[HN Gopher] Dan Simmons, author of Hyperion, has died
___________________________________________________________________
Dan Simmons, author of Hyperion, has died
Author : throw0101a
Score : 402 points
Date : 2026-02-27 18:13 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.dignitymemorial.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.dignitymemorial.com)
| throw0101a wrote:
| Obituary:
|
| * https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/longmont-co/danie...
| liquidise wrote:
| Thanks for posting this. It should be the link in the OP
| frankly.
| tomhow wrote:
| Done.
| rwmj wrote:
| Although it's quite a flawed novel compared to brilliant space
| opera like Hyperion, I have a bit of a soft spot for Carrion
| Comfort. I think it'd make a great movie!
| boznz wrote:
| I would also rate this above hyperion, like hyperion book 1 it
| crossed into the horror genre quite well, the rest of the
| hyperion books were a little bit too preachy but a good series
| never the less. RIP Dan.
| perardi wrote:
| I have a real soft spot for Summer of Night.
|
| It obviously owes a lot to Stephen King's IT. But it stands on
| its own merits...and I give it extra credit because it was set
| in my home town.
| (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summer_of_Night)
| nurbl wrote:
| Carrion Comfort was my introduction to Dan Simmons, I loved it.
| Not as good as some of his later stuff but it's really
| inventive, and never boring.
| jabroni_salad wrote:
| See you later, alligator...
| LaurensBER wrote:
| I'm sorry to read this, I was just thinking about rereading the
| entire saga the other day. His words and ideas will forever life
| in my mind.
| jnellis wrote:
| The library wait list for Hyperion was months. I'm in the middle
| of Fall of Hyperion right now. Great writing.
| Freak_NL wrote:
| The _Hyperion Cantos_ is a masterpiece which every scifi fan
| ought to have read, but I would like to recommend a lesser known
| title of Simmons for readers who have read at least some works of
| Charles Dickens (self-explanatory) and Wilkie Collins (such as
| _The Woman in White_ or _The Moonstone_ ).
|
| Simmons wrote _Drood_ (2009), which takes these two classical
| authors and places them in a mystery novel. What struck me as
| particularly masterful is that Simmons managed to write his prose
| in such a way that as a reader you soon forget that this book was
| not written in the 1800s -- his tone and style match that of
| Dickens and Collins so convincingly.
| matthewsinclair wrote:
| 100%. One of the genuine great writers.
| layer8 wrote:
| > The _Hyperion Cantos_ is a masterpiece which every scifi fan
| ought to have read
|
| You have to have some affinity to religious/Christianity/church
| topics, otherwise it's quite a turn-off.
| mbeex wrote:
| Atheist here: Not true, there is much more in Hyperion (and
| even Endymion)
| layer8 wrote:
| I'm not saying that you have to be religious. But if you
| find those topics and related symbolisms rather
| uninteresting in your sci-fi, then the books may not be for
| you.
| Freak_NL wrote:
| I mean, it's not my fandom, but Catholics do have a
| wicked sense of symbolism and decoration. _Hyperion_
| wouldn 't be as colourful if Simmons used a bunch of
| Evangelicals instead.
| indubioprorubik wrote:
| Well, i detest jihadism, but still could enjoy dune
| Brian_K_White wrote:
| People are interesting, and religion is a thing people
| do.
|
| In this case there is quasi-religious imagery but you as
| the reader aren't actually supposed to be mystical about
| the god/devil in the story the way the characters
| themselves are. It's not C. S. Lewis
|
| Do you also find LeGuin uninteresting?
| ceejayoz wrote:
| I have zero affinity for those and found it a fascinating
| read.
| Supermancho wrote:
| It's interesting how different stories have different
| underlying religious underpinnings in different parts of the
| world. It's important to consider that these themes are
| precisely because the stories are born from the surrounding
| culture.
|
| Christian references in the Cantos were probably incidental,
| given the expected familiarity of the intended audience
| (american white male young men). eg The Matrix trilogy
| started with the obvious messianic hero's journey, then
| attempted to expand it in the following films (karma, cycles
| of death and rebirth, etc).
|
| For some, these religious messages can be a turn off, I
| agree. I happened to be raised in a culture that allowed me
| to ignore it more or less and I can recognize that.
| sgillen wrote:
| Not sure if I agree with the christian references being
| incidental ... the first book is literally a retelling of
| the The Canterbury Tales, all the characters are on a
| pilgrimage. there are a bunch of religious groups with at
| least one being central to the story, there are cross
| shaped parasites that grant eternal life.
