Synopsis: Against a backdrop of interstellar war and looming apocalypse, the drama of seven pilgrims on a hopeless mission expands.

 

Review: I fucking loved this book. The first book dragged a bit, and didn't really answer the questions that I had so I was a little hesitant about getting to the second one. Honestly, I think Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion probably should have been one book. The first one just ended so abruptly. The second book answered the questions I had, expanded the plot and the scope, and revealed more about the characters while introducing new ones.

 

At the end of Hyperion all of the pilgrims were about to meet the Shrike, and I expected each of them to meet some of grisly end one by one in the sequel. I was pleasantly surprised to find that this was not so, as each character is woven seamlessly into a complicated and elegantly engineered plot line that explains why each of them is there.

 

I loved the way that Simmons throws subjects like quantum physics, time travel paradoxes, AI, even a little theology and makes it work. I'm enthralled, can't wait to get to the next book, Endymion, although I'm not sure when that will be.

کتاب‌های ایزاک آسیموف و آرتور سی کلارک در برابر این کتاب همچون داستان‌های کودکانه‌اند

به نظرم بعضی از جنبه‌های آیندهٔ شرح داده‌شده در این کتاب بسیار محتمل است: هجرت و گسترش انسان‌ها در تمام کهکشان. انسان‌هایی که خودشان را با فضای اطراف تطبیق داده‌اند و از ظاهر انسانی بیرون آمده‌اند و اختلافاتی که سر همین مسئله با انسان‌های عادی پیدا کرده‌اند. هوش مصنوعی که تمام جنبه‌های زندگی انسان را در کنترل گرفته و به انسان به شکل انگلی نگاه می‌کند که نابودی‌اش بهتر از باقی ماندنش است. حکومتی که با کمک هوش مصنوعی بر همه چیز کنترل دارد و با از بین بردن نژادهای هوشمند دیگر و نیز جوامع انسانی مستقل، سعی بر گسترش کنترل خود بر تمامی سیارات شناخته‌شده دارد

Masterwork is right. God alive, where do you even begin to start conceiving of a project like this? Huge pay-offs at the end, full on invasion and destruction of multiple worlds, the obliteration of the "Farcaster" network and depiction of all the ramifications and then its tears ahoy as Sol's daughter Rachel finally counts down the last seconds to the start - yes, start - of her life. All this and John Keats is a major character. There are two more novels in this sequence, but a detour to Artificial Intelligence-free waters beforehand I think.

This was a book that I had been looking forward to reading since I finished the first book in the series last year but unfortunately it turned out to be somewhat of a disappointment. The story remains interesting and Dan Simmons delivers a good ending to this story arc but he completely changed the way he told the story and it really did not work for me. The constant changing of POV kept on throwing me out of the story line and I had a hard time reading more than 30-50 pages at a time.

3.5 stars for an interesting story line but not one I really enjoyed.

This was a book that I had been looking forward to reading since I finished the first book in the series last year but unfortunately it turned out to be somewhat of a disappointment. The story remains interesting and Dan Simmons delivers a good ending to this story arc but he completely changed the way he told the story and it really did not work for me. The constant changing of POV kept on throwing me out of the story line and I had a hard time reading more than 30-50 pages at a time.

3.5 stars for an interesting story line but not one I really enjoyed.