The Hyperion Cantos is a series of four science fiction novels written by Dan Simmons. They are:
Hyperion
The Fall of Hyperion
Endymion
The Rise of Endymion
It's eight hundred years into the future, and humanity has fled Earth's accidental destruction at the hands of an artificial black hole and established the WorldWeb, a society of many planets connected through the farcaster network. With the help of its allies in the TechnoCore (a group of emancipated AIs), mankind lives in peace... until the mysterious "Ousters", a splinter race of humanity adapted to living in deep space, attacks the WorldWeb. As the situation becomes desperate, a group of seven pilgrims is sent to the planet Hyperion, a colony world guarded by the inscrutable killing machine known as the Shrike. Their hope is that their desperate appeal to the Shrike will persuade it to give them some of its alien technology that can save humanity. During the journey, the pilgrims, each of whom has a personal link to Hyperion, begin to tell each other their stories, and realize that things are much more complicated than they thought...Overall, the series is inspired by the unfinished epic poem Hyperion by John Keats. The first book is modeled after The Canterbury Tales, especially in how each pilgrim has an opportunity to tell their own individual story.
Artificial Human: Androids are practically vat-grown humans, and cybrids are essentially biological terminals for the Core. Nemes might qualify as one as well.
All Hail The Great God Mickey: The Templars and the Voice of the Tree appear to worship John Muir, a major proponent for the preservation of American forests in the early 19th Century, and a book of Muir's is found among Het Masteen's possessions after he is apparently killed by the Shrike. The Templar's devotion to Muir vaguely resembles that of Brave New World's adulation of Henry Ford as a god-figure in the future.
Also Father Duré. And Rachel Weintraub. And Martin Silenus, though in his case it taught him real poetry. Dan Simmons is good friends with Harlan Ellison.
Author Appeal: Dan Simmons is a former public school English teacher, so it amuses him to stuff his genre fiction with as many literary references as he can get away with. For example, the first volume is a Whole Plot Reference to Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. The works of John Keats also factor heavily into the series.
Back Alley Doctor: Brawne and Johnny visit one in one of Lusus' seedier Hives.
BFG: The FORCE:GROUND multipurpose assault rifle, which has such settings as particle beams that can cut half kilometer long holes through a mountain and plasma bolts that can split a boulder with one shot and has a range of thousands of kilometers.
The cruciform in Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion is a cross-shaped parasite that grants its hosts a powerful Healing Factor - but slowly turns them into physically and mentally neutered caricatures of humanity.
It doesn't get much better in Endymion and The Rise of Endymion, it makes you dependent on the Pax and gives your mind over to the Core. It also functions as built in shock collar.
Chekhov's Gun: Both played straight and subverted. Early on in Endymion, it is established that resurrection (which "normally" takes three days) can be rushed to completion in six hours, at the risk of some major Body Horror. On the other hand, a literal "Chekhov's gun" - huge plasma rifle, which the narrator mentions and plays up for quite some time - is never used for any significant effect.
Corrupt Church: Very much so in the latter two books with the "Pax", a descendant of the Vatican that controls nearly all of mankind. While individual members (along with the occasional pope) may be good, the church overall acts as one of the main villain organizations in Endymion and Rise of Endymion.
Curbstomp Battle: Pretty much any time the TechnoCore is involved. Prominent in the second two books, with Archangel-class warships unceremoniously laying waste to almost everything they come up against. The attack on the Startree is particularly heart-breaking, with millions of Ousters mobilizing to defend what is possibly mankind's greatest achievement in the setting being put to the sword by just a few dozen ships. There is not even a Hope Spot, just endless death and destruction.
Does This Remind You of Anything?: Aenea is a messiah, who trains as a architect and shares her blood and lets herself be killed to liberate mankind.
Doing in the Wizard : In the first two books, the Shrike has an air of mystery, heightening it's scariness. In the later two book, its origins are fully explained and retconned in a way that rather diminishes its badassness.
Drama-Preserving Handicap: In the fourth novel, when Raul takes on Nemes barehanded, it's worth noting that for the duration of the fight, the Powers That Be have taken away her ability to move in Laser Time, so that it's just slightly more of an even fight. Although she still has bones made of metal, has long claws, shark teeth, feels no pain, etc.
