The Shrike Awaits. Enter The Time Tombs...

I read this series back in its first published hardcovers, so I look at this book with a judgmental eye - Is it a worthy listen, and its subsequent writings? Here's my take on this audiobook.

This is outstanding scifi, to the point. It reminds me of "The Mote In God's Eye," in its depth, solid character backstories and various perspectives. As in the mentioned comparison, this is complex storytelling that makes you consider as you listen. Each character has purpose and propels the story along, often in unexpected ways. This is THOUGHTFUL scifi, with tremendous respect for the reader's/listener's time, intellect, and maturity. If you want pulp scifi, go listen to Heinlein - This one's for those hungry for a story with meat on its bones, one that makes you want more. One that makes you want to listen to it again, in case you missed something important, and that's quite possible, with this fantastic scifi audiobook.

What's it all about, you ask? Again, Audible listener, I give only hints in reviews, neither plots nor spoilers here. Here's a taste of what your hear...

Knights Templar traveling across the galaxy in living trees. A undying priest carries
a nightmarish secret from an abandoned zombie-like congregation, a woman becomes younger each day, and races to beat the clock, literally. A virtual reality-trained military leader seeks the love of a woman haunting him in his computer-driven landscape. A drunken writer seeks the final and ultimate story. A spacefaring horde, soon to arrive in the known space of man, to conquer and enslave the billions that fear their arrival. And of course, they all seek the Shrike, a man-shaped judge and jury covered in blades, riding the currents of the time tombs, bringing death to most, and life to some.

And that just scratches the surface.

These various stories and their perspectives come together to create a great tale, and you'll definitely want more.

The narration team does a good job to bring this audiobook to life - If you read my other reviews, you know I'm BRUTAL on narrators. The can make or break the author's work. So, "good" is high praise coming from me.

All in all, this is an audiobook that you'll like.

So the Shrike awaits. Enter the Time Tombs, Audible listener, and be judged!

271 of 291 people found this review helpful

Bleak & Intense Sci-Fi

The first of two books in the series focuses on a universe where a far flung civilization is in decline. Seven disparate people embark on a reluctant pilgrimage to an ambiguous and malignant entity.

During the journey they tell their stories in an effort to puzzle out why they've been chosen, and how they can use their shared experiences to achieve their individual goals.

Wonderfully written characters make this bleak, intense book worth reading. But be forewarned, the experiences they share are dark! This is not a joyful read, but an extremely memorable one. Definitely a must for Sci-Fi fans.

82 of 90 people found this review helpful

Excellent start to a series that finds religion.

Dan Simmons creates an amazing future with interesting technology where man's impact on the universe has some pretty significant ramifications for their own survival. This book kicks off the series in fine style and keeps you interested right up until the very bizarro ending.

The main story arc is about a pilgrimage to a distant planet to visit the Time Tombs. As you listen you know there is a lot at stake on the pilgrimage and you try to put together the pieces of the puzzle as you learn about each of the characters. Each one has their own significant reason for going to Hyperion and the future of mankind will be impacted by the outcome.

You will have to pick up book 2 if you really want to know how that all turns out as this book abruptly ends after all the build up. I was a big fan right until the ending which felt severely out of place to me. Book two wasn't nearly as good and for me all the excellent build up was wasted.

As the series goes on it finds religion and that is when it started to lose me. Combine the extremely complicated world of the AIs with the focus on Christianity for the humans and I found myself wishing I was listening to something else. I wasn't offended by it, I just didn't find the whole religous aspect of the books to be that interesting. Sadly it became the major focus of the series and my enjoyment dropped off significantly. I did listen to all 4 books and I enjoyed the first and last books more than books 2 and 3.

I enjoyed the narration and liked the ensemble cast used in book 1.

191 of 214 people found this review helpful

Brilliant and Well Crafted

After reading the other reviews of this book, I am compelled to submit my own. First, this is a very well crafted science fiction classic. It creates an entire future universe that is both plausible and fascinating. Second, the story and characters are well developed, intriguing and real. I highly recommend this book. I agree that the female narrator was initially irritating, but once her story begins, becomes more interesting and you get lost in her tale. Be warned however, this only one-half of the book. For complete closure, you will need to read The Fall of Hyperion. Read back to back, this is a brilliant tale of the future with real and unique characters and storyline. This book is well deserving of both the Hugo Award and Locus Award for Best Novel of 1990.

70 of 81 people found this review helpful

A LESSON in How to Write Smart, Dark, ADULT SciFi

First off, this review pertains only to THIS book. I have no idea how the rest of the books in this series are. As many reviews point out, this book is really only a prologue to the 2nd book. This one sets up the incredible characters that will take you through that one.

This book is the way that adult SciFi should be. It doesn't skirt the edges of "PG-rated" SciFi, like so many authors feel the need to in this genre. It knows it's a twisted dark animal, and it's not afraid to lick the toilet. The characters are very real, and incredibly flawed. Each has their own story, which is compelling, imaginative, and unique.

The world Simmons sets up is very believable. For the most part, he uses current science to back up the future technology he's woven into the story. He takes very few liberties with "fantasy crap SciFi", which I have to admire. If you're an intelligent adult, with a pension for science, then this is your kind of SciFi. Trust me, it doesn't get much better than this!

This book certainly makes me want to read the rest of the books in this series. The only reason the narrators got 4 stars instead of 5 is because the girl's voice was, at times, not that great. Also, the fact that there are multiple narrators was a little jarring at certain points.

69 of 81 people found this review helpful

I understand why it's a classic, but...

