A well-deserved Hugo winner, I’ve put off reading Hyperion for a long time because the copy on the back of the book always rubbed me the wrong way - giving a more fantasy vibe than the novel actually posesses.
It’s classic space opera - a bit too classic, with the assumption that after Earth is destroyed by a rogue black hole - oops! - mankind expands across the galaxy in the Hegira. But all the different worlds are eventually knit together in the WorldWeb farcaster network, a network of portals. This Hegemony looks a lot like our society, which felt cheap to me. But it turns out it’s no accident…
We have religious fanatics, electric trees, flying carpets, AIs, and galactic warfare! Plus of course the Shrike, the mysterious demon haunting the world of Hyperion, drawing pilgrims who are granted a wish or are killed.
Highly recommended. I listened to an Audible version with a full cast, which worked well considering the fact that all the travellers have different tales to tell.