Dan Simmon’s 1991 follow up to Hyperion (which I reviewed here) tied up a lot of gaps I identified in my last review; notably a lack of meaningful encounters of each pilgrim with the Shrike. The follow up The Fall Of Hyperion does a fantastic job addressing these gaps.
Ok…Not every gap in the Hyperion universe was closed, and yes, even more questions and mysteries were created. However I was very satisfied with this book. Dan Simmons sufficiently answered the bigger existential and philosophical questions that the book Hyperion had raised (and left hanging) around its key players and the larger context of the fictional Hyperion universe itself. Also, I found that the questions this book tackled and the scenarios it presented back in 1991 are still very relevant themes, if not staple go-to’s, in contemporary science fiction 28 years later.
Note: spoilers all over the place, so take cover…
The Good…
I was not disappointed with each pilgrim’s experience with the Shrike (with the exception of Brawne Lamia, who given her important role in this story, still feels like the most under-developed player in this tale).
As you can see from the cover art, Sol, loyal father of Rachel (who we understood from the first book was aging backwards from full-grown woman to new born baby, for reasons we will apparently find out), has apparently succumbed to the possibly malevolent voices in his head, and seems to finally offer baby Rachel to the monster/harbinger of humanity’s doom/weird spiky being-thing called the Shrike. If Dan Simmon’s is cool with that spoiler being put forward before the reader opens up the book, he’s basically saying what’s inside the book is waaaaay more interesting…and he’s right.
The tale of bad-ass Fedmahn Kassad and his quest to find his mysterious “lover” Moneta was engaging. Soon, we realize that a big part of her mystery is that with every encounter with Kassad, she’s progressing backwards in time for reasons unknown until later in the book. Also, while Kassad meets a fitting heroic end in this book, Dan used this to introduce a potential story arc involving a future humanity, which results in the war that leads to the defeat of the army of Shrikes. If the author explores all this in the following books in the series, I want to read them. Bring it on.
The novel’s exploration of the implications of a virtual reality, as far as Joseph Severn’s movements through the Megasphere, and the mystery of the location of the TechnoCore itself, was expertly done. More so, given the 1991 pen date of this novel, I’m not saying that the 90’s wasn’t ripe with fictional stories that explored cyber-universes, but I still believe this had to be ahead of it’s contemporaries at the time (maybe I’m wrong – but do point me to a novel that describes the internet as well 25 years ago). Fall Of Hyperion parallels (or exceeds) more contemporary novels that deal with the same themes.
One of the highlights for me was the back-and-forth between Joseph Severn and the hilariously booming, poetic(?) Wizard of Oz-ish Ummon, a major AI in the TechnoCore. That was genius…and entertaining. We were introduced to the TechnoCore’s goal to develop a ultimate intelligence, a God like entity, in the first book. In the Fall Of Hyperion, Ummon explains that in the very far future, the AI’s efforts were successful; the “Ultimates” faction of the TechnoCore actually create a God-like being. However, this supreme AI finds out that there is another supreme being in existence: one that had evidently developed from the consciousness of all of humanity, evolved over eons. This explains a good chunk of the resulting drama, including the creation of the Shrike in an attempt to draw out the manifestation of the human entity responsible for empathy…understandably, by causing pain. Jeez. Dan then dabbles in a little quantum physics to explain how all this was possible – I will have to check with my physicist friends on the plausibility of his discussions on the “plank space”, as a lot of that went over my head – but it seemed possible enough to be entertaining.
There was a lot of good interplay with the themes of the poems by John Keats (yes, they were called Hyperion and The Fall Of Hyperion, by the way) as I understand, both poems dealt with the original generation of Greek gods, the Titans, being replaced by the Olympians. You could basically cut-and-paste that theme to Humanity vs. Artificial Intelligence…Artificial Intelligence vs. Ultimate Intelligence…basically goes on and on.
There is a lot that I enjoyed that I can’t really do justice to in this review: the mystery of the Ousters’ attack on Hyperion and the sudden realization by the Hegemony that they were en route to attack worlds previously assumed to be out of reach; we low-key knew the Hegemony was putting all their eggs in one basket by attacking Hyperion, but it was fun to watch it all play out. The sneakiness of the TechnoCore…The Consul’s journey to the Ousters, the suffering of Martin Silenus, the death of Father Lenar Hoyt, leading to the resurrection and the mini pilgrimage of of Father Paul Dure. None of these disappointed.
The Not So Good…
Most stories involving Severn felt excessively drawn out, and a little more elaborate than needed. The worst of this was when he’s “farcasted” to the earth analog, waiting to die from Tuberculosis. That really didn’t need to take that long; the slow progression to his final dying place. The excessive focus on every little bit of detail…To be fair, Dan does this through the book, but at this particular point it was exhausting.
The means of defeating the Shrike by Brawne Lamia felt underwhelming, especially after Kassad’s muscular struggle to defeat just one Shrike, I hope the other books in the series clarify why exactly her simply pointing at the Shrike led to it’s freezing up and falling over. Yeah, I know Moneta whispered to her to “believe” but come on man… I’ll give the author the benefit of the doubt here and assume he will tie that up in the rest of the series.
Review:
I’m a simple guy, and sometimes the elaborate narrative gets tiring. But, The Fall Of Hyperion was an epic projection of what humanity could become, if it grows dependent on artificial intelligence, with the benefits and pitfalls (ok, mostly pitfalls). Meina Gladstone’s destruction of the farcaster network, and the resulting technological devolution of the Hegemony was a heavy but fitting cost to save humanity from a future of dominance and decimation by the AI’s it created. The book was gripping, long at times, but full of enough topics to trigger numerous debates on existence, religion and the nature of AI, (and shoot, even a little quantum physics) for a long time. As I can see, it’s done that since 1991.
4.5 Stars
Other books in the series are below. All links are amazon affiliate links.
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