This is only the beginning

This is another classic science-fiction novel, and the one with which I started my ‘quest’ for an expanded horizon in literature. Because I recently acquired The Fall of Hyperion, I felt that I had to re-read the first book of the Hyperion Cantos. It was worth it. Not only had I mostly forgotten the plot, the book is a joy to read, even if is unusually structured.

Step out into the galaxy

Dan Simmons’ Hyperion Cantos is set in the 28th century. Mankind has expanded to several other planets. The core worlds – the Hegemony of Man – are connected via so-called farcasters – artificial rifts in space-time that allow for instantaneous travel. Outlying planets can only be reached by space travel which, depending on the ship’s drives, can take months or even years. The Hawking drive may give spaceships the ability to jump to other planetary systems without losing time, but they still have to use standard engines to travel in-system. That means that due to the lower impact of gravitation, space travellers incur time debt relative to people living on planets – they age slower.

Also, mankind has never really encountered other intelligent species. There is the TechnoCore, the organisation of artificial intelligences that declared themselves independent from humanity sometime in the past and are still cooperating with their creators. The so-called Ousters, nomadic humans that have mutated by living in space, serve as some kind of galactic bogeyman, seemingly threatening the Hegemony’s existence.

Travel to Hyperion

The planet Hyperion lies on the outskirts of colonised space. It is sparsely settled. Its main attraction are a series of empty ruins called the Time Tombs, which follow their own temporal rules, and the murderous creature called the Shrike, a vaguely humanoid figure covered in sharp and pointy things and who is wont to impale its victims on a tree-like structure near the Tombs. Since human beings apparently never change, some of them created a cult around the Shrike, hailing it as the Harbinger of Doom for all mankind. The Ousters are also very much interested in Hyperion and the Time Tombs; they want to understand why they exist and how they work.

Go on the Pilgrimage and die

Shortly before the story begins, the Ousters prepare for a strike towards their object of desire. The Hegemony is not prepared to let the planet fall into their hands and sends a defensive force along with the last pilgrimage to the Time Tombs. The seven pilgrims have been carefully selected and are to entreat with the Shrike for a wish that, as the legend goes, the last one standing is granted. They are: a Catholic priest with two crosses to bear, a former high-ranking soldier experiencing wet dreams, a foul-mouthed poet who thinks the Shrike is his muse, a scholar whose daughter has contracted an unique disease on Hyperion, a private eye whose boyfriend was a copy of John Keats (who wrote the poem Hyperion), a diplomat who served on Hyperion and the captain of the ship on which they arrived. All of them have a previous connection to the planet.

Stories within Stories

Simmons is a marvellous writer. Despite the relatively heavy concepts he incorporated in his story, I never had difficulties understanding his fluent prose, even when his style was changing. That it does frequently, as the book is structured around the pilgrims’ stories they agree to tell each other during their journey. Here, tragedy alternates with romance and pulp fiction. Simmons manages to give each of his characters their own voice and communicates their desperation and hope, sadness and happiness so well that I was not able to hate one of them, despite the sometimes despicable things they did in their past. Also, every sub-story helps the main plot along by increasingly larger increments. It resembles opening a Matryoshka doll in reverse; gaining larger insight as one progresses further.

The weirdest part of Hyperion is that it only serves as a prologue for a larger story and still is that good. The novel ends just when things are about to get interesting. I hope the sequel can do the introduction justice.