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Hyperion (Hyperion Cantos, Book 1) Kindle Edition
On the world called Hyperion, beyond the reach of galactic law, waits a 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.
Praise for Dan Simmons and Hyperion
“Dan Simmons has brilliantly conceptualized a future 700 years distant. In sheer scope and complexity it matches, and perhaps even surpasses, those of Isaac Asimov and James Blish.”—The Washington Post Book World
“An unfailingly inventive narrative . . . generously conceived and stylistically sure-handed.”—The New York Times Book Review
“Simmons’s own genius transforms space opera into a new kind of poetry.”—The Denver Post
“An essential part of any science fiction collection.”—Booklist
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherSpectra
- Publication dateJanuary 12, 2011
- File size2210 KB
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What's it about?
Seven pilgrims embark on a final voyage to Hyperion, seeking answers to their lives' unsolved riddles and facing the enigmatic creature, the Shrike, in a world beyond galactic law.Popular highlight
Belief in one’s identity as a poet or writer prior to the acid test of publication is as naive and harmless as the youthful belief in one’s immortality…and the inevitable disillusionment is just as painful.2,203 Kindle readers highlighted thisPopular highlight
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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
A stunning tour de force, this Hugo Award-winning novel is the first volume in a remarkable new science fiction epic by the author of The Hollow Man.
Review
“Dan Simmons has brilliantly conceptualized a future 700 years distant. In sheer scope and complexity it matches, and perhaps even surpasses, those of Isaac Asimov and James Blish.”—The Washington Post Book World
“An unfailingly inventive narrative . . . generously conceived and stylistically sure-handed.”—The New York Times Book Review
“Simmons’s own genius transforms space opera into a new kind of poetry.”—The Denver Post
“An essential part of any science fiction collection.”—Booklist
About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
The Hegemony Consul sat on the balcony of his ebony spaceship and played Rachmaninoff's
Prelude in C-sharp Minor on an ancient but well-maintained Steinway while great, green,
saurian things surged and bellowed in the swamps below. A thunderstorm was brewing to the
north. Bruise-black clouds silhouetted a forest 0f giant gymnosperms while stratocumulus
towered nine kilometers high in a violent sky. Lightning rippled along the horizon. Closer to the
ship, occasional vague, reptilian shapes would blunder into the interdiction field, cry out, and
then brash away through indigo mists. The Consul concentrated on a difficult section of the
Prelude and ignored the approach of storm and nightfall.
The fatline receiver chimed.
The Consul stopped, fingers hovering above the keyboard, and listened. Thunder rumbled
through the heavy air. From the direction of the gymnosperm forest there came the mournful
ululation of a carrion-breed pack. Somewhere in the darkness below, a smallbrained beast
trumpeted its answering challenge and fell quiet. The interdiction field added its sonic
undertones to the sudden silence. The fatline chimed again.
"Damn," said the Consul and went in to answer it.
While the computer took a few seconds to convert and decode the burst of decaying tachyons, the
Consul poured himself a glass of Scotch. He settled into the cushions of the projection pit just as
the diskey blinked green. "Play," he said.
'You have been chosen to return to Hyperion," came a woman's husky voice. Full visuals had not
yet formed; the air remained empty except for the pulse of transmission codes which told the
Consul that this fatline squirt had originated on the Hegemony administralive world of Tau Ceti Center.
The Consul did not need the transmission coordinates to know this. The aged but still beautiful
voice of Meina Gladstone was unmistakable. "You have been chosen to return to Hyperion as a
member of the Shrike Pilgrimage," contin-ued the voice.
The hell you say, thought the Consul and rose to leave the pit.
"You and six others have been selected by the Church of the Shrike and confirmed by the All
Thing," said Meina Gladstone. "It is in the interest of the Hegemony that you accept."
The consul stood motionless in the pit, his back to the flickering transmission codes. Without
turning, he raised his glass and drained the last of the Scotch.
"The situation is very confused," said Meina Gladstone. Her voice was weary. "The consulate and
Home Rule Council fàtlined us three standard weeks ago with the news that the Time Tombs
showed signs of opening. The anti-entropic fields around them were expanding rapidly and the
Shrike has begun ranging as far south as the Bridle Range."
