Meet the Pilgrims
This discussion was held between Andrew Nathan Roberts, Arden Baker, William Rotor, and Ishan Morris-Gray, hosted by Harvey Weir.
You can read more about these authors here.
Hyperion is a science fiction novel published in 1989 by Dan Simmons. It’s followed by a direct sequel, The Fall of Hyperion, as well as the duology Endymion and The Rise of Endymion. We sat down to dissect the first book. This article contains spoilers for Hyperion, but none for its sequels; it is highly recommended you read it before engaging in this critique.
The Pilgrimage Begins
Hyperion is the story of six religious pilgrims journeying to the titular planet to meet the Shrike, a primordial force or deity that appears as a gleaming figure of chrome, wicked spines, and eyes of burning crimson.
One by one, in a framing narrative akin to Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, the pilgrims recount their reasons for their pilgrimage, outlining their relationship to the Shrike and its twisted religion. As they unravel their stories and creep ever closer to the Shrike’s lair in the Time Tombs, a web of political machinations beyond any one character’s comprehension tightens around them.
The Hyperion Cantos
The pilgrims’ Tales are:
– The Priest’s Tale, The Man Who Cried God, told by Lenar Hoyt (but featuring Paul Duré as the central character);
– The Soldier’s Tale, The War Lovers, told by Fedmahn Kassad;
– The Poet’s Tale, Hyperion Cantos, told by Martin Silenus;
– The Scholar’s Tale, The River Lethe’s Taste is Bitter, told by Sol Weintraub;
– The Detective’s Tale, The Long Good-Bye, told by Brawne Lamia;
– The Consul’s Tale, Remembering Siri, told by the unnamed Consul (but featuring his grandmother Siri as the central character).
The Priest’s Tale introduces you to the planet of Hyperion, the horror of the Shrike and the Cruciform, and how humanity fares when it meets this place and this entity. It deals with themes of colonialism, first with colonisers landing on Hyperion unprepared for the planet’s effects, falling victim to the Shrike’s machinations, inverting the real-world historical trend—the land is not ripe and ready for the reaping.
Then, when Paul Duré arrives, playing the part of the Christian missionary in a ‘savage’ land, he not only fails to convert the ‘locals’ (the twisted shadows of the original colonisers), but is in effect converted to their religion of Shrike-worship, beholden to the beliefs of those he wished to influence.
Underneath this inversion, however, we see the first instance of the unifying rule of Simmons’ Hyperion—there may be identifiable themes and social commentary, but at the end of everything stands the Shrike. The story also explores the debilitating impact of immortality and repeated death on the human mind. As Andrew said: ‘the terrifying nature of the Shrike and Cruciform, the almost cosmic-horror nature of its effect, scared me and drew me in in a way I did not expect.’
WILLIAM’S RECOMMENDATIONS
Check out classic pulp adventure comics, Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, and epistolary fiction like Dracula.
The Soldier’s Tale settles you into the wider world of the Hegemony as human civilisation, as well as the conflicts occurring between them, the TechnoCore, and the Ousters, post-human spacefarers. This Tale’s narrator, Fedmahn Kassad, was a group favourite due to his pragmatism and belief of violence’s ability to solve most problems. As Arden said: ‘when you have a hammer, every problem is a nail.’
We also enjoyed the thematic and literal relationship between sex and violence, with Kassad’s ongoing trysts with Moneta occurring on simulated historical battlefields, and their naked fighting with the Ousters occurring alongside their passionate and final sex scene. Their interactions throughout simulated history also reflect Moneta—and consequently the Shrike’s—nonlinear journey through time, subliminally preparing the reader for more obvious temporal corruption later in the novel.
As William said: ‘Intrinsically, irrevocably interlinked. The sex is about the war, and on a personal level for our protagonists, the war becomes about the sex. Sex is the depravity within the minds of men—the bloodlust.’
WILLIAM’S RECOMMENDATIONS
Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein, Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms and For Whom the Bell Tolls.
We felt the Poet’s Tale to be the first, if slight, step down from the quality of the first two Tales; although Martin Silenus’ voice carries poetic and literary qualities, it ends up feeling a little meandering and self-obsessed, as well as being a drop in tension from the previous two.
It also felt like an in-world justification of Simmons’ fascination with John Keats. William said: ‘Classicism through the lens of a romantic poet, through the lens of a scifi writer.’
It succeeds in explaining the status of the planet of Hyperion outside of the specific region featured in the Priest’s Tale, depicting the planet’s inhabitants, who face an increasingly-active and violent Shrike.
Is Silenus emerging victorious over the Shrike by using its presence to inspire his own art, by capturing its deeds in a way that will purportedly never be forgotten, or is he the death machine’s pawn, its most tragic victim? Despite the potential intrigue of this question, the Tale is too obsessed with Silenus himself to be as engaging as the first two. Arden mused: ‘Martin Silenus appears to be an interesting character the first read-through, but upon a reread, his Tale falls flat.’
WILLIAM’S RECOMMENDATIONS
Any and all Greek mythology, but especially classic Romantic poetry that harkens back to it, including but not restricted to John Keats. For intriguing relationships between an artist and their muse, read Sandman by Neil Gaiman.
We loved the Scholar’s Tale because it hit both the aspects that define sci-fi as a genre (the nature of mortality, humanity’s relationship with God in an era where they’ve mastered technology to an unimaginable degree—including the creation of true AI) while also being the most emotionally engaging story.
It explored the life of a regular person in this grand space-operatic world, showing us not an exceptional soldier or the Hegemony’s most revered poet, but an ageing academic. Most of us agreed this was the highlight of the book. The impact of Weintraub’s struggle to cope with his once-adult daughter ageing backwards, coupled with his continued deconstruction of his own relationship with God, and his dreams of a God-like force ordering him to take Rachel to Hyperion and offer her as a sacrifice, left us all deeply affected.
