Kim Miller
This is the sequel to Hyperion, the beginning of which I considered clumsy and the ending, unintentionally absurd. That it took me more than a week to finish this book shows that it didn't engage me as it should.
The pilgrim's tale structure of #1 is gone and in place there is a new narrator, an artificial human with the DNA and mind of the poet Keats. And in using this narrative device Simmons indulges himself with quotes from Keats or other poets (I recognised a WB Yeats quote in there) through the book. So lets take a look at Keats's own view of Hyperion.
Hyperion was one of the Titans, the ancient Greek Gods who were displaced by the Olympians, and Keats wrote two poems at the end of his life, Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion. He was nursing his brother through 'consumption' (tuberculosis) and Keats himself died soon after from the same illness. These poems were his exploration of death and meaning. And Simmons took the poetry and the theme as the foundation for this book.
Fall of Hyperion is about the war between factions within the AI 'datasphere' that supports human life and exploration. And it's about the war between 'normal' human civilisations and the Ousters, human civilisations who have used technology to enhance their bodies and minds. And it's about the war between military command and political intrigue among the human planets and central government. Like the ancient Titan, Hyperion, some of these power structures are going to fall and be displaced by others.
Now, to the story, The pilgrims have arrived at the Time Tombs and strange things are happening. The legendary Shrike is on everyone's mind as time moves back and forth on 'time tides' bringing chaos to the valley. Circumstances separate the pilgrims from each other and the Shrike appears to some as they are alone. The outcome is not good.
The narrator Keats can use his 'cyber mind' to see what is happening in other places as his dreams log into the datasphere and the information channels there. He is the link between government and pilgrims, especially as he enhances his ability to explore data lines without having to be asleep.
However, he also dives deep into the information channels like a good cyberpunk hero and finds an AI entity willing to tell him what is really going on in the machinations between the three major AI factions at the deepest level. The information he brings back to the government changes everything they thought about the upcoming war with the Ousters.
Things rush to a head in three domains. There is a final (?) confrontation with the Shrike but Simmons almost buries the story in mundanity. There is a radical action in the war that causes mass deaths and condemns billions of people to anarchy as the price of victory. And the Time Tombs open and reveal deeper layers of mystery as the stories of the original pilgrims at last find resolution.
This is the sequel to Hyperion, the beginning of which I considered clumsy and the ending, unintentionally absurd. That it took me more than a week to finish this book shows that it didn't engage me as it should.
The pilgrim's tale structure of #1 is gone and in place there is a new narrator, an artificial human with the DNA and mind of the poet Keats. And in using this narrative device Simmons indulges himself with quotes from Keats or other poets (I recognised a WB Yeats quote in there) through the book. So lets take a look at Keats's own view of Hyperion.
Hyperion was one of the Titans, the ancient Greek Gods who were displaced by the Olympians, and Keats wrote two poems at the end of his life, Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion. He was nursing his brother through 'consumption' (tuberculosis) and Keats himself died soon after from the same illness. These poems were his exploration of death and meaning. And Simmons took the poetry and the theme as the foundation for this book.
Fall of Hyperion is about the war between factions within the AI 'datasphere' that supports human life and exploration. And it's about the war between 'normal' human civilisations and the Ousters, human civilisations who have used technology to enhance their bodies and minds. And it's about the war between military command and political intrigue among the human planets and central government. Like the ancient Titan, Hyperion, some of these power structures are going to fall and be displaced by others.
Now, to the story, The pilgrims have arrived at the Time Tombs and strange things are happening. The legendary Shrike is on everyone's mind as time moves back and forth on 'time tides' bringing chaos to the valley. Circumstances separate the pilgrims from each other and the Shrike appears to some as they are alone. The outcome is not good.
The narrator Keats can use his 'cyber mind' to see what is happening in other places as his dreams log into the datasphere and the information channels there. He is the link between government and pilgrims, especially as he enhances his ability to explore data lines without having to be asleep.
However, he also dives deep into the information channels like a good cyberpunk hero and finds an AI entity willing to tell him what is really going on in the machinations between the three major AI factions at the deepest level. The information he brings back to the government changes everything they thought about the upcoming war with the Ousters.
Things rush to a head in three domains. There is a final (?) confrontation with the Shrike but Simmons almost buries the story in mundanity. There is a radical action in the war that causes mass deaths and condemns billions of people to anarchy as the price of victory. And the Time Tombs open and reveal deeper layers of mystery as the stories of the original pilgrims at last find resolution.
