History Literature / HyperionCantos

** "The River Lethe's Taste is Bitter" is a slow-paced, sombre family tragedy about a man's attempt to reconnect with God as he's forced to watch his beloved daughter slowly dying from an incurable illness. The narration focuses more on the emotional resonances and philosophical ramifications of the sci-fi conceit on day-to-day life, [[InTheStyle reminiscent of]] Creator/UrsulaKLeGuin.

** "The War Lovers" is a military sci-fi story, complete with detailed descriptions of brilliant combat tactics, cool futuristic weapon technology and exploding spaceships, told in flashback format in the no-nonsense, dispassionate tone that can be expected from a veteran soldier.
** "Hyperion Cantos" is a meta-rich tragicomedy about the pains of a poet struggling to produce meaningful art in a cynical future, written in a humorous, anecdotal, rambling singsong as can be expected from an experienced storyteller.
** "The River Lethe's Taste is Bitter" is a slow-paced, sombre family tragedy about a man's attempt to reconnect with God as he's forced to watch his beloved daughter slowly dying from an incurable illness. The narration, befitting an old scholar, focuses more on the emotional resonances and philosophical ramifications of the little details of day-to-day life as it sweeps over decades gone.
** "The Long Good-Bye" is a cyberpunk-noir detective story, down to opening with the detective describing in the first person what a normal day it was as they were sitting in their office drinking whisky when a handsome stranger walked in with an unusual request.

* InfantImmortality: Averted. An entire maternity ward filled with babies gets blown up by Pax troops in The Rise Of Endymion.

* FalloutShelterFail: In the second book, the leader of one religion builds a shelter for himself deep inside a mountain to live in comfort until the end of the world his church expects. He gets a massive Oh, Crap! moment when the end of the world doesn't come... but the collapse of the PortalNetwork does. To explain, the portals were the only way to get in air out of the shelter... or to let air ''in.''

* TornApartByTheMob: Meina Gladstone dies this way after giving the order to destroy the interstellar PortalNetwork, and the civilization with it.
* UnreliableIllustrator: The Shrike is depicted on the covers of all four books, but has only two arms on the covers of the first three. ''The Rise of Endymion'' portrays it with its full set of four arms.
* TheWhitesOfTheirEyes: Averted and Lampshaded. Spacebattles in the series take places at ranges of millions of kilometers, and it's noted that modern infantry would find the ranges that most fictional starships engage at to be claustrophobic

* WorldOfCardboardSpeech: Raul gets one before his final showdown with Nemes.

* AIIsACrapshoot: The [=TechnoCore=] is composed of artifical intelligences who seceded from human control several centuries ago and peacefully coexist with humanity. This looks like a subversion until we learn the inner politics of the core, with the [=AIs=] falling into three political factions. Of the three, one wants to continue peaceful coexistence with humanity, one wants to wipe humanity out, and the third wants to keep humanity around--at least until it finishes its goal of creating the ultimate intelligence, of which humanity ''could'' be a useful component. This stalemate of "spare," "kill," and "don't kill right now," is what leads to the Core's nominally symbiotic relationship with the Hegemony. This trope is played ''much'' straighter in ''The Fall of Hyperion.''

* SwissArmyGun: The multipurpose FORCE assault rifle. A [[FrickinLaserBeams laser-shooting]] [[SecondaryFire flechette-grenade-launching]] DisintegratorRay [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot particle cannon]] [[MoreDakka fully-automatic]] [[{{Troperiffic}} sniper rifle]]. It noted that the only thing it was ''not'' designed to do is cook the troops food...but with its energy output set to its lowest setting, it could probably do that too.

Overall, the series is inspired by the unfinished epic poem ''Hyperion'' by Creator/JohnKeats. The first book is modeled after ''Literature/TheCanterburyTales'', especially in how each pilgrim has an opportunity to tell their own individual story.

