Science Fiction

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Lemmy World Rules

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Just finished Hyperion, curious to hear the community’s thoughts (lemmy.world)

submitted 10 months ago by nodimetotie@lemmy.world to c/sciencefiction@lemmy.world

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Picked it up from the Goodreads science fiction top list. The description did not make much sense to me but I decided to give it a try based on the popularity.

It was a bit hard for me to get into but after a while the narrative made sense. It felt cosy to imagine all these travelers gather around and tell stories to each other. I liked the variety of styles and themes that each character contributes. But I still felt it was not fully stitched together. Yes, there is this shared universe but the transition from one tale to another still was jarring. And the ending was underwhelming. I was hoping for some closure, and the last tale kind of provided it, but then there was a heap of unanswered questions.

What were your thoughts? If you read the sequels, were they worth it?

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[–] retrieval4558@mander.xyz 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion are both very good. I've heard very mixed things about the 3rd and 4th books, so I skipped those.

[–] negativeyoda@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago

Endymion and Rise is Endymion were both great in my opinion.

Simmons is kind of a one trick pony tho, so it's more of the same shit: things are happening and there's this precocious character who has to explain everything explicitly to the reader, etc. I still think they're worth reading. Illium and Olympos sucked and were essentially the same jarring non narrative that's supposed to come together with the same sorts of characters and literary riffing (ie, elements from other genres and styles as well as Shakespeare, Greek mythology, etc.)

Unfortunately Simmons revealed himself to be outspoken with his regressive politics, so it's kind of a bumout that Hyperion was a book that I enjoyed so much.