Hyperion, Dan Simmons

mongo loaned me this book, claiming that this series is a personal favorite. he described the series as “a combination of sci-fi, fantasy, horror, and the single best description of Artificial Intelligence” he had ever read. i was glad to push it to the top of the unread pile.

i do not know yet that i have gotten to the AI references he described yet, as i still feel fredrik pohl’s gateway series nailed it, but the other claims are pretty accurate :) i suppose i will see when i get to #2.

Hyperion, a planet on the ass end of the universe, has not yet been incorporated into the Hegemony. Old Earth was abandoned after the “big mistake of 38″. The Hegemony being the new ruling factor of our species, spread out across the universe, seeding planets with colonies.

Hyperion wanders through the stories of seven pilgrims, pulled by the Shrike Cult to the planets surface, on a final trip to the mysterious time tombs. the tombs were discovered centuries back and have a bizarre ebb and flow of backwards flowing time surrounding them. the source of the tombs (besides the future of course) is unknown, as is the Shrike itself. Referred to by the Cult as the “Lord of Pain” it slaughters at will. all seven pilgrims are bound to die. why they have come to the planet Hyperion willingly is the whole reason to read this book.

this book visually accosted me. phrases and styling burned into my brain.

“[..] she was homesick there: the sunsets were abrupt, the much-vaunted mountains slicing off the sunlight like a ragged scyth, and she longed for the hours-long sunsets of home where Barnard’s Star hung on the horizon like a great, tethered, red balloon while the sky congealed to evening. She missed the perfect flatness where –peering from her third-floor room under the steeple gables –a little girl could look fifty kilometers across tasseled fields to watch a storm approach like a bruise-black curtain lit within by lightning bolts.”

good, god,damn

Mongo was kind enough to loan me book two as well. He advised that when i was done with the first, i would immediately want to move to the second. Why did Mongo have to be right.. and why did i forget book two on my work desk……