The Fall of Hyperion

Massive, pulpy, blitzing sci fi. Ultimately nothing too-too new, but still, on the whole, a lot of fun. The first book, Hyperion, is definitely the more original of the two - this is just classic space opera, with a dash of cyberpunk, and a strong (too strong) dash of the author's esoteric interests (in this case: Catholicism, John Keats, Rome in general?).

Overall, I blazed through this and enjoyed it. Yes, there were moments where I tired of the constant cliffhanger/mini-chapter style, but that's pretty standard medium-grade sf writing. I enjoyed the slow unpacking of the Ultimate Premise (which was only kinda meh... thus not meriting Great/Mind-Blowing SF status, but merely Fun SF status), and I thought a lot of the details (the river Tethys, wending its way through many planets via the Stargate-like farcasters) were nice touches. A couple things were unresolved, though I don't see how this series could really continue without just going into generic “freaky aliens! FREAKY ALIENS!” territory. Where would the new conflict be? Who cares? But the series does continue. It smelled a bit like post-Gateway Pohl.

A thing to note. On the one hand, I appreciated Simmons' somewhat feeble attempt to make a post-white, post-Anglo future. We see glimpses of this in his future history, and the rise of “Eastern” religions like “Zen Gnosticism”. But! I was VERY disappointed that Simmons then fell back on a primarily white, Anglo “good guy” resolution. All the leads are white, as far as I can tell. Only CEO Gladstone's aide is described as black, and only one of her military types (Admiral Singh) is coded Sikh. But even poor Singh ends up being totally incompetent and, in the end, cowardly/doubtful. Also, why the constant pushing of the quiet, dignified, handsome, wise, good, etc. Catholics? Paul Dure, for example, is basically Charlton Heston in his moral courage and unquestioned authority. Why do we care about the planet of Pacem?

Other discordant notes along this whole white/Anglo privilege thing:
- The Templars are inscrutable beings described as looking “vaguely Asian”.
- The Catholic thing. Seriously! The Catholic thing!
- Evil robots are Zen Buddhists who speak in inscrutable koans. Sigh...
- When Simmons clicks through all the planets, sketching their reactions to the Big Climax, we get two seriously groan-worthy moments of total prejudice: Qom-Riyadh (described by Hyperion wiki as “notable for its almost totally Islamic population”) undergoing an ayatollah-led revolution that “sets them back two thousand years” and is followed by “the crowds rejoicing”? The Zionist “Hebron” planet taming its deserts, praying for deliverance and then “complaining about the discomfort of deliverance”? These are such stupid stereotypes, and I don't sense any irony in Simmons' use of them. (Even if they were used ironically, I'd find it stupid.) Very lazy, Mr. Simmons.

Also, I did get a bit tired of people being:
- very very tired
- buffeted by winds
- explaining things to each other
- reading/writing poetry (oh my God)
- fighting the Shrike (seriously... dude is made of blades, and yet he is pretty toothless in a fight - Worf Syndrome!)

But I did appreciate Simmons having one character stop to pee after he gets off his magical flying carpet (“Hawking mat”) during a journey of great importance. Nice human touch.