|
| I still think you can enjoy it without caring much about
| religion.
| AlanYx wrote:
| >there are cross shaped parasites that grant eternal life
|
| Without giving away any spoilers to the books, the
| parasites are only that on the surface. If anything, the
| books present a wary picture of religion, especially the
| last two Endymion books, but also a wary picture of
| technology.
| Supermancho wrote:
| > the first book is literally a retelling of the The
| Canterbury Tales, all the characters are on a pilgrimage.
|
| As we have both read the books, it's notable that you
| associate pilgrimage with Christianity. This illustrates
| the point.
| Barrin92 wrote:
| >Christian references in the Cantos were probably
| incidental,
|
| They're not at all incidental. The themes and the literal
| Catholic Church don't just make it into the books by
| osmosis, they're central to it and deliberate.
|
| Like Gene Wolfe he's part of a pretty small group of US
| authors who wrote Catholic speculative fiction. Like Wolfe
| his writing is also fairly un-American. If Heinlein or
| Asimov are examples of archetypal US science fiction,
| Simmons is about as far as the other end as you can be,
| with the post-modern structure, the Canterbury Tales as a
| template for the story and so on.
| castral wrote:
| To be fair, the first novel Hyperion is quite literally a
| survey of major world religions, not just Christianity. It
| does settle onto Christian symbolism in the second book
| onward, but the first two novels alone are still worth
| reading for their ideas. No affinity required, it's just the
| default Western canon at work.
| layer8 wrote:
| > just the default Western canon
|
| It's particular topics of that canon, and you have to fancy
| their treatment in a science-fiction setting. Some people
| like science-fiction because/when it proposes fresh
| perspectives that aren't rooted in, by lack of a better
| description, non-enlightenment parts of that canon.
| indubioprorubik wrote:
| The clean slate of banks - where we discarded culture to
| embrace the "culture" and look where this "winging" it
| got us. Turns out the operating system of a society is
| important- and the atheist distilled synthetic one is not
| really working - same goes for alot of others.
|
| The utopist urge for cultural tabula rasa is a
| retardation, a attempt of the brain to shirk embracing
| and discovering complexity. One has to look at the
| "backwards" parts to start to understand what works in a
| society and with the actual human beeings lifing in a
| actual society, not the wingless Star Trek Angels in PJs.
|
| Embrace complexity, embrace analysis, build something
| without defining the endstate first. Make small things
| that work, combine them into bigger things that work. Way
| less calling for cullings of the "sabotaging traitors" as
| they are usual with utopists on the march.
| davedx wrote:
| Who is "we"? In Banks' culture universe, humanity (us)
| were explicitly rejected and never became part of the
| Culture.
|
| (The State of the Art)
| Trasmatta wrote:
| I disagree strongly. I'm not religious at all, and have a
| strong aversion to Christianity, and I loved those books.
| kakacik wrote:
| Atheist/agnostic here, completely untrue statement
| iamtheworstdev wrote:
| :shrug: I'm an Atheist, I loved the series.
| bayindirh wrote:
| The religious themes are a thin veil in Hyperion, looking
| behind them opens another dimension to ponder about.
|
| I'm not a Christian, BTW.
| samus wrote:
| It's up to anybody to not have a particular taste for
| religious topics, however, spirituality (or the lack thereof)
| is an important part of human culture and psychology.
| Therefore a science fiction novel in a sufficiently different
| setting from Earth's early 21st century really ought to cover
| these topics as well, lest the worldbuilding would be very
| shallow and the resulting work would likely lack depth.
| loloquwowndueo wrote:
| Entirely untrue.
| Brian_K_White wrote:
| Atheist. Loved it.
| stickfigure wrote:
| I don't want to dogpile on the other comments (atheist, loved
| the book) but I think there's something interesting here.
|
| Most science fiction tends to assume that religiosity will
| fade as humanity matures, and in a few thousand years we'll
| all have a good laugh at those silly ancient humans. This
| feels generally right to me. But it's not the only possible
| future, and Hyperion explores a far future in which
| religiosity becomes _more_ ingrained.
|
| I thought it was one of the more interesting aspects of the
| book, and contributed to the feeling of "not just another
| space opera". You don't have to appreciate religion to like
| the story.
| UltraSane wrote:
| Carrion Comfort is a ridiculously entertaining novel.
| tsumnia wrote:
| I favor Carrion over Hyperion and find myself repeating
| Sheriff Bobby Joe Gentry's line "I like junk" quite often.
