Length: 20 hours 44 mins

Hyperion!   A book that was recommended to me by one of the guys from the Cultural Nonsense Podcast.

It was actually written in 1989, which is surprising because much of the tech that the author describes doesn’t seem outdated at all.  Of course it takes place far, far in the future when humans have outgrown their earth… due to general greed, and have expanded to the expanded universe.  According to Wikipedia it is set in the 27th century.  The Wikipedia article is actually a good source of reading whilst you’re listening to the book, the story is quite slow, so it’s possible to listen to the story, and read a Wikipedia article at the same time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperion_(Simmons_novel)

The basic plot of Hyperion, is that  ….well…. the publisher’s summary actually showcases it pretty well:

          On the world called Hyperion, beyond the law of the Hegemony of Man, there waits the 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’ 

[source http://www.audible.com/pd/Sci-Fi-Fantasy/Hyperion-Audiobook/B002V5BLIW]

Each of these 7 strangers have their own convoluted and drawn out back-stories, for which you’re wondering if it will actually play into the main plot or not.

The story about the Jewish Scholar was particularly moving… and as for the others, they were interesting enough, but the fact that this is a book in a 4 part series… well it deadens the experience a bit.

This is a long book and it is not an easy listen.
I’ve listened to Drew Hayes books that were 20 hours and up, and I could easily listen to them in one sitting if  didn’t have to go to work etc.
However for this you really had to listen to in segments. It took a really long time to finish, and felt a lot longer than 20 something hours.

It is a slow book.  Which is why you’re left thinking…. I’m not sure if I can be bothered finding out what happens to these characters.

Whilst there are the 7 main characters, so many other characters are introduced with huge importance and which you know have to be heavily features in the subsequent books.  Characters that are manipulating others, and events across time with complex strategies…  you think, well I would like to know what happened to the 7, however if I have to find out much more about all the other stuff… then I’m not sure if I could be bothered.   The Consular’s story introduced a different perspective on the Ousters (the main challenge/ adversary during this story) which were previously painted as interstellar barbarians,  however the Consular presents them as the more evolved, more moral figures in this impending war, which alludes to the fact that the greed, the conniving, strategic manipulations that plagued old earth (Earth now, with the Elitist Hamiltonians)  never really ended but simply and literally moved to the stars and started operating on a much grander scale.

I would also like to know more about this Ouster story-arc, but  I realise that to do so, I would have to listen to a whole bunch more about many other characters I don’t particularly care about.
I look at it a bit like that movie 2001 A Space Odyssey, whilst I didn’t really like that movie, I could appreciate the impact it had on science-fiction concepts moving forward.
Hyperion is not as mind numbing boring … nor as long winded as 2001 A Space Odyssey, however it definitely does have its moments where you are left thinking… I really doubt this is important to the story.
Overall I can appreciate Hyperion, but like the other reviewer Christine said, I’m not sure if I care that much about the characters to get the other books in the series.  (read her full review here)
Maybe only to have a sense of completion, because it feels like the real story hasn’t really started just yet.

So would I recommend this book?

Probably not.

It’s the kind of book where it is incredibly well written, Dan Simmons has obviously put a lot of time into it, and i think the most interesting thing about it is that you can see that other Sci-fi books that have come after it have used Hyperion for inspiration in terms of story-telling, level of detail, and just amazing ability to paint an envisioned universe.

But the fact that it’s nearly 23 hours long… and the whole event for which it is building up to is never concluded, it’s just not worth it in my mind.

Yes it was worth the credit in my mind, the story-telling is amazing, however as one reviewer (Christine) put it ‘at times leaves the story behind, apparently for no other reason than to showcase his abilities as a writer,…..I don’t know that I am interested in the main characters enough to find out what happened to them’

Couldn’t agree more.

The characters while interesting, seem to have their own adventures for which in analysing why they have sooo much back-story, with soooo much detail, I could only conclude that the author originally wrote a bunch of short-stories, and later decided to compile them into one over-reaching story with a common plot/ challenge.

The narrators?

There were many narrators, however much of the story felt a little dull. The stories were interesting in itself, and excellently written, but there was still an overwhelming dull feeling to them. I don’t know if this was the narrator’s performance, or just the way that it was originally written, but something was a little off.

Just the fact that this was written in 1989, and knowing that the majority of the sci-fi stories I like have come after that, with the exception of Star Wars of course, to be fair though the expanded Star Wars universe…the good stuff comes after this time.  But anyway, many of the technologies the author describes seems plausible, minus the far-caster gate…but even that makes you think if it isn’t where Star Gate got that idea from.

I learnt persistence to some degree through listening to this book.
The reviews for Hyperion were great.
There was only 1 (Christine) that I think does hint towards the truth.. But still due to the rest of the reviews being so good, and the fact that the writing is so good, I persisted.

Final thought:

This is book 1 in a 4 part series, each over 20 hours by the way.  The whole story essentially covers the precipice of an apocalyptic war, the fall of an empire, the start of another and then the prevalence of such a new beginning.  I’ve read that the conclusion of the 4th book is very satisfying, however… I’m not so sure I will ever find out for myself.

Inter-woven with all of this grand scheming, and intense stories…it’s the pillar that is the Shrike, a metal, mechanical living ‘thing’ which is referred to the church that celebrates it as ‘the Lord of Pain’  which lives in the time tombs, and delivers swift justice to those that threaten ‘God’s plan’  It is explained sometimes as an instrument of God, sometimes as a weapon that can possibly be controlled, and sometimes as an intelligent animal that sways to no-one.  It is an interesting part of the whole book that provides much intrigue, however never truly satisfies you because the information you crave is hinted at, but never really given.  Which means that you are most left infuriated and exasperated, halfway between being angry and just not giving a shit.

Oh and that being on the cover… I don’t think thats the Shrike…thats not the way it was described in the book…so that’s confusing in itself.

It’s a strange kind of feeling to have at the end of the book.

Oh at the end they end up singing Off to see the Wizard of Oz.   What the hell was all that about?

Don’t worry I haven’t given anything away for any of you…it was just strange, and made me think the author was high on something just as he finished writing that ending,…. And figured he’d come to some mystic conclusion / metaphor about that and so it never got cut in editing.

Anyway, if you want to check it out…. here’s the link: Hyperion on Audible by Dan Simmons

There’s meant to be an advert below which is a link for you to get 2 free audio books….if you can’t see it, ‘allow ads’ or ‘disable adblocker’ from your adblocker software on this website.

Happy listening!