Hyperion by Dan Simmons: seven pilgrims, one monster

Hyperion is Dan Simmons’s 1989 novel about seven pilgrims travelling to the Time Tombs on the world of Hyperion, each of them carrying a story about why they are going. Somewhere ahead of them is the Shrike, a creature of blades and time. It is built like The Canterbury Tales, it won the Hugo award, and it ends on a cliffhanger that its sequel finishes.

The idea behind it

The structure is the idea. Seven strangers are on a pilgrimage to a place where a monster is said to grant one wish and take one life, and as they travel, each of them tells the others why they are there. A priest, a soldier, a poet, a scholar, a detective, a consul and a templar, one tale each, and every tale is a different kind of science fiction story. That is the book: a collection of brilliant self-contained stories held together by a journey and a monster.

Behind the structure is a serious space opera. Humanity has spread across the Hegemony, connected by instantaneous portals called farcasters, and it is at war with the Ousters, a people who live in space and who are moving toward Hyperion. The Time Tombs are opening, the Shrike is loose, and both sides believe the planet matters more than they will say. The literary game is not decoration. Simmons is using a poem by Keats to build a story about how civilisations use art and myth to explain the things they are about to do.

The story, spoiler-light

The pilgrims travel against the backdrop of an approaching war, and the novel alternates between the present journey and the stories they tell. Each tale is a complete piece, and they range from horror to tragedy to something close to comedy. The priest’s story is the one that usually hooks people. The poet’s story is the one that usually annoys them. The soldier’s story is the one that explains the war.

Be warned about the ending, because it is the single most important practical fact about the book. Hyperion stops rather than finishes. The Fall of Hyperion, published the following year, completes the story, and the two together are really one novel in two volumes. Do not start Hyperion without the sequel within reach.

What makes it science fiction

The farcaster network is the best invention in it: a system of portals that makes instantaneous travel ordinary and turns the Hegemony into a single connected civilisation, and a system that the war will eventually make very dangerous. Around that sit the older space-opera pieces, ships, colonies and a galaxy with history in it, handled with more literary care than the traditions they come from usually get.

Its place in the genre is at the top of the literary space opera shelf. It is the book people point to when they want to argue that science fiction can do structure and prose as well as ideas, and the ambition of it is the reason it is still read rather than just respected.

Who should read it, and who should give it a miss

• Read it if you want ambitious, literary space opera with real range.
• Read it if the idea of seven linked stories inside one novel appeals.
• Read it if you want a classic that is genuinely strange rather than merely well regarded.
• Give it a miss if a cliffhanger ending will frustrate you. This one is real, and it needs the sequel.
• Give it a miss if you want a single clear plot. This is a mosaic, and the mosaic takes its time.
• Give it a miss if you dislike the writer showing off. Simmons shows off, beautifully and often.

Where to start, and what to read next

Start here, then read The Fall of Hyperion straight after. Treat them as one book. After that the Hyperion Cantos continues with Endymion and The Rise of Endymion, which move the story on by centuries and are a different kind of novel.

If what you love here is the structure, the genre has few things like it, and Iain M. Banks’s Culture novels and Alastair Reynolds’s Revelation Space books are the usual next stops for readers who want scale with ideas. If what you love is the Shrike, be aware that the sequel is where the monster is finally explained, and the explanation is stranger than the stories.

The verdict

One of the great ambitious novels of the genre, and a book that trusts its readers to follow it through a lot of different kinds of storytelling. It is not tidy and it is not self-contained, but the tales at its centre are extraordinary. Read it with the sequel waiting, and it is as good as space opera gets.

Frequently asked questions

Does Hyperion end on a cliffhanger?

Yes. It stops mid-story. The Fall of Hyperion, published in 1990, completes it, and the two are best read back to back.

Is it part of a series?

Yes. It is book one of the Hyperion Cantos, a four-book series, and the first two books form a single story.

Did it win any awards?

Yes. It won the Hugo Award for best novel in 1990, and the Locus Award, and it is regularly named among the best science fiction novels ever written.

Where can I buy it?

It is available as a Kindle edition, and the buy links for Amazon.com and Amazon.in are on this page.