Per cominciare, un plauso alla Mondadori: pubblicare i libri appaiati è senza dubbio la scelta giusta, visto che alla fine di Hyperion abbiamo una storia troncata a metà.

L'inizio di Hyperion è difficoltoso, un po' perché si entra lentamente nella storia, un po' per i costanti cambi di ambientazione e di tenore dovuti ai racconti dei pellegrini.
Però superati i primi scogli si rimane affascinati dalle loro storie, e dal lento dispiegarsi dell'universo nel quale ci si muove.

La fine della Terra, l'umanità sparsa nell'universo, la colonizzazione di mondi distanti, le nuove tecnologie scoperte.
Ogni racconto fa luce su aspetti diversi sia dell'umanità post-Egira, sia del rapporto con Hyperion e con lo Shrike, la misteriosa creatura che infesta la zona delle Tombe del Tempo su quel remoto pianeta, una zona anomala dove imperversano le maree del tempo che trascinano le tombe indietro lungo l'asse temporale, provenienti da un misterioso futuro e già vuote, uno dei grandi misteri dell'universo.

Hyperion si conclude all'arrivo dei pellegrini alle Tombe del Tempo.
E di nuovo, cominciando a leggere La Caduta di Hyperion, si è colti in contropiede, ci si ritrova frastornati: il registro cambia, lo stile cambia, cambia il punto di vista.

Non abbiamo più i racconti e il pellegrinaggio, seguiamo un nuovo//vecchio personaggio, ben lontano da Hyperion ma al pianeta e ai sette collegato.
Seguiamo la politica interplanetaria, i consigli di guerra e le correnti sotterranee nei luoghi di potere.
Le tessere del mosaico di Hyperion acquisite nel primo volume vengono completate con quelle mancanti, e poco a poco riusciamo a ottenere la visione d'insieme che ci stupisce.


Questi due libri sono iniziati con un pellegrinaggio e finiscono con un'epica sci-fi, ma per tutto il tempo sono pervasi da un amore folle e pervasivo nei confronti di Keats.
Il pianeta Hyperion ma anche alcuni personaggi richiamano il poeta, senza contare il fatto che lui stesso sia nel cast dei personaggi centrali della storia.

Ecco, semmai questa ridondanza di Keats è uno dei pochi punti che lasciano perplessi (troppo reiterato e ingombrante per essere un semplice omaggio, troppo oscuro per avere altri significati all'interno della trama), con l'altro che per me è l'intera questione del pellegrinaggio voluta e gestita da praticamente tutte le parti in causa, ognuna con i propri scopi opposti a quelli della controparte. Perché scegliere proprio quelle persone?
Alcune scelte sono ovvie (la Vera Voce, il Console, Brownie, il prete) ma altre hanno senso solo alla luce del finale e comunque restano esterne ai giochi di potere e previsioni che hanno portato alla scelta degli altri.

Comunque è stato un viaggio emozionante, pieno zeppo di tematiche intriganti (e di poesia).
Mi è dispiaciuto solo averlo letto in un periodo in cui non ho avuto tempo per la lettura, godendomelo così probabilmente meno di quanto non avrebbe meritato.

I wish this had stuck to its more somber tonal guns in the final moments, but apart the ending leaning more saccharine, there are hundreds of pages of perfection here. Written in the 80s but feels like it predicted exactly what kind of sci-fi stories and style would permeate the culture for the following 30 years. A truly impressive work, with an instantly iconic antagonist in The Shrike.

I think I need a few weeks to recover from this perfect manifestation of literature and intellectual analysis of so many essential human topics. Mind = blown out of this megaverse

An amazing tale set in the deeply religious sci-fi future. The final twists and turns are superb. I was quite surprised to discover there are sequels and raced out yesterday to buy Endymion. I need to go find the last one today to polish it all off.

Hyperion Cantos
By Dan Simmons
Publisher: GuildAmerica
Published In: New York, NY, USA
Date: 1990
Pgs: 929

Summary:
Humanity has left Earth behind. Thanks to FTL and wormhole tech, humanity has reached out to the stars and made new homes, united under the Hegemony. Hyperion and the labyrinth worlds hold secrets though...secrets and monsters. The Shrike a multi armed killing organic machine worshipped by some, feared by all, walks Hyperion awaiting the end of the world or its next victim, depending on whose dogma you are listening to. War has broken out between the Hegemony and the post-human Ousters, humans who have left planet bound living behind. The Time Tombs in the home area of the Shrike are opening. A last group of pilgrims are on their way. The war. The Shrike. The pilgrims. The past. The present. The future. All are colliding on Hyperion in what may be the last days.

Genre:
fiction, science fiction, apocalypse, space, hegira, war,

Why this book:
I’ve read both the books that make up this book before and love them deeply. I wanted to re-read them again and finding them in the Cantos format was a godsend. This is a huge sweeping space opera covering the future history of man in a mysterious universe with more mysteries than answers.

This Story is About:
It’s about throwing off the yokes of society. In some cases, the yoke is torn away whether the individual character wants this “freedom” or not.

