Much of my winter break was spent reading Hyperion, Dan Simmons’ dense, riveting far-future space opera. Modeled in broad strokes after Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, the book tracks the pilgrimage of seven strangers to the mysterious world of Hyperion, a colonial world that remains apart from the galaxy-spanning Hegemony of human-settled planets. Hyperion is also home to strange artifacts known as the Time Tombs and the Shrike, an elusive humanoid creature adorned with blades who has acquired mythical status among the locals and has inspired a well-funded religion. The seven pilgrims are sent to Hyperion to seek an audience with the Shrike as war brews between the Hegemony and a splinter group of humanity. As the pilgrims make their way to the Time Tombs, they each tell their stories revealing some personal connection with Hyperion.
Simmons uses the conventions of space opera (exotic locations, near-magical technology, artificial intelligence, and intricate politics) to craft a series of novellas that vary in tone and style, but are all well-crafted character studies. The scope of Simmons’ imagination is breathtaking; the universe he has constructed is incredibly complex, but he doesn’t become overly enamored with his own creation. Even seemingly throwaway references to some obscure bit of future history are later shown to have crucial significance to the plot. And his characters, particularly the poet Martin Silenus and the scholar Sol Weintraub, are deeply flawed individuals who struggle to come to grips with past suffering in the company of other wounded souls.
The book ends on something of a cliffhanger, but is continued in The Fall of Hyperion, which I plan on picking up at the earliest opportunity.
