One slop after another

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Tenko-of-Mori@reddit

Lmfao its kind of true but also Hyperion is one of the best books I ever read, and I don't really even care for sci fi

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While I do often find 4chan’s take on this kind of thing funny for its exceptional dryness, anyone with any reasonable opinions beyond “I hate everything because my life has amounted to nothing” (which to me, is the basis of anons high and mighty “I’m too clever for this” rhetoric) would agree that Hyperion really is a fantastic book.

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Tenko-of-Mori@reddit

I'd like to give the benefit of the doubt and believe anon is not completely bitter and is just memeing. There's something funny about describing a thing in the most disingenuous, uncharitable and reductionist way possible.

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oby100@reddit

I think it’s a fun way to see how much good writing drives a story. Amateur writers could be given the bones to an amazing story, but it would likely turn out cringe as the reductionist take makes it seem like.

How the characters act and the mystery unfurling around something like a sci fi monster is everything.

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Mishi_Mujago@reddit

Yeah you’re probably right. I don’t know why I was being so bitter to be honest.

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ScottyUpdawg@reddit

I bet this dude loves Hyperion. It’s a great read and and his dry take on the Shrike is at least partially true haha

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Mishi_Mujago@reddit

Yeah the “where’s the Shrike?” is actually a fair point

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hinowisaybye@reddit

Hyperion is amazing, it's sequels leave much to be desired.

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willindeed@reddit

I love Hyperion, but I find this to be fair.

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greyetch@reddit

The whole "cruciform" story was WAY better than the rest of it.

Make that part into a film.

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Tenko-of-Mori@reddit

idk a lot of the stories I liked. My favorites were the Bard and the Scholar

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Cervical_Plumber@reddit

Yeah this is a hilarious, accurate and weirdly-deep-cut take.

the book is still amazing though

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SalvationSycamore@reddit

It's spelled Hyperborean

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Tenko-of-Mori@reddit

Ok, Yakub

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Duck_Troland@reddit

Don't summon me or my Shrike ever again.

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Afraid-Exit2125@reddit

Holy shit i just got into this novel, this shit will go hard as a vidya

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CptSalsa@reddit

Returnal

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Afraid-Exit2125@reddit

I don't like playing a game where theain charcahter is a woman

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CptSalsa@reddit

Actually since everyone says she looks like a man you can play it, unless you're woke as fuck

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abundanceofb@reddit

I don’t think even Dan Simmons knew what he wanted the Shrike to be or why it existed

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MadDoctorMabuse@reddit

Sums up the whole four books perfectly. I don't think Simmons knew what he wanted anything to be, or where it would be, or why.

It's a good story and I think about it often. But there's no final scene where everything gets tied up. It's like listening to a charismatic drunk tell a story at a party then, part way through, he kinds nods off.

Also space Catholics

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seeyagatorr@reddit

What a load of shit. Respectfully.

It's drawing heavily on the Canterbury Tales for an influence, and do you know how that ends? Unlike TCT, he wraps it up. Just because it doesn't neatly resolve every little detail isn't a fault.

I see complaints or critiques like this and I understand how bad the education system is failing when it comes to the arts.

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LilChunger1488@reddit

The original Hyperion novel was great, obviously predicated on the true classic The Cantebury tales.

Fall of Hyperion was a less-than-smooth attempt at providing some much-needed closure to the completely-unresolved story set up in the first volume. Threatened to start disappearing up its own ass at times, but was still perfectly readable and far from bad or boring.

The Endymion books were awful. I literally paused mid-way through the first to see if this was a posthumous fanfic, as that would explain the precipitous drop in quality. Alas, it wasn't. Desecrating the universe and characters that he himself had created in the service of telling a literal cuckold fantasy story is the second-most disgusting thing that Dan Simmons ever did, and I hate him for it. Gaping plot holes, next-to-zero exposition, muddled soap opera of a plot- literally nothing redeemable about the final two installments of the Hyperion Cantos.

Also, space Catholics becoming the entire plot (sans cuckold erotica).

