Reviews with content warning for Rape - The Fall of Hyperion

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The Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons

9 reviews

alica2's review against another edition

adventurous tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

Thought it was a good follow up to the first book! This one was a lot more plot-focused and less on the characters, which was a little bit disappointing because I grew so attached to them from the first book. But I liked that we still felt connected to them through Severn's dreams (also I think it's funny that we get John Keats AI version....TWO). I also thought it was interesting to get more of the politicking in this book, and especially to learn more about the AI side of it and infighting among those factions. plus, the AI god gave me big cosmic horror vibes which I was very much into.

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charelia's review

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Maybe the true eldritch horrors were the intelligences we made along the way. The Fall of Hyperion continues the story we left on a cliffhanger in Hyperion, but now under the chaos of all-out war on a galactic scale. Though we are not treated to the deeply personal pilgrims' tales that made the first book so unique and compelling, we get a much more space opera feel as we see the side of the Hegemony experienced by CEO Gladstone (does anybody else picture her as Mon Mothma?) in what she well knows may be its — and her — final days. All the while the pilgrims are wandering back and forth across the surface of Hyperion, making comparatively little progress yet their storyline is still deeply exciting and compelling. And all this takes place under the shadow of quite possibly the most literal interpretation of deus ex machina I've ever seen, with commentary on humanity's relationship with AI that was truly ahead of its time.

Humanity had become as blasé about sharing their lives with potential AI monitoring as pre-Civil War Old Earth USA-southern families had been about speaking in front of their human slaves . . . Having sex or a domestic quarrel with the house monitors on is like undressing in front of a dog or cat . . . it gives you pause the first time, and then you forget about it.

The only flaw in these interwoven stories is the pacing; a chapter often ends on a cliffhanger, but rather than switching to another thrilling plot thread to entertain the reader whilst keeping them in suspense as to the resolution of the cliffhanger, the book instead pivots to the plodding Keats PoV, and several times I found myself debating whether it was worth sitting through the next chapter just to get back to the exciting stuff. Nevertheless, this was a fantastic read, a worthy sequel to the masterpiece that was Hyperion, beautifully written and deeply philosophical.

With a sudden clarity which went beyond the immediacy of his pain or sorrow, Sol Weintraub suddenly understood perfectly why Abraham had agreed to sacrifice Isaac, his son, when the Lord commanded him to do so.
It was not obedience.
It was not even to put the love of God above the love of his son.
Abraham was testing God.
By denying the sacrifice at the last moment, by stopping the knife, God had earned the right — in Abraham's eyes and the hearts of his offspring — to become the God of Abraham.

. . . The tree of thorns . . . [was] an instrument to broadcast suffering through the universe so the human God-part would be forced to respond, to show itself . . . but the obscene tree . . . was not the way to evoke the missing power.
Sol realized now that the machine god, whatever its form, was insightful enough to see that empathy was a response to others' pain, but the same UI was too stupid to realize that empathy — in both human terms and the terms of humankind's UI — was far more than that. Empathy and love were inseparable and inexplicable. The machine UI would never understand it — not even enough to use it as a lure for the part of the human UI who had tired of warfare in the distant future.

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anshm's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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machewson's review against another edition

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dark sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

0.5

This book was a horrendously bad follow up. The plot of the first 400 or so pages follows the why say with 10 words what you could say with 10,000 mantra. The book mostly feels like an excercise in smugness by the author. Filled with quotes from classic literature and references to other great works of art more as way to seem smart than as a building of plot or character. Every character is an intolerable asshole until they randomly aren't. Characters are freed for having a pesky arc by just becoming better at the end. The plot is saved from ramping up by just ending. If you enjoyed Hyperion just leave it at that is my recommendation. Hyperion was not free of sexism but this takes it further and adds in new ways to hate like some Islamophobia tacked onto the end just for fun. This review I know is rambling but I cannot describe to you how bad this book is. Please do yourself a favor and don't read it.

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singalana's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Kirjan sivumäärä ja monimutkainen maailma herätti pelonsekaista kunnioitusta, mutta loppujen lopuksi luin kirjan nopeasti.

Hyperionin tuho jatkaa siitä mihin sarjan ensimmäinen osa jäi, ja kirjassa seurataan pitkälti samoja hahmoja. Hahmot ovat epätäydellisiä, mutta ehkä siksi heistä on helppoa pitää.

Hyperionin maailma on monimutkainen ja mielenkiitoinen ja tarinan edetessä asioiden väliset yhteydet selviävät joskus odottamattomallakin tavalla. Dan Simmonsin Hyperion kirjoissa parasta onkin kirjailijan luoma monimutkainen maailma, jonka kuvauksessa tasapainoillaan hienosti sopivan kerronnan rajoilla: maailmaa ei selitetä liikaa, mutta kuitenkin tarpeeksi että kirjaa on nautinnollista lukea. Lisäksi paikoitellen kerronta on lähes maalauksellista, ja novellin ihmeelliset maisemat pystyy kuvittelemaan helposti.

