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Picture of a book: Hyperion

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Picture of a book: The Fall of Hyperion
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The Fall of Hyperion

Dan Simmons
"Nurse, this patient’s chart is very confusing.”“Which patient, Doctor?”“Uh..Mr. Kemper. He’s the one in the vegetative state.”“Oh, that’s a very sad and odd case.”“According to the patient history, he was admitted a few weeks ago with cerebrospinal fluid leaking from his nose and ears, but it seemed like he should recover. But yesterday he was brought in again, barely conscious and then he lapsed into a coma. The really odd thing is that I see no signs of injury or disease.”“That’s right, Doctor. It was a book that did this to Mr. Kemper.”“A book? How is that possible?”“From what we can figure out, the first incident occured after he read Hyperion by a writer named Dan Simmons. I guess it’s one of those sci-fi books and apparently the story is quite elaborate. Anyhow, Mr. Kemper had read Simmons before and knew he likes to put a lot of big ideas in his books. But this time, apparently Simmons broke into his house and managed to directly implant much of the book directly into Mr. Kemper’s brain via some kind of crude funnel device.”“I find that highly unlikely, Nurse.”“Most of us did, Doctor. But Mr. Kemper kept insisting that Simmons had some kind of grudge against him. He even had a note he said Simmons had left that said something like ‘Don’t you ever learn? If you keep reading my books, I’ll end you someday.’”“Assuming that I believed this story, I guess that Kemper’s current state tells us that he didn’t heed the warning?”“Apparently not, Doctor. His wife said she found him having convulsions and leaking brain matter out his nose and ears again. A copy of the sequel, The Fall of Hyperion was on the floor nearby.”“I can’t believe that reading a silly sci-fi book could turn an healthy man into a turnip, Nurse.”“Well, when they brought Kemper in, he was semiconscious and muttering. Someone wrote it down. Let see, he kept repeating words and phrases like: Shrike, Time Tombs, the Core, God, uh…no, two gods actually, farcasters, Ousters, religion, pope, death wand, space battles, interplanetary trees, old Earth, AI, mega sphere, data sphere, The Canterbury Tales, poetry, John Keats, Tree of Thorns, and Lord of Pain.”“Jesus! What does all that mean?”“Someone looked it up on the web and all of that is actually in the book.”“That poor bastard. No wonder his gray matter is fried. No one could absorb all that without permanent damage.”“Yes, I’d think that book should have some kind of warning sticker or something on it.”“One thing I still don’t understand, Nurse. If Kemper knew that this book would probably do this to him, why did he still read it?”“I guess he had told several people that Hyperion was just so good that he had to know how it ended, even if it killed him.”***************************************I think the word ‘epic’ was invented to describe this book.What Simmons began in Hyperion finishes here with a story so sprawling and massive that it defies description. In the far future, humanity has spread to the stars, and maintains a web of worlds via ‘farcasters’. (Think Stargates.) On the planet Hyperion, mysterious tombs have been moving backwards in time and are guarded by the deadly Shrike.Seven people were sent to Hyperion on a ‘pilgrimage’ that was almost certainly a suicide mission, but the Ousters, a segment of humanity evolving differently after centuries spent in deep space, are about to invade. The artificial intelligences of the Core that humanity depends on for predictions of future events and management of the farcaster system can’t tell what’s coming with an unknown like the Shrike and Hyperion in play.Battles rage across space and time and the virtual reality of the data sphere as varying interests with competing agendas maneuver and betray each other as the pilgrims on Hyperion struggle to survive and finally uncover the secrets of the Shrike. But the real reasons behind the war and it’s ultimate goal are bigger and more sinister than anyone involved can imagine.I can’t say enough good things about the story told in these first two Hyperion books. This is sci-fi at it’s best with a massive story crammed with big unique ideas and believable characters you care about. Any one of the pieces could have made a helluva book, but it takes a talent like Simmons to pull all of it together into one coherent story.
Picture of a book: Stranger in a Strange Land
books