After reading it way back when it was first published in print, I recently listened to the audiobook version and had pretty much the same reaction to it. I feel almost obligated to admire the author for his skillful weaving of a complex, multi-layered web of tales, all written in totally different styles, each of them contributing in an ingenious way to our understanding of the world that forms the backdrop to this story. Really, really well done, and I fully understand why this book is a sci-fi classic.

Alas, in the end it all sort of falls flat for me, a classic example of arts for art's sake. Some of the tales are gripping (Detective, Poet, Soldier, ) but the others just meander on without much purpose (in particular the Consul's tale). At times it feels like a sophomore in English studies trying to squeeze as many "big" words, as many memes as possible into a paragraph to impress the professor. If someone had seriously edited the book and cut 25% out, it would have been a masterpiece. Well, there's still the issue that it really ends just when it's about to become really interesting. I'm not huge fan of blatant cliffhangers books that leave essentially everything open and bring nothing to a (at least partial) conclusion.

The narration cast is outstanding. Having different characters narrated by different actors works extremely well here.The person reading the poet is brilliant!

37 of 44 people found this review helpful

Classic Sci-fi

Any additional comments?

A great sci-fi story told in the "frame story" format. (Like Canterbury Tales.) Seven very different people are on a pilgrimage together to Hyperion and each of their back-stories unfolds the plot.

What I liked best about this story is that in addition to being a great story and setting, (common in good sci-fi/fantasy) the author happens to be a great writer (not so common even in good sci-fi/fantasy). You can tell that the author has a love of science and futurism but also a love of language and poetry. (References to Keats abound.)

Warning: When I started this book I thought it was a stand-alone novel. However, it ends abruptly and I'm told that the Fall of Hyperion finishes the story.

34 of 41 people found this review helpful

More than a book

The important thing to understand is that is the first part of series and in reality this book is little more than a prologue. That being said it is a gripping first chapter. The hyperion series is more than a story, it is a work of philosophical and religious fiction that explores the meaning of life and the universe. Don't take that to mean its not full of action, it is. This series has everything in it from medieval sword fights to massive space battles and the destruction of worlds.

At its heart this is the story of mankind's struggle for true transcendence. The plot is deep and convoluted involving substantial time travel and is its secrets cannot be fully understood until the last book. This is a work that you have to begin with some faith that at some point it will all make sense. Trust me, it does and the final revelation in The Rise of Endymion is remarkable.
Christians beware, this book may challenge many of your belifes in uncomfortable ways.

53 of 65 people found this review helpful

Canterbury Tales in space with a side of mystery

Dan Simmons' Hugo award winning Hyperion is a richly elaborate tale of a complex futuristic galactic society long after the destruction of Earth. Hyperion is a world on the edge of space with only a loose attachment to the major societal and governmental organization known as the Hegemony. Its main interest lies in being one of only a dozen labyrinthine worlds, underground tunnels the origin and purpose of which remains a mystery. Hyperion also is home to the "time tombs", structures which create an entropic dysfunction in their proximity and has spawned a religious movement that believes an impending event is to occur. Completing the menagerie is a splinter sect of humans, analogous to barbarians, that confine themselves to space and intend to invade and destroy Hyperion. Against this backdrop, an apparently random collection of individuals has been selected for the last pilgrimage to Hyperion. Along the way, they each tell a long, fascinating tale that relate essential background info on the universe, provide a specific connection with Hyperion, and give them motive to have a grudge against the powers that be.

Th sci-fi elements are varied and numerous. Settled space interacts through "farscasters" that provide instantaneous interstellar travel between worlds. The "hitch" is that distant worlds require relativistic restrictions to establish a new travel site. As such, worlds not integrated suffer a time debt accrual, which results in quite a few seemingly long lived individuals. The concept of entropic dysfunction where time can go backwards is a fascinating addition. Artificial intelligence is a major player within the Hegemony with various sects with conflicting objectives. Cybrids represent AI entities operating within humanoid like physical bodies. Each of the "tales" is nearly a standalone short story in themselves. While each is informative regarding both the storyteller and the Hyperion universe, each also leaves plenty of unanswered questions.

The narration is an ensemble cast where each major storytelling character has their own voice with an overall narrator. Each narrator performs quite respectably and the story flows seamlessly which can be an issue for multi-narrator performances.

11 of 13 people found this review helpful

Astonishingly good

I don't write separate reviews for books in a series. Especially here, where Hyperion has been called the prologue to the Fall of Hyperion (FoH), it's been intimated that the former cannot stand on its own and I agree. Some have compared and contrasted the two connoting that there is perhaps a lack of cohesion and that they are very dissimilar. To that end, I disagree. The "prologue" smoothly transitions into the main body of the work and feels completely natural. Taken together, the two seem very much a part of a cohesive whole.

I was skeptical that the stellar cast of narrators of Hyperion could be equaled by a single actor, albeit Victor Bevine in FoH. Mr. Bevine was phenomenal and I never, at any point in the listening, felt like the work was diminished.

It is good that I have listened to this author later in life. Having been brought up reading the classics of all genre of literature, it is often difficult to appreciate lesser works after having experienced the masters. Dan Simmons is a master when compared to authors of any genre. I have heard Simmons compared to Dickens. Truly in his development of characters, the comparison seems a fair one. It would be hard to compare the plot of this work to that of any other.

Often fraught with and characterized by fantastic imagery and incongruous juxtapositions, the work is almost too much to be believed. But somehow Simmons makes it all believable for some time in the future. Unlike some classic, older SciFi which seemed futuristic when it was written but then later became seemingly dated, this piece is fresh, modern or hopefully even timeless. There's religion, technology, philosophy, excitement, a great deal of love and caring among seven pilgrim strangers and funny, now that I think about it, only one real villain in a world that is more vast than I can even imagine. This is truly a magnum opus in every sense of the word.

60 of 75 people found this review helpful