I first read Dan Simmons‘s Hyperion in the early 1990s – the Hyperion Cantos is quite famous and I would occasionally see Hyperion listed in Amazon recommendations and ‘top’ lists (see the ISFDB Top 100 Lists and Your Picks: Top 100 Science-Fiction, Fantasy Books from npr books (note that you may get some amusement out of searching for the npr list since it was very successful in generating commentary…) – but I really never felt any urge to pick it up again… My mistake! I recently read Hyperion (again) and The Fall of Hyperion and these are amazing – interesting format, great universe, interesting issues of faith and god, time travel, sentient AIs, space battles, politics… Classic! I wonder about younger me’s taste in books…

While reading these books I thought a lot about the amount of violence in the science fiction books that I have read… I suppose that there is some amount of violence in nearly every book I have read – but the scale of death that science fiction has imagined for the future seems… excessive? depressing? Certainly at least thought worthy…

Rating: 5 of 5
First Read: Hyperion – Early 1990s; Fall of Hyperion – February, 2012

Hyperion
Fall of Hyperion

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I don’t usually pay much attention to Amazon’s recommendations – but after finishing 1Q84 I wanted something new and, for whatever reason, the Wool Omnibus by Hugh Howey jumped out at me on Amazon’s list.

Wool takes place in a bleak future where the characters live in self sufficient underground silos with only a vague understanding of the past or the world outside. I suppose that is a fairly ‘standard’ science fiction scenario – but what makes this book great are the details! I was delighted as the plot/world/characters went in directions that I would not of guessed and I was hooked after only a few pages!

Rating: 4 of 5
First Read Date: April 2012

Wool Omnibus (Wool 1-5)

CM