The Fall of Hyperion

Am I to leave this haven of my rest,
This cradle of my glory, this soft clime,
This calm luxuriance of blissful light,
These crystalline pavilions, and pure fanes,
Of all my lucent empire?

It is hard to restrain myself and not be overly poetic in my response to this SF masterpiece. This second novel in Simmons' Hyperion Cantos dances between magic and good old fashioned Hard SF. It isn't that I don't have critical issues with the novel. Please, Simmons, please find another way to describe the sky/heavens that doesn't involve Lapis lazuli. However, not many novelests have the skill to allude to epic poetry while dealing with issues like pain, death, time, God, gods, poetry, empathy. Simmons not only kept these threads alive, but wove them beautifully and tied them all off. Just for THAT this novel deserves five stars.

For me the Hyperion novels are on the same level as Lord of the Rings, Dune, the Foundation trilogy, the Book Of The New Sun, etc. Definitely worth the time and effort. Bevine does a great job narrating the second book. I think it made sense to switch from multiple narrators in Hyperion to a single narrator in the Fall of Hyperion (seems to me to fit with the change of narrative structure Simmons intended). Enjoy.

I couldn't be happier with this purchase. I reviewed Hyperion immediately after I finished it because it left me very excited about this series. I decided to wait until I finished the remaining 3 books before reviewing any of them individually. It is not very often that you come across a story that is so promising and I was afraid that the remaing books in the series would fall flat, or even worse, tank completely. I am very relieved to say that this is not the case at all. Simmons continues to weave a fantasic world in this second book and it leaves you hungry for more. The narration truly is excellent. After the first book, there was a slight transition in getting used to hearing a single narrator rather than a full cast, but Victor Bevine is definitely the correct choice for this project. As I listen to more and more audiobooks, I'm beginning to realize that narrators fall into roughly three categories. Class "C" would be the ones who are terrible and should not be allowed anywhere near a microphone. Class "B" are the ones who do a competent job, but don't really stand out or excell at their craft. And the class "A" narrators who provide truly excellent performances and who display an abundance of talent. Bevine is definitely a class "A" in every way. With audiobooks, when you have the combo of a good book helmed by an outstanding narrator, it just doesn't get much better than that.

I don't write separate reviews for books in a series. Especially here, where Hyperion has been called the prologue to the Fall of Hyperion (FoH), it's been intimated that the former cannot stand on its own and I agree. Some have compared and contrasted the two connoting that there is perhaps a lack of cohesion and that they are very dissimilar. To that end, I disagree. The "prologue" smoothly transitions into the main body of the work and feels completely natural. Taken together, the two seem very much a part of a cohesive whole.

I was skeptical that the stellar cast of narrators of Hyperion could be equaled by a single actor, albeit Victor Bevine in FoH. Mr. Bevine was phenomenal and I never, at any point in the listening, felt like the work was diminished.

It is good that I have listened to this author later in life. Having been brought up reading the classics of all genre of literature, it is often difficult to appreciate lesser works after having experienced the masters. Dan Simmons is a master when compared to authors of any genre. I have heard Simmons compared to Dickens. Truly in his development of characters, the comparison seems a fair one. It would be hard to compare the plot of this work to that of any other.

Often fraught with and characterized by fantastic imagery and incongruous juxtapositions, the work is almost too much to be believed. But somehow Simmons makes it all believable for some time in the future. Unlike some classic, older SciFi which seemed futuristic when it was written but then later became seemingly dated, this piece is fresh, modern or hopefully even timeless. There's religion, technology, philosophy, excitement, a great deal of love and caring among seven pilgrim strangers and funny, now that I think about it, only one real villain in a world that is more vast than I can even imagine. This is truly a magnum opus in every sense of the word.

Single narrator this time, but excellent. When he goes over-the-top (rarely), it's where my inner voice would have as well while reading.

This, simply put, is Part II of a novel that wouldn't fit in one jacket. Again [See my review of Hyperion if you wish.] I've enjoyed the pace of this being read aloud immensely.

This series is pure science fiction entertainment, with a prolific cast of characters, and one of the most evil antagonists ever designed by an author. The story is wrapped up nicely in the final volume, although the plot is excessively complicated, so there might be a couple of questions unanswered. Overall very satisfying and it keeps the reader hooked from beginning to end.

I liked this book very much and I think it can only be compared with The Lord of the Rings and Dune. I am very grateful to have known Father Paul Dur?, Fedmahn Kassad and Sol Weintraub to name a few, in my mind they became very real . I got the first two books of the Hyperion Cantos because of the good revues. Hyperion did not grab my attention right away but I persevered and The Fall of Hyperion is where things really start happening and what a show of fireworks! This book has everything and some very interesting moments of theology and philosophy. I am not too thrilled about this book being made into a movie; I have doubts about if it is even possible. It is very interesting how the author is able to keep the mystery around the Shrike by not using him very much, I am sure it was hard to resist the temptation of having him run all over the place. I am getting Endymion because I have invested so much time in this universe but what an interesting place.

The Fall of Hyperion picks up almost exactly where its predecessor left us. Yet, instead of continuing the third-person frame story with the pilgrims telling their tales, Simmons adds a new first-person viewpoint character who, by way of his dreams, is able to observe the pilgrims at the Time Tombs on Hyperion while simultaneously being positioned within the Hegemony's inner circle of power brokers. I admit that it is a strange mechanism to tell a story but Simmons is an excellent writer and he pulls it off quite well.

Like in Hyperion, Simmons continues the story's obsessive interplay with John Keats. We get a lot more of Keats in this one, as our narrator is another cybrid clone of Keats who has taken on the name of Keats's poet friend. I have never really been a Keats fan and Simmons fails to make me one. Much of the poetry and philosophy Simmons includes did not translate very well into audibook form, not because the narrator lacked skill, but because the reading of poetry is a more laborious task intended for the eye and the ear rather than the ear alone.

Unlike its predecessor, The Fall of Hyperion finally gives us the conclusion we crave, and it is spectacular. All of the pilgrim's stories come into play now, with each pilgrim's role in the fate of the Hegemony unraveling at the Time Tombs with the Shrike in tow. The Time Tombs, the Shrike, Moneta, the Ousters, and the TechnoCore are all explained. Simmons is a true master of the craft and The Fall of Hyperion does not disappoint.

Having read this right after finishing Hyperion, I kept looking at the front cover to make sure the author was the same, the story was, ( is ) great and very compelling but the writing style and story seemed to be in a competly different style then Hyperion.
It continues the story of Hyperion and expands on it. If your only have two credits left, get Hyperion and the Fall of...
Listed as Sci-Fi this book is Horror. Better then any thing King has written in years, If you have not read a good horror story lately, this is it.
Ps. to Dan Simmons and Audible, "Carrion Comfort"

This is a very different book from Hyperion. Where Hyperion was intimate and haunting, Fall goes in an altogether different direction, with a much larger cast of characters and a tangled and somewhat convoluted storyline.

Although it doesn't pack the punch Hyperion does, it's a must read to learn the fate of the pilgrims whose stories were so compelling.

What an amazing story. This book really blows wide open the whole world that was started in Hyperion. Only complaint on this is that they switched to one narrator for this book, whereas Hyperion had several. This book is way better than Hyperion which was also quite good.