The Hyperion Omnibus

The Hyperion Omnibus (Hyperion/The Fall of Hyperion) by Dan Simmons (2004 Gollancz 779pp) 

Hyperion, Hyperion, Hyperion. Since I started frequenting internet science fiction related newsgroups and forums in the early 1990s, one book has been recommended to me more than any other and it seems to have gathered steam again in the past few years. Dan Simmon’s Hyperion, written in the late 1980s at times seemed to be everyone’s favourite book. Eclipsed briefly a few years later by Vernor Vinge’s A Fire Upon the Deep and now neck and neck with Peter Watt’s Blindsight (at least on Reddit) Hyperion as become a modern fan favourite. I took me until 2 years ago to actually buy a copy to see what all the fuss was about. Learning there were actually 4 volumes in the so-called Hyperion Cantos I chose to buy an Omnibus edition containing the first pair – Hyperion itself and the direct follow-up The Fall of Hyperion. The remaining pair are said to be less essential but I also acquired them in eBook form just in case I decide to go down the completist route someday.

Hyperion itself is a meticulously crafted science fiction novel the majority of which takes the form of a classic ‘travellers tales’ narrative. I’m sure you know what I mean without giving too many examples…it’s been done for hundreds of years and Hyperion itself seems to have influenced even more recently (which I only now recognise after reading it). Simply put, a group of disparate characters are drawn together on a journey and to pass the time they each tell their background story and we slowly see what connects them together. In this case it’s the mysterious planet of Hyperion itself – 7 ‘pilgrims’ have been offered the chance to go there and sort out whatever mess their lives has become. Most have been there before and need to perform a certain task or find answers that have eluded them since their last visit.

The planet Hyperion is in the backwaters of a large future human empire known as the Hegemony, connected together by both starships and instantaneous travel portals. The linked core ‘Web’ planets range from hard core industrial to idyllic. Humanity has survived the destruction of earth and the threat of Artificial Intelligences who seem to have settled into an uneasy peace with them. The major external threat seems to be the ‘Ousters’ which the text initially seems to lead you to believe are classic belligerent aliens of some sort – (spoilers!) they are later revealed to be space-adapted humans who spit off from the rest of mankind into space hundreds of years ago. For largely unclear reasons the Hegemony and the Ousters have been involved in destructive skirmishes. And now the Ousters are on the way to capture the remote but apparently strategically important Hyperion.

Why is Hyperion so special? The AIs believe it is a random factor that could alter any predicted future. On the surface there are structures known as the “Time Tombs” protected by advanced temporal fields and apparently about to release what they’ve held for thousands for years (or – spoilers!) will hold far into the future. Connected to the Time Tombs is the ‘Shrike’ a malevolent bio-mechanical entity who strikes at will bringing ruin to all who encounters him. Seen as a representation of death itself, the Shrike has inspired religions and cults both on the planet and across the Hegemony. Nobody quite understands the Shrike’s purpose or motivation but somehow our brave plucky band of pilgrims are directly connected to the being.

So, one by one we get the pilgrim’s stories ranging from a priest of the near extinct catholic faith (the first and possibly the best story) through to a defeated poet, a hard-bitten female private detective and a guilt-wracked former political Consul. The pilgrims' stories are each like mini-novels, almost of different genres and styles. The priest story is almost horror while the detective’s is a near pastiche of the then-so-hot cyberpunk milieu.

There’s also a simpler linking narrative that describes their journey and its hardships. Just as they reach the ancient Time Tombs and related structures the reader thinks some mysteries are about to be solved and is sorely disappointed when the book ends. What??

Never fear for this is the Omnibus edition and after a week or so break I launched into the sequel The Fall of Hyperion. Even though it directly follows the first book’s story it is quite a different beast. Gone is the travellers’ tales’ structure, instead at least initially, we have chapters featuring the political machinations of the Hegemony as it faces total war alternating with the further adventures of the pilgrims on Hyperion. The linking character is a certain M. Severen, a living AI who is closely related to another such being who played a key part in the original book’s detective’s tale. By day he is a close consort of the Hegemony CEO, at night he somehow dreams what the remaining pilgrims are doing on Hyperion. (spoilers!) In a surprise move, the Ousters seem to gather the resources to attack many of the major Web planets at once while most of humanity’s forces remain concentrated trying to hold on to Hyperion.

