Hyperion, by Dan Simmons

You'll find Hyperion by Dan Simmons on most YouTube Top Ten lists of the Greatest Ever science fiction books. I must admit that this was the main reason for my buying this book. I agree, it's not the best of reasons; the internet is full of lists, in fact it's the medium's predominant writing form (allow me some slight exaggeration). However, amongst all the various YouTube science fiction channels there are a decent number of intelligent critics and commentators, and these persuaded me to investigate.

I suppose I'm hinting at a little reluctance. This is because I was aware of the basics of the book's structure, from previously reading synopses; and because I did myself study English Literature at university. If the title, Hyperion, means anything to a reader, it might be from Greek Myth or astronomy; but for myself it straight away alluded to Hyperion, an unfinished epic poem by John Keats, the English Romantic poet (capital 'R' there, because the Romantic Period is a well defined era in the history of Eng Lit). The book is full of overt references to Keats' life and works. The capital of the planet Hyperion is named 'Keats', for starters. Many characters are named after figures from his life.

I couldn't help being very backwards in coming forward, when it came to engaging with this book. All the Keatsian stuff seemed a bizarre example of a literary conceit which couldn't have any useful purpose in a story set hundreds of years from now. And the title of Hyperion itself suggested the lousiest excuse ever for not properly finishing the book.

I did say, the book's structure. For an Eng Lit student, the apparent obsession with Keats is random enough, but how does all that referencing connect with the narrative being modelled after Chaucer's Canterbury Tales? The story follows the progress of a number of pilgrims who are driven to make a pilgrimage to one of the most forbidding places in the known universe, the valley of the Time Tombs on Hyperion. These are ancient structures which are somehow moving backwards in time. Humanity is fascinated by them; scientists because of the secrets which they seem to guard, tourists because of their extraordinary nature; certain intelligences through their fear of what they portend; and cultists who are fixated with the terrifying creature which guards them, the Shrike.

Most pilgrims who travel to the Time Tombs know they may face their end at the hands of the Shrike, impaled on the spikes of a gigantic metallic tree. Just like the bird it's named after, the shrike aka the butcherbird. But it's not that simple: pilgrims are mysteriously judged, and a few are supposedly rewarded. In this story, the regular pilgrimages have been stopped. Just these few have been allowed to make the journey, through a now nearly deserted landscape. Something is happening at the Time Tombs. Are they about to open? And the dangerous 'time tides' which surround the 'tombs' are expanding. Along with that, the Shrike has started to range much further over the planet than ever before. Hyperion has been settled for a long time, but not yet accepted into the Hegemony (think of this like Territories achieving full Statehood in the US). And the Ousters, mutated humans who have long rejected the Hegemony, have chosen this time to attack Hyperion specifically - why? While another set of Artificial Intelligences, the Technocore, have their own agenda.

I didn't warm to the first few pages, which went over some of this background in a perfunctory manner. What the author imparted at the beginning didn't seem unusually startling; sure a fair sprinkling of ideas about what a far future galactic society might look like, but a bit of a hodge podge compared with eg the sure footed world building of Iain M Banks, or the clear driven purposes of Alastair Reynolds. In fact, we are only just starting to grasp the truths of Simmons' Hegemony and the galaxy which surrounds it by the end/not end of the book.

The heart of Hyperion is the stories of the pilgrims. The seven correspond quite well with some of the more memorable characters of the Canterbury Tales, but they shouldn't be identified with them. They're skilfully drawn personalities all of their own. You will like one or two, find it very hard to like one or two others, wonder why Simmons included so-and-so, be terrified at the fates of several pilgrims or characters, and find it difficult to hold back a tear or two over the tale of one in particular. The pilgrims are; a priest, a soldier, a poet, a scholar, a detective, a consul, and a ship's captain. Seven pilgrims; but only six chapters (long ones!). I'll leave you to find out what went wrong with that scheme. The pilgrims all had some kind of connection with the Shrike, and most had been to Hyperion before. But their agendas are all quite distinct. Some have come to 'kill' the Shrike (despite knowing that may not be possible), but others have come with a desperate plea, a wish to be granted. At times there's been hostility between them (one has been persistently unlikeable). But by the finish (I can't call it an end, not a true end), the pilgrims have begun to gel, trust a little, and maybe even sense that their purposes will gel together.

But they've only just arrived at the end of the Valley of the Time Tombs when the tale stops.

I understand now that it's impossible to judge what Simmons has done with the book's end, without reading The Fall of Hyperion. I'll wait. And do that.

Yes, Keats had another go at his epic poem, and wrote a completely new version. I have a horrible feeling that was unfinished too...

Hmm.

I'm compelled to write several endings to this blog post. This one serves to say why I now agree that Hyperion serves to be in the discussion of the greatest ever works of science fiction. I'm still not sure this would be for its science fiction-ness. But I am sure that Simmons is a very good writer indeed. The book's worldly and otherworldly scenes are vividly rendered. His characters are memorable and really well drawn, and the pain and torment they have accrued in their lives is compelling and doesn't easily leave the reader. For me, what ties the very varied tales together is the theme of lives affected, trapped I should say, by lifelong punishment from which they can't escape. At the finish, they're still going forward, because of that desperate possibility of release.