Again we see the exploration of a theme that is intriguing outside the context of Hyperion, the re-exploration of the dilemma of Abraham informed by centuries of both real and fictionalised philosophy, all brought to heel by the novel’s single unifying force: even the most powerful philosophy is beholden to the Shrike.
As Harvey says, ‘the philosophical implications of Weintraub’s conclusion recontextualises the story of Abraham and Isaac, in a post-modern world. His answer is deeply satisfying both from a philosophical and emotional perspective.’
WILLIAM’S RECOMMENDATIONS
Both Ted Chiang’s Story of Your Life and Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation Arrival explore the themes of outliving your child.
The Detective’s Tale was the biggest disappointment to the group, for two reasons: firstly, despite promising to be a noir story with tinges of cyberpunk, it fulfilled neither promise. It didn’t even try to be a noir story, despite its title and narrator, and its cyberpunk elements remained tropey, underdeveloped and generally unsatisfying to anyone with experience with the genre.
Secondly, being the Tale told by the only female pilgrim, it was very disappointing to see Brawne Lamia’s agency robbed from her at every turn: despite being touted as a remarkably strong, and intelligent private detective, Lamia made no discoveries or decisions, relegated to lover and confidant of the AI recreation of John Keats, who did her job for her and even left her with a plot-relevant pregnancy at the end.
In addition, this piece was home to some of Simmons’ worst prose — ‘She knew she was being careless, but she didn’t care’. It felt mostly included so the reader could catch up on the wider plot, as the first four stories are mostly focused on each pilgrims’ relationship to the Shrike and building the atmosphere and tone.
Keats was brought in to mask Simmons’ inability to write Lamia’s story with the same depth and interest as the other Tales. As Andrew said: ‘the inclusion of John Keats in the story felt akin to writing a story about a great warrior, and subsequently introducing an AI reconstruction of Genghis Khan to lend the story credence.’
WILLIAM’S RECOMMENDATIONS
Cleanse your palate by reading Gibson’s Neuromancer, Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, or watching its adaptation Blade Runner.
The Consul’s Tale purports to answer most of the questions raised throughout the book, but we found very little to discuss without moving onto spoilers for the sequel (which some of the contributors hadn’t read), and didn’t relate much to the atmosphere of the religious pilgrimage and the Shrike’s influence on the pilgrims.
We learn of the Consul’s agreement with the Ousters, his motivation for secretly despising the Hegemony, but most of this information only becomes truly relevant in the sequel. Given its position at the very end of the story, after not only the other Tales but most of the linking chapters between them, it felt more like an afterthought than a big reveal, despite exploring interesting questions of losing time and the maintaining of love despite an increasing gulf of age.
WILLIAM’S RECOMMENDATIONS
James Cameron’s Avatar for more anti-colonial sci-fi, or Romeo and Juliet to see the story’s clearest and most direct influence.
A Journey's Reflection
Overall, we all enjoyed the novel. The general sentiment was that the Canterbury Tales framing was the title’s strongest element, with brilliance coming from individual Tales; however, overall it failed to provide a cohesive plot, decent pacing, or a satisfying conclusion.
Despite its intention to be the first half of a duology, we felt the ending was unsatisfying, especially considering it would have had even more potential had it been written to be a pure standalone novel.
We found highlights in Simmons’ prose, which, as described by Andrew, focused on vivid imagery, distinct attention to detail, and lyrical beauty, all of which provided a wonderful throughline across all of the pilgrims’ Tales, despite the shifts in voice, perspective and tone.
Simmons’ attention to describing physical sensations helped the reader relate to these characters that are often larger than life, situation within a world and story so unlike our own. We also all loved the strange, terrifying enigma that was the Shrike, a primaeval force reminiscent of both nature and incomprehensible technology. Hyperion stands in the science fiction canon as a classic, but one more mortal than its predecessors, and without proper thematic resolution, it cannot live up to its full potential.
The Pilgrims' Answers
ARDEN
Least favourite Tale: Poet’s Tale
Is it a classic? Hyperion is a sci-fi classic – it’s not a Golden Age classic like Foundation or 2001, but it’s a damn good piece of fiction and an experiment that propelled the genre forward. I think it’s definitely worthy of being called a classic.
WILLIAM
Favourite Tale: Scholar’s Tale
Least favourite Tale: Detective’s Tale
Is it a classic? Hyperion is a sci fi classic in the same way that Scream is a “classic” — it succeeds only on the genre familiarity of its audience but doesn’t necessarily stand on its own as an original piece.
ANDREW
Favourite Tale: Priest’s Tale
Least favourite Tale: Detective’s Tale
Is it a classic? Hyperion is a great sci-fi classic that – while not reaching the gloried heights of some classics in the genre – is an enjoyable, imaginative read that gets you thinking and feeling while also leaving you a little frustrated with its non-ending and certain aspects of character and plot motivations.
ISHAN
Favourite Tale: Scholar’s Tale
Least favourite Tale: Detective’s Tale
Is it a classic? We’re still talking about it over 30 years after it was published. I think that says something. But it’s not a masterpiece, and often buckles under the weight of its pretensions, as it seeks to blend high-brow “literary” ideas with pulpy sci-fi and ends up with neither the philosophical depth and weight of the former, nor the fun of the latter, except in brief flashes.
HARVEY
Favourite Tale: Scholar’s Tale
Least favourite Tale: Detective’s Tale
Is it a classic? Hyperion is a classic due to the choices Simmons made, its atmosphere, tone, and general ambition; it is not, however, as seminal or as flawless as almost all other sci-fi classics, and remains squarely in the category of ‘must-read only if you’re a committed sci-fi fan’.
