Hyperion

Executive Summary: After a slow start, I really enjoyed this book, and will be jumping right into the next one as it just sort of stops rather than coming to any sort of conclusion.

Audiobook: The audiobook is fantastic. I'm normally a bit leary of multiple narrators, but it works really well here. Each character's part is narrated by a different person and their parts when speaking together are the only times when you hear them talking at the same time. Highly recommended.

Full Review
Hyperion was one of the books that was read by Sword & Laser just before I found them/goodreads. It's been on my radar for awhile. I picked up the audiobook over 2 years ago, but never got to it for some reason. I wish I had been around for the group read as I really enjoyed it.

I found the start a bit slow. It could be bad timing though. I listened to the first quarter or so while traveling. I listened to parts of it standing in line for airport security hoping I wouldn't miss my flight. I listened to other parts wandering around Las Vegas for several hours waiting for my friends to arrive. It may not have had enough of my attention. It's really hard to say.

The other difference might be that instead of being a straight-forward novel, it's really a collection of stories. There is an overarching story of pilgrims on their way to a temple on a planet called Hyperion. However each person has their own backstory to share, and the style of each story tends to vary by quite a lot. I found some stories a lot more interesting than others.

I think my favorite would have to be the Poet's. I find that a bit strange because he was also the character I liked the least. A close second would be the scholar's. That was for entirely different reasons though. Overall I enjoyed all of the stories, but I found the priest's and soldier's the hardest to follow. I should probably go back and relisten as those were the parts I listened to while most distracted.

My only real gripe (if you can really call it that) is this book just sort of stops. I knew coming in it was part of a four book series, but this book could almost be called an extremely long prologue. Most of it is taken up by the backstories of all the characters. All that really means though is I'm jumping right into the next book. If I had to wait for that, I might actually be bothered by it.

Overall I enjoyed this one a lot, and I'm looking forward to finishing the series over the next few months or so.