Dan Simmons is an author who strides with ease from genre to genre, writing science fiction, horror, fantasy, contemporary literary fiction, and mystery. His most famous works, Hyperion and its follow-up The Fall of Hyperion, exploit Simmons’ wide-ranging talents and interests to the hilt by bringing numerous genres together in a science fiction framework.
Centuries from now, the Hegemony of Man stretches across dozens of worlds that are home to billions of people, linked together by the Worldweb, a network of millions of teleportation devices called farcasters that allow instantaneous travel and communication anywhere in the Hegemony. Earth itself is gone, gradually consumed after when an experiment with singularities went awry in an incident known as the “Big Mistake,” releasing a miniature black hole into Earth’s core that slowly gutted the planet from the inside out. The inscrutable TechnoCore, artificial intelligences that have gained independence from humanity but who continue to work with us, keep the technology of the Worldweb running and advise the human government. Beyond the limits of Hegemony space dwell the mysterious Ousters, nomadic space-going humans and enemies of the Hegemony and the TechnoCore.
At the frontiers of known space, not yet incorporated into the Worldweb, lies the planet Hyperion, home to a small human settlement. Much more importantly, it is home to the mysterious Time Tombs, enigmatic structures that were built in the future and move backwards in time. Among the Tombs lurks the Shrike, a monstrous humanoid being made of jagged metal, its nature and goals unknown. The Tombs are the sites of pilgrimages organized by the Church of the Final Atonement, derisively called the “Shrike cult,” and it is said that the Shrike chooses one person from each pilgrimage and grants them a wish. The rest die, impaled by the Shrike on a great metal tree. The Shrike and the Time Tombs are a source of great concern for the TechnoCore; because so little is understood about them, the TechnoCore’s near-infallible ability to predict future events will break down if Hyperion is brought into the equation.
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War is imminent, as the Hegemony musters its forces in anticipation of a massive assault on Hyperion by the Ousters, who have long shown an interest in the planet. On the planet below, seven pilgrims from the Hegemony make the long journey to the Time Tombs: Father Lenar Hoyt, a Catholic priest whose mentor met his end on Hyperion. Het Masteen, a member of the nature-worshipping sect called the Templars, who brought the other pilgrims to Hyperion. Colonel Fehdman Kassad, a decorated former soldier who has met the Shrike before, and is now determined to kill it. Martin Silenus, a brilliant poet turned melodrama hack who managed to briefly reawaken his muse during a previous visit to Hyperion. Sol Weintraub, a scholar whose daughter, once an archaeologist, has been aging backwards since a mysterious event at an archaeological expedition to the Time Tombs, and is now only weeks away from regressing to her own birth. Brawne Lamia, a private investigator who was drawn into a mysterious case involving the Church of the Final Atonement, the TechnoCore, and the world of Hyperion. Last of all is a man known only as the Consul, sent by the Hegemony government to evacuate Hegemony citizens on Hyperion before it falls to the Ousters- and to be on the lookout for an Ouster agent on the pilgrimage to the Tombs. He has had a long career in the service of the Hegemony of Man, and he knows a lot more about its workings than most…
As the pilgrimage progresses across the surface of Hyperion, each pilgrim tells their tale to the others, showing the universe of the story from many different angles and gradually giving more hints as to the nature of the Shrike and the Time Tombs. Using this framing device, Simmons is able to create a book that moves freely from genre to genre- science fiction, a war story, an emotional personal drama, noir mystery, tragic romance, and horror- and make them all fit.
In particular, Simmons’ background as a horror writer shines through in the book. The Shrike is seen in person only rarely, but it is a sinister and frightening presence in many places, and effectively brings together two strains of horror- the eeriness of the unknown, uncanny, and seemingly senseless on one hand, and sheer grisly mayhem on the other. Aside from the Shrike, one of the pilgrims’ stories, about a visit to a tribe of strangely childlike humans living in isolation on Hyperion, is based on one of the most imaginatively disturbing ideas I have seen in speculative fiction.
In addition to horror, the different stories powerfully evoke a broad range of emotions- the manic terror of violence and triumph, the agony of a family tragedy playing out before a man who is helpless to stop it, the thrill of discovery as new insight falls into place, and wonder at the mysteries Simmons creates. There are very few writers who can command disparate genres with as much skill as Simmons, much less create a world and story that can bring them all together into a harmonious whole.
On the more specifically science fictional level of speculation, Simmons does not disappoint either. The Worldweb and the civilization based on it is a fascinating creation that Simmons exploits to the hilt. What would society be like when stepping through a ubiquitous device the size of a doorway can instantly send you anywhere, and there’s no difference in difficulty between going across town, going across the continent, and going to a planet light-years away? What would it do to economics, military strategy, politics, government, even architecture? What would the rich, bored, and decadent use it for? Simmons also takes the idea of the evolution of sentient artificial intelligence to some interesting places. Just how far beyond us might they be able to rise.
Dan Simmons concludes to the story begun in Hyperion in The Fall of Hyperion, and then returns to Hyperion’s universe with Endymion and The Rise of Endymion. Simmons’ work is essential for anyone who wants to see the vast extent of what one can do with science fiction.
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