| UltraSane wrote:
| Hyperion is the better novel but Carrion Comfort is just
| really exciting and creepy. And the way the mind
| controllers treated regular humans like toys hits far too
| close to home now.
| rwmj wrote:
| Yeah, one of the bad guys even had a private island where
| he invited all his rich psychopathic friends.
| tsumnia wrote:
| Oh absolutely, I don't want to spoil anything but (to
| sound like a nutcase for a second) if there is an
| Illuminati then I think they were avid readers of
| Carrion.
|
| Apropos given your username XD
| defen wrote:
| > if there is an Illuminati then I think they were avid
| readers of Carrion
|
| lol, I never really thought about that but given recent
| revelations it does almost seem like they were using it
| as a template.
| washadjeffmad wrote:
| I still think about it relatively often. It took me
| almost a year to finish it between breaks to recover.
| nz wrote:
| Great writer. For people who want to get a taste of Simmons
| without committing to an entire book, I would recommend this
| (very) short story: The River Styx Runs Upstream[1].
|
| [1]: https://talesofmytery.blogspot.com/2013/02/dan-simmons-
| river...
| rdedev wrote:
| I tried reading it but I couldn't get into it. Maybe it the
| heavy religious themes or just the science fiction being so far
| into the future? I really should give it a shot again
| pilooch wrote:
| Try Flashback, it's darker but genius as well, maybe more
| approachable.
| samus wrote:
| It starts very slowly and the worldbuilding is exquisite and
| you will likely uncover many facets only upon rereading it.
| However, it is well worth persisting.
|
| Works with considerably more action are Olympus and Ilium.
| sleepybrett wrote:
| It's Canterbury Tales structure put me off and the reveals
| didn't do anything for me. I think I stopped after the second
| book.
| rurp wrote:
| Despite being a huge fan of Simmons I had originally passed on
| this one because I didn't care for the Dickens novels I had
| read in school. At a family gathering I was surprised to learn
| that my Grandma was a big Simmons fan. She convinced me to give
| Drood a shot and sure enough I really enjoyed it! So I'd say
| it's worth checking out even if you're not a big Dickens
| reader.
| lordleft wrote:
| Hyperion was a wonderful sci-novel. Thank you Dan, for your
| amazing writing; may you rest in peace.
| melecas wrote:
| The TechnoCore using human minds as unwitting processing nodes --
| to solve a problem humans couldn't even be told about -- reads
| differently every few years. 2026 is a particularly strange time
| to reread it.
| perardi wrote:
| Also, that should have been the backstory of the Matrix, and
| not the whole "living power source" nonsense.
| ortusdux wrote:
| I'm convinced that the studio forced the change to 'human
| batteries' out of concern over a conflict with Hyperion.
| bee_rider wrote:
| Probably the idea is broad enough to get away with
| borrowing it or putting their own spin on the general idea
| (I mean, it is expected that stores will influence each
| other and ideas will spread). I'd rather guess that a
| studio executive thought the battery idea would be more
| understandable to people (if that is the case though, I
| think they were dramatically wrong, the computing idea
| makes much more sense and I think all of us in the audience
| would have been fine with it).
| Henchman21 wrote:
| Remember that all critiques of Hollywood require you to
| think like you've just consumed a massive line of
| cocaine. Because that is how they think and live. So,
| empathy reduced to zero, all your ideas are great,
| everything else is dumb, etc. Making decisions under the
| influence of strong narcotics is a recipe for idiocy.
|
| Source: me, I had a huge cocaine problem and worked many
| years in the tech side of music and movies
| MikeTheGreat wrote:
| I saw a YouTube video where they said this was more-or-less
| the original backstory but then they changed it. I think it
| said that the People In Charge thought the 'living power
| source' would be easier for the audience to understand?
|
| I don't have the link handy, and don't trust everything I
| read on the Internet, etc, etc.
|
| But yeah - this makes so much more sense than breeding,
| raising, and feeding humans just to harvest their body heat.
| perardi wrote:
| According to Reddit...so, grain of salt...that is an urban
| legend, related to a Neil Gaiman short story that appeared
| on the Matrix promo website.
|
| https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/1amree7/theres_a_w
| i...
| bee_rider wrote:
| I think we the urban legend really sticks around because
| the compute explanation just makes much more sense and we
| all want this beloved movies not to have a sill (albeit
| inconsequential) plot hole.
| perardi wrote:
| Oh, totally, it's my head canon as well.
