The Fall of Hyperion (Gollancz S.F.) [Paperback]

In Hyperion we met seven pilgrims on their journey to the Time Tombs of the Shrike. We heard their stories - distinct and vivid stories with little overlap, except that they all ended up on the Shrike pilgrimage just as war threatened to envelop the Hegemony.

The Fall of Hyperion begins as where Hyperion leaves off - the Time Tombs are opening and the Ousters are on the verge of attack.

I will resist any temptation to reveal the plot, but I will say that the Fall manages to explain an awful lot. Hyperion introduces various loose ends in terms of technology, key players and history. Rather than neatly ignore these, as most authors do, Simmons hits them head-on in the Fall and in doing so weaves a very credible story.

The two books are a natural pair, although they do work better as distinct novels rather than a single large tome, and are an excellent read. Highly recommended and amongst the best sci-fi I have read in the last 5 years.

Still not convinced?

Okay, there is more. Much more.

Hyperion sets the scene for Endymion and the Rise of Endymion - the completion of the four novel saga. The Endymion books are quite extraordinary - they are profound, absorbing and truly moving, and they set Simmons apart as one of the greatest storytellers of our time.

To read Endymion you need to read Hyperion and the Fall of Hyperion. Click to purchase!

The first book sets out the stories of a disparate group of travellers, brought together to visit the machine entity/deity the Shrike at its "lair" in the Time Tombs on the planet of Hyperion. Ostensibly, this is an attempt to avert an invasion of the settled universe by a swarm/fleet of Ousters (humans who have opted out of the mainstream human culture, which is run and regulated by AIs). However, each has a personal reason to visit the Shrike (a normally fatal enterprise) and on the course of the journey, each tells their tale. Thus, the book is a sort of mini-Decameron for the SF crowd, with the author adopting a different tone for each segment. It is supremely written, each segment explaining more of the overall milieau and pushing the plot forward as well as delineating the characters.

The second book focusses less overtly on the characters of the original book, as the action broadens out into the political background of the setting and the action taking place on other worlds, as the Ouster invasion and its ramifactions develop. This is more conventional in its structure, but nevertheless riveting, and building to a highly satisfactory conclusion (though it is one of those books which you don't really want to end, so immersive is the story).

The writing is superb all the way through, brimming with ideas and packing a great deal of "sense of wonder", but also maintaining a high degree of action-packing and also, in parts, very moving emotionally (the last is not often a feature of even the best SF). And while fairly highbrow in places (the poet Keats is quite big in the storyline) it carries along the reader (like myself) who is not expert in these things without being annoying or patronising.

Perhaps the masterstroke of the books is the "character" of the Shrike, a sort of emblem of the mystery at the centre of the books (rather like the black monoliths in 2001). But the Shrike is also horrific and unpredictable, and every encounter with it is memorable.

As stated above, the books are about 20 years old. But they seem hardly dated, and the quality of the writing is some of the highest (maybe the highest) in the genre. Having read a lot of SF, and modern SF too, these really stand out for me as "core texts". I was initially put off reading Dan Simmons because I was only aware of his horror writing - don't be, this is pure, fabulous SF of the highest order.

Everyone raves about these books - there is a reason.