Stranger in a Strange Land

Robert A. Heinlein
Apparently a classic of the sci-fi cannon, I'd never heard of this book until it came up on a book club here. It took me a long time to read only because of lack of time, and a rather annoying trait the author has that I'll go into later.This is one of those books that tells us more about the period it was written in than anything else, so it's important to note that it was first published in 1961 and later again in 1968 - when moon fever was running high and people seemed to have high expectations for human achievement. Events are set in an undisclosed future but the older characters seem to remember the first moon landing, so I wouldn't be surprised if Heinlein was thinking of it being set around about now. With a mix of very daggy technology like "stereo tanks" (TVs) and large, clumsy listening devices, alongside hover crafts and spaceships to Mars, the scope of the setting is hampered by a 50s' imagination. Stranger in a Strange Land is about Michael "Mike" Smith, the "Man from Mars", offspring of two of scientists on board the original mission to Mars, who was raised by Martians. He is more Martian than human, especially in his thinking and outlook and philosophy, when he is brought back to Earth. Heir to a shitload of money care of his parents' heritage, it's unsurprising that the bigshots on Earth are wanting to keep him locked up tight. A nurse at the hospital where he is first kept, Jill, offers him a glass of water and in that one action becomes a "water brother" - the highest accolade for Mike. She rescues him from the politicians with the help of her journalist friend Ben and takes him to the home of a grumpy, reclusive man, Dr Jubal Harshaw, who lives with three young women who serve as secretaries - Anne, Miriam and Dorcas - and two men who take care of the property - Duke and Larry. Mike's particular talents slowly reveal: he can vanish things, including people, if he recognises there is a "wrongness" in them; he can withdraw from his own body and shut down his body so there is no heartbeat; he can teleport and think telepathically; he can absorb books in minutes and regulate his own body, making it muscular and mature at will; and so on. All of this can be done with understanding of the Martian language, which Jill starts to learn. He's completely ignorant of human ways, of human concepts - things like jealousy, possessiveness etc. are all alien to him. He doesn't understand religions and he has never laughed.After months on the road with just Jill, learning and "grokking", he finally knows why humans laugh and how to do it himself, and gets the human condition. It leads him to start his own "church", though it's more of a way of life open to people of all religious denominations, with free love and open mindedness, and abilities gained through mastery of the Martian language. With Mike set up as a new Messiah, a prophet, there's only one logical conclusion for this story.As a story, Stranger in a Strange Land is enjoyable and original. Yet, as a story, it's also bogged down with sermons, with Heinlein's opinions, and a very out-of-date mentality. It reads very 60s and 70s, though it was written before then. Not as far-sighted as it would like to be! It's especially noticeable in the relations between men and women, which have that faintly liberated tinge that's all really lip service, and a great deal of sexist language. Which is ironic, really, considering Mike's free love cult. There's also an affectionate insult for a Muslim character who's nicknamed "Stinky" that I couldn't help but be offended by.It does make it hard to read, though, when you come across lines like this, as spoken by Jill very matter-of-factly: "Nine times out of ten, if a girl gets raped, it's partly her fault." (p304) While today the statistics are more like "nine of ten times, a woman's rapist is someone she knows", the idea that it's "partly her fault" is still considered true by way too many people. To hear this come out of Jill's mouth makes it especially awful.Another example is Jubal saying: "Pipe down, Anne. Close your mouth, Dorcas. This is not a time when women have the vote." (p382) Granted, they ignored him and did what they wanted anyway, but there're a lot of these flippant, dismissive remarks all through the book. Product of its times, sure: just not at all futuristic.Then we come to the proselytizing, which the book is rife with. Today, reading this book, the opinions shared are very "yes, so?" - old hat, in other words. Though it is fun to read the rants, the set-up is cringe-worthy. Jubal is the main lecturer, and the characters around him serve as props. There are a great many "Huh?"s from educated and knowledgeable people so that Jubal can share his abundant wisdom. One "huh?" is okay, but when each long paragraph of Jubal is responded to with a "huh?" it gets a bit silly. Frankly, it's bad writing. It reminded me somewhat of The Da Vinci Code, which also uses characters to expound the author's theories on religion etc. at great length. While these things did at times make it harder to read the book, essentially the book is easy to read and often quite fun too. Jubal's sermons (and when Jubal isn't around, other characters fill the role, like Ben and Sam) can be a bit heavy-handed and obvious but a lot of it I agree with, so it wasn't rubbing me up the wrong way. Mike is a challenging character to write, because in order to write a naive, ignorant character to this extent, you need to be incredibly self-aware. Heinlein has fairly good success here, and Mike's growth, maturation, development and resolutions fit the character and work. He has charisma and is definitely intriguing; yet because he lacks the human flaws, he's also somewhat unapproachable and alien: a good balance to achieve.
Picture of a book: Cryptonomicon
books