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CatMan_Sad@reddit

Loved hyperion. Couldnt slog through the next one. I dont mind that hyperion was somewhat unresolved

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nuked24@reddit

noooooooo all the potential plot points need to be resolved and told to meeeeee how will I sleep not knowing their entire future family history until the end of time

I get why the never-ending web books got popular, but holy fuck sometimes it just gets exhausting.

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Genetic_Medic@reddit

“Respectfully”

“load of shit”

based

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HitIerWasWrong@reddit

That's kind of just a crux of the genre.

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ifeelallthefeels@reddit

He invented it for stories for his 6th graders lmao. “It’s a childish design” Quite.

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SalvationSycamore@reddit

Sometimes things exist just to be sick as fuck and that's okay

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apewave@reddit

lmfao, the shrike is badass though

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Too-many-Bees@reddit

Hyperion slaps (all 4 books)

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Tenko-of-Mori@reddit

first time I've heard someone say all 4 books. only read Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion and got stopped from continuing by everyone online and offline telling me the Endymion were garbage.

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ifeelallthefeels@reddit

In my opinion, the author sets the tone he wants to set in the first, like, 30 pages. I’d say read about that much and if you hate it, stop reading

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Tenko-of-Mori@reddit

that's good advice actuallly

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Braydenrocks@reddit

Endymion gets a lot of hate for kind of listing from here to there without the same drive towards an end goal that the first two books had, but they are still a good story. I don’t think they’re as strong as the first books, and some of the reveals that happen recontextualize some of the earlier events in a way I know not a lot of people care about. But it does do some more very interesting things that I think you’ll like if you enjoyed the OG books.

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Takseen@reddit

The Endymion books are still good, just not as good imo.

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neon@reddit

Hyperion does MOG dune

One of best books all time

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AtlanteanBarbarian@reddit

Both are mogged by the Book of the New Sun.

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GaryRegalsMuscleCar@reddit

Mogs the lord of the rings and says yes, catholic literature can have boobs.

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neon@reddit

I’m reading that right now actually!

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Derpchieftain@reddit

Is Hyperion Cantos actually worth reading? Sci-fi tends to devolve into a soapbox for whatever the author wants to project onto the story, so I don't really bother with it on that basis.

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ifeelallthefeels@reddit

I just finished the series not too long ago, just want to add that some of us like the last tao books more 🤷‍♂️

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MoltenMirrors@reddit

The third and the fourth work best if you grew up Catholic I think. There are a lot of nods to theology and the intellectual traditions of the Church.

That said, they're still good if not quite on the level of the first two. Worth it for the ending which I found very satisfying.

Fair warning there's some stuff about the relationship between the two main characters that modern audiences would find creepy / awkward: !>The narrator is an adult man who becomes the caretaker of a young girl and takes care to mention he doesn't find her naked body attractive when nobody asked. Then she ages 10+ years through time travel and they become lovers; it's fine though because she's Space Jesus who experiences all time simultaneously or something.<!

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PresidentStone@reddit

I really enjoyed the first book. Second book was okay. 3rd and 4th were eh and took me longer to get through, but with the ending I was glad I read them. I liked the ending.

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Blarn-hr@reddit

First two books are great, the third is just a crossover between Stargate and Terminator 2. I didn't finish the fourth.

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Tenko-of-Mori@reddit

Again as others have said, first 2 books are amazing and worth reading by themselves. Dunnot about the last 2

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cantelope4@reddit

Yeah, but I’ve only read the first 2. It’s one of those things that had some aspects that would later become played-out tropes, but at the time of its writing was ahead of everything else. Still 2 of my favorite books.

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puredaemon@reddit

Definitely read the first two books (or no.1 and the first part of no.2). Incredible.

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seeyagatorr@reddit

Yes. I'm not familiar with the internet opinion on it, but I thought they were wonderful books with incredible ideas for the time. So much of it still is, though some has been co-opted by authors since; the fate of any influential artist.

You can leave it after Fall of Hyperion. I don't think the Endymion duology was particularly necessary and took away the magic of certain elements.

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