the Wizard of Oz had me rolling my eyes so hard.) But then, in the Consul's telling at the end, he pointed it out: Hegemony space was stuck in the past emulating old Earth, whereas the Ousters had actually evolved and moved beyond that, and I wondered how much of its being in the book was on purpose. The "earth history" stuff felt too pervasive to have been done entirely for that reason, tbh, so it might have just been lampshading a tendency Simmons had, but it definitely gave me something to think about. I liked some of the Tales more than others - Kassad's was barely memorable besides the enigma of Moneta - but the Priest's and the Scholar's in particular stuck with me more.
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Eishtmo said:
Fall of Hyperion finishes out each story and gives each of the characters their eventual ending. If you don't need to know, then there really is no point (I would also argue that the Endymion books are even less necessary).

There is quite a universe there, but it is very, very anchored in the modern age references, even the Endymion books have it in spades and they're like 250 years afterwards. It just doesn't go away.
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Yeah, I think the current era references worked for the reasons Paul listed, but I wouldn't want it to continue to a second entire book. I would say I'm mildly curious about the second book, but there are far more other things I want to read and I'm satisfied with what I got out of the first one.
 
Finished this last night and I enjoyed it a lot. I really liked how different the tales all were from each other, both in tone and in their actual writing styles. I think the Scholar's tale might've been my favorite, though I'm still extremely intrigued by the Templars (in general, but also specifically the one whose tale we never got to hear).

As far as the ending, I initially shared VV's reaction, but Paul's read on the Hegemony makes a ton of sense. I do have to say that I still find it a little far-fetched that they'd somehow know a 700+ year old song. I guess you could argue that (unlike the difference between humanity now and 700 years ago) they would've had recordings of that media and maybe they could've been preserved for all those centuries, but it still felt weirdly tacked on.

In any case, I was interested enough to put a library hold on the sequel. I'm glad to have finally read this.
 
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