Debate and Switch: Immortal life at a spiritual cost, or harmony with the universe for a fleeting moment? Just kidding, immortality means being a slave to the machines. Also, it's damaging to the universe. Also, they constantly need you to die. Also, the life-restoring cruciforms are actually neural parasites. Wait, why is your hand still up?
Dyson Sphere: Well, Dyson Tree. There are multiple trees.
Famous, Famous, Fictional: Meina Gladstone is likened to Lincoln, Churchill or Alvarex-Temp as a leader.
Fate Worse Than Death: The condition the Ousters keep their prisoners of war in. The Tree of Pain is also this.
Face Heel Turn: Hoyt murders Duré and becomes the Pope. By spreading the cruciform to humanity, he enslaves it to the Core.
Fauns and Satyrs: Martin Silenus undergoes Space Opera style body modifications to turn himself into a satyric figure.
Franchise Zombie: an in-universe example, in "The Poet's Tale" in Hyperion
Gambit Pileup: Pretty much what caused the Ouster invasion. The Core provokes Bressia to attack the Ouster Swarm secretly, so the Swarm's massive retaliation looks like unprovoked barbaric aggression to the Hegemony. Said massive retaliation is actually not the Ousters, but instead the Core making sure the Web is freaked out about how genocidal and tough the Ousters are. Meanwhile the Core plants more fake Swarms around the Web so they can manufacture an invasion on demand. When Gladstone brings Hyperion into the Web, the real Ousters invade there to keep the Core from taking the Time Tombs. The Core sends their fake invasion against the Web and hands the Hegemony the deathwand device, urging them to point it at the real Ousters. ... did I miss anything?
Genre Savvy : Many of the characters quip various lampshades in various archetypal situtations (i. e. father Duré wondering at first if the Bikura hadn't mistakened him for a deity, remarking that something like that is worthy of clichéd holonovels).
Homage: The first book is written in the style of The Canterbury Tales and the series is inspired by the work of John Keats. In addition, several of the individual tales are homages to other SF works or genres. "The Priest's Tale" bears a a striking resemblance to James Blish's A Case of Conscience, "The Detective's Tale" is cyberpunk (complete with a William GibsonName Drop) and "The Soldier's Tale" uses a lot of elements from Joe Haldeman's The Forever War. The Consul's Tale is a sci-fi Romeo and Juliet.
Honor Before Reason: That's how Raul Endymion rolls. Of course, it nearly gets him killed...
Human Popsicle: Used for interstellar travel. Silenus uses this to extend his life, and the Core does this to bilions of humans in the second half of the series to use them as massive parallel processors.
Hyperspace Is a Scary Place: The Gideon drive is described as being terrifying to use, and kills you incredibly painfully.
Immortal Life Is Cheap: Many an immortal in the second two books is vaporized, devoured, or melted into the ship's hull, resulting in the "true death". Archangel-class ships are designed with the crew's gruesome and repeated deaths in mind. Considering the excruciating details of the original Archangel's introduction, this doubles as horrific.
Informed Ability: Rise of Endymion is full of references to the independent nature, critical thinking tendencies and, at one point, a vast mob of "intelligent, questioning, alert" Aenea's followers. Needless to say, they all obey their leader's every word without question, never hesitate, never second-guess and rarely show any personality beyond total obedience. Aenea's more often than not paradigm-shifting revelations are all taken at face value.
Invisibility Flicker: The Shrike could (and sometimes does) fight without ever being seen but it's too sadistic to not make itself known most of the time. Being Nigh Invulnerable means that it doesn't come as much of a risk.
It Is Pronounced Tro PAY: After a fashion. Normally, you'd think that a guy with a name spelled "R-A-U-L" is actually "Raúl", rhymes with "cool"; but right off the bat he says it's "Raul," rhymes with "Paul." This makes it less "fancy", but it's still weird.
Jerkass: Silenus is definitely seen as one throughout much of the first two books, with some of his fellow pilgrams assaulting and threatening to kill him due to his behavior.
The Man Behind the Man: The Core in the first two books are behind everything from the Ouster invasion to the motherfucking Shrike!
Magical Negro: A. Bettik is wiser, stronger, tougher, has better aim and is probably more handsome than the protagonist in Endymion and Rise of Endymion. Naturally, being a blue-skinned android, he spends most of the time sitting back and giving sage advice. Possibly justified by his status as an observer of human affairs.