The Consul turned and dropped into the cushions. A holo had formed of Meina Gladstone's ancient
face. Her eyes looked as tired as her voice sounded.
"A FORCE:space task force was immediately dispatched from Parvati to evacuate the Hegemony
citizens on Hyperion before the Time Tombs open. Their time-debt will be a lithe more than
three 1-lyperion years." Meina Gladstone paused. The Consul thought he had never seen the
Senate CEO look so grim. "We do not know if the evacuation fleet will arrive in time," she said,
"but the situation is even more complicated. An Ouster migration cluster of at least four
thousand . . . units ... has been detected approaching the Hyperion system. Our evacuation task
force should arrive only a short while before the Ousters."
The Consul understood Gladstone's hesitation. An Ouster migration cluster might consist of ships ranging in size from single-person ramscouts to can cities and comet forts holding tens of thousands of the interstellar barbarians.
"The FORCE joint chiefs believe that this is the Ousters' big push," said Meina Gladstone. The
ship's computer had positioned the holo so that the woman's sad brown eyes seemed to be staring
directly at the Consul. "Whether they seek to control just I-Iyperion for the Time Tombs or
whether this is an all-out attack on the Woridweb remains to be seen. In the meantime, a full
FORCE:space battle fleet complete with a farcaster construction battalion has spun up from the
Camn System to join the evacuation task force, but this fleet may be recalled depending upon
circumstances."
The Consul nodded and absently raised the Scotch to his lips. He frowned at the empty glass and
dropped it onto the thick carpeting of the holopit. Even with no military training he understood
the difficult tactical decision Gladstone and the joint chiefs were faced with. Unless a military
farcaster were hurriedly constructed in the Hyperion system-at staggering expense-there
would be no way to resist the Ouster invasion. Whatever secrets the Time Tombs might hold
would go to the Hegemony's enemy. If the fleet did construct a farcaster in time and the
Hegemony committed the total resources of FORCE to defending the single, distant, colonial world
of Hyperion, the Worldweb ran the terrible risk of suffering an Ouster attack elsewhere on the
perimeter, or-in a worst-case scenariohaving the barbarians actually seizing the farcaster and
penetrating the Web itself. The Consul fried to imagine the reality of armored Ouster troops
stepping through farcaster portals into the undefended home cities on a hundred worlds.
The Consul walked through the holo of Meina Gladstone, retrieved his glass, and went to pour
another Scotch.
"You have been chosen to join the pilgrimage to the Shrike," said the image of the old CEO whom
the press loved to compare to Lincoln or Churchill or Alvarez-Temp or whatever other
preHegira legend was in historical vogue at the time. "The Templars are sending their treeship
Ydrasi1I," said Gladstone, "and the evacuation task force commander has instructions to let it
pass. With a three-week time-debt, you can rendezvous with the Yggdrasill before it goes
quantum from the Parvati system. The six other pilgrims chosen by the Shrike Church will be
aboard the treeship. Our intelligence reports suggest that at least one of the seven pilgrims is an agent of the Ousters. We
do not . at this time - . have any way of knowing which one it is"
The Consul had to smile. Among all the other risks Gladstone was taking, the 01d woman had to
consider the possibility that he was the spy and that she was fatlining crucial information to an
Ouster agent. Or had she given him any crucial information? The fleet movements were
detectable as soon as the ships used their Hawking drives, and if the Consul were the spy, the
CEO's revelation might be a way to scare him off. The Consul's smile faded and he drank his
Scotch.
"Sol Weintraub and Fedmahn Kassad are among the seven pilgrims chosen," said Gladstone.
The Consul's frown deepened. He stared at the cloud of digits flickering like dust motes around
the 01d woman's image. Fifteen seconds of fatline transmission time remained.
"We need your help," said Meina Gladstone. "It is essential that the secrets of the Time Tombs
and the Shrike be uncovered. This pilgrimage may be our last chance. If the Ousters conquer
Hyperion, their agent must be eliminated and the Time Tombs sealed at all cost. The fate of the
Hegemony may depend upon it."
