Reviews with content warning for Terminal illness - Hyperion

Depressing Canterbury Tales in Space, what more could you ask for?

The story is told in a series of vignettes, one from each character's point of view. Some are very serious, some lighthearted, but ultimately all are tragic in their own ways and help develop the world of the Hegemony and the story of Hyperion and The Shrike.

The book is absolutely magnificent in its story telling: each character feels totally unique in their storytelling style, so that the book feels like it has 6 authors instead of one, but the cohesion of these stories' intersections is something special.

There is one particular vignette that has haunted me for days since I finished the book:

the story of Rachel and Sol Weintraub absolutely destroyed me as a parent to a young child.

I can't think of the last time I was moved by a book so much.

Read Hyperion; don't not read Hyperion. You'll enjoy it if you like:

- space travel time dilation hijinks
- razorblades the space monster
- Persian space marines
- star ships made out of trees
- drunken poetry
- creepy crucifixion imagery

It's a wild ride and I really enjoyed it.

Content Warnings

jcooper221's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Really interesting story, the world building was incredible. It’s a story about 7 pilgrims in the vein of Canterbury Tales but with a huge sci-fi universe that feels like I only got a glimpse of. Horror elements featured strongly.

It took me three months to read, however. I’m not a fan of the short-story/anthology format, I kept losing interest after finishing one tale knowing the next would be completely different. The overarching story was pretty static too, not a lot going on, just journeying from one place to the next. Worse,

there’s no resolution to the main plot by the end of the book, so we never get to see the Shrike beyond flashes in a few of the tales.

A few of the tales were interesting, but several were just the author’s barely concealed sexual fantasies.

Content Warnings

captainpash's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

Content Warnings

ailsaod's review

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adventurous challenging dark slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I thought this was a sci-fi book - not sci-fi horror!!! Oh boy was I not prepared for the depths this book goes to - or just for anything about this book to be honest!

Hyperion is inspired by the Tales of Canterbury (which I only have a vague idea of what they are to be honest) and consists of a group of 'pilgrims' from different backgrounds travelling together and telling each other their life stories. So far sounds boring, except all these people have some kind of horror element in their backstory, some of which I found interesting but others were unpleasant to read. I would strongly recommend looking up the content warnings for this book as it covers a wide range of topics people might have difficulty with. I personally really struggled with the soldier's story as sexual horror is something I avoid and some of the things in that section were a bit much for me (understatement of the year!).

One thing I found frustrating about this book is that I never really understand what the point of it all is. For most of the book you don't know what the Time Tombs even are and you certainly don't know why anyone would want to go there. It does get explained a bit towards the end but it never really made sense. I get that it is supposed to be mysterious but it felt more like badly explained to me. There are a lot of interesting things in the worldbuilding of this book but they are just mentioned casually like "oh yea Hyperion is one of those labyrinth worlds". OK, please elaborate?

Another reason I didn't like this book much is the way the characters are written - the main character is pretty much a blank slate and is barely even named in the book (which is for plot reasons, but doesn't make his point of view any more enjoyable!). A lot of the other characters behave in ways that are so strange that they seem unreal and everyone is really horny which didn't help.

I think this book is for a specific type of reader - which is not me! - but it's not terrible. I would have been slightly more appreciative of it if it had ended at a less frustrating point but I have no intention of putting myself through book 2!

Content Warnings

ono_odog's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional inspiring sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

Content Warnings

singalana's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Content Warnings

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