Kirjan juoni etenee jouhevasti ja loogisen tuntuisesti. Muutamassa kohdassa mieleen hiipi epäilys olisiko muutama asia ratkennut hieman liian helposti, deux ex machina-tyyppisesti, mutta mitenkään ilmiselvää tämä ei ole. Kaiken kaikkiaan kirjan loppu oli tyydyttävä, sillä tarina jatkuu seuraavassa osassa.

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manatad's review against another edition

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adventurous slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

I'm surprised by how much I enjoyed reading this novel. Hyperion felt so unique that I didn't think its sequel would be able to match it, but it turns out that I liked The Fall of Hyperion even more.

The two books are very different. Compared to the previous novel, this one has a much larger focus on the plot and setting rather than the characters and their backgrounds. It is therefore much more linear and reads like a typical novel with multiple points of view. As a result, the characters do not feel quite as distinct as before, but the universe they live in feels much more rich. I would say that the overall tone of the story is less mysterious and more action-packed.

There is a notable amount of padding in this book which serves to remind you of events from the previous novel. This might feel tedious and unnecessary if you were to start reading this book immediately after finishing the previous one.

What surprised me even more than my enjoyment of this novel was how emotional it made me. I shed tears and I laughed out loud. Any book that can make me do both of those things counts as a great one in my mind.

I didn't have the intention of moving on to read Endymion before I started this book, but I am considering it now. It doesn't feel like it is necessary to continue the series, but I've fallen in love with the worlds of the Hyperion Cantos and would really like to immerse myself in it again at some point in the future.

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kaiyakaiyo's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book is way too long for me to point out all the things I liked, but holy moly what a conclusion!

It got to a point where I didn’t quite understand what all was transpiring, but I liked that feeling actually.

I want to read more of the series but also these books take me SO long to finish, and I don’t want to kill my reading motivation

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nquinlan's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

A good read, it’s a shame you have to read the first book to get here.

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thefoxyreader's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Hyperion by Dan Simmons was my favorite book that I read in 2020. I still think it was wildly creative, and one of the best examples of using a framing device to connect short stories to make a cohesive narrative. I also still tear up when I think about Sol Weintraub’s section of the book.

So, my standards and expectations were set extremely high...and for the most part, he delivers with the sequel, The Fall of Hyperion, although it takes a loooooooong time for anything to pay off or emotionally resonate.

Set immediately after the events in Hyperion, The Fall of Hyperion follows our six pilgrims as they approach the Time Tombs, looking to meet the ever mysterious and menacing Shrike. Their viewpoints are presented to the reader through dreams the new John Keats cybrid is having as he works with Hegemony CEO Meina Gladstone to try to stop the Ouster attacks on Hyperion and the rest of the Hegemony.

It was a really interesting choice to pull the reader away from the characters we’ve become attached to from the first book and stick us in board room meetings with the Keats cybrid and Meina Gladstone. I liked the inventiveness of expanding the POVs this way, but it did often bring the pacing to a grinding halt.

And I still really like the characters from the first book. I would sacrifice myself just so Sol Weintraub could save his infant daughter, Rachel, who is aging backwards. He’s just a great character. And General Kasaad, whose goal is to defeat the Shrike in hand-to-hand combat, once again has some exciting chapters.

I’m also glad that Simmons fixed one of my only complaints from the first book: the lack of female characters. In the first book, we have Brawne Lamia, who is a physically strong character and has an interesting detective story, but my main complaint is that I feel like male authors often don’t know what to do with female characters except marry them off or get them pregnant. In this book, Simmons uses her pregnancy to forward the plot, and it was actually pretty cool to see a pregnant woman being a badass.

I also thought it was great that her Messiah-like baby is a girl.

Meina Gladstone is another really interesting female character, who is smart and willing to make sacrifices for the greater good. Moneta, while problematic, is another interesting character

and the twist that she is Rachel from the future totally caught me by surprise. I really just thought that her short haircut was a 90s thing that everyone had. I feel dumb.

I mention Moneta being problematic because this book has one glaring issue that unfortunately did not age well.

There is a scene of female-on-male rape. It is fine to have this, but where it gets problematic is that this is later portrayed as where the character really wanted it all along and now it’s supposed to have been a romantic scene? I’m not going to harp too much on it because I think this is a product of its time, but I do think it’s worth pointing out and discussing why that’s not okay and the writing in this part could have been much stronger by either changing it completely or having Moneta not be portrayed as sympathetic.

Overall, I think this is really strong science fiction, and I actually keep liking it the more that I think about it. It gets into some really deep topics that feel ahead of its time, and I felt like I was back in my Honors College classes discussing philosophy, the evolution of humanity, and the juxtaposition of technology and religion.

My main complaint is just that the pacing is atrocious. Simmons absolutely saved this book with the ending where everything falls perfectly into place, but getting to the ending was painful at times.

I was resigned to not reading the rest of the Hyperion Cantos, but with that ending, I will have to check out Endymion in the future.

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