Overview
Seven pilgrims travel by starship to the world of Hyperion, on the eve of an interstellar war, to meet the Shrike. A being that grants a wish to one traveler and impales the rest on a tree of thorns. To pass the time on the journey they tell each other why they were chosen and what they hope to ask. This is the whole book, and the whole book is a masterpiece.
Simmons is doing something almost nobody in genre fiction attempts: he is writing seven completely different subgenres, one per pilgrim, and making each one the best example of its type. The soldier's tale is a Vietnam-era combat novel; the poet's tale is a decadent New Wave romp; the scholar's tale is one of the most heartbreaking parent-child stories in fiction. Every tale is thirty to sixty pages. Every tale would stand alone as a novella of the year.
Yes, the book ends on a cliffhanger. Yes, The Fall of Hyperion resolves it. Yes, you should read The Fall of Hyperion. No, you should not read Endymion or The Rise of Endymion. Simmons's later Hyperion Cantos books are a decline, and the original two-volume story is complete without them. Trust me on this.
