[ChrisW]

Go buy the Hyperion Omnibus now and read it. That's my one reccomendation for the year:) Even if you arn't into science fiction I can't see you not appreciatiing his ability to tell a great story. The stories of the Shrike Pilgrims are very moving, well they were for this big sook:) .

go read, 3 three book for the price of 1 1/2;)

[Whelp]

Hyperion not bad, similar in style to Canterbury Tales. I second ChrisW's motion: read it.
Btw, has anyone read the Endymion books?

[ChrisW]

currently reading the Enymion Omnibus. Nearly finished it and while it's pretty good it's not as good as Hyperion imo. Mayhap the end will change my mind.

[Dave]

I read Hyperion back in 1990 and have been a fan of Simmons in general until this year. His novel Carrion Comfort is my favourite horror novel ever (but I don't read much horror, admittedly) and Hyperion remains one of my all-time favourite sci-fi novels, and the series occupies a similar place amongst my fave sci-fi series as well.

But...earlier this year he posted a short story at his website as the 'Message of the Month'...and I didn't like the story much at all. Not because of any lack of skill, but because I disagree so much with his point of view, and feel this is propaganda of sorts.

http://www.dansimmon...ews/message.htm

It's worth reading...I guess.

[Dragonstar]

I have read both the hyperion and endymion and think that they were great, hyperion is the better of the two. i was not particularly a fan of sci fi until i read this series as well as peter f hamiltons nights dawn trilogy. also simmons latest books olympos and illium are great books as well.

[Astra]

I didn't like Hyperion. However, I liked a lot Endymion!

[McLovin]

You gotta love the character of Martin Silenus (sp?), the poet. His narration was hilarious...

[Sir Thursday]

I read the Hyperion Omnibus, and while I thought Hyperion itself was an amazing novel, I think the quality dipped a bit in Fall of Hyperion. For me, Simmons went a little too weird, if you know what I mean. There was an overabundance of 'cores' that I felt were superfluous, and the situation around the Time Tombs degenerated into a mess of places and times that seemed a little too fantastical for sci-fi (what was that tree of thorns supposed to be, anyway?) I did like Ummon though. ()

Vox

[Dagger]

I loved the whole Hyperion/Endymion saga. There was a dip in quality after the first book but far too many good moments throughout the series. And yes, the poet was a riot, best character in the book IMHO.

I read that "message" Simmons posted on his website and was sickened. I can read authors whose viewpoints differ from mine, but this crossed a line for me. There was a thread about this on ASOIF a while back and a couple neo-con wannabes flew into a rage when we started taking Simmons to task for it. Sorry, but I draw the line at advocating genocide. For a man of Simmons' obvious intelligence, it seems to be a particularly irrational position to take.

[Hume]

Yeh this book does not get anywhere near enough coverage as it should.

The Hyperion Saga is brilliant..
havent read the Endymion books yet as I cant find the second one..

[drinksinbars]

read lots of simmons, think he is an awesome author. hyperion is more like a piece of classic fiction than modern sci fi. Whereas endymion is much more forward thinking and i could never decide which i prefer.

[caladanbrood]

Haven't read either Hyperion or Endymion yet, but I loved the Illium/Olympos books. Song of Kali was also a darn good read:)

[drinksinbars]

strangely i found song of kali to be the weakest story of his that i read. dont know why as its one of his most critically acclaimed. i just counldnt get into it. I did read it last though and after illium which was awesome.

[cerveza_fiesta]

So I dredged this up from the search and thought I shoud mention my extreme LIKE for hyperion.

It's just such a well told, unbelievably original story. I'm about halfway through and it's the strangest thing I think I've put my mind to reading. I mean, SE is original, but there's still little elements of other fantasy that creep into his writing once in awhile. Simmons Hyperion is just unlike anything else. Totally fucked up...in a good way. Reminds me of reading Dune. There are just so many spots where I stop reading and go "huh...never would have thought of taking it that way...oh well, carry on"

Anyways, I'm about halfway through the scholar's tale in Hyperion, which is pretty much the saddest thing ever since

spoiler for Reaper's gale

Spoiler

trull sengar dying

and the poet's tale could be a short story unto itself. Totally hilarious. Kassad was messed, banging this chick in his dreams and training sims all the time, only to find out later on Hyperion that he was fucking the shrike....and her steel vagina almost took off his wang!?!?! who the hell thinks of that?

