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Review by:Cadet Author: Hyperion Style: Fiction Status: Finished Read Rating:  Published: 1989 Publisher: Spectra |
| Description: If you ever get the chance, I can not recommend reading this novel enough. It is an amazing read, with a complex plot that juggles several timelines and characters with a surprising grace and ease. After reading it, it was obvious to me why this book is considered a classic work of science-fiction. Using one of my favorite narrative devices, the story begins by dropping you into the world in media res. With expert pacing, neither leaving the reader in the dark for too long, or revealing too much too quickly, we learn that this novel takes place in a distant future, approximately the 28th century. Mankind has spread out amongst the stars following the destruction of Earth. Humans now lives on several terraformed worlds that are linked together in “the web” of the Farcaster network, which is akin to the Stargate device from the movie/show of the same name in that it is a means of instant transportation from one point to another through "portals" of varying size and shape. Some only as a large as a door, others spanning across streets and rivers. These linked worlds form the Hegemony of Man, which has grown rather bloated, arrogant, and lazy in its decadence, in a parallel to the final days of the Roman Empire. The hegemony of Man has become dependent on an advanced computer network, the Datasphere, a sort of natural evolution of the internet, which is the home of the TechnoCore, a gathering of millions of Artificial Intelligences that have made themselves independent of man. However, they do still assist mankind in the running of the datasphere and almost any other piece of advanced technology. Continuing the parallel to Rome, the barbarians waiting outside the gates are the Outsters, a group of people who long ago abandoned their brothers and sisters on the colony worlds and ventured into deep space. There, over the hundreds of years they have evolved into a post-human race designed for the unique needs of life in deep space. At the start of the novel the threat of an Outster invasion looms over everything, and their attention seems focused on an odd little world called Hyperion, a world not yet admitted into the Hegemony which is the home to two Rather amazing phenomenon. The first is the Time Tombs, several large structures which appear to be moving backwards through time. In the area around the Tombs dwells the second oddity, the Shrike. Standing over three meters in height, the Shrike stands as a living, bladed killing machine, with its entire body covered in razorwire, thorns, blades, and cutting edges. The plot is a sort of retelling of the Canterbury Tales, or, at least, strongly inspired by it, as seven citizens of the Hegemony are chosen to go on a pilgrimage to Hyperion. A pilgrimage that will end at the Time Tombs where the seven pilgrims will be granted one wish by the Shrike. Each rather unwilling pilgrim has their own reasons for facing the Shrike, and these are exposed as each pilgrim tales there tale, and sometimes the tale of another, that demonstrates their connection to Hyperion and the Shrike. The plot and pacing of the novel are excellent. The pilgrims’ tales are broken up by their travels, and as the pilgrims move first through the web, and then to Hyperion, we slowly gain more and more information about the universe of the Hegemony. It is very obvious here that Simmons has created a fully fleshed out universe that feels extraordinarily lived in, that carries the weight of its history well, almost in the same way that Tolkien’s Lord of Rings world exists. This well developed world adds much to the plot and the feel of the book. The technology used in the book is also exceeding interesting, innovative, and well established. The book explores the nature of how the movement through the universe at below light speed, makes for interesting lives for those who experience it, as they build up what is called “Time Debt” where they have been in cryogenic stasis as the rest of the world grows and lives without them. This concept adds tremendously to one of the tales, and adds a real depth and emotion to that specific story. The existence of both sub light speed travel, light speed travel, and the immediate transportation of the farcaster network demonstrates how technology can easily stratify people into the haves and the have nots. Farcaster travel is expensive, so only the most wealthy can afford it, although it is also used in emergency military situations. The average people will most often have to incur a time debt as they travel, and in fact, the size of one’s time debt is one of the things that people are judged upon, like clothing, place of birth, etc. The concept of the datasphere is also interesting in how it almost predicts the internet, as the novel was released in 1989, and the datasphere exists as the computer network that links everyone together. The concept of the datasphere brings up some interesting predictions on where our current technology obsession and desire to have our lives continually plugged in is headed. The people of the Hegemony have had implants placed in their bodies to allow them to access the datasphere remotely, to use it on the go and to always be connected. This instant and continuous access is another theme that is hit on several times in the book. But, for all this technology and grand built