| bee_rider wrote:
| Mine is either that, or, the idea I mentioned in this
| post:
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47185076
|
| Machines trying to be benevolent, but overly controlling.
| jbaber wrote:
| That's very good.
| tempestn wrote:
| I like to think the machines actually were using them for
| processing power, and the humans themselves just
| misunderstood (or oversimplified for Neo) what was actually
| going on.
| bee_rider wrote:
| Processing power is my second favorite explanation.
|
| My first favorite would have been: they don't use the
| humans for anything, the pods are just the most efficient
| way to store humans. The machines think they are being
| benevolent, just want peace and quiet and for humans to
| stop doing dramatic things like scorching the sky. But I
| don't know where the plot would go from there.
| jemmyw wrote:
| There is backstory that the films could have gone into,
| though I don't know if it was written before or after the
| first film. The humans in the matrix were allied with the
| machines and they put them in the matrix to protect them
| from the war. They were being benevolent.
| unsupp0rted wrote:
| They benevolently feed the dead to the living
| unsupp0rted wrote:
| What the humans thought they knew came from the Zion
| archives mostly. And guess where the Zion archives came
| from...
| xg15 wrote:
| I like how the other story that has this premise is
| Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
| ping00 wrote:
| don't forget Sirens of Titan!
| zoogeny wrote:
| Hitchhiker's Guide had a slightly deeper philosophical
| implication though, in that the premise is that powerful
| computers already existed to solve complex problems. Earth
| was created to pose powerful questions.
| gostsamo wrote:
| I'm sure that one Star trek episode had the same premise,
| together with something from Lem. The connection
| human/machine brain is rather old and human brains being used
| for computation is so reused, it is practically public
| domain.
| teeray wrote:
| Enjoyed the first Hyperion, but Fall of Hyperion was a bit of a
| slog for me. If Fall of Hyperion were compressed into the
| conclusion of Hyperion and other stories left as novellas (in the
| way James S.A. Corey has done), I think I would have enjoyed the
| story more.
| Trasmatta wrote:
| In contrast, getting through Hyperion was hard for me (some of
| the character stories I LOVED and some felt like a slog), but I
| really loved Fall of Hyperion.
| globular-toast wrote:
| I did find the transition from _Hyperion_ to _Fall_ a little
| jarring. It has a completely different narrative structure for
| a start, but more importantly the scope goes from a single
| group of people doing a pilgrimage to a huge interstellar
| conspiracy. I think it works best if you read each book
| slightly separately rather than as one huge work.
| k__ wrote:
| Yeah, Hyperion had an interesting structure, but the second
| book was quite basic compared to that.
|
| If The Fall of Hyperion were 1/3 of the length and part of the
| first book it would be perfect.
| DonHopkins wrote:
| I had a copy of Hyperion but didn't read it for years because the
| scary knife robot on the cover seemed intimidating. I finally
| read it, and all the sequels, and they were great books, and hell
| YEAH that was an intimidating knife robot! Sometimes you CAN tell
| a book by its cover.
| hinkley wrote:
| The scary knife robot is way, way more intimidating in person.
| Eddy_Viscosity2 wrote:
| I still remember the first time I met a scary knife robot.
| Working fast food night shift was crazy times.
| samus wrote:
| I find it awesome that the true nature and mission of the
| Shrike remains a secret.
| matthewsinclair wrote:
| Vale Dan Simmons. You brought the world a _lot_ of joy.
| okasaki wrote:
| RIP. I really liked the Hyperion books and Ilium/Olympos. He
| seemed to become a bit of a chud after 9/11 but the books are
| still well worth reading.
| hinkley wrote:
| Things most people don't know about Illinois is that while the
| Mason Dixon line officially goes around the bottom of the
| state, philosophically it cuts through the middle. Peoria is
| maybe thirty miles north of the rednecks.
|
| Add that he was a boomer and I was disappointed but not
| surprised when people started complaining about him.
| perardi wrote:
| Ha, I'd argue it starts right at Pekin.
| hinkley wrote:
| That puts several university towns below the line. But
| little towns outside big towns in the Midwest have their
| own vibe.
| JackFr wrote:
| Loved Ilium, and Olympos a little less so. Inspired me to read
| the Iliad.
| AdmiralAsshat wrote:
| Yeah, the Islamophobia in Ilium/Olympos made me really tempted
| to put the books down several times. It's such a strange about-
| face from when he wrote the character Kassad in the Hyperion
| Cantos.