Much happens both with the pilgrims and the apparent interstellar war, probably too much to be honest. Then the AIs, their factions and ultimate plans are thrown into the mix. Who is the real enemy of mankind? I felt much of the mystery built up by the first book was squandered here. The answers to everything – Hyperion’s importance, the shrike, the pilgrims etc seems to be all related to the schemes and desires of artificial time-bending god-like beings I couldn’t really care about.

There’s a heady mix of philosophy, theology and poetry woven into the story, which unfortunately sometime just seems needlessly pretentious.

That’s not to say there aren’t wonderful sections in the second book, it’s still high-quality science-fiction but fails to reach the peaks of the first volume, at least for me.

It took me a long time to finally read the Omnibus. Hyperion lives up to the hype but maybe leave it at that.

Extremely Online

Extremely Online by Taylor Lorenz (2023 Simon & Schuster eBook 384pp) 

Its always strange when events and eras you personally experienced become the subjects of history books. It all seemed so ‘hip & happening’ and on the bleeding edge at the time, now it’s a laundry list of names, dates and disasters. And so it is with this book – Extremely Online covers a period between the late 1990s and the late 2010s, from the dawn of Blogging to the rise of Tik Tok.

Taylor Lorenz is an impressive journalist who has covered events online since she herself was a blogger. She has written for many well-known publications both online and in print and frequently appears as a guest on radio, television and podcasts. I think the latter is where I first heard about this book and it intrigued me enough to have a read.

I have to take exception with her assertion early in the text where she states that having a website was beyond most people before the event of organised blogging – I was there in the 90s and there were thousands of personal sites to be found and many simple tools to create them with.

Beyond that, I found this book somewhat eye-opening. There were a lot of events, companies and personalities from the covered time-frame that I simply had no knowledge of. The origins of services like YouTube were often something completely at odds with what they grew to become.

Besides chronicling the rise and fall of companies and trends, Lorenz makes sure to focus on the human element. We are treated to some quite comprehensive biographical sketches of those who pioneered developments online. Often completely forgotten, they invented the ‘influencer’ economy and changed they way everyone sees the online world. An awful lot of these people tended to be female and/or minorities and few have been credited for their efforts, achievements and inventions. The so-called ‘Mummy-Bloggers’ who arguably kicked off the entire influencer and social media thing faced a massive backlash for their trouble. Several of the people in the book endured worse and some even took their own lives.

As the book goes on, the online world seems like a never-ending palimpsest where companies and trends rise up, become prominent before crashing and burning. Others soon appear in the wreckage and the cycle repeats. I was surprised how often this has played out and how each time parasitical management companies attach themselves to the latest trend only to ruin things for everyone.

If nothing else this book gives a clear and concise history of this online era and the ripples it spread out to the wider world. Lorenz is engaging and has clearly done her research along with actually living some of the story herself. The text can seem repetitive but that’s more the result of some of the same players in the story failing to learn their lessons and failing over and over again.

It seems there was a lot going on that I personally was oblivious to as I stuck to my own little corner of the net during those years. The wider picture this book gives is most welcome.

Consider This

Consider This by Chuck Palahniuk (2020 Corsair paperback 235pp) 

I have a mixed relationship with Chuck Palahniuk and his work. It all started one day in the late 1990s when I discovered a copy of his novel Fight Club in a bargain bin at a local bookshop. I paid just a couple of dollars for it and took it home to read not expecting much. I was however blown away by it and wasn’t surprised when it soon became a hit movie. I spent the following decade or so reading all of Palahniuk’s output wherever I could find it – at the library, online or for sale. I was a big fan. But then around 2010 I simply lost the desire to read his stuff anymore. I had two of his recent novels (Rant and Pygmy) in hardcover but I never even cracked them open. To me he had become too much of what we would today call an ‘edgelord’, always trying to shock and outrage with his words. His short stories and non-fiction efforts were always great but the novels became a little too much for me, maybe my tastes had simply changed with the years.

Back in 2020 when Consider This was first published it got a lot of positive reviews and I bought a copy, only to leave it in a storage box for 3 years before I decided to read it now.

In this book Palahniuk takes the role of reluctant writing teacher and passes on both lessons and mantras he was taught by his own mentors and some original ideas and concepts that he thinks will aid those intending to write for a living.

That takes up maybe a third of the book, the rest is padded by stories and anecdotes about actually being a writer. Classes, book tours and life on the road. He also lists books and authors that he recommends we all should read.