May-December Romance: Raul and Aenea are a rather extreme example; they first met when he was twenty-seven and Aenea was merely twelve. Although it's worth pointing out that their ages are drawn closer together by effects of relativistic time-debt before they actually hook up.
Meaningful Name: Given that Dan Simmons is quite fond of literary references galore in his novels, some of the names have meaning beyond just the name. Notable examples being "Brawne" Lamia (Brawne being the last name of John Keats' Real Life sweetheart, and Brawne herself falls in love with a retrieved from the past John Keats in the form of a cybrid) and there is also Rachel Weintraub. Rachel means "Lamb" and at the midpoint of the Fall of Hyperion she becomes the Sacrificial Lamb when Sol, her father, re-enacts the Sacrifice of Abraham.
The Messiah: Aenea, prophesied as the 'One-Who-Teaches'.
Nigh Invulnerability: The cruciform allows for regeneration from a few molecules, albeit as an increasingly more retarded and genderless being. The Core can prevent the degeneration. The Shrike and Nemes also have this: The Shrike is Made of Diamond to practically everything, and with Time Travel, it can 'come back' from destruction. Nemes, when phase shifted, shows invulnerability second only to the Shrike; even an eighty gigawatt laser was unable to destroy her, or cause any notable harm.
Non Linear Character: Moneta Who is actually Rachel Weintraub, whose experience in the Time Tombs has enabled her to move backwards and forwards in time and space, thus allowing her to have a Time Travel Romance with Kassad, be one of Aenea's disciples and ultimately save herself when her father sacrifices her to the Shrike. In a way, one might say that she's this series' River Song.
Offing the Offspring: Big spoiler here. Sol Weintraub reenacts the Sacrifice of Abraham.
Considering she was only seconds away from non-existence, this might have been the only way to save her.
Oh Crap: When Kassad is in a simulation of the Battle of Agincourt, he notices that he might be trained with every kind of future weaponry and a longbow as well, but doesn't have any of those things at hand right now - and he just charged alone after a heavily armed knight. His reaction? "Ah shit."
One-Man Army: The Shrike can, and does kill thousands of people and dozens of vehicles in less then a picosecond. Literally. Nemes and her 'siblings' are each capable of tearing through an army as well.
Organic Technology: Fairly common in the universe; the largest example being the Templars tree ships, which are giant, space-travelling trees protected by force fields generated from living things. Many forms of AI are apparently DNA based, whatever that means. The Core utilizes humans as vast parallel processors, first by using people travelling through farcasters, and then using the cruciforms.
Our Gods Are Greater: They're called Ultimate Intelligences, at least some are computers, and we create them, not the other way around.
Person of Mass Destruction: Depending on your definition of 'person', the Shrike. He/it is effectively invulnerable, and with his time/space manipulation he/it can kill thousands in less then a second.
Physical God: The Shrike can freely manipulate time and space, and is for all intents and purposes invulnerable. Appropriately enough, he has a church devoted to him.
Planet of Hats: Let's see... there's planet of the Jews which suffers implied genocide, planet of the Muslims (a backward, desert world also genocide), planet of the tree-worshipping Asians which gets nuked, planet of the Palestinians(!) (which is - of course - in a permanent state of rebellion), planet of the slums, planet of the bureaucrats, planet of the Catholics...
Powered Armor: The combat armor worn by FORCE troops in the first two books, which lets Kassad move his hand in a simple chop faster than the speed of sound to decapitate an opponent; it also has an entire ton of specialised defensive capacities (absorbing concussions as well as impacts from rifle bullets or grenade fragments as well as radiating off the energy from laser beams and). The Swiss Guard's armor in the second two would likewise count. And one might make an argument for the skinsuits that Kassad and Moneta utilize, which give incredible strength, speed, and durability, and as a bonus makes the wearer into a Chrome Champion.
Power of Love: The Void That Binds. Allows for time travel and a form of telepathy/psychometry with all living things. Not bad, is it?
Powers That Be: The "Lions and Tigers and Bears." Not to mention the various Ultimate Intelligences.
Reformed, But Rejected: No one ever remembers that Col. Kassad resigned his commission and became an anti-war activist; once you earn a nickname like "The Butcher of South Bressia", you're not going to get remembered for anything else
Retcon: The second two books revise and reinterpret many of the events of the first two. See Doing in the Wizard above.
Retro Rocket: The Consul's starship is designed to look like one. His intent was to make it fit the Platonic ideal of "space ship".