|
| Like Frank Miller, it seems like 9/11 just broke him.
| poisonarena wrote:
| > He seemed to become a bit of a chud
|
| I will now read Ilium/Olympos
| textm0de wrote:
| Here lies one whose name was writ in Eternity.
| Izikiel43 wrote:
| I picked up Hyperion on a whim on Kindle because it was on sale
| for 2$.
|
| Amazing book, I bought and loved the other 3, I still hope they
| do a good miniseries with the books.
| pelagicAustral wrote:
| I sincerely hope they don't make any adaptation... after the
| slaughterhouse they've made with 3 Body Problem, Foundation,
| Altered Carbon, et al Not to mention all the damage done to
| other more traditional works of fiction.
| nilamo wrote:
| Sometimes it's done right, like with The Expanse. Although
| the writers also wrote some of the episode scripts, so that
| probably helped...
| lotsoweiners wrote:
| To each their own I guess. I never found the Expanse
| television series to be very good when compared to the
| books.
| wowtip wrote:
| Hm altered carbon season 1 was pretty good?
|
| the books are still on my to read list.
| therealdrag0 wrote:
| You don't have to watch them.
| Trasmatta wrote:
| I recommend everyone read Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion. The
| messages about AI and human stagnation are highly relevant to our
| current world.
| idontwantthis wrote:
| Hyperion is the first sci-fi series I have ever described as
| beautiful. I just heard about and read all four in the past year.
| anp wrote:
| I read the Hyperion books during a particularly intense period of
| my life and found them quite powerful. I didn't know anything
| about Simmons at the time, but I suppose I shouldn't be surprised
| that like Tolkein these stories started with an oral format for
| children.
| EvanAnderson wrote:
| My "intense time of life" story re: Hyperion. I was finishing
| "The Rise of Endymion" and was stricken with a kidney stone. It
| was absolutely eerie, and has cemented my memory of that book
| in a strange way.
| ctvo wrote:
| Carrion Comfort is still one of the most creepy horror books I've
| ever read and is seldom mentioned when we talk about Dan Simmons.
| Arainach wrote:
| Very much agreed. I haven't read all of Dan's work to comment
| how it ranks among his output, but Carrion Comfort is a book
| that I still think back on years after I read it.
| colkassad wrote:
| The first person perspective of the old lady at the beginning
| of the book was so creepy.
| howard941 wrote:
| Hyperion cries out for a good film adaptation.
| virgil_disgr4ce wrote:
| ...does it though? I mean we don't have to argue about personal
| desires and opinions. But Hyperion simply doesn't seem
| adaptable. You would lose everything that makes it great.
| sandmn wrote:
| Not sure about a film, but maybe TV series? I thought Game of
| Thrones was not adaptable but then HBO did it.
| colkassad wrote:
| It would make a perfect mini-series. Each episode or two
| could cover each pilgrim's story, with a finale two-parter
| to wrap up Fall of Hyperion. A lot from Fall could be
| trimmed down.
| samus wrote:
| I rather hope it doesn't. It's not so much about action; it's
| subtle worldbuilding and a certain vibe that is easily
| distorted on screen. Also, it would destroy everybody's
| personal vision of the Shrike...
| zabzonk wrote:
| I liked all of the Hyperion/Shrike novels, except when Raul
| Endymion persistently refers to the heroine/love-interest as "my
| young friend", or similar phrasing - slightly creepy/boring.
|
| I didn't know that Summer of Night was a series - really liked
| the original book - will have to investigate.
|
| And, of course, I'm sad he's died.
| Aromasin wrote:
| Wow. I picked up a copy of Hyperion this morning while taking a
| random stroll through town - something I rarely do during a work
| day anymore. I popped into a book shop on a complete whim, and
| picked it up as it had been on my list for a while. The
| coincidence feels deeply uncanny.
| Kaibeezy wrote:
| I started reading it for the first time this week. It's just a
| statistical anomaly... but humans are wired to notice and feel
| coincidence; it connects us to space and time in a way that
| must have helped make religion more believable.
| bookofjoe wrote:
| "Coincidence is a glimpse of the scaffolding of reality."
|
| I read that many years ago, forgot the source.
| mwigdahl wrote:
| It would be interesting if it were Dan Simmons...
| occz wrote:
| And I just finished The Rise of Endymion a few days ago.
| Uncanny indeed.
| Loughla wrote:
| Do yourself a favor and get the audiobook after you read the
| physical book. It is, hands down, the best audiobook ever made.
| By far and away.
