The Fall of Hyperion

The story picks up where Hyperion stopped. A new Keats cybrid, Joseph Severn, dreams what happens to the pilgrims and becomes an adviser to Meina Gladstone, the Hegemony's leader. At the Tombs the group splits up: the Shrike kills Hoyt, Silenus ends up on the Tree of Pain, and Kassad agrees to fight the creature. As the Ousters invade Hyperion, Gladstone learns the attack on the worlds comes from the TechnoCore, the AI civilization. To cut off its power, she orders the portal network destroyed. Civilization collapses, and she lets a mob kill her. On Hyperion, Lamia frees Silenus, and Sol walks into the future with his baby daughter. Lamia is pregnant with Keats's child.

1. ReferenceThe title comes from Keats

   Keats left two unfinished poems about the Titan Hyperion: Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion: A Dream. Simmons's first two titles come from them.

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2. Behind the scenesNo more tales

   The format changes here. The pilgrims stop taking turns telling tales. Much of the book comes through the dreams of a John Keats persona who sees what happens to the group.

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3. Behind the scenesMore awards

   The book won the 1991 Locus Award and the BSFA Award. It was also a finalist for that year's Hugo and Nebula.

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4. ReferenceTeilhard, Hawking and Vance

   Besides Keats, the book nods to priest and philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, physicist Stephen Hawking and science fiction writer Jack Vance.

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