HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The ''Hyperion Cantos'' is a series of
science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...
novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...
s by
Dan Simmons Dan Simmons (born April 4, 1948) is an American science fiction and horror writer. He is the author of the Hyperion Cantos and the Ilium/Olympos cycles, among other works which span the science fiction, horror, and fantasy genres, sometimes wi ...
. The title was originally used for the collection of the first pair of books in the series, '' Hyperion'' and '' The Fall of Hyperion'', and later came to refer to the overall storyline, including ''
Endymion Endymion primarily refers to: * Endymion (mythology), an Ancient Greek shepherd * ''Endymion'' (poem), by John Keats Endymion may also refer to: Fictional characters * Prince Endymion, a character in the ''Sailor Moon'' anime franchise * Raul ...
'', ''
The Rise of Endymion ''The Rise of Endymion'' is a 1997 science fiction novel by American writer Dan Simmons. It is the fourth and final novel in his ''Hyperion Cantos'' fictional universe. It won the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, and was nominated for ...
'', and a number of short stories. More narrowly, inside the fictional storyline, after the first volume, the Hyperion Cantos is an epic poem written by the character Martin Silenus covering in verse form the events of the first two books. Of the four novels, ''Hyperion'' received the
Hugo Hugo or HUGO may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Hugo'' (film), a 2011 film directed by Martin Scorsese * Hugo Award, a science fiction and fantasy award named after Hugo Gernsback * Hugo (franchise), a children's media franchise based on a ...
and Locus Awards in 1990; ''The Fall of Hyperion'' won the Locus and British Science Fiction Association Awards in 1991; and ''The Rise of Endymion'' received the Locus Award in 1998. All four novels were also nominated for various science fiction awards.


Works


''Hyperion''

First published in 1989, ''Hyperion'' has the structure of a
frame story A frame is often a structural system that supports other components of a physical construction and/or steel frame that limits the construction's extent. Frame and FRAME may also refer to: Physical objects In building construction *Framing (con ...
, similar to
Geoffrey Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for ''The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He wa ...
's ''
Canterbury Tales ''The Canterbury Tales'' ( enm, Tales of Caunterbury) is a collection of twenty-four stories that runs to over 17,000 lines written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387 and 1400. It is widely regarded as Chaucer's ''magnum opus' ...
'' and
Giovanni Boccaccio Giovanni Boccaccio (, , ; 16 June 1313 â€“ 21 December 1375) was an Italian writer, poet, correspondent of Petrarch, and an important Renaissance humanist. Born in the town of Certaldo, he became so well known as a writer that he was somet ...
's ''
Decameron ''The Decameron'' (; it, label=Italian, Decameron or ''Decamerone'' ), subtitled ''Prince Galehaut'' (Old it, Prencipe Galeotto, links=no ) and sometimes nicknamed ''l'Umana commedia'' ("the Human comedy", as it was Boccaccio that dubbed Dan ...
''. The story weaves the interlocking tales of a diverse group of travelers sent on a pilgrimage to the Time Tombs on Hyperion. The travelers have been sent by the Church of the Final Atonement, alternately known as the Shrike Church, and the Hegemony (the government of the human star systems) to make a request of the Shrike. As they progress in their journey, each of the pilgrims tells their tale.


''The Fall of Hyperion''

This book concludes the story begun in ''Hyperion''. It abandons the storytelling frame structure of the first novel, and is instead presented primarily as a series of dreams by John Keats.


''Endymion''

The story commences 274 years after the events in the previous novel. Few main characters from the first two books are present in the later two. The main character is Raul Endymion, an ex-soldier who receives a death sentence after an unfair trial. He is rescued by Martin Silenus and asked to perform a series of rather extraordinarily difficult tasks. The main task is to rescue and protect Aenea, a
messiah In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; , ; , ; ) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of ''mashiach'', messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a ''mashiach'' ...
coming from the distant past via
time travel Time travel is the concept of movement between certain points in time, analogous to movement between different points in space by an object or a person, typically with the use of a hypothetical device known as a time machine. Time travel is a w ...
. The
Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
has become a dominant force in the human universe and views Aenea as a potential threat to their power. The group of Aenea, Endymion, and A. Bettik (an
android Android may refer to: Science and technology * Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human * Android (operating system), Google's mobile operating system ** Bugdroid, a Google mascot sometimes referred to ...
) evades the Church's forces on several worlds, ending the story on Earth.


''The Rise of Endymion''

This final novel in the series finishes the story begun in ''Endymion'', expanding on the themes in ''Endymion'', as Raul and Aenea battle the Church and meet their respective destinies.