The transmission ended except for the pulse of rendezvous coordinates. "Response?" asked the
ship's computer. Despite the tremendous energies involved, the spacecraft was capable of
placing a brief, coded squirt into the incessant babble of FTL bursts which tied the human
portions of the galaxy together.
"No," said the Consul and went outside to lean on the balcony
railing. Night had fallen and the clouds were low. No stars were visible. The darkness would
have been absolute except for the intermittent flash of lightning to the north and a soft
phosphorescence rising from the marshes. The Consul was suddenly very aware that he was, at
that second, the only sentient being on an unnamed world. He listened to the antediluvian night
sounds rising from the
swamps and he thought about morning, about setting out in the
Vikken EMV at first light, about spending the day in sunshine,
about hunting big game in the fern forests to the south and then
returning to the ship in the evening for a good steak and a cold beer.
The Consul thought about the sharp pleasure of the hunt and the equally sharp solace of solitude:
solitude he had earned through the pain and nightmare he had already suffered on l-lyperion.
Hyperion.
The Consul went inside, brought the balcony in, and sealed the ship just as the first heavy
raindrops began to fall. He climbed the spiral staircase to his sleeping cabin at the apex of the
ship. The circular room was dark except for silent explosions of lightning which outlined
rivulets of rain coursing the skylight. The Consul stripped, lay back on the firm mattress, and
switched on the sound system and external audio pickups. He listened as the fury of the storm
blended with the violence of Wagner's "Flight of the Valkyries." Hurricane winds buffeted the
ship. The sound of thunderclaps filled the room as the skylight flashed white, leaving
afterimages burning in the Consul's retinas.
Wagner is good only for thunderstorms, he thought. He closed his eyes but the lightning was
visible through closed eyelids. He remembered the glint of ice crystals blowing through the
tumbled ruins on the low hills near the Time Tombs and the colder gleam of steel on the Shrike's
impossible free of metal thorns. He remembered screams in the night and the hundred-facet,
ruby-and-blood gaze of the Shrike itself.
Hyperion.
The Consul silently commanded the computer to shut off all speakers and raised his wrist to
cover his eyes. In the sudden silence he lay thinking about how insane it would be to return to
Hyperion' During his eleven years as Consul on that distant and enigmati world, the mysterious
Church of the Shrike had allowed a dozen barges of offworld pilgrims to depart for the windswept barrens, around the Time Tombs, north
of the mountains. No one had returned. And that had been in normal times, when the Shrike had
been prisoner to the tides of time and forces no one understood, and theanti-entropic fields had
been contained to a fewdozen meters" around the Time Tombs. And there had been no threat of air
Ouster invasion.
The Consul thought of the Shrike, free to wander everywhere on, Hyperion, of the millions of
indigenies and thousands of Hegemony citizens helpless before a creature which defied physical laws and which communicated only
through death, and he shivered despite the warmth of the cabin.
Hyperion.
The night and storm passed. Another stormfront raced ahead of the approaching dawn.
Gymnosperms two hundred meters tall bent and whipped before the coming torrent. Just before
first light, the Consul's ebony spaceship rose on a tail of blue plasma and punched through
thickening clouds as it climbed toward space and rendezvous.
Product details
- ASIN : B004G60EHS
- Publisher : Spectra; 1st edition (January 12, 2011)
- Publication date : January 12, 2011
- Language : English
- File size : 2210 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
- Print length : 483 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #25,691 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- Customer Reviews:
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About the author
Dan Simmons was born in Peoria, Illinois, in 1948, and grew up in various cities and small towns in the Midwest, including Brimfield, Illinois, which was the source of his fictional "Elm Haven" in 1991's SUMMER OF NIGHT and 2002's A WINTER HAUNTING. Dan received a B.A. in English from Wabash College in 1970, winning a national Phi Beta Kappa Award during his senior year for excellence in fiction, journalism and art.
Dan received his Masters in Education from Washington University in St. Louis in 1971. He then worked in elementary education for 18 years -- 2 years in Missouri, 2 years in Buffalo, New York -- one year as a specially trained BOCES "resource teacher" and another as a sixth-grade teacher -- and 14 years in Colorado.
