This book (ISBN: 0-553-28368-5) was a right diamond. I enjoyed it from the get go all the way to the finish, and it’s not even close to being finished, I have I think two more books in the series - just looking at the authors website, it would seem there are more. Cool.
Simmons takes us on quite a tall tale with this book. Our main characters are traveling on dangerous pilgrimage, whilst a galactic war is imminent around them. The bulk of the book tells us why our major characters where chosen for this pilgrimage, why they should be on Hyperion.
It’s been a while since I’ve found a new series as books that I could compare to Asimov’s Foundation or Clarke’s Odyssey series. Although it’s only early days with just one book under my belt I await with glee to pick up the next book.
One aspect of the book a quite like is the mixing of sci fi ideas in this book that are really not the crux of story, they just add to it. For example, they have two forms of space travel; the first that seems to be like faxing, like Star Trek transporter technology but between Solar systems, certain worlds are in the web; the second traveling at close to light speeds. One is instantaneous, it glues the web together, the other incurs as Einstein’s physics dictates a time debt. The technology is not important in the book, but the effects are felt.
Excerpts From The First Annual Nerd Bowl (#6)
JOHN SPLADDEN: We're back. The players have assumed their positions and
are ready to answer computer-related questions posed by referree Eric S.
Raymond. Let's listen in...
RAYMOND: Okay, men, you know the rules... And now here's the first
question: Who is the most respected, sexy, gifted, and talented spokesmen
for the Open Source movement? [Bzzz] Taco Boy, you buzzed in first.
ROB MALDA: The answer is me.
RAYMOND: No, you egomaniacal billionaire. Anybody else want to answer?
[Bzzz] Yes, Alan Cox?
ALAN COX: Well, duh, the answer has to be Eric Raymond.
RAYMOND: Correct! That answer is worth 10 million points.
ROB MALDA: Protest! Who wrote these questions?!
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Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.
-- Albert Einstein
They laughed at Einstein. They laughed at the Wright Brothers. But they
also laughed at Bozo the Clown.
-- Carl Sagan
fioricet for headache I stopped believing in Santa Claus when I was six. Mother took me to
see him in a department store and he asked for my autograph.
-- Shirley Temple
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