The Fall of Hyperion (Hyperion Cantos, #2)

by Dan Simmons

On the world called Hyperion the mysterious Time Tombs are opening and seven pilgrims risk their lives to petition the entity called the Shrike a creature that may well control the fate of all mankind.

The Hegemony of Man a thousand thousand worlds linked by a network of farcaster portals and high-tech gateways is under siege by Ousters, strange, half-human tribes mutated almost beyond recognition.

The AIs Artificial Intelligences whose synthetic wisdom created and maintains the nets that bind the Hegemony have become a threat; it seems they have turned against the Hegemony and all mankind. And there is evidence that they have begun a project to create the Ultimate Intelligence to build, in short, God. God of Machines: the ultimate deus ex machina. His genesis may well mean man s annihilation.

Something is drawing the Hegemony, the AIs, the Ousters, and indeed the entire universe, towards the Shrike and the Time Tombs from which it has arisen. In a moment the paths of man, machine and god will intersect. Nothing will ever be the same.

• ISBN10: 0747236046
• ISBN13: 9780747236047
• Publish Date: 20 February 1992 (first published 1 February 1990)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 19 April 2005
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Headline Publishing Group
• Imprint: Headline Book Publishing
• Edition: New edition
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 640
• Language: English

Reviews

[Ben Pick]

After all of the buildup of the first novel, this felt like a satisfying payoff.

[adamfortuna]

Not a sequel, but the second half of the first book. More conventional storytelling than Hyperion, but in the same tone.