Toast.x2

For anyone who has NOT read the first two books of the Hyperion “Cantos”, self referencing Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion, STOP HERE. It’s not that i will give spoilers here, instead that you are doing yourself an injustice by continuing. Go pick up the first book and read it. This is one of those thought changing sci-fi series. you will start thinking about its congruence with reality: start seeing the tech it describes in modern life (albeit in nearly unrecognizable forms). you will scan the news and see articles that will remind you of the story. Some people start spreading the viral thought of tattoos… thanks a lot Mongo.. For the genre, it has a lack of balance, spanning horror, sci-fi, fantasy, tech, erotica, and religious theory. This lack of balance makes it ACCESSIBLE, something nearly all sci-fi authors wish for. They want the ability to reach more than the core crowd of fan boys/girls and aficionados. Simmons does this with a silver tongue. The remainder of this will not ...

I cannot tell you how much this book will continue to affect my brain going forward. Other scifi book series, movies, and even music i love seems to have some direct influence stemming from the Hyperion “Cantos”. As a simple and poor example, The Matrix in many ways, almost seems like an homage to the Hyperion series, with significant portions of plotline directly influenced. The shrike (agent smith), a machine boogeyman whos intents are sometimes inline with those of the web, other times seemingly contrary. Thousands of Shrike (Smiths) working toward a common goal. Squid like creatures, Artificial Deities, the convergence of mankind and machine. i dont want to give too many examples as every reference i make could be seen as a spoiler, and i dont want to be the person who ruins well earned surprises. the fictional references located while reading the first two books in this series astounded me. it is like a holy grail of geekdom. i fail to even mention that the plot is beyond incredib...

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 bac...