the best sci fi novel ever written
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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
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Hyperion & fall of Hyperion
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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.
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Beyond SF
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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.
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Better than average but, for me, not great
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I read Hyperion and thought, "Yes, is really good!" and had high expectations for "Fall of Hyperion". But before reading it I read Ilium by the same author, and that was okay too. Then I read "Fall of Hyperion", got 100 pages from the end and suddenly realised that this is a really boring story and Dan Simmons is quite a boring writer. Like the Ilium story, this is poorly paced and you really start to care about the characters less and less. My advice is to read Hyperion but then make up your own sequel.
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Intelligent SF with plenty of gusto
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Having been a reader of SF for the best part of 50 years, I was surprised to find I had overlooked these novels for so long. I have to admit I found the first book quite oppressive. The tales of each of the pilgrims are dark and tragic, and I found it quite hard going, although the story becomes more compelling as you try to piece together the connections between them. The latter part heads off into space opera, wilderness adventure, fractal and virtual universes, and moral philosophy.
I suspect that a reader more familiar with the life and works of John Keats would find another layer (or two) in this book, but even on face value it is an entertaining tale with well-drawn characters and which makes you care about the fates of the protagonists. As said somewhere else, the clever twist is that what appears to be a plot device is in fact central to the plot - the loose ends are tied up quite neatly and you don't feel cheated in the final exposition.
Overall I enjoyed this enough that I have immediately purchased the Endymium omnibus, which picks up some of the threads of Hyperion. I don't think that a first-time SF reader would make it past the first hundred pages or so, and would miss out on some stunning word images.
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