Hyperion

By: Dan Simmons

Narrated by: Marc Vietor, Allyson Johnson, Kevin Pariseau, Jay Snyder, Victor Bevine

Length: 20 hrs and 44 mins

Publisher's summary

On the world called Hyperion, beyond the law of the Hegemony of Man, there waits the creature called the Shrike. There are those who worship it. There are those who fear it. And there are those who have vowed to destroy it.

In the Valley of the Time Tombs, where huge, brooding structures move backward through time, the Shrike waits for them all. On the eve of Armageddon, with the entire galaxy at war, seven pilgrims set forth on a final voyage to Hyperion seeking the answers to the unsolved riddles of their lives. Each carries a desperate hope - and a terrible secret. And one may hold the fate of humanity in his hands.

©1989 Dan Simmons (P)2008 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

Hugo Award, Best Novel, 1990
Locus Award, Best Novel, 1990
"Dan Simmons has the Midas touch: Every genre he writes - whether SF, horror, mystery, historical, or thriller - he turns to gold. Hyperion and The Fall Of Hyperion set a new standard for grand-scale science fiction." (Kevin J. Anderson, author of The Saga of Seven Suns)
"Dan Simmons was a star from the outset. It was the Hyperion books that made him a superstar. The man, quite simply, is what we in the trade call a writer's writer." (Mike Resnick, Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author)
Each of [the pilgrim's] stories would make a superb novella on its own. ( The New York Times Book Review, Gerald Jonas)

Fellowship of Hyperion

Very good narrators and interesting story to boot. Recommended for people who like sci-fi stories.

Great story.

The audio production is very well done. All of the voices match the characters.
Dan Simmons is an excellent author and has created another masterpiece with in the science fiction genre.

Amazing book, decent narration

This book is one of my all time favorites. Six pilgrims on a journey each tell their story. Even though they are all set in the same world each one has a distinct style and atmosphere and they are all good. The overarching story is kind of abruptly cut off at the end, but there is a sequel.

This is a full cast audiobook so each main character gets their own voice. Between the stories when characters talk to each other it's kind of obvious that these were recorded separately. Reminds me of old videogames. When they are telling the story and it's only one narrator it gets pretty good as the narrators did a good job. The only thing I didn't like was how the narrator for the soldier's tale did the voice for the female character.

The voice acting was phenomenal

Very compelling stories from multiple perspectives, Hyperion tells a unique story with a lot of twists and turns.

Wow! Totally immersive

The characters and story were voiced perfectly! I was totally immersed, could see, feel, taste , hear every scene. What complex stories and worlds. Have to get the next one started.

Hard to Follow, but Good

I have ADHD. I'll start with admitting that.

This story is great at times, but sprawls in so many directions that I often found myself registering to chapters.

I was sick of the inbred priests before they gone. I felt that way about a few of the characters that you just get stuck for stretches of time.

There is some terrific writing here. The overall story and world created are cool.

The Shrike is creepy.

This does end abruptly almost like Dune. And like Dune, there are many subsequent books.

I may continue with the series when I get caught up on a few books in my que.

Recommended for hard core science fiction fans. I wouldn't consider this novel accessible to readers with a passing interest in Sci-Fi.

I am now of the Cruciform.

A thought provoking high concept sci-fi journey to other worldly realms. I was hooked from story one.

Great Listen, good world building

Only giving 4 stars on performance due to the female voice. Fantastic with dialogue but when she reads the other parts it sounds like a horrible attempt at singing. She unnecessarily draws out every word at the end of a sentennnnce. Almost as if everything was a questionnnn? Wouldn’t be so bad if she read dialogue poorly too, but she read that very well, and because she had one of the longer parts.
Other than that, all of the other voice actors were great and the different short stories were a good way to subtly build and acclimate the reader to a new universe.

Beautifully Engaging

A well rounded story delving into topics surrounding our modern world and rapidly approaching future.

It Gets Better

I started to begin this review by saying I have a love/hate relationship with the 1st two books, however, that's too strong. I'm going to call it a love/eye roll relationship. I do not know much about the timing of Dan Simmons books or his writing career, but this first Hyperion book reads like its his first effort.

The story is told from a style of multiple small stories with an overarching wrapper around it (this probably has a name, I'm just not familiar with it). The interesting part is that the short stories are far more polished than the wrapper, most of them anyway. One of them goes on far too long, with a character that neither likable nor interesting.

Having said the above, I like the first two books, and would recommend them. Buckle up though, they are long, and wordy, and take the long way around to get to a point. My take on this series is someone attempting to create (copy?) a Dune like operatic universe. It works, but it has numerous eye roll moments. Mostly in the nomenclature of weapons and technology. Especially the weapons (deathwand and hell whip to name a couple). But, this does get better too. Its as though Dan's writing matured rapidly as he went along, realized the sophomoric elements and stopped using them. The one glaring eye roll that doesn't end is the Shrike. Freddy meets Jason meets The Terminator meets a porcupine. So we have a creature, that can manipulate time, is 9 feet tall, very fast and made of metal, but that's just not good enough. We have to add barbs and spikes and scalpels and all sorts of sharp pointy things. It boarders on the ridiculous.

There are also a number of unexplained threads that would seem to have quite an interesting backstory, but, he never touches them. But, instead, we get the ramblings and lengthy backstory to and of a poet.

Eye roll points and ignored threads aside, its quite creative and worth the read, and moving onto the 2nd installment.