| Sebguer wrote:
| The type of person the concept 'death of the author' was invented
| for, because whoo were some of his other books ideological
| garbage.
| ceejayoz wrote:
| 9/11 kinda broke his brain, as I recall. (The book Flashback
| is... ooof. Hyperion includes a major Muslim character and it's
| just a wild shift between the two.)
| avazhi wrote:
| Almost like he updated his view of the world, which isn't a
| bad thing.
| Sebguer wrote:
| his updated view of the world involved global warming being
| a hoax and that obama (literally obama, not even a fake
| obama parallel) caused the end of the west.
| ChipopLeMoral wrote:
| Hyperion Cantos might be my favorite sci-fi series ever. What a
| great writer.
| aerhardt wrote:
| I read Hyperion last year. It's an ode to the English letters and
| a phenomenal exercise in world-building. RIP.
| plasma_beam wrote:
| I see everyone talking about Hyperion, so I will play up The
| Terror as one of my favorites. The TV series did NOT do it
| justice.
| MonkeyIsNull wrote:
| Yeah, I never got pulled into Hyperion but The Terror was..
| something else. Just a masterpiece, and the TV series came
| nowhere near.
| virgil_disgr4ce wrote:
| THANK YOU!!! The Terror--the book--absolutely blew me away. I
| still am in awe of that book. Just everything about it.
|
| And yeah the adaptation was so, so weak. But it faced the same
| problem many horror movies do, which is that if you're forced
| to show the Thing(tm) it loses all its power.
| nurbl wrote:
| Well there was no way the show would be quite as good as the
| book. But I was still pleasantly surprised, it was definitely
| better than the average TV adaptation. The actors were very
| good.
| 93benz wrote:
| Currently finishing up The Terror. I've never read a horror
| story until I got this. There are times I struggle to put it
| down, incredible book. Simmons painted quite a colorful picture
| of what it's like to die from scurvy so now I bring an
| emergency orange wherever I go.
| toomuchtodo wrote:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Simmons
| lysace wrote:
| 'Hyperion' is a brilliant name of a book in 1989.
| cess11 wrote:
| If one enjoys the Hyperion books, then it is highly likely one
| would also enjoy the Ilium books.
|
| It's nice that he ruminated on these old stories these books riff
| on without being smug about it.
|
| It's sad that he didn't manage to resist the fear based, fiercely
| reactionary politics of the last quarter of a century or so.
| hardlianotion wrote:
| RIP Dan
| Loughla wrote:
| Fuck
| globular-toast wrote:
| A girl I was infatuated with told me to read _Hyperion_ when I
| was in my early 20s. Never read a book to try to win someone 's
| affections. It won't work, but what's worse is you won't even
| enjoy the book.
|
| I read a lot of SF and just last year I thought it was about time
| I gave it another go. I couldn't put it down. Almost couldn't
| believe what I was reading, it was so good. Continued to read the
| other three and it was just a good all the way through. Was quite
| sad when I finished and it was all over.
|
| It now has a permanent place in my library. I expect I'll enjoy
| it even more on my next reading. I can only dream of giving
| people as much joy as an author like Simmons.
| shaunxcode wrote:
| you mean, author of Song of Kali.
| poisonarena wrote:
| I remember I was in a hotel in detroit years ago and read the
| whole book, in pdf form on my laptop, it was that fun!
| clarkmoody wrote:
| Simmons opened new frontiers of thought for me with his _Hyperion
| Cantos_. A house with each room on a different planet. A
| heartbreaking tale of a daughter aging in reverse. A romance
| playing out over space and time. A grand piano on the pop-out
| balcony of a starship. The cruciform parasite. The Shrike.
|
| Branches of humanity torn between decadent stagnation and radical
| evolution. The artificial intelligence civilization with its own
| agenda. The All Thing (Internet) as the third branch of
| government.
|
| So much good stuff, published in 1989 no less.
|
| Rest in Peace to a true legend.
| samus wrote:
| He predicted social media as well. So many themes in this work
| only mentioned in passing, too many to develop in full...
| libraryofbabel wrote:
| Oh, boy. The Shrike. That thing still haunts me in a way that
| no other monster or alien across all of Sci-fi or fantasy
| really does. It's something about the _inscrutability_ of it,
| especially in the first novel (still my favorite) where its
| purpose and backstory haven 't been revealed. Sure, it's scary,
| but I think the mystery of its motives - and its ability to
| unpredictably act apparently benevolently sometimes - is where
| the real terror lies.
