The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 27 March 2001
by Dan Simmons
Dan Simmons has put together a future for the Hegemony of humanity in the local universe that is assembled with intricacy and attention to detail. It is a literate and beautifully realized future, where we can step from one planet to another, and humankind has taken its culture from the lost Earth and spread it among so many different worlds. Space travel comes with a "time debt", and there are fascinating plot twists that turn on time's affects. On the outer edge of the Hegemony is the planet Hyperion, named for John Keats' fragmentary epic poem, and whose characteristics echo much of the poet's words. On this planet, there are myriad mysteries surrounding the strange Time Tombs, and their deadly occupant, the Shrike. Nobody really knows what the Tombs are for, but prophecy and harbingers warn that they are to "open" soon, and the Shrike will be unleashed on Hyperion and into the Hegemony. A church of the Shrike (the Lord of Pain), invites six people to make a last, probably deadly, pilgrimage to the Time Tombs. What ensues is something like the tales of Chaucer or even The Wizard of Oz, as our protagonists tell the stories that brought them upon such an ominous mission. We meet the former Hegemony Consul of Hyperion, a poet, a private detective, a soldier, a Catholic priest, a sad father, and the mysterious pilot of an interstellar tree. All have involved stories to tell, and all have a debt to resolve with the Shrike. While Simmons paints intriguingly different characters, there is, perhaps, a little too much similarity in their voices when they set out their histories. Several of the tales involve romantic (mostly sex) relationships that ring hollow to me. But this is a tale of adventure, and, at least, the future that Simmons brings to life will draw the reader through this otherwise massive book. The stories sprawl and interweave nicely. But what happens when the group finally encounter the Shrike? The denoument of the book left an empty feeling. Was this a cynical plot to get readers to read the several sequels? Or, as this reader hopes, did the ending point to a moral more buried in the preceding stories? Indeed, deep within the book, is a heartfelt commentary on the intricacies of humanity's sometimes sick sense of survival.
(For Hyperion, Simmons was awarded the 1990 Hugo award for best novel.)