Hyperion Review Author: Dan Simmons, 1989, ISBN 90 245 1709 5 Reviewed by Alex van Kaam We are right in the far future, Earth has been destroyed by a Black Hole and the human race has expanded over 1000s of planets, at first the expansion went slowly, people travelled in spaceships with the Hawking drive, faster than light but still a trip which took them 2 months would cost them 9 or more years in real time!!! - Hyperion, a planet on the edge of the Web, not yet part of the Web but wanting to become part of it. On its surface are the Time Tombs, several huge tombs that travel BACK into time and are protected by the Shrike. Hyperion is also a planet that does not compute in the predictions of the TechnoCore. - Farcaster Portals, created by The TechnoCore for the human race, portals you could step through and you would step out of a similar portal on a planet many light-years away. This is how the biggest part of the human race created the Hegemony. - The Hegemony, a huge web of worlds, held together with Farcaster portals, small portals for humans, huge portals for space ships. People live on 1 planet, and go to work on another, either by public Farcaster or by private Farcaster. The very rich would have house with rooms on different planets!! - The TechnoCore, a huge Artificial Intelligence, or better many thousands of them, they separated from the human race and became independent, their "hardware" located in a place nobody knows of. They still offer and share advice and new discoveries with the human race, but the humans no longer control them like they would control a PC on the old Earth. In fact the TechnoCore has a bigger control over the human race than they even know. The TechnoCore can predict the future at about 99% correctness .... except for anything that involves the planet Hyperion. - The Outsters, A smaller part of the human race went further into space, they call themselves the "Outsters", instead of depending on the TechnoCore and terra-forming each planet into a copy of the old Earth, they use Nano technology to adjust to their environment be it open space or a planet with a toxic atmosphere. The Outsters travel through space, in 12 or 13 swarms, the Hegemony sees them as their biggest threat, the Outsters however don't see themselves at war with the Hegemony but at war with the TechnoCore, which they see as evil, as something that stops the human evolution. - Temple of the Shrike, one of the many religions in the Web, they see the Shrike, the lord of pain, as the one who will announce the end of the known world or better live. They send pilgrimages to the Time Tombs on Hyperion, most of the pilgrims are suicidal and most of them don't return thanks to the Shrike. - The Shrike, the lord of pain, a huge metal monster, 4 arms and his skin filled with razor blades, knifes and sharp pins. He protect the Tombs by "killing" thoes who come too close and hanging them on his Tree of Pain, a iron tree that does not let the people hanging on it die, but instead lets them suffer, suffer through time as the Tree, the Shrike and the Tombs travel back into Time. This is the stage for the book called Hyperion, as the book starts the Outsters are on their way to capture Hyperion, a planet of big interest to them since the TechnoCore would rather destroy it. As the planet gets evacuated and gets ready for war 7 people are selected as the 7 last people who will go on the pilgrimages to the Time Tombs. This 1st book tells their story, their connection to Hyperion, their reason to accept the pilgrimages.... As you follow these 7 people making their way to the tombs each of them tells his story to the others.... and you. - The Story of the Priest, Father Hoyt is the 1st one to tell his story.....a story about another priest really, Father Dure, exiled by the now small Catholic church to the planet of Hyperion. Hoyt tells the story of how Dure found a lost tribe on Hyperion, how he gets the "Cross" from the Shrike, an organic cross that sucks itself to Dure's chest, a cross that will not let him die, a cross that rebuilds him when he gets killed by an accident. Rebuilt in perfect shape, except just a little bit dumber then before..... Of how Dure crucifies himself on a lightning tree, and gets killed 1000s of time but still the "Cross" won't let him die....... Hoyt tell his fellow pilgrims on how he found Dure crucified on the lightning tree, and how he took the "Cross" from Dure's chest and Dure finally died........ This is not the full story as you will find out later..... - The Story of the Soldier Feldmahn Kassad tell his story, on how he grew up in the gutters of Mars, how he joined Force, the army of the Hegemony and how he met Moneta in his 1st war simulation on the academy, how he made love to her and how he met her in every other war simulation. He tells about how he got shot down above Hyperion, crash landed on it, encountered Moneta again and how he fought along side the Shrike with Moneta against a small Ouster invasion party, how he made love to her on the battle field, how she turned into the Shrike..... Kassad wants only 1 thing, to kill Moneta and to kill the Shrike. - The story of the Poet Martin Silenus, born on the old Earth, 100s of years old thanks to special "Poulsen" treatments and the fact he travelled from the old Earth with a Hawking drive ship and slept several decades. Martin tells his story about how he woke up after his long sleep and lost the use of half his brain, how he started a new life as a miner on an planet. He tells of his Cantos, his biggest work, his life work, about how he lost all his inspiration for the Cantos because of financial success writing crappy books, about how he joined Sad King Billy (the ruler of the kingdom of Windsor in exile) group and went to Hyperion. He tells them how he regained his inspiration at the same time as the Shrike found Sad King Billy's city and started killing people, the more people died the more inspiration Martin got. His story end with the Shrike taking Sad King Billy in front of Martin .....and Martin loosing his inspiration again..... all Martin wants is to meet the Shrike and finally finish his Cantos, his life work, his life....... - The story of the Scientist Sol Weintraub is the next one to tell his story, the story of his daughter Sarah, how she as a scientist investigated the Sphinx, one of the Time Tombs, and how she got the Merlin Syndrome there...... meaning that she got younger instead of older, not only physically but also in her mind, how she leaves logs for herself before she goes to sleep, to tell herself what has happened......he tells them how his daughter got younger and younger, how she got up one morning being 14 and thinking she had an exam on school the next day, how she woke up each morning wondering why her parent look so much older suddenly....... he tells them about his quest on finding a cure for her but with no luck....... he took Sarah along with him to the Pilgrimages, being his last hope ..... Sol Weintraub the old scientist with his 6 day old daughter in his arms .... Sol wants to confront the Shrike hoping it will cure his daughter ..... he has only 6 days left...... - The story of the Templar Aaaaaah for this story you have to read all 4 books, just when it is his time to tell his story, the story of the Templars, his huge space ship tree, he disappears, all the other pilgrims find is a room full of blood..... the Shrike ?? - The story of the Detective Brawne Lamai tells on how she met the John Keats Cybride, how she took his case and ended up invading the TechnoCore and finding out why they tried to kill John.....she tells the story of how she fell in love with him, how she got pregnant by him, how he implanted a Shrone device behind her ear, how he transported his Cybride part into the device seconds before he got killed.....her reason to go to Hyperion is simply because John Keats wanted to go there, and with his personality behind her ear she is taking him. - The story of the Consul The Consul is the last one to tell his story, how the planet of his grandmother joined the Web, how the floating island got burned, how the dolphins got killed by the Hegemony, how his grandfather got killed in the fight against the Hegemony..... he tells them how he waited, how he became a consul, how he waited, how he betrayed the Hegemony to the Outsters, how he betrayed the Outsters......all he wants is the Hegemony to fall...... 6 stories and the main story about the pilgrims' travels to the Tombs is what the 1st book is about, although sometimes hard to understand because of "terms" used to describe objects in the future, the book makes you long for more, once I started it I wanted to finish it which means I liked it. By now I have read all 4 books and read book 1 and 2 again, many things have become clearer after reading book 1 and 2 again, there was almost 8 years between reading book 1 and 4 so that might explain it , and I only got more impressed by them and how they fit into each other perfectly. If you like SF and don't mind a bit of criticism of every religion, especially the Catholic church (in books 3 and 4) then this is a must !!! - o -