Short stories

The series also includes three short stories: * " Remembering Siri" (1983, included almost verbatim in ''Hyperion'') * " The Death of the Centaur" (1990) * "
Orphans of the Helix "Orphans of the Helix" is a 46-page science fiction short story by American writer Dan Simmons, set in his Hyperion Cantos fictional universe (one of three, the others being "Remembering Siri", a story which is also a chapter of '' Hyperion'', and " ...
" (1999)


Development

The Hyperion universe originated when Simmons was an elementary school teacher, as an extended tale he told at intervals to his young students; this is recorded in " The Death of the Centaur", and its introduction. It then inspired his short story "Remembering Siri", which eventually became the nucleus around which ''Hyperion'' and ''The Fall of Hyperion'' formed. After the quartet was published came the short story "
Orphans of the Helix "Orphans of the Helix" is a 46-page science fiction short story by American writer Dan Simmons, set in his Hyperion Cantos fictional universe (one of three, the others being "Remembering Siri", a story which is also a chapter of '' Hyperion'', and " ...
". "Orphans" is currently the final work in the Cantos, both chronologically and internally. The original ''Hyperion Cantos'' has been described as a novel published in two volumes, published separately at first for reasons of length. In his introduction to "Orphans of the Helix", Simmons elaborates:
Some readers may know that I've written four novels set in the "Hyperion Universe"—''Hyperion'', ''The Fall of Hyperion'', ''Endymion'', and ''The Rise of Endymion''. A perceptive subset of those readers—perhaps the majority—know that this so-called epic actually consists of two long and mutually dependent tales, the two Hyperion stories combined and the two Endymion stories combined, broken into four books because of the realities of publishing.


Influences

Much of the appeal of the series stems from its extensive use of references and
allusion Allusion is a figure of speech, in which an object or circumstance from unrelated context is referred to covertly or indirectly. It is left to the audience to make the direct connection. Where the connection is directly and explicitly stated (as ...
s from a wide array of thinkers such as
Teilhard de Chardin Pierre Teilhard de Chardin ( (); 1 May 1881 – 10 April 1955) was a French Jesuit priest, scientist, paleontologist Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and ...
,
John Muir John Muir ( ; April 21, 1838December 24, 1914), also known as "John of the Mountains" and "Father of the National Parks", was an influential Scottish-American naturalist, author, environmental philosopher, botanist, zoologist, glaciologist, a ...
,
Norbert Wiener Norbert Wiener (November 26, 1894 – March 18, 1964) was an American mathematician and philosopher. He was a professor of mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). A child prodigy, Wiener later became an early researcher i ...
, and to the
poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...
of
John Keats John Keats (31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821) was an English poet of the second generation of Romantic poets, with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. His poems had been in publication for less than four years when he died of tuberculo ...
, the famous 19th-century English
Romantic Romantic may refer to: Genres and eras * The Romantic era, an artistic, literary, musical and intellectual movement of the 18th and 19th centuries ** Romantic music, of that era ** Romantic poetry, of that era ** Romanticism in science, of that e ...
poet,
Norse Mythology Norse, Nordic, or Scandinavian mythology is the body of myths belonging to the North Germanic peoples, stemming from Old Norse religion and continuing after the Christianization of Scandinavia, and into the Nordic folklore of the modern period ...
, and the monk
Ummon Yunmen Wenyan (; romaji: ''Ummon Bun'en''; 862 or 864 – 949 CE), was a major Chinese Chan master of the Tang dynasty. He was a dharma-heir of Xuefeng Yicunbr>} Yunmen founded the Yunmen school, one of the five major schools of Chán (Chinese ...
. A large number of technological elements are acknowledged by Simmons to be inspired by elements of '' Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, and the Economic World''. The Hyperion series has many echoes of Jack Vance, explicitly acknowledged in one of the later books. The title of the first novel, "Hyperion", is taken from one of Keats's poems, the unfinished epic '' Hyperion''. Similarly, the title of the third novel is from Keats' poem ''
Endymion Endymion primarily refers to: * Endymion (mythology), an Ancient Greek shepherd * ''Endymion'' (poem), by John Keats Endymion may also refer to: Fictional characters * Prince Endymion, a character in the ''Sailor Moon'' anime franchise * Raul ...
''. Quotes from actual Keats poems and the fictional ''Cantos'' of Martin Silenus are interspersed throughout the novels. Simmons goes so far as to have two artificial reincarnations of John Keats ("''cybrid''s": artificial intelligences in human bodies) play a major role in the series.


