Hyperion, by author Dan Simmons, has just moved to the top of my 2025 book rankings, and may have cracked my top five all-time. The Hugo award-winning sci-fi novel tells the story of seven very different characters on a doomed pilgrimage to the title planet. In a nod to The Canterbury Tales, the book consists mainly of the pilgrims sharing the stories of how they became involved in this doomed enterprise. Oh, and we’re told right from the start that one of them is a spy and a traitor!

Humans escaped a destroyed Earth and spread across the universe in a web of planets united by a government called The Hegemony. It’s aided by a mostly friendly collection of AIs and opposed by a rogue group of humans known as The Ousters, who have completely evolved and adapted to life in zero-gravity conditions. The flashpoint of the conflict has settled above the skies of the backwater world of Hyperion.

This odd planet is mostly backwards and forgettable, with two notable exceptions. First, it’s home to the Time Tombs, a collection of seemingly empty burial structures situated in a pocket of space that appears to be moving backward in time. Perhaps tied to this is a malevolent creature known as the Shrike, which inhabits the vicinity of the tombs and kills without remorse. We are told, however, that the Shrike will grant a wish to those who make a pilgrimage to the planet, but these wishes may come at a high cost to the pilgrim's life. A web-wide cult has even grown up around this mysterious character. Our POV characters are making what may be the final Shrike pilgrimage, as the war between the Hegemony and the Outsiders threatens to destroy the entire planet.

The general setup of the book is interesting and well executed, but the real joy lies in the six tales we get to hear. Some verge on horror stories, others are heartbreaking tragedies, but all are beautifully written. This is a genre book that can be given the capital L label of Literature. I thought about this book and its characters constantly and couldn’t wait to steal more time to read about them. It ends without resolution to the overarching story, but I’m almost tempted not to read the sequel. It feels nearly perfect as is.

Near the end of my reading, I discovered that the author was a post-9/11 conservative. Maybe that’s unfair, and he leaned that way before, but it seems he drifted further in that direction after the attacks on New York. This surprised me because two of the messages I took away from this fantastic book were the evil of capitalism run amok and just how horrible colonization is. It also contains a remarkably timely warning about the dangers of AI, given that the book was published in 1989.

If you’re looking for a story that will challenge you as a reader, but make it well worth your while, I’d strongly recommend Hyperion. SIX outta five stars.