Product Description

The Hyperion books are credited with single-handedly reinventing and reinvigorating SF in the 1990s. A broad canvased, hugely imaginative and exciting SF epic, the books draw on the works of Keats and provide a uniquely intelligent and literary approach with cutting edge science, compelling characterisation and edge-of-your-seat excitement. The story is continued in ENDYMION and THE RISE OF ENDYMION, which Gollancz will also be publishing in an omnibus volume.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11694 in Books
• Published on: 2004-12-02
• Binding: Paperback
• 560 pages

Synopsis
The Hyperion books are credited with single-handedly reinventing and reinvigorating SF in the 1990s. A broad canvased, hugely imaginative and exciting SF epic, the books draw on the works of Keats and provide a uniquely intelligent and literary approach with cutting edge science, compelling characterisation and edge-of-your-seat excitement. The story is continued in ENDYMION and THE RISE OF ENDYMION, which Gollancz will also be publishing in an omnibus volume.

About the Author
Dan Simmons arrived on the scene with the epic horror novel THE SONG OF KALI. Then in the 1990s he rewrote the SF rulebook with his Hyperion Cantos quartet. He has also written thrillers. Alongside his writing he maintains a career as a college lecturer in English Literature in the USA.

Customer Reviews

the best sci fi novel ever written
ok if you like hard core space opera horror fantasy you wouldnt find a better novel.this in my opion is the best sci fi book ever written.dont bother reading negative reviews this is fabulous.dont get me wrong pt2 is sometimes hard going but after finishing i guarantee you will go onto the 2 further books.a must read for any serious science fiction fan 10 out of ten nuff said

Hyperion & fall of Hyperion
I just read these 2 after reading his latest book 'The Terror', about a doomed 19th century artic expedition, and after having read many of the reviews here. They are both very readable and interesting books, and if you liked the movie The Matrix then you'll probably love these. That said, i didn't have the epiphany that several other reviewers seem to have had. I haven't read sci-fi since i was a teenager, but the idea of a internet-mad future where the Servers have taken over the galaxy, worm-holes being used for everyday transport, and a chrome killing-machine sent from the future were enough to get me page-turning right until the end of both books. After near-enough a thousand pages though i think i'm ready to return back to the present, and i'll probably avoid sci-fi for a while now! I found it hard to connect emotionally to any of the main characters - the shrike pilgrims - and whilst the story fairly crackles along, dont expect to be engaged by the rather wooden protagonists, or the fairly odd imagery ('the spacecraft turned like a plate on a bed of marbles' - thats a misquote, but i'm not searching for the exact words!). So all in all, although not up to the standard of 'The Terror', enjoyable nonetheless.

Beyond SF
As others have commented here, it can be hard work reading through the series of books, but personally I feel it is so worth the effort. Dan Simmons does not just limit himself to the SF genre, but the imagination, craft and sheer industry he demonstrates here is truly staggering.

For pure SF buffs there is more than enough on offer to satisfy the appetite. However, Simmons uses this specific genre in an exemplary manner: when you deal in the Fantastic, it provides an opportunity to experiment with ideas which cannot be easily tackled in the 'real world'. For example, parents having to care for a daughter who begins to age backwards following exposure to a temporal anomaly, whilst they, of course, continue to age normally into their twilight years. Stuff of nightmares. This is where Simmons excels in the Hyperion/Endymion series. Issues such as humankind shaking a defiant fist at God and daring to question; exploring the depths of our understanding around love, life, death and justice. To varying degrees, they are all examined and questioned here, amongst other things.

I guarantee there are some passages buried within that you will want to bookmark and come back to again in the future, if only to quote to a friend as an elegant explanation for explaining a concept or getting a point across.