The Fall of Hyperion

From the towering heights of Olympos Mons on Mars, the mighty Zeus and his immortal family of gods, goddesses, and demigods look down upon a momentous battle, observing—and often influencing—the legendary exploits of Paris, Achilles, Hector, Odysseus, and the clashing armies of Greece and Troy.

Thomas Hockenberry, former twenty-first-century professor and Iliad scholar, watches as well. It is Hockenberry’s duty to observe and report on the Trojan War’s progress to the so-called deities who saw fit to return him from the dead. But the muse he serves has a new assignment for the wary scholic, one dictated by Aphrodite herself. With the help of fortieth-century technology, Hockenberry is to infiltrate Olympos, spy on its divine inhabitants… and ultimately destroy Aphrodite’s sister and rival, the goddess Pallas Athena.

On an Earth profoundly changed since the departure of the Post-Humans centuries earlier, the great events on the bloody plains of Ilium serve as mere entertainment. Its scenes of unrivaled heroics and unequaled carnage add excitement to human lives devoid of courage, strife, labor, and purpose. But this eloi-like existence is not enough for Harman, a man in the last year of his last Twenty. That rarest of post-postmodern men—an “adventurer”—he intends to explore far beyond the boundaries of his world before his allotted time expires, in search of a lost past, a devastating truth, and an escape from his own inevitable “final tax”.

Meanwhile, from the radiation-swept reaches of Jovian space, four sentient machines race to investigate—and, perhaps, terminate—the potentially catastrophic emissions of unexplained quantum-flux emanating from a mountain-topmiles above the terraformed surface of Mars.

Beneath the gaze of the gods, the mighty armies of Greece and Troy met in fierce and glorious combat, scrupulously following the text set forth in Homer’s timeless narrative. But that was before one observer—Twenty-first Century scholar Thomas Hockenberry—stirred the bloody brew; before an enraged Achilles joined forces with his archenemy Hector; and before the fleet-footed mankiller turned his murderous wrath on Zeus, Hera, Athena, Aphrodite, Apollo, and the entire pantheon of divine manipulators.

Now, all bets are off.

Hyperion by Dan Simmons

Hyperion is the tale of seven people who make a pilgrimmage to a terrifying creature called the Shrike in an attempt to save mankind.

Stunningly written and beautifully crafted, Simmons's Hyperion resonates with technical achievement and the excitement and wonder found only in the best SF.

Dan Simmons, a former teacher and director of programmes for gifted children, now writes full time. · He lives with his wife and daughter in Colorado, USA. He has always been interested in writing, composing his first short stories at the age of nine.

Since then he has been co-winner of the first Twilight Zone Magazine short story contest, winner of the Rod Serling Memorial Award, and winner of the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel with Song of Kali. He is also the author of the much-acclaimed horror novel Carrion Comfort, winner of the 1990 Brain Stoker Aw.ard, the Locus Award for Best Horror Novel and the British Fantasy Award.

Hyperion is the winner of the 1990 Hugo Award and Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel.

Copyright 1989 Dan Simmons

The right of Dan Simmons to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

First published in Great Britain 1990

by HEADLINE BOOK PUBLISHING

First published in paperback in 1990

by HEADLINE BOOK PUBLISHING

First HEADLINE FEATURE paperback in 1991

10987

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

All characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

ISBN 0 7472 3482 5

Typeset in 10/10h pt English Times

by Coiset Private Limited, Singapore

Printed and bound in Great Britain by

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