This book was fantastic. If it is representative of the genre's achievement and range, then I am even more interested in reading science fiction than before. Dan Simmons does not shy away from a challenge. He packs an incredible amount of human experience and emotion into this novel, which is not something I expected. As I read, I thought many times that the book was perfect for aspiring writers. Interested in writing a fast-paced, suspenseful, blow-by-blow combat scene? Look within. Interested in creating a heart-wrenching narrative of family, responsibility, love, and time? Within. Need an example of an irritating narrator, a poet no less, who never really redeems himself but is compelling and disgusting? That's there too, and a lot more, such as descriptions of fantastic worlds that are easy to visualize and feel because Simmons anchors his imagery to our sensory experiences. 
 There's debate among readers over Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. Is its structure ineffective artifice or sublime artistry? I'm not kidding, the structure of Hyperion may expose Cloud Atlas as a shambles (to some extent, calm down). Simmons provides us with seven characters whose individual stories provide very different perspectives on and of a distant future, one where humanity has spread out over a vast part of the galaxy. A few of these character's stories even echo some in Cloud Atlas, at least thematically: a detective story, an artist's story, a primitive society story, though they were written first... 
 Anyway, almost all the character's stories unfold by revealing surprising and enlightening mysteries, sometimes about other character's stories... 
 And there's a frame story that unites these separate stories with the cohesiveness of fingers on a hand, so eat your heart out David Mitchell. It works completely and includes a terrifying and original creation called the Shrike that blows away all the damn trolls, vampires, and witches being recycled by the pions in the Science Fiction and Fantasy peanut gallery. Just forget the somewhat cheesy or disconcerting blurbs on the back cover and front page ("the entire galaxy at war", "the key to the deliverance of humanity", "something in X's eyes... A hunger") and just read the book. Those phrases do not do justice to the stories told, believe me. 
 And finally, the ending. Hyperion is not labeled a Part 1 but it ends like one and that may annoy. It reminded me, however, of the feeling I got at the end of the Fellowship of the Ring, (view spoiler)[where the various characters split apart and go their various ways (hide spoiler)]. The story was not over, but the ending of the first volume was very, very satisfying. Hyperion's ending is similar. I will not get to the Fall of Hyperion soon. Other books crowd the docket. But I am not at all bitter about it. I feel great.