* EarthThatWas: Earth was destroyed by an errant experiment involving micro-black holes. [[spoiler:It gets better: it's revealed that the Lions and Tigers and Bears moved it to the Magellanic Cloud before the [=TechnoCore=] could destroy it. They also give it back]]

[[caption-width-right:339: He just needs a hug]]

* TheButcher: Colonel Kassad. The "backhanded compliment" version, at least to some.

%%* FateWorseThanDeath:%%Zero-context examples.

%%** The Tree of Pain is also this.

%%** Father Dure regards the fate of those infected by the Cruciform parasite the same way.

%%* MultiArmedAndDangerous: The Shrike.

%%* NayTheist: Sol

%%* SpaceCossacks: The Ousters.

* InfantImmortality: Averted. An entire maternity ward filled with babies gets blown up by PAX troops in The Rise Of Endymion.

** Individual PAX Swiss Guard troopers can easily defeat thousands of regular PAX troopers (each of whom carries enough firepower to level mountains).

** Could be because all explicitly noted firepower yields were for Ouster and [[spoiler:[=TechnoCore=] masquerading as Ouster]] ships, which are generally inferior to Hegemony/PAX ships and fight using Zerg Rush tactics.

* SpaceIsNoisy: Colonel Fedmahn Kassad spends an extended scene fighting Ousters in the vacuum of a derelict ship using a sonic gun.

* GambitPileup: Pretty much what caused [[spoiler: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 [[DisproportionateRetribution 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.]]

* WeWillUseWikiWordsInTheFuture: Where to begin? The "[=TechnoCore=]", the "[=WorldWeb=]", and the "[=AllThing=]" are all staples of the series. 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.

* GeniusBonus: Martin Silenus spent some time with his body remade to look like a Satyr. Silenus was the name of a Satyr who was a companion of Dionysus.

* HollywoodTactics: An intentional example. Hegemony ground wars before the Ouster invasion were fought with organized battles on open fields as it was considered more honorable and less harmful to civilians. While they wise up pretty quickly, their ground forces are initially devastated by the much more competent Ouster troops.

* PsychicGLimpseOfDeath: The climax of ''The Rise of Endymion'' is Aenea broadcasting her torture and death to the whole of humanity (well, except for the tormentors themselves).

** The ''Consul's Tale'' is a sci-fi ''RomeoAndJuliet''.

* TheAlternet: The dataspheres and the megasphere are successors to the internet. One character even comments that "the Internet" was the name of the first crude datasphere on Old Earth.

* AIIsACrapdhoot: The [=TechnoCore=] is composed of artifical intelligences who seceded from human control several centuries ago and peacefully coexist with humanity. This looks like a subversion until we learn the inner politics of the core, with the [=AIs=] falling into three political factions. Of the three, one wants to continue peaceful coexistence with humanity, one wants to wipe humanity out, and the third wants to keep humanity around--at least until it finishes its goal of creating the ultimate intelligence, of which humanity ''could'' be a useful component. This stalemate of "spare," "kill," and "don't kill right now," is what leads to the Core's nominally symbiotic relationship with the Hegemony. This trope is played ''much'' straighter in ''The Fall of Hyperion.''

Eight hundred years into the future, humanity has fled the Earth's accidental destruction at the hands of an [[FreakLabAccident artificial black hole]] and has established the [=WorldWeb=], a society of many planets connected through the [[PortalNetwork Farcaster network]]. With the help of its allies in the [=TechnoCore=] (a group of AIs), mankind lives in peace... until the mysterious "Ousters", a splinter race of humanity adapted to living in deep space, attacks.

