Book 2 - The Fall of Hyperion

Hyperion finishes as the 7 pilgrims finish their tales and prepare to walk into the valley of the Time Tombs and the terrifying Shrike.

I hate cliff-hangers, don't you?

The Fall of Hyperion (thankfully) tells us the events that happen in the valley, but the view-point widens to include the cataclysmic impact of these events on the greater Web of worlds. Most of this is narrated by a most intriguing character - John Keats, the poet. Or rather, a cybrid Keats (part human, part AI) constructed by the TechnoCore to recreate the poet's life and thoughts, who has escaped into the world Web.

Literature, philosophy and theology are deeply embedded in Dan Simmon's work. Hyperion is the name of an unfinished poem by Keats on the clash of the Greek Gods. The character Silenus struggles to tell the same tale in his Cantos. The poetry of Keats and Yeats are sprinkled throughout the books, and the theology of St Teilhard underpins the whole philosophy of the books: that God, or the Ultimate Intelligence, grows out of the collective spirit of humanity - the animus mundi, to borrow from Yeats.

I think the fact that I've studied both Keats and Yeats, and have a general understanding of theology, was one of the reasons I enjoyed the Hyperion books so much - it really opens up the concepts they try to convey. I love the swirls of intertextuality that run through literature - this concept informs that novel etc. The richer your experience and understanding of literature (or culture in general), the more you will draw from a text. There you go, there's a little treatise on an aspect of postmodernism for you. It's also gotten me thinking about the poetry I studied in high school and uni, so you may find some poetry reviews popping up in here later.