Dan Simmons Hyperion is the tenth book of the “Books 2010” project. It’s a pretty hefty sci-fi book – the 1990 Hugo Award winner – and it has a nifty bit of writing that I like because it lets me show off some stuff I learned back when I was getting my English degree…
First, the setting. It’s a hugely distant future. Humanity has spread into space, into a huge interstellar cluster of colonies and interconnected worlds. On one world with a tiny human colony, there are mysterious ruins that distort the flow of time. Seven applicants from different worlds are being permitted to make what is likely to be the final pilgrimage to these ruins as the universe is teetering on the brink of an interstellar war.
Collecting a group of travelers’ tales is a fictional framing device with a noble pedigree. Chaucer used it for his Canterbury Tales, and Boccaccio’s Decameron did it before that. In each case, you’ve got a group of diverse people with a common goal, all sharing stories to make their time together more enjoyable. In Hyperion, the storytelling is further motivated by the knowledge that no previous group of pilgrims have ever returned, and the hope that something in someone’s past will help at least one person survive.
This is the first in a series, so it’s likely you’ll be seeing more reviews from this universe as the Books 2010 project continues.
Page Count: 482
Total page count: 3077