Hyperion

I don't know what to think. Partially this book is amazing, so beautiful, poetic, descriptive language, and then it falls into word vomit, quite on par with any other author in love with their prose. The idea is wonderful, exciting, and creative... in many ways, Dan Simmons has created a fascinating world, a universe with many worlds... and at the same time, he refers to the same things over and over again, things that would have been obscure data in a post-Terra world. I mean... Keats? Uh. At least in Star Trek, they invent new people who have done things. Would these people REALLY have the same frame of reference after 700 years of the end of the world we know? Keats? Would they still be singing “We're off to see the wizard”? Are we singing 700 years old songs from another culture and world? (Well, I am, because I am a medievalist, but not really, no.)This book is very white and male. Half of the people don't need to be male. It's also quite colonialistic, even though colonialism is depicted as bad... The Maui world is supposed to be some sort of Polynesian paradise like in the adventure books from early 20th century, but the heroine is white. Red hair, green eyes, untanned skin clearly white against the tanned skin... and the hero sleeps with her the first night they meet. He's 19, she's 15. He calls her “a not quite sixteen-year-old womanchild”, and talks about her “budding breasts”... Yuk. I don't know if it makes the infantilization of the “indigenous people” more or less racist.Also, I hate the poet. I hate his poetry. I wish Dan Simmons would have quoted poetry less. In fact, so little, that there wouldn't have been any. It's basically just Tolkien who could do that.It reminds me of [b:A Pilgrimage of Swords 43923515 A Pilgrimage of Swords (The Seven Swords, #1) Anthony Ryan https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1549899953l/43923515.SX50.jpg 68347373] by Anthony Ryan (2019)and Joan D. Vinge's Tiamat series (1980s). Might remind me of a lot of other things, had I read the stuff he read. I suppose it's original enough. At least, there's a lot of people who love it.Oh, and he loves to use the word “lapis” for blue.