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Dan Simmons, author of Hyperion, has died

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Re: Dan Simmons, author of Hyperion, has died

#32
I read the Hyperion books during a particularly intense period of my life and found them quite powerful. I didn’t know anything about Simmons at the time, but I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that like Tolkein these stories started with an oral format for children.

Re: Dan Simmons, author of Hyperion, has died

#35
post #28
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.

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Re: Dan Simmons, author of Hyperion, has died

#36
I liked all of the Hyperion/Shrike novels, except when Raul Endymion persistently refers to the heroine/love-interest as "my young friend", or similar phrasing - slightly creepy/boring.

I didn't know that Summer of Night was a series - really liked the original book - will have to investigate.

And, of course, I'm sad he's died.

Re: Dan Simmons, author of Hyperion, has died

#37
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, that should have been the backstory of the Matrix, and not the whole “living power source” nonsense.

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...

Re: Dan Simmons, author of Hyperion, has died

#38
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, that should have been the backstory of the Matrix, and not the whole “living power source” nonsense.

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…

I like to think the machines actually were using them for processing power, and the humans themselves just misunderstood (or oversimplified for Neo) what was actually going on.

Re: Dan Simmons, author of Hyperion, has died

#39
Wow. I picked up a copy of Hyperion this morning while taking a random stroll through town - something I rarely do during a work day anymore. I popped into a book shop on a complete whim, and picked it up as it had been on my list for a while. The coincidence feels deeply uncanny.
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