The Fall of Hyperion

By: Dan Simmons

Narrated by: Victor Bevine

Length: 21 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's summary

In the stunning continuation of the epic adventure begun in Hyperion, Simmons returns us to a far future resplendent with drama and invention.

On the world of Hyperion, the mysterious Time Tombs are opening. And the secrets they contain mean that nothing - nothing anywhere in the universe - will ever be the same.

©1990 Dan Simmons (P)2008 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"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)
"State of the art science fiction...A landmark novel." (Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine)

A memorable scifi epic

Every second was worth it. An incredible story. I would listen to it again.

Wonderful story, wonderful delivery

I don't even remember how I learned of this but I'm glad I jumped in. There was a lot I didn't expect in the story, so consequently there were a number of "just let me finish this part" moments.

Delightful

Raw, poetic, visceral and awe-inspiring. There's evev follow-up books after the conclusion of this story!

Great classic storytelling!

The story arcs came together quite well at the end. I enjoyed listening to the story.

Perfectly good and very enjoyable book two!

The narrator, Mr Bevine, did great with the multiple characters. The story and character development continued to add depth. Many sections of the story were VERY exciting. This book deals with various ethical, philosophical, religious, and a little cultural and military issues. It is part detective story but mainly far future and more distant future human growth and expansion with our characters giving it a much more personal focus. I recommend this book to those that like sci-fi and epic stories.

Should have kept the original voice cast

After listening to Hyperion it was hard to adjust to the recasted voices. I prefer the old ones. But otherwise the overall experience was great.

I loved this book so much!

I really enjoyed only having one narrator this time. The plot was amazing and followed the previous book perfectly!

A good sequel, interesting twists

I enjoyed this second book in the series. The overall tale was interesting, as was the rather interesting way of telling the story.

That way of telling via others was interesting, but it did, at times, get confusing.

The language of the text was very good, with rich descriiptions.

The ending was pretty compelling but felt a bit rushed.

One thing that annoyed me a bit (because it came up so often) was that the assumption that the baby would die at time of birth. That didn't make sense to me as most babies are viable weeks or months before birth.

This book is better than the first.

First lets deal with the recording:

The performance was much less jarring than that of the first book. The multiple readers of the first recording did well enough on their own, but something did not work as a whole. It was too disjointed in tone and delivery. This is very well done.

Regarding the story:

Some reviewers here did not appreciate the links to existing literature. They thought it self-indulgent or somehow detracting from the story of these people attempting to make sense and make it through an armageddon scenario more epic by orders of magnitude than anything dreamt of in the Old Testament.

I disagree. I feel that this book magnified and transcended the themes and arcs of the first. There is a sense of cycles of time and events in these stories, and I believe that it was clever and fitting to tie them into culture and mythos that we know and seem old to us even now. I mean just look at the name of the first book. If you read that book and were surprised by the fact that what was laid out (at least in part) as a resurrection of a 19th century English Poet who has had an entire time-confused PLANET named after his work might contain continued and/or amplified themes of similar quality or genera, I don't know what to say to you.

Even Keats' work that is so heavily leaned on here and introduced in the first book (Hyperion) was a retelling of an ancient tale of the fall of one pantheon of great ruling gods to be replaced by the next. All Simmons did here was make good on the literary promises made in the first book, and he did so MASTERFULLY. It MAY be a bit high-minded at times, but even then it is done well.

I for one was dumbstruck when the final revelation on Abraham's dilemma was experienced by Saul. I have hated that story from the bible for my entire life. It seems so at odds with much of the supposed teachings of the book. But Simmons made this reader revel in the shared pathos and desperation of BOTH parties to that test. And more: it made me agree that it might have been necessary. I am still confused about this and that in my book is a success that I wish more authors were capable of.

great!

wonderful book! one of my favorites! highly recommend if you like science fiction! the best!