Cryptonomicon

Neal Stephenson
Cryptonomicon zooms all over the world, careening conspiratorially back and forth between two time periods—World War II and the present. Our 1940s heroes are the brilliant mathematician Lawrence Waterhouse, crypt analyst extraordinaire, and gung-ho, morphine-addicted marine Bobby Shaftoe. They're part of Detachment 2702, an Allied group trying to break Axis communication codes while simultaneously preventing the enemy from figuring out that their codes have been broken. Their job boils down to layer upon layer of deception. Dr. Alan Turing is also a member of 2702, and he explains the unit's strange workings to Waterhouse. "When we want to sink a convoy, we send out an observation plane first... Of course, to observe is not its real duty—we already know exactly where the convoy is. Its real duty is to be observed... Then, when we come round and sink them, the Germans will not find it suspicious."All of this secrecy resonates in the present-day story line, in which the grandchildren of the WWII heroes—inimitable programming geek Randy Waterhouse and the lovely and powerful Amy Shaftoe—team up to help create an offshore data haven in Southeast Asia and maybe uncover some gold once destined for Nazi coffers. To top off the paranoiac tone of the book, the mysterious Enoch Root, key member of Detachment 2702 and the Societas Eruditorum, pops up with an unbreakable encryption scheme left over from WWII to befuddle the 1990s protagonists with conspiratorial ties.
Picture of a book: Endymion
books

Endymion

Dan Simmons
In the faraway year of 3126, the 32nd century , things have regressed, in a remote corner of the Milky Way Galaxy, some two -hundred -seventy -four , after the fall of the Hegemony Empire, a young man is sentenced to death, on the once prosperous planet Hyperion, were he was born, for a crime , that was in actuality, self-defense. Raul Endymion, a hunting guide, was very angry, understandably, at a rich, spoiled jerk , he and his friends disobeyed safety rules, endangering him and others, firing wildly, missing the flying ducks, but killing his best friend , a four legged animal, his beloved dog. Throwing the idiot out of his boat and into the filthy swamp, later Raul barely escaping with his own life, the gunman was seeking revenge, shooting at him, instead , the would- be assassin is killed . After a hasty kangaroo trial conviction, authorities here, need the financial benefits hunters bring, from the off worlds, and the former shepherd in childhood, awakes ... the day after his execution...it had been faked , bribes paid and the confused Raul Endymion is taken to the deserted city of Endymion ( his family took that name for themselves). The famous poet who wrote Cantos, Martin Silenus, now forbidden to be read, ( lives on an abandoned university campus) by the new rulers, the Pax, ( greatly influenced by a new Christian Church ) is still alive, modern medicine has preserved the 1,000 -year -old , he looks awful, though, wrinkles over his whole body, faint, weak voice, the carcass, cannot walk, a living fossil, from the distant past, of old, long gone Earth. Martin has an impossible mission, save his "niece" Aenea ( a late friend's daughter) from being eliminated by the Pax, and the Church, the 12 -year -old, will be a threat to them in the future, she is some kind of enigmatic messiah, arriving soon, in the Time Tombs, where the killing machine, the unstoppable, The Shrike's home, is located, but has not been seen for centuries...A flying carpet, right out of an Arabian Nights fantasy will greatly help Raul, and his new companion, Silenus's former servant, the blue man, A. Bettik, well partly human , but more human than many humanoids. A large, lethal Pax Army awaits the duo, but so does The Shrike, unbelievable carnage springs out of the Valley of Death, thousands perish, a miracle occurs and the three now, (Aenea joins the party) flee in the vast confusion, and through a "Farcaster ", (an instant transportation apparatus) then ride a small raft they built, from planet to planet , ice , desert, jungle, and even water worlds, always searching for the next farcaster to find. And the relentlessly pursuing Father Captain, Frederico de Soya, of the Pax, never gives up in hunting them down, where they go, he will follow... on the immense, endless treacherous River Tethys, in a long, perilous journey , their unknown fate, awaits , and still another menace, is lurking about ... A terrific read and highly enjoyable for the adventurous crowd. Dan Simmons is a superb writer, this series shows, that undeniable fact...