This is called the Orson Scott Card Problem. I’d like to recommend a work of science fiction to a friend, but I know that if I were to do so, I would have to include a disclaimer that the author’s politics are antithetical to, and completely opposed to, my own. You really like the book, and you think your friend might like it too, but you’re wondering whether you’ll bother with the whole rigamarole that the disclaimer demands.
The best way to describe Dan Simmons, who died last month at the age of 77, is as a man who watched too much Fox News after 9/11 and went crazy. One or two of his novels set in the future feature the global Islamic caliphate as a major plot point. One of them, flashbackIt’s basically a long rant about how the American left will ruin the world if they come to power. Not that Simmons hasn’t had taste issues before.Kali’s SongHis first novel, which won the World Fantasy Award, has moments that read as startlingly racist decades later, but Simmons in his later career was sometimes unable to fully recover.
This is a shame, because his best works are great works of fantasy, horror, and science fiction. summer at night It’s a tighter, more satisfying version than Stephen King’s. that. The comfort of rotten meat A brick-sized epic about psychic vampires that reads as breezy as a trade paperback. terrorismwhich inspired this acclaimed show, is a brilliant, non-supernatural speculation about a real-life ill-fated Arctic expedition for its first three-quarters.
Simmons has always played with metafiction in interesting ways, even if it doesn’t always work. his ilium and Olympus Characterized by foolish conceit. What if future humans literally turned into Greek gods, migrated to Mars, reenacted the Iliad, and resurrected scholars of our time to write it down? There are also robots from Jupiter and Shakespeare’s Caliban is real. druid is a historical thriller about Charles Dickens’ maddening obsession with one of his characters who may or may not be real. fifth heart It brings together Henry James and Sherlock Holmes to solve the mysteries of Washington DC. It was often very foolish, but whatever you say about Simmons, he was committed to it.
All of that (plus terrorism(which I really like) may be a familiar taste for non-genre fans. The overall purpose of this blog is to: HyperionAnd come back later and say thank you.
Hyperion I don’t hide my inspiration. Scattered throughout the chapters are Keats’ quotations from fragments of poetry that lend the book its name. The names of Jack Vance and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin are mentioned. The entire book is one large frame story, the individual stories of the seven pilgrims, canterbury tales of ecumen. This book is clearly the work of a voracious and small Catholic audience, presenting different sources and philosophies on the big questions of love, death, and salvation.
The seven of us are searching for the mysterious Shrike, a menacing semi-organic creature that is said to grant pilgrims one wish, but also oversees the Tree of Pain, which impales its victims into hell for eternity. Each character is in the spotlight, sharing their past and explaining what they want. A Catholic priest from a dying religion who must endure unknown suffering. prevent resurrection. A faith-questioning Jewish professor looking for a cure for his extremely aging daughter. A politician seeking to destroy humanity through acts of eco-terrorism, or perhaps just a personal vendetta. A soldier in love trying to stop war. The poet, who believes that Shrike is his ultimate muse, seeks to complete his life’s work. Each story is itself an exploration and celebration of some aspect of humanity. Despite its sci-fi setting, Hyperion It is a fundamentally imaginative and sympathetic portrait. peopleI have to say this to all my readers.
The book ends the moment our pilgrims reach Shrike. The Fall of Hyperion Complete their story, and then the two Endymion The book expands the themes and some of the characters into the wider universe. I enjoyed them, but I think I could live without the last two. And I don’t think there’s any reason for me to advise against the second one. Hyperion You’ll be asking for a direct sequel. It’s a true achievement in science fiction to use one of language’s oldest literary structures to push the boundaries of what the genre can say about what it means to be human. It was always bound to outlast its author.