What an extraordinary piece of literature this is. Flanagan has written a line of history that starts back with H.G.Wells and The War of the Worlds, through to the initial thinking and development of the atom bomb, through his father's experience of being a POW in Japan working in brutal conditions until Hiroshima, and reaching back through his family history to the genocidal war against the original people of his homeland Tasmania.
His prose becomes arresting and in places I was in tears. The novel has time jumps between the things I mentioned earlier as he weaves a family history through some of the most momentous elements of the last hundred years and beyond. The consequent blending of the lives of so many people forms a mesh of humanity in which he feels uncomfortably at home.
What an extraordinary piece of literature this is. Flanagan has written a line of history that starts back with H.G.Wells and The War of the Worlds, through to the initial thinking and development of the atom bomb, through his father's experience of being a POW in Japan working in brutal conditions until Hiroshima, and reaching back through his family history to the genocidal war against the original people of his homeland Tasmania.
His prose becomes arresting and in places I was in tears. The novel has time jumps between the things I mentioned earlier as he weaves a family history through some of the most momentous elements of the last hundred years and beyond. The consequent blending of the lives of so many people forms a mesh of humanity in which he feels uncomfortably at home.
Mix Oliver Twist and Fagin in with an adolescent crew from Ocean's Eleven and put them into a canal city like pre-medieval Venice and have them set up a series of sophisticated heists. Pepper the story with the most imaginative swearing and cursing, black humour as they wound and main their enemies, and hide it all under the guise of a temple priest with his altar boys taking donations with which to help the poor and needy.
I've only recently heard of this twenty year old novel. It's a hoot and so well told that the author took me into places in my head that meant there were days I needed recovery time.
Locke starts out as a five year old waif in a den of child thieves. Two years later he's so good at planning heists that his master has to sell him on as he can't keep him under control. With his new master he learns to be a 'Gentleman Bastard', a surprisingly well educated con artist, and alongside his three companions they take aim at relieving the gentry of their wealth. But a new name is heard in the city as a powerful adversary slowly emerges from secrecy and many crime families fall to his will.
Locke and his friends are faced with impossible choices as disaster falls upon their shared lives. The new enemy rises and old alliances fall, but it's not until Locke finds out what this enemy has planned that he realises the danger he is in.
Mix Oliver Twist and Fagin in with an adolescent crew from Ocean's Eleven and put them into a canal city like pre-medieval Venice and have them set up a series of sophisticated heists. Pepper the story with the most imaginative swearing and cursing, black humour as they wound and main their enemies, and hide it all under the guise of a temple priest with his altar boys taking donations with which to help the poor and needy.
I've only recently heard of this twenty year old novel. It's a hoot and so well told that the author took me into places in my head that meant there were days I needed recovery time.
Locke starts out as a five year old waif in a den of child thieves. Two years later he's so good at planning heists that his master has to sell him on as he can't keep him under control. With his new master he learns to be a 'Gentleman Bastard', a surprisingly well educated con artist, and alongside his three companions they take aim at relieving the gentry of their wealth. But a new name is heard in the city as a powerful adversary slowly emerges from secrecy and many crime families fall to his will.
Locke and his friends are faced with impossible choices as disaster falls upon their shared lives. The new enemy rises and old alliances fall, but it's not until Locke finds out what this enemy has planned that he realises the danger he is in.
A fast paced comedy that lives up to it's wacky title. Albert has a remote island off the south west tip of England but one day a Russian ship crashes itself on one side. The ship can't be removed and it's full of top secret stuff so Russia buys one half of the island. This creates an international diplomatic crisis so America buys the other half. Two military bases bristling at each other.
It's not long before the troops on both sides realise that their biggest shared problem is that they ran out of booze yesterday. In the traditions of McHale's Navy and MASH they pool resources and make their own.
The story is peppered with attempts to drop supplies by parachute, a visit from a US senator up the re-election, a voluptuous entertainer, the Russian tradition of throwing the shot glass into the fireplace after a toast until none remain, and it all builds to the equally crazy ending.
A fast paced comedy that lives up to it's wacky title. Albert has a remote island off the south west tip of England but one day a Russian ship crashes itself on one side. The ship can't be removed and it's full of top secret stuff so Russia buys one half of the island. This creates an international diplomatic crisis so America buys the other half. Two military bases bristling at each other.
It's not long before the troops on both sides realise that their biggest shared problem is that they ran out of booze yesterday. In the traditions of McHale's Navy and MASH they pool resources and make their own.
The story is peppered with attempts to drop supplies by parachute, a visit from a US senator up the re-election, a voluptuous entertainer, the Russian tradition of throwing the shot glass into the fireplace after a toast until none remain, and it all builds to the equally crazy ending.