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Dan Simmons, author of Hyperion, has died

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Re: Dan Simmons, author of Hyperion, has died

#191

Post by BigTTYGothGF »

ZpJuUuNaQ5 wrote: post #145
isr wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's referring ... to his "art". Thats what the piece he linked to was a part of. Its not poisonous nor reductive to decide not to follow an "artist" because his "art" is repulsive.

"I will never read anything by [AUTHOR] because some things [AUTHOR] wrote are now in my no no list." Sorry, that just doesn't make sense to me.

Did you read the thing I linked? It's on the same level as the Turner Diaries or Fu Manchu or the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

I'm only on this earth for so many years, and the number of words I can shove in my eye holes is finite. Dan Simmons thought it was a good idea to write that, and publish it on his own blog. SF is the kind of genre where you run the risk of getting hit with a big bolus of the author's politics at any time, and why would I drink from a well somebody's already pooped in?

Re: Dan Simmons, author of Hyperion, has died

#192

Post by dcx »

perardi wrote: post #37
MikeTheGreat wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I saw a YouTube video where they said this was more-or-less the original backstory but then they changed it. I think it said that the People In Charge thought the 'living power source' would be easier for the audience to understand? I don't have the link handy, and don't trust everything I read on the Internet, etc, etc. But yeah - this makes so much more sense than breeding, raising, and feeding humans just to harve…

According to Reddit…so, grain of salt…that is an urban legend, related to a Neil Gaiman short story that appeared on the Matrix promo website. https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/1amree7/theres_a_wi...

It exists and is a great read – https://matrix.fandom.com/wiki/Goliath

Check the archive.org link at the bottom!

Re: Dan Simmons, author of Hyperion, has died

#193

Post by bc569a80a344f9c »

twoodfin wrote: post #190
Barrin92 wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Christian references in the Cantos were probably incidental, They're not at all incidental. The themes and the literal Catholic Church don't just make it into the books by osmosis, they're central to it and deliberate. Like Gene Wolfe he's part of a pretty small group of US authors who wrote Catholic speculative fiction. Like Wolfe his writing is also fairly un-American. If Heinlein or Asimov are examples of archety…

Small but significant. A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter Miller comes immediately to mind. (And readers of this thread who did appreciate the religious themes of Hyperion may be interested.)

I adore Canticle. It is one of my favorite books.

I had recommended Hyperion to a friend, and they loved it. I recommended Canticle as a follow-up and they hated it. I never figured out how that can be.

Re: Dan Simmons, author of Hyperion, has died

#194

Post by twoodfin »

bc569a80a344f9c wrote: post #193
twoodfin wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Small but significant. A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter Miller comes immediately to mind. (And readers of this thread who did appreciate the religious themes of Hyperion may be interested.)

I adore Canticle. It is one of my favorite books. I had recommended Hyperion to a friend, and they loved it. I recommended Canticle as a follow-up and they hated it. I never figured out how that can be.

To be fair, Canticle is soul-crushingly bleak in a way that Hyperion only dances around.

Re: Dan Simmons, author of Hyperion, has died

#195

Post by thechao »

samus wrote: post #120
rdedev wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried reading it but I couldn't get into it. Maybe it the heavy religious themes or just the science fiction being so far into the future? I really should give it a shot again

It starts very slowly and the worldbuilding is exquisite and you will likely uncover many facets only upon rereading it. However, it is well worth persisting. Works with considerably more action are Olympus and Ilium.

It's ok, at best. I can tell you really like it, so for other people that should be a great indicator!

Re: Dan Simmons, author of Hyperion, has died

#196

Post by davkan »

layer8 wrote: post #28
Freak_NL wrote: post #9

The Hyperion Cantos is a masterpiece which every scifi fan ought to have read, but I would like to recommend a lesser known title of Simmons for readers who have read at least some works of Charles Dickens (self-explanatory) and Wilkie Collins (such as The Woman in White or The Moonstone ). Simmons wrote Drood (2009), which takes these two classical authors and places them in a mystery novel. What struck me as partic…

> The Hyperion Cantos is a masterpiece which every scifi fan ought to have read You have to have some affinity to religious/Christianity/church topics, otherwise it’s quite a turn-off.

Did you like Dune?

Re: Dan Simmons, author of Hyperion, has died

#197

Post by kjs3 »

layer8 wrote: post #28
Freak_NL wrote: post #9

The Hyperion Cantos is a masterpiece which every scifi fan ought to have read, but I would like to recommend a lesser known title of Simmons for readers who have read at least some works of Charles Dickens (self-explanatory) and Wilkie Collins (such as The Woman in White or The Moonstone ). Simmons wrote Drood (2009), which takes these two classical authors and places them in a mystery novel. What struck me as partic…

> The Hyperion Cantos is a masterpiece which every scifi fan ought to have read You have to have some affinity to religious/Christianity/church topics, otherwise it’s quite a turn-off.

You hate mythological subjects in mythological stories. Or, rather, you selectively detest them. Whatever you need to feel superior, I guess.

Re: Dan Simmons, author of Hyperion, has died

#198

Post by jdashg »

Freak_NL wrote: post #9

The Hyperion Cantos is a masterpiece which every scifi fan ought to have read, but I would like to recommend a lesser known title of Simmons for readers who have read at least some works of Charles Dickens (self-explanatory) and Wilkie Collins (such as The Woman in White or The Moonstone ). Simmons wrote Drood (2009), which takes these two classical authors and places them in a mystery novel. What struck me as partic…

I read Hyperion and I found it... alright, just not my thing. Maybe it is indeed a masterpiece but "that every fan of sci-fi ought to have read" oversells it. I honestly can't conscion the time to read the rest of the Cantos versus other things on my reading list. Quality does not alone compel consumption! :)

Re: Dan Simmons, author of Hyperion, has died

#199

Post by peterlk »

jdashg wrote: post #198
Freak_NL wrote: post #9

The Hyperion Cantos is a masterpiece which every scifi fan ought to have read, but I would like to recommend a lesser known title of Simmons for readers who have read at least some works of Charles Dickens (self-explanatory) and Wilkie Collins (such as The Woman in White or The Moonstone ). Simmons wrote Drood (2009), which takes these two classical authors and places them in a mystery novel. What struck me as partic…

I read Hyperion and I found it... alright, just not my thing. Maybe it is indeed a masterpiece but "that every fan of sci-fi ought to have read" oversells it. I honestly can't conscion the time to read the rest of the Cantos versus other things on my reading list. Quality does not alone compel consumption! :)

You have to read it all the way through. It’s a pretty hefty investment, but the series is truly a masterpiece. I had to read the whole series twice to feel like I was actually starting to understand some of the symbolism. I don’t blame people for not being able to get into it; it’s dense. But it’s so epic and there is so much symbolism and philosophy packed in.

Re: Dan Simmons, author of Hyperion, has died

#200

Post by linksnapzz »

I read Hyperion in hs; and so much of what I read afterward (Chaucer, Boccaccio, Shakespeare, Keats, Eliot, Valéry) was influenced by Dan Simmons writing about it/quoting it. At this point, I doubt I could tell you where his influence on my taste & opinions on fiction begins or ends. Gone too soon.
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