The Fall of Hyperion (novel)

Did You Know?

• The Hyperion Cantos is influenced by the teachings of environmentalist John Muir and the poetry of John Keats.
• The novel contains references to the works of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Stephen Hawking, and Jack Vance.

Plot

The Hegemony of Man is an interstellar government linking many planets through instantaneous farcaster portals, which are created and managed by the AI civilization known as the TechnoCore. Worlds without farcasters, such as Hyperion, are called the Outback. The Hegemony faces opposition from the Ousters, genetically modified humans who fled before Earth's destruction and have adapted physically to space rather than altering their environments. The Ousters are invading Hyperion. Joseph Severn, a second John Keats AI persona, dreams of the pilgrims on Hyperion and reports these dreams to Hegemony CEO Meina Gladstone, giving the government real-time information about them. Father Hoyt is killed by the Shrike; the Consul leaves to retrieve his ship from Keats. Hoyt's body is resurrected into Father Paul Duré. The poet Martin Silenus goes to the Poets' City to complete his Cantos but is impaled on the Tree of Pain by the Shrike. Brawne Lamia is attacked by the Shrike and loses consciousness, awakening in a TechnoCore computerized reality with Johnny. There, the AI Ummon reveals motivations of the TechnoCore and a war between human and AI ultimate intelligences; Johnny is killed by Ummon, and Lamia is released. Kassad is transported to a future desolate Hyperion with only the Tree of Pain, the tombs, and hundreds of Shrikes, and charges to save the victims. Het Masteen reappears at the Tombs, revealing collusion between the Shrike Cult and the Templar Brotherhood, and that he was meant to pilot the Tree of Pain through space and time. Father Duré disappears. Minutes before Rachel's birth and the Time Tombs open, Sol Weintraub offers his daughter Rachel to the Shrike, who carries her into the Tombs.

Characters

Joseph Severn is the second John Keats AI persona. The Consul, a former planetary governor of Hyperion, is one of the seven pilgrims. Het Masteen, a Templar priest and captain of the treeship Yggdrasil, is also a pilgrim. Lenar Hoyt is a Jesuit priest among the pilgrims; Paul Duré, a Jesuit priest and archaeologist, is resurrected by a cruciform carried by Hoyt. Colonel Fehdmann Kassad is a FORCE colonel and pilgrim. Martin Silenus is a poet from Old Earth and a pilgrim. Sol Weintraub, a Jewish scholar and professor, is a pilgrim; his daughter Rachel was an archeologist afflicted with Merlin Sickness. Brawne Lamia, a private detective, is a pilgrim; she carries Johnny, a cybrid persona of John Keats downloaded in a Shrön Loop. The Shrike, also called the Lord of Pain, the Avatar, or the Angel of Final Atonement, is a mysterious creature of incredible power that moves backward in time. Moneta is Kassad's occasional lover who accompanies the Shrike.