Reviews with content warning for Violence - Hyperion

Enjoyable and a cool classic scifi but a little slow and I was frustrated with the lack of conclusion at the end. World/universe building and creativity was definitely great though.

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dzvenyslava's review against another edition

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adventurous reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

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singalana's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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tofutofutofu's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

2.0

For the first few tales, I really couldn't tell if we were supposed to sympathize with these characters. I thought, maybe this is horror told from the perspective of the monster, and each of these characters is terrorizing the people of hyperion and then being punished for their sins of misogyny, homophobia, colonialism, racism, greed... but then we got to the scholar's tale, which was beautiful and sad and sympathetic. It got me to wonder if we're actually supposed to relate to the priest who treats the people he meets as subhuman and the soldier who doesn't even ask the woman he's having sex with her name. Maybe she conveniently never speaks not because she is inside a parody but because the author is vile. I was expecting them to all die at the end, but unfortunately we are given no such satisfaction, only a cliffhanger. Without a resolution, it really seems that all of the specific 20th century bigotry that the characters have somehow preserved in the far distant future is just... 20th century bigotry.

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joshebarry's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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nolen_wine's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.75

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miakoda's review against another edition

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dark sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

Each character narrates their own portion of the story so there are several different styles of narration. They each feel distinct so it creates a very interesting experience.

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caitcoy's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

4.0

Hyperion is the first book in the Hyperion Cantos and feels very much like a sci-fi/horror blend of The Canterbury Tales. With strong connections to a certain Romantic poet from Old Earth and many references to other genres and religious themes, Hyperion feels more thematic than escapist speculative fiction and occasionally gets a little bit pretentious with it. It's fairly leisurely paced as each character reveals their connection to Hyperion with their story and Simmons provides very little in the way of info-dumps, expecting the reader to instead figure it out as they go along.

For me, this style worked very well. I tend to get bored with a lot of info-dumps and Hyperion kept me intrigued as I tried to puzzle out certain elements and make connections between the stories. It feels like the sort of story that would really reward knowing the references and re-reading at a later date. The characters themselves feel a bit archetypal so I was more than a little surprised when some of the stories had me on the edge of my seat or in tears. And I loved the way that Simmons played with genre conventions, particularly setting The Detective's story as a noir-style with a female perspective.

Hyperion is definitely a book that I don't see working for every reader. The lack of explanations for the worldbuilding and the story telling structure may not work for you if you prefer to know exactly how things work or if you find a particular character's story to be a bit of a slog. For me, the intrigue and way Simmons played with themes and references really made me enjoy this story and want to pick up the rest of the Cantos.

CAWPILE Rating
-----------------
Characters: 7/10
Atmosphere: 8/10
Writing: 9/10
Plot: 8/10
Intrigue: 9/10
Logic: 7/10
Enjoyment: 9/10
Overall: 8.14/10

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