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powellki's review against another edition
Boring as fuck, language is old and I can tell it was published the same year I was born. Chapters are ridiculously long, to the point it should be noted it's basically 7 short stories with only a semi-locked in plot for the rest of the book. Hard pass on the Jesus allegory of the first story where the Jesuit Priest keeps calling a group of people "small re***ds" and comparing them to children. Only made it slightly into story 2 when the sex scene was just so laughable that I couldn't continue. There was no way the position being described could be performed if the two people are in the stated positions (or unless the female was a.) an illusion, b.) a contortionist, or c.) just dislocating her arm to perform said acts). -10/10 do not recommend. Don't see why it's considered a "pillar of Sci-Fi."
Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Body shaming, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail
mochikochicken's review against another edition
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Sexual content, War, and Injury/Injury detail
tofutofutofu's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
For the first few tales, I really couldn't tell if we were supposed to sympathize with these characters. I thought, maybe this is horror told from the perspective of the monster, and each of these characters is terrorizing the people of hyperion and then being punished for their sins of misogyny, homophobia, colonialism, racism, greed... but then we got to the scholar's tale, which was beautiful and sad and sympathetic. It got me to wonder if we're actually supposed to relate to the priest who treats the people he meets as subhuman and the soldier who doesn't even ask the woman he's having sex with her name. Maybe she conveniently never speaks not because she is inside a parody but because the author is vile. I was expecting them to all die at the end, but unfortunately we are given no such satisfaction, only a cliffhanger. Without a resolution, it really seems that all of the specific 20th century bigotry that the characters have somehow preserved in the far distant future is just... 20th century bigotry.
Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Gore, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Murder, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Homophobia and Islamophobia
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