Uneven, but a tour de force. I have a million questions, but mostly one: does it stand up to scrutiny now that the mysteries are revealed? ( )

Well, that's one way to spark an interest in Keats! ( )

this is the first Dan Simmons book i read and it was really good overall. but i will say the different stories in this book is a little all over the place and hard to rate properly id say it is way more good then bad. so i will break down what i think of each tale.

priest: this is my 2nd favorite. the priest was an interesting character who went through so much and learning about the people he was stuck with was really good and well told. i really dont have any complaints about this one at all.

soldier: this one i liked for the most part. the fight scenes were really fun and exciting to read and i have to say the detail on the violence throughout all the different stores are really graphic and dark wish is awesome. the character was good but the only thing about this story i was not crazy about was the weird sex scenes. but other wise i liked it.

poet: this one is a mixed bag for me. there is some good lore told here wish i really like and the character himself is an odd one. he has moments where he can be funny and amusing but other times obnoxious and annoying. also the whole plot about him trying to write a book i thought was ok but i was not absolutely loving it.

scholar: this one is my number 1 favorite. the concept is interesting but also really touching and engaging through out. i also have no complaints at all with this one as i feel like if this story was on its own it be consider one of the best novellas.

detective: this one is my least favorite. its not terrible, i think its middle of the road. now i do like some crime and mystery and the idea behind it is neat. but i just was not interested in the other characters and the story feels like it drags a little in the middle.

consul: at first this one was hard to follow and thought it was confusing but after finishing this part i understood it better and i can say it was decent.the characters are pretty good and it does bring some neat ideas but i do think they could have been explained a little easier as your reading.

overall i do really like this book and im glad to have finally read it after knowing about it and seeing the epic cover art. i hope to read the 2nd one soon and see how it continues ( )

The Priest's Tale - 3.5
The Soldier's Tale - 3
The Poet's Tale - 4
The Scholar's Tale - 3.5
The Detective's Tale - 2.5
The Consul's Tale - 3

The bits in between - 3.5

Overall - 3.5


Hyperion is a strange mixture of good and bad writing, captivating characters and flat characters; a story told throughout a series of short stories both intriguing and at times fairly poor. It was very enjoyable, and at no point did I feel the desire to stop reading, but there were plenty of moments provoking the rolling of eyes and the cringing of facial muscles.


However, there is plenty of merit here. Hyperion is truly epic in scope, boasting an incredible world that couldn't possibly be fully explored within a single book. Not many novels can claim to have covered so many genres in thier pages - It is a space opera, with many fantastical and science fiction elements, with hints of cyberpunk and noir, romance and historical fiction, horror and political intrigue.
It was perhaps wrong of me to expect all loose ends to be neatly tied by the end, and as I begun the last Tale I was frustrated at the realisation of an inevitable anticlimax; but I was surprised when after reading the final page I actually felt relatively satisfied with the books cliff-hanger conclusion; though I have no idea whether the 2nd book sets out to conclude the same story.


The problem I have with Hyperion is a problem that I often have with other highly acclaimed books, and that is that it just wasn't as good as it's claimed to be, nor is it as good as it could have been.
Dan Simmons ladels Hyperion with some wonderful description, but he also ladels too much description, some of which is actually very poor - some of the writing is really good, but some of it is just clunky.


Hyperion also contains something that I really HATE in novels, and that is action.
Yup - Action.


Let me explain:


When a person has a gun and they are going to shoot it, I would much prefer that the author would write just that. Not a paragraph-long description of the inner workings of the weapon as it unleashes a firework display of power and the distance it manages to travel before hitting it's target.
Similarly, when Character A is punching Character B, the sentence should read "Character A punched Character B" (in essence). Not: "Character A swung a left hook with incredible strength, with the aim of breaking Character B's nose - what he did not expect was for Character B to anticipate that and dodge horizontally, causing Character A's fist to miss Character B's jaw by three quarters of an inch, barely skimming the bristles of his chin."


Action is snappy. It is instantaneous. It works in the movies, but it doesn't work so well in books (IMO). The reader does not need every detail, nor does he/she want pages describing a chase scene that should have been over hundreds of adjectives ago.


Despite it's flaws though, Hyperion is a good book. It's not a great book, and it's not the greatest science fiction epic that ever graced literature, but it is worthy of acclaim. I am glad I have read it, and I intend on reading the second in the series: The Fall of Hyperion.


I actually read Canterbury Tales in preparation for Hyperion. Although I'm glad I read Chaucer's classic, it wasn't a necessary precursor. Dan Simmons pays homage in structure only. A more appropriate preparatory read would possibly have been the unfinished poems of John Keats of the same name as the Dan Simmons books (Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion). ( )

I like the Canterbury Tales aspect of the story (and the many other literary references) but didn't realize when I bought it that it wasn't a complete story on its own. Now I am forced to wait for the next book, The Fall of Hyperion, from my library to find out what happens!

The narrators of this audiobook did a good job, though I found Allyson Johnson's voice a bit annoying. Luckily, once she was the main narrator (for the Detective's Tale) I got used to it and it ceased to bother me. I liked the way each of the pilgrims to Hyperion had their own narrator, not just when telling their Tale but also during the "present" sections. It was a well done compromise between being a solo narration and being a full cast narration which fit the story perfectly. ( )