Hyperion

Hyperion Cantos

Content Ratings

Moderate Romance

Individual stories contain a love story central to one tale, another involving complex adult relationships; one story references the sexual abuse of a child by a priest within a horrifying backstory, depicted with restraint but clarity.

Intense Themes

The novel encompasses child sexual abuse, religious corruption, the trauma of war, the horror of watching a loved one age backward through childhood, and the existential dread of an unknowable, unstoppable monster.

High Violence

The Shrike's horrific actsâ€”impaling people on its tree of thorns, dismembermentâ€”are depicted with graphic and disturbing detail; war, child abuse, and violent death are present across multiple storylines.

Synopsis

Seven pilgrims traveling to the mysterious Time Tombs on the planet Hyperionâ€”where the monstrous Shrike awaitsâ€”each tell their story in the structure of a Canterbury Tales homage, revealing how each came to be on this final journey as the galaxy stands on the brink of catastrophe. The individual tales range from horror to tragedy to hard science fiction, forming an intricate and emotionally devastating mosaic. One of science fiction's great novels.