Hyperion by Dan Simmons

RATING: 4.7/5

Once in a while, you stumble on a very unusual book, totally out of your comfort zone, you give it a try and 90% you end up hating it, the rare 10% you end up FRKN LOVING IT. That’s what happened with Hyperion. This book blew me away.

THE PREMISE

“It occurs to me that our survival may depend upon our talking to one another.”

With this quote, Dan Simmons has set up the whole novel. Hyperion is a bunch of stories inside a story. The core of the novel is a pilgrimage to this mysterious planet Hyperion by seven people who seek answers from this so-called monster/Lord-of-the pain The Shrike. The whole novel is seven stories telling from their point of view of the reason they have come to this pilgrim. The 7 people also fit with 7 stereotypes : the Priest, the Poet, the Consul, the Soldier, the Detective, the Scholar and the Templar. This is why it’s an intesting mix. It feels like a short story collections hidden inside a bigger story of the novel.

THE 7 TALES

My favourite story is the one about Father Dure told by The Priest, because Dure kind of reminds me of my Dad. He’s a religious but also has a big curiosity for science and he has been a post-doc researcher for a long time. Father Dure has the same fascination towards science and academics but also battles with keeping his Faith while confronting some disturbing truths. His journey was one of the finest horror-meets-suspense tale I’ve ever experienced. With the same haunting feeling as Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer, Dan Simmons creates an atmosphere of confusion and terror.

“IN SUCH SECONDS OF DECISION ENTIRE FUTURES ARE MADE.”

I feel like each tale embraces a particular feeling and each of them will impact different types of reader. The Scholar‘s story made me cry like The Niagara Falls, the Poet‘s story is a crowd favourite (from what I read from the other reviews) because he’s such a funny and unique character, the Detective‘s story is Altered Carbon with a more poetic twist**, the Soldier** mixes a lot of action and so on.

TITLE: HYPERION