Michael Finocchiaro's Reviews > Hyperion

I loved this sci fi classic, Hyperion and want to read the rest of the series now - especially with the massive cliffhanger at the end!
A sort of Canterbury Tales in space, Simmons takes us 700 years in the future with a human race that fled the ineluctable implosion of planet earth in two groups - the Hegemony and the rebellious Ousters. There are, if memory serves, about 25 (or was it 250?) inhabited worlds between which slipships (sp?) use Hawking drive (presumably named for the amazing Stephen Hawkings?) and traveling at light speed leads to time debt from the voyages to take into account the quantum physics of space and time. The story revolves around seven pilgrims headed to a world not connected to the WorldWeb (this being a network of human habitations connected by networks and AI intelligence of the TechnoCore). There is a ton of speculative ideas that were very far-reaching for a book written in 1981 including the aforementioned WorldWeb (think of the World Wide Web that was conceptualized in 1989 and opened to the public in 1991!), farcasting portals for stepping from one world to another using time-space singularities, cybrids which are androids whose AI is seeded with known Earth personalities such as John Keats (whose poetry and life plays an enormous part in the story!) The Hegemony has become somewhat authoritarian amd paranoid following the incredible rise of intelligence in the AI systems and the menace of the Ousters who are now completely comfortable living in deep space and have developed sophisticated weapons that threaten Hegemony worlds. On Hyperion, the destination of the pilgrims, there is mysterious murderous creature called the Shrike who lives near the Time Tombs which are now off limits to the imminent danger. Each of the pilgrims has a specific and important link to Hyperion and to the Shrike and each tells their story during the long voyage.
Needless to say, there is a LOT of material here and telling you more would inevitably lead to spoilers so suffice it to say that there is no question that Hyperion belongs in the upper echelon of science fiction novels and its vision of the future is at the same time quite terrifying and incredibly fascinating.
Looking forward to the next installment! (Since, read and reviewed here on GR!)