Setting

Much of the action in the series takes place on the planet Hyperion. It is described as having one-fifth less
gravity In physics, gravity () is a fundamental interaction which causes mutual attraction between all things with mass or energy. Gravity is, by far, the weakest of the four fundamental interactions, approximately 1038 times weaker than the stro ...
than Earth standard. Hyperion has a number of peculiar indigenous flora and fauna, notably Tesla trees, which are essentially large electricity-spewing trees. It is also a "labyrinthine" planet, which means that it is home to ancient subterranean
labyrinth In Greek mythology, the Labyrinth (, ) was an elaborate, confusing structure designed and built by the legendary artificer Daedalus for King Minos of Crete at Knossos. Its function was to hold the Minotaur, the monster eventually killed by the ...
s of unknown purpose. Most importantly, Hyperion is the location of the Time Tombs, large artifacts surrounded by "anti-entropic" fields that allow them to move backward through time. In the fictional universe of the ''Hyperion Cantos'', the Hegemony of Man encompasses over 200 planets. The Farcaster network was given to humanity by the TechnoCore and again it was another use of the Void Which Binds that allowed this instantaneous travel between worlds. Faster than light communications technology, Fatlines are said to operate through
tachyon A tachyon () or tachyonic particle is a hypothetical particle that always travels faster than light. Physicists believe that faster-than-light particles cannot exist because they are not consistent with the known laws of physics. If such partic ...
bursts. However, in later books it is revealed that they operate through the Void Which Binds. The Hawking Drive was developed by the Human scientists, allowing the faster than light travel which led to the Hegira (from the Arabic word ', meaning 'migration'). The Gideon drive, a Core-provided starship drive, allows for near-instantaneous travel between any two points in human-occupied space. The drive's use kills any human on board a Gideon-propelled starship; thus, the technology is only of use with remote probes or when used in conjunction with the Pax's resurrection technology. The resurrection creche can regenerate someone carrying a cruciform from their remains. Treeships are living trees that are propelled by ergs (spider-like solid-state alien being that emits
force fields Force field may refer to: Science * Force field (chemistry), a set of parameter and equations for use in molecular mechanics simulations * Force field (physics), a vector field indicating the forces exerted by one object on another * Force field ( ...
) through space.


The Shrike

The region of the Tombs is also the home of the Shrike, a menacing half-mechanical, half-organic four-armed creature that features prominently in the series. It appears in all four Hyperion Cantos books and is an enigma in the initial two; its purpose is not revealed until the second book, but is still left nebulous. The Shrike appears to act both autonomously and as a servant of some unknown force or entity. In the first two Hyperion books, it exists solely in the area around the Time Tombs on the planet Hyperion. Its portrayal is changed significantly in the last two books, ''
Endymion Endymion primarily refers to: * Endymion (mythology), an Ancient Greek shepherd * ''Endymion'' (poem), by John Keats Endymion may also refer to: Fictional characters * Prince Endymion, a character in the ''Sailor Moon'' anime franchise * Raul ...
'' and ''
The Rise of Endymion ''The Rise of Endymion'' is a 1997 science fiction novel by American writer Dan Simmons. It is the fourth and final novel in his ''Hyperion Cantos'' fictional universe. It won the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, and was nominated for ...
''. In these novels, the Shrike appears effectively unfettered and protects the heroine Aenea against assassins of the opposing TechnoCore. Surrounded in mystery, the object of fear, hatred, and even worship by members of the Church of the Final Atonement (the Shrike Cult), the Shrike's origins are described as uncertain. It is portrayed as composed of
razorwire Barbed tape or razor wire is a mesh of metal strips with sharp edges whose purpose is to prevent passage by Human, humans. The term "razor wire", through long usage, has generally been used to describe barbed tape products. Razor wire is much sha ...
, thorns, blades, and cutting edges, having fingers like scalpels and long, curved toe blades. It has the ability to control the flow of time, and may thus appear to travel infinitely fast. The Shrike may kill victims in a flash or it may transport them to an eternity of impalement upon an enormous artificial 'Tree of Thorns,' or 'Tree of Pain' in Hyperion's distant future. The Tree of Thorns is described as an unimaginably large, metallic tree, alive with the agonized writhing of countless human victims of all ages and races. It is also hinted in the second book that the Tree of Thorns is actually a simulation generated by a mystical interface which connects to human brains via a strong and pulsing (as if it were alive) cord. The name Shrike is undoubtedly a reference to the Loggerhead Shrike, a small fierce bird that impales its victims on thorns, spines, or twigs.


See also

*


References


External links

* *
Interview with Simmons where he mentions the origin of the Hyperion Cantos universe
* *

€”a review of the ''Endymion'' duology
Treeship
{{Hyperion Cantos Science fiction book series Works by Dan Simmons Space opera novels Artificial intelligence in fiction Artificial wormholes in fiction Fiction about consciousness transfer Fiction about immortality Cyborgs in fiction Fiction about robots Nanotechnology in fiction Transhumanism in fiction Religion in science fiction Dystopian fiction Post-apocalyptic fiction Quantum fiction novels Fiction about megastructures Exploratory engineering Terraforming Novels about time travel Novels set on fictional planets