Fall of Hyperion

My matching paperbacks for the final three volumes of the Hyperion Cantos arrived a couple of days before the offical release and are looking splendid on my “Space Fiction Hall of Fame” shelf. Before passing on the previous ill-matched set I decided to re-read “The Fall” and crease the spine of that one instead. This book is another triumph of imagination and plotting. Instead of the first book’s fairly simple frame narrative of the pilgrims’ journey and each telling their tales in flashback, “The Fall” is a much more complex book. As well as the ongoing adventures of the pilgrims we follow a host of other characters, primarily revolving around Meina Gladstone, Hegemony CEO and Joseph Severn, a cybrid restored personality of John Keats. The story has a lot of moving parts, both in terms of location (genuinely galaxy spanning) and timing (there’s an intricate chain of events across multiple time lines). Dan Simmons’ skill is revealed by the way all this complexity unfolds so well, with…