RATING: 4.7/5
Once in a while, you stumble on a very unusual book, totally out of your comfort zone, you give it a try and 90% you end up hating it, the rare 10% you end up FRKN LOVING IT. That’s what happened with Hyperion. This book blew me away.
THE PREMISE
“It occurs to me that our survival may depend upon our talking to one another.”
With this quote, Dan Simmons has set up the whole novel. Hyperion is a bunch of stories inside a story. The core of the novel is a pilgrimage to this mysterious planet Hyperion by seven people who seek answers from this so-called monster/Lord-of-the pain The Shrike. The whole novel is seven stories telling from their point of view of the reason they have come to this pilgrim. The 7 people also fit with 7 stereotypes : the Priest, the Poet, the Consul, the Soldier, the Detective, the Scholar and the Templar. This is why it’s an intesting mix. It feels like a short story collections hidden inside a bigger story of the novel.
THE 7 TALES
My favourite story is the one about Father Dure told by The Priest, because Dure kind of reminds me of my Dad. He’s a religious but also has a big curiosity for science and he has been a post-doc researcher for a long time. Father Dure has the same fascination towards science and academics but also battles with keeping his Faith while confronting some disturbing truths. His journey was one of the finest horror-meets-suspense tale I’ve ever experienced. With the same haunting feeling as Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer, Dan Simmons creates an atmosphere of confusion and terror.
“In such seconds of decision entire futures are made.”
I feel like each tale embraces a particular feeling and each of them will impact different types of reader. The Scholar‘s story made me cry like The Niagara Falls, the Poet‘s story is a crowd favourite (from what I read from the other reviews) because he’s such a funny and unique character, the Detective‘s story is Altered Carbon with a more poetic twist, the Soldier mixes a lot of action and so on.
TITLE: HYPERION
SERIES: HYPERION CANTOS
AUTHOR(S): DAN SIMMONS
PUBLISHER: SPECTRA
FORMAT: PAPERBACK
RELEASE DATE: JANUARY 12TH 2011
PAGES: 481
GENRE(S): SCI-FI
Bookidote 
I like Dan Simmons as a writer. He certainly has written a couple of amazing novels, although I haven’t read this one (yet). The terror is one of them for instance, one that I highly recommend.
Nice to know that this one is good as well (and I have heard much good about it from other people as well). Great post !😊
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I heard great things about The Terror! You know what’s funny? I actually didn’t know that Dan Simmons is known for the horror genre LOL I thought he was a Sci-Fi author until I did research and found his other books ahah !
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You are not the only one who thought that. I fact it wasn’t until after reading the Terror, that I realised my mistake 😊 The funny thing is that I haven’t even read his sci fi novels yet 😂😂
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I enjoyed all four books of that series, which Simmons maintains is really two books each cut in half to meet industry standards. When I used to visit his website he would keep trying to get people talking about the wonders of Shakespeare and classic literature on his comment boards but people kept referring back to popular culture. For awhile he threatened to ban any discussion of Harry Potter.
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LOOL okay that Harry Potter banning part is hilarious. What are people saying about Shakespeare and Harry Potter? I see, it was two books cut in half :O I need to read the sequels !
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Unfortunately, I don’t recall what was specifically said because it has been so long since I’ve been to his website- Dan Simmons is a fan of Shakespeare but no one going to his website knew enough about Shakespeare to reply on his comments directly, so used Harry Potter examples instead. I stopped going to his site years ago because while his ideas about literature are interesting, they aren’t very practical in terms of advice for writers, and the politics on his website became increasingly conservative. Still, he wrote a lot of very worthy literature.
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This one is on my TBR! I’m happy to see that you liked it so much! I haven’t read anything by Simmons, so it sounds like this will be a good place to start with his work.
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It is a nice novel to start with! I loved it (obviously) and I think it’s the most sci-fi series he has in store too. I would recommend it strongly to experience his writing style !
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Both Amazon and Goodreads have been recommending me this book based on my previous books. Based on your review they might just be right and I’d like it 😀
P.S. that dress of yours is gorgeous!
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Do you think you’ll finish up this cantos? Or just leave it while you’re ahead? Personally, I liked Hyperion and the Fall of Hyperion but the Endymion sequels did not work for me at all.
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Me too, the first two books were brilliant but I couldn’t get into the Endymion books.
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I’ve heard a lot of people talking about this book! It sounds very unusual but really interesting as well! 😊
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“Made me cry like The Niagara Falls…” Brilliant line. And a great review!
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This is literally my favorite book of all time. And read the next one in the series, The Fall of Hyperion, IT IS EVEN BETTER😁
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Oh, I had almost forgotten about this. Hyperion is on my TBR and hopefully a good intro to Simmons? It sounds like my cup of tea. I did not realize it was part of a series. Wonderful review Trang!I love how you composed this.
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This sounds fascinating! I love when authors play around with different ways of telling a story. When they pull it off it’s a dream to read.
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A Simmons classic! I loved this so much, I’m scared to even pick up the sequels after hearing people tell me to quit while I’m ahead. I don’t want to spoil any of my memories of this one!
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I’ve never read anything by Simmons before, and I now feel the need to because I realise it’s been ages since I last read something sci-fi-y! Thanks for the recommendation! 🙂
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WOW! If this book blew you away then it’s definitely going to the top of my TBR list.😀 Great Review as always beautiful friend!💜 I’m glad you enjoyed it so much.💖😍💯📚 XOXOXOXO 🌹💜🌹💜
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Also you look too cute in your #Bookstagram pic!💙
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Yea, I definitely need to read this too. I bet I’ll like it as well.
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I have it, and have been reluctant to start it mostly because to the length. But your review definitely makes me think again.
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