River Of Insanity : Father Duré's expedition to the mysterious Bikura tribe on Hyperion, retold by Hoyt in the Priest's Tale.
Rubber Forehead Aliens: Averted; several sapient species described in Hyperion are incredibly different. Even the Ousters, who are genetically altered humans, can look radically different from normal humans.
Sapient Cetaceans: There is mention of intelligent telepathic dolphins. Unfortuantly they were hunted nearly to extinction because it was discovered they were sentient.
Sapient Ship: The Consul's "singleship" is piloted by an AI (and lacks obvious manual controls).
Scenery Gorn: In the second book, the invasion of Hyperion to a lesser extent, and in huge amounts when the assumed Ouster swarms destroy Heaven's Gate and God's Grove.
No Sense Of Energy: Starships can apparently devastate entire planets and blow up stars. However, any time actual firepower is described, it is kiloton level beams and megaton level missiles in single digit salvos. You'll spend a lot of time destroying a trillion square kilometers of force field protected tree that way...
Seven Dirty Words: Brain damage reduces Martin Silenus' vocabulary to these, for a time.
It also has an absolutely hysterical reference to MAD in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it line about 43-Man Squamish.
Slap-Slap-Kiss: More like attempted murder-brutal rape-begrudging consent. Somewhat jarringly, Moneta is never held accountable for the first two and is an otherwise sympathetic character.
Space Is Noisy: Colonel Fedmahn Kassad spends an extended scene fighting Ousters in the vacuum of a derelict ship using a sonic gun.
Space Marine: Swiss Guard in the second two books are pretty much this. For bonus points, they are foot soldiers of an evil Catholic empire, fighting alien herecy with Powered Armor and Latin. Yeah, they're that kind of Space Marines.
Teleporters and Transporters: Farcasting allows for instantaneous travel through two connected points. At the end of the series, anyone can teleport anywhere using the "Void That Binds".
The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Kassad and the Shrike. The Rise of Endymion reveals that he is only one allowed to do so because part of his soul resides in the Shrike, thus he is paradoxically killing himself. But doing so {paradoxically} ensures that he lives into the future and becomes Moneta's lover and one of the heroes of the Hyperion Cantos saga. Whoa, now that is deep stuff, now isn't it.
Stable Time Loop: The entirety of the plot of the series seems to suggest one, but see below.
Terminator Twosome: The Core sends the Shrike into the past to kill humanity's Ultimate Intelligence, and Moneta/Rachel follows it to help set the plot into motion.
Torch the Franchise and Run: Done in-universe: the poet Martin Silenus, finally realizing that his profitable The Dying Earth series of booksnote yes, the title is a tribute to Jack Vance. Now have a cookie has become a brain-dead Cliché Storm, decides to just kill the thing off, completely and utterly, so that he can go and search for his "muse" and work on real poetry.
You Can't Fight Fate: Debatable; Het and Kassad are both destined to die, Rachel is destined to become Moneta, the Shrike is created in the future, ect ect. However, the existence of alternate futures seems to open the possibility that fate isn't set in stone.
Unreliable Narrator: Raul lies several times, like when he claims to not know Aenea's fate. He admits it later, and proceeds to dump us, the readers with a torture scene, followed by Aenea burning to death. She almost has her eyelids and nose chewed off by a Nemes clone. Slowly. Who knows what else he hid from us?
We Will Use Wiki Words In The Future: Where to begin? The TechnoCore, the WorldWeb, and the AllThing are all staples of the universe. Some examples are particularly egregious, such as the enigmatic TangleWebs and the somewhat redundant DeathBomb. As a rule of thumb, if a device or technology is not named after a person, this is how it's referred to.
Whole Plot Reference: Most of the first volume, to The Canterbury Tales. Also the final part of Endymion, to the second Terminator.
Who Wants to Live Forever?: The cruciform keeps you from dying no matter how much you might want to—and also keeps you from leaving a small geographic area. In the second duology, the technology has been harnessed to keep humanity virtually immortal, but at a spiritual price.
The Worf Effect: Nemmes utterly wipes the floor with the Shrike, which previously engaged and summarily defeated a combined ground-air-space task force in a gruesome Curb-Stomp Battle.
Later, her boss remarks Nemes cheated instead of actually winning. Later encounters have Shryke easily defeating her clone and the other two clones being sacrificed to take it out.
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