| dtj1123 wrote:
| I have to admit that I found the Hyperion Cantos to be a bit of a
| disappointment. There were some decent bits and pieces scattered
| throughout, but overall the story never seemed to resolve into
| something I could find engaging.
|
| Can someone who liked it share why?
| k__ wrote:
| Pro: Interesting world building, Canterbury Tales in space,
| Huckleberry Finn in space, strong female characters.
|
| Con: Pro Judaism and Christianity (albeit with much criticism
| to both) and anti Islam, awkward sex scenes, awkward Lolita-
| esque vibes in the latter books.
| takko_the_boss wrote:
| Rest In Peace Dan Simmons.
|
| R.I.P.
| brcmthrowaway wrote:
| Does this book date well, or is it cheest/unreadable like
| Neuromancer?
| k__ wrote:
| The first too books aged well.
| BigTTYGothGF wrote:
| I enjoyed the Hyperion books but this got him put on my "never
| read anything from ever again" list:
| https://web.archive.org/web/20060424105133/http://www.dansim...
| fatbird wrote:
| Same here. It's a fading memory, but the decade following 9/11
| really did feature a lot of big brains turning THE COMING
| CALIPHATE into an existential threat to humanity. Which seems
| quaint, now.
| ZpJuUuNaQ5 wrote:
| >never read anything from ever again
|
| I think it's a poisonous and reductive mindset to have. You can
| separate art from the character of the artist. If you cared
| about everything everyone has ever said or done in various
| stages of their lives, you wouldn't have much left to enjoy or
| appreciate.
| isr wrote:
| He's referring ... to his "art". Thats what the piece he
| linked to was a part of.
|
| Its not poisonous nor reductive to decide not to follow an
| "artist" because his "art" is repulsive.
| ZpJuUuNaQ5 wrote:
| "I will never read anything by [AUTHOR] because some things
| [AUTHOR] wrote are now in my no no list."
|
| Sorry, that just doesn't make sense to me.
| lxgr wrote:
| Sure, but at the same time it's debatable whether even an
| artist themselves gets to retroactively reinterpret their
| own art that way.
| ses1984 wrote:
| On the other hand, there is so so much art out there, I could
| never hope to consume it all. It's simple for me to use the
| character of the artist as a filter. I can break that rule
| whenever I want, but by default, other things being equal, I
| would prefer to consume art for pleasure from artists I
| respect as people.
|
| I do consume art from outside this bubble but more to satisfy
| academic curiosity than pleasure.
| petsfed wrote:
| So he had a pretty good (not perfect) run up until the final
| 1/3, then had a staggering turn that only the author thought
| was profound or earned?
|
| That's a man who lived his craft right there.
| ses1984 wrote:
| Can you perhaps explain what is objectionable so I don't have
| to read the objectionable thing?
| pragmatic wrote:
| Interesting.
|
| I don't think he was particularly kind to any proselytizing
| religion.
|
| Did you read the Cantos?
| ortusdux wrote:
| I wonder if the adaptation is still in the works?
|
| https://deadline.com/2021/11/bradley-cooper-set-hyperion-at-...
| genjipress wrote:
| As a general rule, if an announcement about a movie project is
| over a year old and nothing else has been mentioned since, you
| can safely assume it's no longer a thing.
| fr3772 wrote:
| Read Hyperion some years ago. I was totally trhrilled to read it
| because of the good reviews... But I was very fast disappointed
| about the overwhelming focus on boring religion. The interessting
| stuff like TechnoCore was so sparse that I never came into a flow
| reading the book. After 2/3 I just wanted to finish it fast.
| saltysalt wrote:
| Oh no! I just finished reading Hyperion this week and it has
| become one of my favorite books of all time. I will treasure my
| signed copy more so now, RIP.
| anvuong wrote:
| RIP
|
| Hyperion Cantos is the most influential scifi story I've ever
| read personally. The first book is a masterpiece, while the rest
| remains one of the greats.
|
| :(
| ChicagoDave wrote:
| Hyperion was the first science fiction book that made me cry.
|
| I love all four books in the series.
|
| I never really engaged in any of his other writing. I have a
| signed copy of Ilium but never read it.
| skipkey wrote:
| Back in the 90s and the early aughts Simmons was on my
| "automatically buy everything he writes" list. But it seemed like
| he had stopped writing. But then I happened to browse Barnes and
| Noble beyond the SF&F and horror aisles and discovered he had
| been writing crime novels. And they were good.
