Should you read the Hyperion Cantos? (Book 1 and 2) || Series Review || April 2022 [CC]

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okay this is long incoming
i need to do this before the entire
series leaves my mind but we’re going to
do a should you reads on the hyperion
kantos specifically the first two books
which are a complete arc i don’t feel
like i have it fresh enough in my mind
to talk about the entire four book
series and i don’t know when i’m gonna
pick up the next arc of it but needless
to say they are two distinct stories in
the same world they do relate to each
other but we’re going to talk about the
first two hyperion and fall of hyperion
and whether or not you should pick it up
i’m going to start this video just
talking about my experience with this
series my rating of it and then we’ll
get more into breaking it down into
writing style character work world
building plot etc so in general i read
this twice i read it one first time six
and a half seven years ago way back in
my early sci-fi reading days someone
recommended it for a local book club we
were doing i’m like

all right i’ll read
it and so we read it we talked about it
and then i continued and finished the
entire series because i needed to know
what would happen next and i really
enjoyed it i think on my first read back
then i only rated books like four or
five stars unless i hated it and then i
gave it a three star like that was the
type of raider i was so i gave hyperion
four stars and everything else five
stars and on reread it’s more of like
the first book is like barely a four
star on my current like how i rate
things and then the second book is like
a solid four star but not like a four
and a half or five like it was
originally okay
so enjoyable i think it’s worth your
time if what i am going to discuss in
this video are things that will work for
you i don’t necessarily think you have
to read it like i mean i don’t think you
have to read anything but it’s one of
those books that’s becoming a modern
classic and a lot of people do point to
it and i do think it does interesting
things in the sci-fi space
but i also think it does stuff that’s
not enjoyable for every reader and i
think that’s okay and we’re gonna talk
about that and i think the first part
that’s going to be the most divisive
controversial or different from reader
to reader is the writing style and the
narrative frameworks of these two books
the writing style is dense there is a
huge vocabulary that is put on the page
i personally don’t think it was useful
but i
i err on the side of communicating
clarity that i do picking like weird
words like it’s not even like i think he
chose the right word like i don’t think
the right word for a conifer tree is
gymnosperm like i just don’t like i
don’t think that’s the right word to
describe an evergreen that’s there are
so many words to describe that type of
tree and gymnosperm is a word you learn
in seventh grade maybe depending on your
school system and then you never think
of again you know like i don’t know
that’s the type of thing that i didn’t
love and then sometimes like
jargon is used to make you realize this
is a sci-fi book
but it’s not like used in a way that
like me as a scientist even understood
so i don’t know i don’t love the
vocabulary
and on top of this dense writing
there is an emphasis on literature and
poetry and being very philosophical and
trying to dig into these themes and
that’s just going to vary from person to
person there were times when i could
easily read this book and that was
typically when we were in the dialogue
or we were in the action of the plot but
when i was left with a character who was
thinking about life and musing about
what to do next or we were thinking
about john keats which happens a
non-zero amount of times like at least
10 to 15 times do we discuss john keats
in his life
which is odd to me like i understand
that dan simmons really appreciates and
loves the work of john keats but it made
this futuristic sci-fi book feel old to
me i don’t really understand it but
representing something that is just so
old and so distant from me in our
current timeline when my current
timeline would be the past of this 100
years in the future sci-fi
it just didn’t help me connect to it if
that makes sense it’s not like i wanted
the book to reference literature from
today i just felt like it really dated
the work for me and i just don’t like
reading poetry that much when i’m
reading a book i like reading poetry
when i want to read poetry i don’t
really love it in my books so that’s
like stuff with the writing style i
think the dialogue’s pretty good i think
like i said when you’re in the action of
the story or we’re sending the
atmosphere or the set like the scene of
a room it’s really good
but when we’re like having exposition or
sometimes descriptions of the landscape
it’s not that great for me and my taste
so if we align keep that in mind another
thing that will vary from person to
person is the narrative framework he
chooses for each of these books the
first book is nine chapters over the
course of 500 pages and that’s because
each chapter is a short story and it’s
going to be a different subgenre of
sci-fi
and it’s each character telling a story
it’s supposed to be basically inspired
by the canterbury tales which you may or
may not have read in one of your english
classes if you went to school in the
united states and depends on your school
system and everything like that
and
it’s very much a book that i guess some
people can read in isolation and really
appreciate the framework and just seeing
the journey of these individuals and how
they intersect and where they’re going
on this pilgrimage
but also if you care about the plot if
you care about the premise of the series
how it’s told to you and we’ll get to
plot in a bit
um
it’s really just a lot of setup it’s a
lot of intrigue and it’s a lot of setup
and some stories work better than others
be just by the nature of he’s using
different writing styles and different
genres for each story if you don’t like
cyberpunk the cyberpunk story is not
going to work well for you if you don’t
like things written in letter form the
one by the priest isn’t going to work
for you like
consistently there are stories that
people love and stories that people hate
it varies from person to person which
ones are the hate and love but very few
people love them all some people
appreciate them all because it takes
skill to do that but if we’re talking
from an enjoyment perspective
the first book’s going to have hits and
misses most likely for you as a reader
unless you really just like watching the
exercise of someone doing this task
which that’s fair
so you have that where you have this
short story format for this first book
and then the second book
you
you have like a weird narrative
framework that i don’t think’s bad
but i don’t think was necessary and i
say this is someone who loves convoluted
narration so like i’m being kind of a
hypocrite here like one of my favorite
books recently i think does this worse
so like take this with a grain of salt i
just like was having issues and being
jarred from the story with the narrative