His last four years in teaching were spent creating, coordinating, and teaching in APEX, an extensive gifted/talented program serving 19 elementary schools and some 15,000 potential students. During his years of teaching, he won awards from the Colorado Education Association and was a finalist for the Colorado Teacher of the Year. He also worked as a national language-arts consultant, sharing his own "Writing Well" curriculum which he had created for his own classroom. Eleven and twelve-year-old students in Simmons' regular 6th-grade class averaged junior-year in high school writing ability according to annual standardized and holistic writing assessments. Whenever someone says "writing can't be taught," Dan begs to differ and has the track record to prove it. Since becoming a full-time writer, Dan likes to visit college writing classes, has taught in New Hampshire's Odyssey writing program for adults, and is considering hosting his own Windwalker Writers' Workshop.
Dan's first published story appeared on Feb. 15, 1982, the day his daughter, Jane Kathryn, was born. He's always attributed that coincidence to "helping in keeping things in perspective when it comes to the relative importance of writing and life."
Dan has been a full-time writer since 1987 and lives along the Front Range of Colorado -- in the same town where he taught for 14 years -- with his wife, Karen. He sometimes writes at Windwalker -- their mountain property and cabin at 8,400 feet of altitude at the base of the Continental Divide, just south of Rocky Mountain National Park. An 8-ft.-tall sculpture of the Shrike -- a thorned and frightening character from the four Hyperion/Endymion novels -- was sculpted by an ex-student and friend, Clee Richeson, and the sculpture now stands guard near the isolated cabin.
Dan is one of the few novelists whose work spans the genres of fantasy, science fiction, horror, suspense, historical fiction, noir crime fiction, and mainstream literary fiction . His books are published in 27 foreign counties as well as the U.S. and Canada.
Many of Dan's books and stories have been optioned for film, including SONG OF KALI, DROOD, THE CROOK FACTORY, and others. Some, such as the four HYPERION novels and single Hyperion-universe novella "Orphans of the Helix", and CARRION COMFORT have been purchased (the Hyperion books by Warner Brothers and Graham King Films, CARRION COMFORT by European filmmaker Casta Gavras's company) and are in pre-production. Director Scott Derrickson ("The Day the Earth Stood Stood Still") has been announced as the director for the Hyperion movie and Casta Gavras's son has been put at the helm of the French production of Carrion Comfort. Current discussions for other possible options include THE TERROR. Dan's hardboiled Joe Kurtz novels are currently being looked as the basis for a possible cable TV series.
In 1995, Dan's alma mater, Wabash College, awarded him an honorary doctorate for his contributions in education and writing.
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Customers find the writing style well-written and imaginative. They also describe the visuals as highly imaginative. Customers describe the genre as captivating, sci-fi masterpiece, and vast. They find the literary references, futuristic ideas, and discussion of religion and atonement magnetic. Readers find the characters compelling. However, some find the mature content silly and annoying. Opinions are mixed on the plot, with some finding it intrigue, horrific, and touching, while others say it never delivers on the intended promise. Reader opinions are mixed also on the pacing, with others finding it well-paced and others finding the beginning slow.
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Customers find the writing style captivating, spellbinding, and cohesive. They also appreciate the author's mastery of his craft, excellent worldbuilding, and ability to build to a climax.
"...range of imagination across the sprawling saga, the careful and thoughtful worldbuilding - Hyperion sucked me in pretty early on and never let go..." Read more
"...romance, love, mystery monster, space, time, many worlds, journey to the unknown, a must have for any sci-fi collection." Read more
"...Unlike the first book, this is a more cohesive novel, as the characters that were introduced so independently in the prior book finally come together..." Read more
"...patience to read through during the later part as it requires quite a bit of imagination from the reader...." Read more
Customers find the book captivating, detailed, and haunting. They also say it's a sci-fi masterpiece that takes readers on an unforgettable journey.
"...Action, romance, love, mystery monster, space, time, many worlds, journey to the unknown, a must have for any sci-fi collection." Read more
"...story and an amazing accomplishment of rich, viable, science-fiction world building." Read more
"...The scope of the book is vast, and each POV incredibly unique.------------------------..." Read more
"...Father Hoyt - I absolutely loved his story. It was mysterious and haunting at the same time...." Read more
Customers find the characters compelling and thought-provoking.