I have no idea what's in store for the end of the book. Way too messed up for me to even predict I'm betting.

Anyways, if you haven't read it, fucking read Hyperion. It's 100% rad and I'm not even finished.

[Salt-Man Z]

Hooray for thread necromancy!

I gotta chime in and say I loved the Hyperion and Endymion books, as well as the Ilium/Olympos duology.

I think of the 4 Hyperion books, I like Fall of Hyperion best. Not that the first book isn't great, because it is, but it's missing something -- it's the pilgrims' stories, and then...well, nothing. Book 2 has more plot, and I found it to be really mindblowing. Endymion was pretty darn good (I found the idea of the "resurrection"-type scout ships creepy and cool) but Rise of Endymion I found to be a bit of a letdown after the first 3 books.

The point at which Hyperion dug its claws into me was The Priest's Tale, when Duré discovers the cave full of cruciforms. From that moment, I was hooked. My favorite story was The Scholar's Tale; as a new father, I found it to be absolutely heart-breaking.

Ilium/Olympos was awesome, though again, I was let down by how the series finished. The ride was worth it, though.

I've also read his novel The Hollow Man which is at turns bizarre and gruesome, but it touches on some ideas that he explores more fully in Ilium, so I'd recommend it as almost a lead-in to that series.

Also also, I've read his short story collection, Worlds Enough & Time, which is probably only for hardcore Simmons fans. Though it does contain a kind of sequel to the Cantos, and a prequel of sorts to Ilium/Olympos.

[Aptorian]

cerveza_fiesta;302546 said:

and the poet's tale could be a short story unto itself. Totally hilarious. Kassad was messed, banging this chick in his dreams and training sims all the time, only to find out later on Hyperion that he was fucking the shrike....and her steel vagina almost took off his wang!?!?! who the hell thinks of that?

Actually several of the stories were short stories before he wrote the Hyperion books.

I believe it's the Consuls story that laid the fundation for the entire series.

Also about Kassad and the dream girl, trust me when I say that, you might think she's the shrike but there's a few twists to that tale you've not yet seen.

I totally love the Hyperion/Endymion books. I've got them all on my bookshelf. It was those that really got me into reading Sci.fi which later turned me onto fantasy.

[cerveza_fiesta]

Cool. I'm gonna put that in my series pile.

Gotta read the next ASoIaF next,
Or TTH if it gets here first
Then WoT book 5
Then Book 1 of engineer trilogy.
Then the next Hyperion book
repeat other books until MBotF 8 comes out.

[moridin]

I'm in the middle of Hyperion right now. Its my book to read at home, I'm an oddball that likes to have 2 different books to read(one for home and one for work).

So far I am up to the soldiers story and I gotta say I enjoy the style and flow of the story.

[cerveza_fiesta]

moridin;302864 said:

I'm in the middle of Hyperion right now. Its my book to read at home, I'm an oddball that likes to have 2 different books to read(one for home and one for work).

So far I am up to the soldiers story and I gotta say I enjoy the style and flow of the story.

ahaha...soldier's story is wicked, and pretty fucked up. Wait til you get to the poet's story though. It's hilarious. Professor's tale is the saddest thing ever. I'm just about through that one.

[stone monkey]

I've read a fair bit of Simmons' work after I read Hyperion in the early 90s - I'm still convinced Ilium is his best work. I'd probably put The Terror next; it starts as a fantastically atmospheric piece, with a truly grim mood of cold and inevitable doom and then takes a sudden left turn into the land of batshit crazy.

I've noticed that he seems to have difficulty ending his stories - whilst I like The Fall of Hyperion a lot, I still find it something of a disappointment after the stylistic and imaginative pyrotechnics of its prequel - I actually find it hard to believe that they were written as a single piece, the differences between them are so jarring. And don't even get me started on Olympos.