up universe, the story is focused on the pilgrims, and their lives, and the tales they tell range the gambit from humorous (the Poet’s Tale), “bad ass” (The Soldier’s Tale), to heart wrenching and breaking, (The Scholar’s Tale, and the Consul’s Tale.) In fact, to me, the Scholar’s and the Consul’s tales are the best parts of the book. Both are deeply human stories despite their unusual circumstances. The scholar’s tale tells of how Sol’s (the titular Scholar) daughter, Rachel, was doing graduate research at the Time Tombs, only to encounter the Shrike and the odd flux and flow of time, the anti-entropic fields, surrounding the tombs, which pushes Rachel back against the flow of time. Her condition is dubbed the “Merlin Sickness” as everyday when Rachel goes to sleep she ages backwards a day, and loses any memory of that day as well. Rachel continues to regress backwards, in memory, mentality, and physically, slowly shattering any connection she had with the present and her life before she has regressed, until when we first met her in the beginning of the novel she is approximately a week old, and being carried by Sol onto his Pilgrimage. The most poignant moment occurs when Rachel has regressed back to a small child. Throughout the story, one thing that has been constant about Rachel is her habit of ending conversations with the old rhyme “See you later alligator,” to which the other person replies, “in a while crocodile.” However, on this night after as he goes to turn off the light in the room, Sol says, “See you later Alligator,” to which Rachel shows no recognition of the rhyme, and Sol must say, “Now you say In a while Crocodile,” to which Rachel giggles, but still shows no sign of recognition to a phrase that had been so ingrained and integral to her character. This is an example of the book has built up these characters and world so well, that despite the absurdity of the situation , the daughter aging backwards through time, you still can not help but feel Sol’s pain and heartbreak as she slowly slips away, and he is powerless to help her. There are also several other moments that have a good impact as earlier in the tale Rachel struggles to understand what is happening to her. The consul’s tale is another tale that creates a deep emotional connection, once again despite the oddity of its circumstances and the interestingly, almost disjointed manner, in which the story is told. See, the Consul’s tale is not his own, but rather that of his grandfather, a shipman on a construction vessel ferrying in parts to build a farcaster on a lush, almost unspoiled world, to be admitted into the Web upon the farcaster’s completion. While on leave, the shipamn falls in love with a beautiful girl named Siri. However, also while on leave, his best friend is killed by a man who disagrees violently with joining the Hegemony. The shipman kills his friends murderer, and is taken back aboard the construction vessel to be sent home, and taken off the project. However, upon his return to the Hegemony, it is revealed that the two have become a local legend, with poems being written about their encounter and separation. Because of this the hegemony decides to continue to have the shipman return with the vessel to bolster public relations. Siri and the shipman meet five more times, but each time he is only a little older, while Siri ages at the usual rate, a difference which grows ever more pronounced until the sixth visit, in which he returns to find Siri dead of old age, and the farcaster about to be activated. It is here that, as the shipman visits Siri’s tomb, that the nature and depth of their relationship is revealed, as the shipman finds himself faced with a choice of great importance. For this world is mostly unsoiled, however, admittance to the hegemony and the opening of the Farcaster, means millions of tourists pouring into the world, which will undoubtedly destroy the delicate ecology of the world. There is an interesting sequence earlier in the tale, in which the shipman and Siri swim with the dolphins, as this planet is apparently the last one where dolphins still live, and they are able to slightly communicate with the dolphins through a translator, although the dolphins appear to have the intelligence of four year olds. When asked of all the things from Old Earth that they miss the most, the Dolphins respond that they miss the sharks the most. This sequence left me wondering how this idea of the loss of the sharks was tied into what Siri was trying to express to the Shipman about their relationship, and the future of her world, in their brief encounters. I was left wondering, was the loss of the sharks akin to the “Sanitization” of the culture that was going to happen once the farcaster opened up, that anything “bad” was going to be removed until all that remained was a pale reflection of what life used to be, a prepackaged, but heartless paradise? Was it the loss of the predator/prey relationship that drove both sides to evolve and grow, akin to how once opened to the web, the world would no longer evolve and grow, but grow stagnant with the rest of the Hegemony? I am not sure, but I do know that Siri’s tale also left me feeling really conflicted about the characters involved, their motivations, and the meaning of love. Which, is a good thing, because for a novel to be able to do this, means that it has established a connection with the reader, which is something that Hyperion does well. Give it a read your self. | |
Hyperion