* AIIsACrapShoot: The [=TechnoCore=] is composed of artifical intelligences who seceded from human control several centuries ago and peacefully coexist with humanity. This looks like a subversion until we learn the inner politics of the core, with the [=AIs=] falling into three political factions. Of the three, one wants to continue peaceful coexistence with humanity, one wants to wipe humanity out, and the third wants to keep humanity around--at least until it finishes its goal of creating the ultimate intelligence, of which humanity ''could'' be a useful component. This stalemate of "spare," "kill," and "don't kill right now," is what leads to the Core's nominally symbiotic relationship with the Hegemony.
** This trope is played ''much'' straighter in ''The Fall of Hyperion.''
* ArtificialHuman: "Androids" in the series are nearly identical to regular humans, and "cybrids" are androids that act as biological terminals for the [=TechnoCore=].

** The cruciform in ''Hyperion'' and ''The Fall of Hyperion'' is a cross-shaped parasite that grants its hosts a powerful HealingFactor - but slowly transforms them, physically and mentally, into neutered caricatures of humanity.

* ChekhovsGun: Both played straight and subverted in Endymion, where it is established early on that [[spoiler:resurrection (which normally takes three days) can be rushed to completion in six hours at the risk of some major BodyHorror.]] Separately subverted with a literal "Chekhov's gun" - huge plasma rifle which the narrator mentions and plays up for quite some time - but never is used for to significant effect.

* DeusEstMachina: The goal of the Ultimates faction of the [=TechnoCore=] is to create the ultimate intelligence. This is compared many times to the creation of God.
** Additonally,[[spoiler: Father Dure]] gives a brief monologue about the various Deus and Machinas those in the setting are pursuing midway through ''The Fall of Hyperion."

* EnsembleCast: The first book features seven main characters, [[spoiler: six]] taking the time to tell their own tale.

* FateWorseThanDeath: The condition the Ousters keep their prisoners of war in. The Tree of Pain is also this. Or the traitors who are "thoroughly interrogated" and "detained" by the Hegemony.
** Father Dure regards the fate of those infected by the Cruciform parasite the same way.

** "The Priest's Tale" bears a a striking resemblance to Creator/JamesBlish's ''A Case of Conscience''
** "The Detective's Tale" is cyberpunk (complete with a Creator/WilliamGibson NameDrop)

* MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily: The Shrike.
* MultiArmedAndDangerous: The Shrike.

* NayTheist: Sol

** ''You use Nazis as your instruments. Madmen. Monsters. You're a goddamn monster yourself.''
** ''Listen! There will be no more offerings, neither child nor parent. There will be no more sacrifices for anyone but our fellow human. The time of obedience and atonement has passed. That's all! Now either leave us alone or join us as a father, rather than a receiver of sacrifices. You have the choice of Abraham!''

* Main/SpaceCossacks: The Ousters.
* Main/SpaceIsNoisy: Colonel Fedmahn Kassad spends an extended scene fighting Ousters in the vacuum of a derelict ship using a sonic gun.
* Main/SpaceMarine: The 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 heresy with PoweredArmor and Latin. Yeah, they're ''[[TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} those]]'' kind of Space Marines.
* Main/SpacePeople: Again, the Ousters.

** CasualTimeTravel: [[spoiler: In the future, it seems to be employed quite literally by the Core and humanity.]]
** FutureBadass: [[spoiler: Rachel becomes Moneta, who is quite capable of taking down Kassad.]]
** MerlinSickness: The TropeNamer. A "disease" in ''Hyperion'' that Rachel Weintraub contracts after contact with the Time Tombs causing her to age backwards (as well as progressively lose her memory).
** StableTimeLoop: [[spoiler: The entirety of the plot of the series seems to suggest one, but see below.]] A more benign example is that [[spoiler: Rachel Weintraub]] gives her name to Kassad as "Moneta," as she moves through time backwards (meaning each of them knows the other best when the other has just met them). When he meets her furthest into her past and his future, he calls her "Moneta," and she adopts the name.
** TerminatorTwosome: [[spoiler: 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.]]
** TimeStandsStill: The Shrike, thanks to its ability to manipulate time.
** TimeTravelRomance: Kassad and Moneta