"...Loved the world, characters were interesting with varied motivations. Sol and Rachael were my favorites...." Read more
"...Very well-defined individual characters, each part of the whole movie towards very satisfyingly huge end." Read more
"...His characters are lively and charismatic, his worlds vast and fascinating, his scope unbound and breathtaking...." Read more
"...impressed me about Hyperion was that each of the stories the characters told was utterly compelling (and sometimes heartbreaking.)..." Read more
Customers find the visuals in the book imaginative, stunning, and well-thought-out. They also say the book has a great idea and interesting descriptions of battles and minutiae.
"...The characterization provided through each story, the rich range of imagination across the sprawling saga, the careful and thoughtful worldbuilding..." Read more
"...As i read, I wanted to highlight entire chapters for their sheer literary beauty, worlds in the work of Dan Simmons are more than altered and..." Read more
"...A descriptive painting, it describes an extremely vivid picture that not only sets the tone for the rest of the novel but gives a ton of subtle..." Read more
"Inventive and well written. Captures your imagination early on and keeps you wanting to continue reading. I'm ready to start the next in the series." Read more
Customers find the book engaging, with literary references and interesting points to make. They also appreciate the amazing description and detail on every page. Readers say the book represents different genres and flows together. They mention that the author's excellent ability as an author and the diversity of technology make it feel fresh.
"...These stories are interesting in themselves and serve as both characterization and as clues to the mystery of the Shrike...." Read more
"...It gives the readers a good chance to get familiar with the major characters...." Read more
"Reads like Canterbury Tales. With amazing description and detail on every page. Probably gonna have to read the next one...." Read more
"...is structured like Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and rife throughout with other literary references, a lot of which (particularly the Keats stuff) are..." Read more
Customers are mixed about the plot. Some find the book interesting, satisfying, and riveting. They also say the book keeps them guessing the entire time and hooks them from start to finish. However, some readers feel the main story doesn't get resolved and is very weird.
"...I was disappointed in the ending, or non-ending, but as noted by the author, Hyperion really isn't a book unto itself but merely the first half of a..." Read more
"...Hyperion ends at a climactic point, one that works as a nicely ambiguous ending even as it's clear that there's a second part to come; thankfully,..." Read more
"...For example, Sol's story? Wow.+ Storyline. The story isn't linear, but more a series of random snapshots...." Read more
"...employs an innovative narrative structure that really serves to build the tension and mystery. There’s a lot that I really like about the book...." Read more
Customers have mixed opinions about the pacing of the book. Some find the writing captivating and well paced, while others say it's a little slow at the beginning.
"...of the third book explode into serious problems in the overly long, slow and frustrating fourth book, The Rise of Endymion...." Read more
"...Level: Fairly easy read, long (almost 500 pages) but reads quicklySummary..." Read more
"...The book does start off a bit slow but after reading the first story of the characters, I knew I was in for something special if all the other..." Read more
"...The book has a slow pace, but kept your attention until the end, and of course you get hooked to go for the second volume of the saga." Read more
Customers find the mature content unbelievable, silly, and over dramatic. They also say the book has a fair amount of gore and extreme violence. Readers also mention that the literary style is too-amply strewn with elaborate similes. They find the poet's tale annoying, creepy, and silly politics.
"...+/- Mature themes. Sex, gratuitous violence, etc.+/- Religious references." Read more
"...The most violent scenes often include sex, frequently somebody being killed during the act of sex...." Read more
"...One. No matter the age, whether they be 70, or even 15. It's sort of creepy, to be honest. Makes you wonder what's in the guy's head...." Read more
"...Action, romance, love, mystery monster, space, time, many worlds, journey to the unknown, a must have for any sci-fi collection." Read more
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The Hyperion Cantos is a commitment that pays off for the patient and attentive reader. Dan Simmons has created what may be the most believable, rich and vibrant world in fiction since Tolkien. This is world-building at its grandest, and yet for all the factions, planets and races, the novels rarely lose their focus on the people. But readers need to be warned--this is complex, intricate stuff. Having spent the better part of two months in the world of Hyperion, I couldn't tell you how many characters, places, and cultures this story encompasses--easily a 150 or more. This is not light reading.