framework he’s choosing and like trying
to figure it out but in general it
wasn’t that jarring and the second book
is way more linear than the first book
like you actually just tell the story
and see how it progresses there are some
time jumps but it generally makes as
much sense as hyperion is going to make
sense okay so that’s
the narrative framework let’s discuss
you know the plot because i feel like
when you hear about it on booktube
you’re going to be prepared right you’re
listening to my video you listen to
other people’s video you know what
you’re going to get into but if you read
like the back of the book
i think if you read the first book of
this series you will be so disappointed
because it’s basically saying there’s
this last pilgrimage to the strike it’s
the end of the world it’s it’s
apocalyptic what is the galaxy going to
do these these pilgrims have to save the
day or they’re in they’re a part of this
that’s like the tension okay
that’s like how for dune they showed all
the action scenes in the trailer but
like if you read dune you knew it wasn’t
going to be an action movie that’s
basically the first hyperion book like
it is so much intrigue and setup and the
stuff that’s on the back of the book
does not take place till the second book
okay it becomes way more action-packed
and way more fulfilling as someone who
had questions and getting some answers
and some resolutions it’s way more
fulfilling in that way i will say that
if you are someone who likes to nitpick
at plots there are for sure probably
some plot holes for you i see plot holes
every time i read it i don’t think it’s
a very tight plot i can forgive it i
still have a fun time my first time
reading it i saw nothing coming and it
was a blast and my second time i’d
forgotten everything and i still saw
nothing coming even though things i
remembered i couldn’t see coming because
it’s not really the type of book that
leads you there i wouldn’t say it cheats
but it also doesn’t let you as a reader
really guess what’s going to come next
like you maybe could i don’t know maybe
some people are smarter than me
but i actually felt like some things
were very inconsistent on a reread when
i knew what was supposed to happen if
that makes sense but if those things
don’t bother you it’s like
a very exhilarating time getting to the
end of both of these books if that makes
sense it’s not like the same as a sander
lance where it’s just going
but i always felt pretty satisfied by
the end of each of these books
now characters this is probably why this
series can’t be an all-time favorite for
me because i feel like these characters
for me and my interaction with them i’m
not saying this is going to be universal
are more stand-ins for certain
philosophizings of certain ideas and
themes
and less people to me they didn’t feel
really real to me and sometimes if i
wasn’t given really strong narrative
cues i could interchange some of them
like
it’s just really hard for me to
differentiate them they’re not really
that compelling i mean two of the
characters are basically just john keats
and i i really don’t evie don’t be mad
at me i just don’t love john keats
like i don’t hate him either i just like
but i just i don’t know why i know so
much about him now while reading a
futuristic sci-fi book if that makes
sense i don’t know i just don’t think
this the characters
are that amazing at the same time though
i think you will connect to one or a few
of them i do think their motivations
make sense they’re just not the reason
why i would ever recommend the hyperion
cantos like i would not recommend this
series for character work um i think it
varies greatly between characters like i
think there’s one character who i think
is done dirty in his character work i
think there’s one character that is not
consistent whatsoever throughout this
series and i’m just like what but in
general they’re not egregious or
anything like that they’re just not why
i would recommend the series but that
said i think if you really connect to
the themes and the ideas that are being
portrayed in these people’s stories and
journeys you’re going to connect them in
a different way than i did
and the last thing we’ll talk about
is the world building you know you’re a
sci-fi reader do you want to read the
sci-fi world i think it’s pretty cool i
do think it’s pretty cool it basically
will have almost every sci-fi trope you
care about partially because we’re
looking at all these sub-genres but
intergalactic space travel a.i
like i said there’s cyberpunk vibes
there is like this social media thing
and for me this is i know it’s not the
first time social media has been done in
sci-fi but for me this is the first time
i read it in a sci-fi book that was
written before we had
social media and internet and things
like that and i mean their planets are
also different and vibrant i would say
the world building is broad it’s diverse
it’s broad it’s larger than life it’s
not very deep like you’re not going to
really understand the cultures of the
places you’re going to you’re not going
to get a very good handle on most of the
technology it’s a lot of it is window
dressing
it’s meant to facilitate these themes
and there are some really interesting
themes in this series that i do
appreciate colonization what does it
mean to stick to this form of government
for so long what does that mean to
humanity
and i enjoy this series i think it’s
pretty fun i personally like i said
would it won’t ever be a favorite of all
time
but if any of these things interest you
and you’re good with a dense writing
style and like having hits or misses
when you read the first story i say try
it out but those are my thoughts and if
you do
want like my i haven’t read it in six
year thoughts on endymion um it’s a
completely different vibe completely
different writing style from what i can
remember and i remember that being more
about character connections and
relationships and if hyperion is about
the collapse of something endymion is
about the building of something so they
just have very different spaces in my
heart
and like i like hyperion because i kind
of like watching stuff burn like i kind
of like watching this chaos and like
there are larger than life characters in
here um there’s a character not really
brought in until the second book
that’s like the leader of the galaxy and
she was wonderful to follow so
i recommend it not a favorite of all
time but i think if you go in with the
right expectations you will have a
pleasurable reading experience so if you
made it this far you want to leave an
emoji
leave a spaceship or a plant planet it’s
fine with me
uh let me know what you think of the
series you know did you really connect
to some of the characters because i know
that’s really different from person to
person what’s something you really liked
that i really didn’t like do you agree
with me no spoilers though because i
like to keep these very spoiler free for
people as like a resource or reference
for should they pick up a series and
like if you liked it subscribe if you
want to and i’ll see you in the next one
bye
[Music]
you

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