Credibility:
The story is very immersive and drags you along with it causing a well crafted suspension of disbelief as Simmons shows us what he wants to show us and hints at what lies beyond.

Favorite Character:
Colonel Fedmahn Kassad comes across as a man of his time though he has things in his past that would mark him a monster by the other people of his time. And he’s a badass. The Consul is intended in the narrator/everyman role, I believe. He does have a certain attraction as he is “our” viewpoint on the stories of the others and the later events. All the pilgrims are wonderful characters, with the exception below.

Least Favorite Character:
Martin Silenius is the poet. His inclusion seems to be to give Simmons the chance to trot out bits of the classical intermixed with his own poetry. A Loki/Pan figure with a long history because of the time debt that he has accrued during long frozen fugue states on interplanetary voyages, meaning that he has seen a lot and lived through a lot, but slept through a lot of the interstellar future backstory of this world that Simmons is creating. All that said, the Silenius character continually comes across as an ass.
A close second would be Hegemony CEO Meina Gladstone. She’s as much the villain as the circumstance that sweeps through the huge community of Humans over the course of this story. Her plans within plans may “free” humanity, but she may end up killing many of them, millions, at least, if everything works to her plan.
Ummon speaks in verse or koans. Reading his dialogue is painful.

Character I Most Identified With:
Through the early stages of the book, I identify mostly with Kassad and, by the author’s design, the Consul. In the later stages of the book, you see and feel a lot through the eyes and feelings of the pilgrims plus Johnny II.

The Feel:
The story has a real “you are there” feel to it. The tragedy of Sol and Rachel Weintraub is very palpable. I can’t imagine what Sol experienced in those years as Rachel progressed. But, yes, we can imagine it. Simmons gave us good deep insight into the character of the man.

Favorite Scene:
Father Dure’s sense of wonder when he discovers what the Bikura are hiding down below, or rather the first level of what they are hiding, is a great scene.
Kassad’s first visit to Hyperion, especially, when he awakes from fugue and has to fight his way through his fall from orbit.
Kassad’s “final” battle on Hyperion, not the denouement, but when he blows hell out of one of the monuments as he unleashes the full hell of FORCE’s future sci fi weaponry. And his final, final showdown with the Shrike is pure excellence.

Settings:
Hyperion, space, the tree ship, the Tesla forests, Mars, virtual reality battles all through history, Barnard’s World, Hebron, the WorldWeb, The Moon, a replica Earth somewhere in the Hercules Cluster, the Ouster Swarm, the Labyrinths, the Datasphere/Metasphere/Megasphere

Pacing:
The pacing of the story is excellent. Not a roaring page turner, but whenever you put it down, it draws you back. At least, it does for me. You’d think with the introspection of some of the pilgrims’ stories that the pace would drag, but it really doesn’t. The story drags me along through the tragedies of some of their stories and the sheer WTF-edness of what is happening to some of them.

Plot Holes/Out of Character:
N/A

Last Page Sound:
Damn. That is awesome.

Author Assessment:
Absolutely awesome. I would definitely read more stuff by Simmons.

Editorial Assessment:
Tightly done.

Disposition of Book:
This is a Keep it. Hardback. Proud to own it book.

Why isn’t there a screenplay?
I fear that the story would have to be watered down too much to make it fit the screen. There’s just too much story here. Warner Brothers is supposedly developing Hyperion for the big screen.

Casting call:
Fedmahn Kassad would need an actor of Arabic descent who could play early middle age and world weary while maintaining the military precision aura. I know of a few older actors who could do it, but I’m not finding the “perfect” casting choice in my memory. Though I can almost guarantee that in a movie with them wanting to tighten the story, they’d combine some of the characters into supercharacters. I could see Fedmahn and the Consul combined. If Hyperion had become a movie 25 or 30 years ago, I could see Ricardo Montalban in the role, either as Kassad or a combined Kassad and Consul. Vinnie Jones would be excellent in the role. Faran Tahir would as well. UPDATE: Coby Bell from Burn Notice would be perfect as Fedmahn Kassad.
For the Consul, if he maintained his character from the book, I could see a Ewan McGregor or a Joshua Jackson...type.
I have a picture of Sol in my head. But I’m not sure there is an actor currently acting who fits with what I see in my mind’s eye. I see an old man slipping toward ancient. The dome of his head is bald with a fringe of white flyaway hair. I went through an image search of bald actors and can’t find someone who would be perfect..
Johnny Lee Miller could be Martin Sillenius. His Sherlock on Elementary makes me realize that he could inhabit the character of the poet out of time who remembers Old Earth before the Big Mistake. ...and the gravitas and sadness and madness that would inevitably characterize a persona that has lost so much.
Judi Dench could play Meina Gladstone, CEO of the Hegemony.

Would recommend to:
Genre fans. Space opera fans. People who like a crunchy plot with lots of characters and lots of action spread over a wide range.

Astonishing...
Poetry and Science Fiction mixed together, like an incredibly beautiful picture that paints itself slowly before your eyes. I'd give it six stars if I could, this is a Masterpiece not just of Sci-Fi but of contemporary literature.

This particular edition is unfortunately filled with typos--pretty annoying.