|
| I think if he had ever decided to write romance novels I would
| have probably enjoyed those as well.
| mark_l_watson wrote:
| I enjoyed his sci-fi so much. Rest in peace brother.
| hyperion2010 wrote:
| To me, the Hyperion Cantos present a vision of the future that is
| incredibly hopeful. The path along the way may at times be bleak,
| and I find the handling of the TechnoCore to reveal echos of the
| great chain in a work that otherwise seems to totally reject it.
| Despite those and a few other shortcomings the Cantos are
| essential guides for charting our way toward a distant future
| that is filled with warmth, love, and compassion rather than the
| cold empty void of hate. To receive such a vision is a rare gift.
| Thank you Dan. Choose again.
| StillBored wrote:
| RIP, truly one of the greats.
|
| His early stuff contains some real masterworks. Hyperion is still
| to this day, going to show up at the top of my scifi recommended
| reading list, most of his horror novels were also great in their
| own ways.
|
| PS: I thought Fall of Hyperion should have been the end, it was
| just too final. There was plenty of space for some prequels but
| while the sequels contained some interesting ideas, they just
| never got to the level I felt justified reversing the finality of
| Fall. And Olympus/etc was pretty forgettable, but I don't regret
| the time I spent reading pretty much everything he wrote,
| sometimes more than once. So again, RIP.
| funemployed wrote:
| The books were incredibly influential on me as a teenager, twenty
| years later on re-reading the cantos I found some of the specific
| language around intergenerational romance to be troubling and the
| focus on it to be a major distraction from the rest of the
| excellent story.
|
| Praying for his friends and family. RIP
| Agingcoder wrote:
| I read the book years ago so might have forgotten - what
| intergenerational romance ?
| Gazoche wrote:
| I have never read an ending that was as sad, happy, clever and
| beautiful as the ending to _Rise of Endymion_. To this day it 's
| one of the very few books that made me shed a tear.
|
| Now, over decade later, I am in the middle of re-reading every
| book in the _Cantos_ series back to back (this time in their
| original language), and still loving them.
|
| Rest in peace Mr Simmons. You had the words of a poet and the
| mind of a dreamer.
| eatonphil wrote:
| I really liked Children of the Night.
| elorm wrote:
| Simmons wrote one of my favourite short stories of all time
| _Vanni Fucci is Alive and Well and living in Hell_.
|
| While I'm definitely not willing to put myself through any of his
| books after 9/11, I haven't stopped recommending Vanni Fucci as
| an introduction to Dan Simmons.
|
| Rest in peace.
| crorella wrote:
| I am sad to know about this, Dan Simmons had a mind blowing
| amount of imagination and the ability to turn that into
| interesting and imaginative books that expanded my imagination
| when I read them.
|
| I loved Hyperion cantos, Illium and then non sci-fi books like A
| Winter Haunting and Summer of night (which I read in the wrong
| order lol).
|
| I am also happy to read that he was a great person overall and a
| great teacher. May he rest in peace.
| loloquwowndueo wrote:
| It's all about the Hyperion Cantos which is fair but - the one
| Dan Simmons book we still talk about, years later, is his first
| novel: Song of Kali. Short and raw, one of the most horrifying
| books I've ever read.
| colkassad wrote:
| I've had this internet handle since the last century. Most people
| in here are talking about Hyperion but Simmons was a fantastic
| cross-genre author. My favorites were his historical fiction that
| contained a fantastical bent:
|
| Drood: Has Wilkie Collins as an unreliable narrator, depicting
| the last five or so years of Charles Dickens' life.
|
| Crook Factory: An FBI agent is sent to Cuba to keep an eye on
| Ernest Hemingway, hijinks ensue.
|
| The Fifth Heart: Henry James and Sherlock Holmes team up to solve
| a mystery.
|
| The Terror: Tells the story of what happened to the HMS Terror
| that attempted to make the northwest passage. The Arctic is a
| character in itself in this amazing story. I thought the TV mini-
| series was fine.
|
| Abominable and Black Hills: I haven't read these yet but look
| forward to doing so.
|
| Honestly, I think Dan Simmons is my favorite author. I know his
| politics became unpalatable but I could never find it in myself
| to care. My heart sank when I saw this post.
| tetrisgm wrote:
| Thank you for the wonderful stories. Hyperion was such a trip. It
| managed to move me, an aging hardcore sci-fi fan, with its silly,
| chaotic, poetic universe.
| FpUser wrote:
| RIP. Absolutely loved his writings
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