# The Fall of Hyperion

![Book cover of The Fall of Hyperion](/books/covers/the_fall_of_hyperion.jpg)

by [Dan Simmons](/books/authors/dan_simmons/)
Book 2 of [Hyperion Cantos](/books/series/hyperion_cantos/)
Awards: [Locus](/books/by-award/#locus-award), [2023 Favorites](/blog/favorite-books-of-2023/)
★★★★★

## Review

_The Fall of Hyperion_ is a sequel that outshines its predecessor. It is
everything I was expecting from [_Hyperion_](/books/hyperion/) and more! A true
masterpiece.

The book picks up right where [_Hyperion_](/books/hyperion/) left off with the pilgrims
arriving at the Time Tombs. But the book also follows several characters out
in the wider Hegemony, which gives the story a much broader feel: we aren't
confined to one planet anymore.

_The Fall of Hyperion_ is a more straightforward story than [_Hyperion_](/books/hyperion/). It's one
storyline, not six, and it progresses linearly starting at the beginning and
finishing at the end.

The story is simple: the Ousters---a barbarian group of humans who travel the
outreaches of space looking for systems to pillage---are invading the Hyperion
system and the Hegemony must stop them. What initially seems like a military
campaign to boost the CEO's election chances quickly becomes a disaster as the
Ousters are more numerous and more capable than anticipated.

The stakes of the action shift multiple times:

- When we learn of an Ouster counterattack against multiple different
  worlds---attacks that had to have been launched a century early because of
  the vast distances they had to travel.

- When we discover that the Ousters are not the barbarians we'd been led to
  believe them to be, but are enlightened humanists, possibly even more worthy
  of the mantle of humanity than the Hegemony.

- When we discover the other attackers are not the Ousters, but TechnoCore
  fleets launched far in the past in anticipation of manipulating the Hegemony
  into an unwinnable war.

The book answers all of the questions opened in the first, and the ending is
satisfying.

## Reviews that mention _The Fall of Hyperion_
- [_Accelerando_](/books/accelerando/)†
- [_Endymion_](/books/endymion/)
- [_Exit Strategy_](/books/exit_strategy/)
- [_Hyperion_](/books/hyperion/)
- [_Monday Begins on Saturday_](/books/monday_begins_on_saturday/)
- [_The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress_](/books/the_moon_is_a_harsh_mistress/)
- [_On Basilisk Station_](/books/on_basilisk_station/)
- [_Red Rising_](/books/red_rising/)†
- [_The Rise of Endymion_](/books/the_rise_of_endymion/)
- [_Sunstone Imperative_](/books/sunstone_imperative/)†
- [_This Is How You Lose the Time War_](/books/this_is_how_you_lose_the_time_war/)

† _Mentioned via a link to the series._

## Related Books
- [_Hyperion_](/books/hyperion/) by [Dan Simmons](/books/authors/dan_simmons/) --- ★★★★★: Hyperion is Dan Simmons’s masterpiece. It is the first book in his Hyperion Cantos. It follows seven pilgrims as they travel to the Time Tombs on Hyperion to petition the Shrike. Along the way, each tells their own story, weaving together history, myth, and prophecy to tell of the impending downfall of man.
- [_Endymion_](/books/endymion/) by [Dan Simmons](/books/authors/dan_simmons/) --- ★★★☆☆: Endymion, by Dan Simmons, is the third book in the Hyperion Cantos. It follows a new cast of characters—Aenea, Raul, and Bettik—as they flee the oppressive forces of the Pax via a raft on the River Tethys. Set centuries after the earlier books, the story reveals a galaxy reshaped by the Church and its dark covenant of immortality.
- [_The Rise of Endymion_](/books/the_rise_of_endymion/) by [Dan Simmons](/books/authors/dan_simmons/) --- ★★★☆☆: The Rise of Endymion, by Dan Simmons, is the fourth and final book in the Hyperion Cantos. It concludes the journey of Aenea and Raul as they race to unlock the secret of the Void Which Binds before the Pax can silence them. It resolves the mysteries of the Shrike and the TechnoCore while arguing that the Church’s immortality is a trap: to truly live, humanity must be willing to die.