Fantastic story and very well read.

Best syfy story I've listened to in ages it was so well told by the narrator.

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answers at last

finally some answers. the holistic picture Dan paints of the universe, the web, the core and the time tombs is as fantastic as it is plausible. loved the way the story unfolds. makes you think about existence!

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Brilliant Conclusion to the First Half of an Epic

Hyperion, the first book in a series of four, is nothing short of perfect. Don’t anyone be put off by the publisher’s synopsis of the plot. There is a lot more to Dan Simmons’s space opera than you will ever imagine. The Fall of Hyperion is a continuation of the saga though the author has changed his narrative style somewhat, running the different storylines of existing and new characters in parallel rather than sequentially as heretofore. The twists, turns and mysteries introduced throughout the first book are further deepened and then resolved very satisfactorily.

Dan Simmons isn’t afraid to tackle very big subjects: religion; humanity; war; politics and more. He does so with great intelligence, knowledge and interest. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

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Truly engrossing; excellently read

An immensely satisfying conclusion to the wonderfully intriguing story halted abruptly at the end of Hyperion. Bevine's delivery is perfect. Although this book lacks the variety provided by the first novel's multiple readers, the single reader format works here.

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sublime

Truly wonderfully written science fiction, that explores the human condition as all great literature does.

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the best sci-fi book I have ever read

An inspired imaginative, puzzle-piece novel!Crazy in it's complexity but easy to follow the many well-drawn characters.
I now also have an entire useless sci-fi vocabulary. Don't mind me, I'm just catching the technocore farcaster gate over to the Ouster swarm via the fatline.

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Makes me remember why I loved the first book

I enjoyed the Fall of Hyperion, just not as much as I enjoyed Hyperion. A lot of the elements that really made the previous book for me, the mysteries and the cast of different narrators for different characters, aren't in this book. It's still solid, I enjoyed the new characters and different viewpoints the book offered, but as the story went on it felt like the mysteries set up in the first book were just a lot more compelling without answers.

Out of the original cast I'm glad Victor Bevine was chosen to narrate. While he wasn't my favorite from the previous book there's a certain quality to his voice that I really enjoy. I've read reviews that call him monotone and dull and honestly those kind of reviews do make me hesitant about a book. I'd advise anyone unsure about him to listen to the audio sample in full if they're worried, I personally loved his performance and maybe you will too.

Overall it's a worthy successor to Hyperion. The original book remains one of my favorite audio books but this sequel is a solid and engaging follow up. Less a fall from Hyperion and more a very slight decline. I know that's a terrible joke, I just wanted to use it.

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11 people found this helpful

awesome

awesome awesome awesome awesome and awesome and and and and and and and and and and and awesome please thanks great good noice.

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Still brilliant

Story still very much original, it amazes me how old yet this book is yet it's so much better than any contemporary sci-fi.

One minor thing, is that the poet's original voice actor isn't here. This narrator is great but no one can replicate the original actor's brilliant jaded and unhinged voice of M.Silenus.

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Mind, blown...

If Hyperion was ahead of it's time and full of immense ideas, The Fall of Hyperion takes it even further.

Concepts such as the TechnoCore, data sphere, megasphere, metasphere, WorldWeb may seem now to be relevant if not even near future concepts, but back in the 80's when Dan Simmons was plotting this, they were just WHAT!

Whilst I managed to unravel some of the plot twist before the grand reveal, I was impressed by all the twist and turns down the line like:
- Universe at war, but with who or what?
- God exists, wait, two Gods?
- Earth destroyed and rebuilt, or was it?

There's too much to really comment on properly without spoilers, suffice to say that I can't believe I've put off reading these books for 25 years! Not sure if I can read them again soon without causing brain damage though.

One final comment in respect to the narration - Hyperion was great with it's full cast narration that was probably felt necessary with the Canterbury Tales type segmentation, but I felt that The Fall of Hyperion was let down by switching from that to the classical single narrator. I'm sure if I hadn't already listened to Hyperion, I would have thought Victor Bevine had done a good job, but I have and it was a let down as a result.

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