The first book, Hyperion, is a terrific read. It is almost more a collection of short stories, all happening in the same universe but with wildly different tones and themes. Each story leaves an impression, which is essential not just to this book but to all of the books in the series. it requires patience, since each detailed story stands alone with little overlap, other than that the character telling it with other characters on a journey. I was disappointed in the ending, or non-ending, but as noted by the author, Hyperion really isn't a book unto itself but merely the first half of a story that continues in book two.
The second book, The Fall of Hyperion, concludes the story begun in the first, introducing still more characters and zipping back and forth through time. Unlike the first book, this is a more cohesive novel, as the characters that were introduced so independently in the prior book finally come together, fall apart, live, die or disappear in mysterious ways.
The third book, Endymion, marks a fresh start--connected to the first two, but with mostly different characters and a more episodic style of storytelling. The depth of Simmons' universe is still here, with actions and reactions occurring in very distant and diverse settings. I couldn't help but feel that Simmons got a little caught up in exploring church politics in this novel, which, while important for the plot, began to feel like a few details too much in an already exhaustive universe.
And the minor flaws of the third book explode into serious problems in the overly long, slow and frustrating fourth book, The Rise of Endymion. While the story finally gets around to concluding in a fitting and emotional fashion, it sure takes its time. Everything wonderful about Simmons' world-building becomes a pitfall in this novel. The poetry and philosophy that lifted the other novels begin to feel like a university course, the wonderfully complex Hyperion universe becomes an unnecessarily crowded and obsessively detailed place, and the wonderfully creative plot begins to feel overstuffed with too many meandering subplots and unnecessary detours.
I was almost angry reading the last book. Having committed to 2,000 pages, it felt like a slog to get to the end. I wondered if Simmons had an editor, since I couldn't shake the feeling that two or three hundred pages could've been cut not only without losing anything but maybe even improving the focus of the story. Huge portions are dedicated to the adventures of the character telling the story in flashback, so Simmons' constant attempts to create tension about whether he lives or dies is wasted since--news flash--he lives to tell the story. A hundred pages or more are spent on exposition as characters try to explain in awkward ways what the hell happened and is happening. And Simmons' desire to create living places becomes almost obsessive. In one scene, a character learns that the enemy has arrived and determines he must rush to warn others--but instead of rushing, what occurs is a half dozen pages of insane detail about the geography of the planet as THREE DOZEN individual peaks, ridges, cities, temples and moons are named, almost NONE of which have anything to do with the subsequent plot.
The disappointing conclusion didn't prevent me from enjoying Simmons' world and story. The Hyperion Cantos works as both a marvelous story and an amazing accomplishment of rich, viable, science-fiction world building.
Top reviews from other countries
Reviewed in Brazil on February 24, 2022
I am a fan of tales within tales with a tale (within reason), and not a line is wasted by Dan Simmons in this story of seven pilgrims who, through a series of brilliantly paced and skilfully crafted shifts in perspectives, gradually discover that their individual stories are in fact more closely entwined than they could ever have imagined, or ever wanted, before they embarked on what might prove to be a fatal voyage to encounter a mysterious and lethal entity that has, in one way or another, touched all their lives.
This milieu-spanning tale involves travel between the stars, and in time. There are galactic and personal battles, intimate moments, painful revelations, beguiling future technologies, reflections on religions and the development of society, scenes of brute force orchestrated (perhaps) by the human Hegemony or (perhaps) by the unknowable TechnoCore AI, or perhaps by other forces all together.
Dan Simmons's shimmering prose pulls us along as, by turns, we zoom in on profound yet delicate explorations of what makes some people who they are, and then zoom out to embrace the universe the author so credibly conjures up for us.
There are twists and revelations and not every mystery is dispelled, as the reader is swept towards the final moments of the book, but not the final moments of the story. I can't wait to continue the tale in The Fall of Hyperion.
(Just one technical remark, and it's not meant ungraciously. As far as I could see, there was only one typo in the whole Kindle edition which I read.)
I think I might have read this book 35 years after everyone else who had the joy of reading it when it first came out and before it won awards and acclaim, but I am really glad I finally discovered it.