Not too much more to say about this book really – its fine, the writing advice seems solid but I found it tends to be diluted by the anecdotes. After finishing it all my strong memories are about his book tour horror stories and so on. The book recommendations are good and I’ve already investigated several of them.

I’ve always felt there was much more depth to Palahniuk than the edgelord stuff and this book lets him display another side to his talents.

Abroad In Japan

Abroad In Japan by Chris Broad (2023 Bantam paperback 305pp) 

 

Call me stupid and out of touch but when I first heard the ‘buzz’ about this book I had no idea that the author, UK-born Chris Broad, was also a big time you-tuber with a channel of the same title which currently boasts a subscriber count of almost three million people (it took me a while to even get the gag of that title..). I was simply intrigued about the promise of a fresh, light-hearted view of an exotic land, a type of writing has somehow become a staple of my latter-day reading.

Shortly after graduating from University, Broad has a chance conversation with another passenger on a plane who tells him about the JET scheme where English speakers are paid to spend three plus years teaching the language in Japan. Much to his own surprise he passes the application and interview process and soon finds himself touching down in Tokyo. Advised not to request a posting in a major city he ends up in the remote town of Sakata. The results of economic and demographic changes mean times are tough in the region and as a result the entire district’s education system has been consolidated into a single mega-school and this is where Broad must learn to sink or swim.

There’s a lot of the expected fish-out-water thing but its handled well and he manages to avoid most of the usual cliches about Japan. Along the way he introduces us to many aspects of modern Japan rather than all the ancient traditions that other travel books have already covered umpteen times.

There are vivid portraits of the many and varied Japanese teachers he must try to work alongside. Lax standards in the recent past means many of the supposed English teachers either don’t actually speak English or lack an ability to even construct a written sentence. He is surprised to learn that English is just not seen as important enough to bother with for many of the Japanese people including past governments.

His students are also of various abilities and he slowly wins them over during his time in front of the class. Looking through his eyes we see the highs and lows of school life then learn more about life in general. Night time bar culture (Izakaya), the joys of Japanese convenience stores and of course the local food are all covered as he settles in to his new routine.

Soon enough his three years are over and to everyone’s (including the reader’s) surprise he decides not to apply to extend his teaching career. Meanwhile, he had started making videos about Japan and he sees this as his future going forwards.

After the teaching section the latter part of the book seems more of a grab-bag of his most memorable experiences of the past six or seven years. As his YouTube channel takes off, he’s soon accepting jobs fronting documentaries and making films about Japan for an international audience. He visits the aftermath of the Fukushima earthquake-tsunami-meltdown, goes viral after a possible North Korean missile attack and gets caught up in a major earthquake himself. All interesting stuff to be sure but seems a little lacking after the book’s strong start.

Abroad In Japan is often funny, sometimes eye-opening and always very readable. As his YouTube channel shows, Broad knows how to keep an audience interested and if you like contemporary travel books you won’t be disappointed.

 

Empire of the Sum

Empire of the Sum by Keith Houston (2023 W. W. Norton & Company hardcover 374pp)

 

Empire of the Sum is a 300+ page book about the history of the calculator. That fact may put you off from reading it immediately but I urge you to reconsider if you have any interest in technology, innovation, invention and stories of the little-known giants whose shoulders we all stand upon.

I don’t know if it’s a stipulation of his contract but all three of Keith Huston’s books to date have been exquisite little hardbacks – well designed and illustrated and obviously produced by a publisher who puts in the maximum effort. Shady Characters (2013) looked at the history and use of unusual typographic characters while The Book (2016) followed the long and often surprising history of the book as a physical object.

Empire of the Sum is divided up into 15 main chapters, each centered around one of the ‘greatest hits’ of calculating machine history. It starts with the human hand itself and goes through to the invention of computer spreadsheet programs. At first, I was unhappy at this arrangement as I felt this would skip many intermediate steps but upon reading further, I was happy to discover the author often loops back within each chapter to describe other developments and puts the device in question into its proper context. Many of the lessor-known thinkers and inventors from history are also given due credit for their part in the general advancement of calculator and eventually computing technology.

In other hands this could be a total bore-fest but Houston is a skillful and engaging writer. His frequent use of humour and historical anecdotes brings the narrative to life.

The rapid rise of discrete calculating machines in the late 20^th century and their apparent fall in the early 21^st is a fascinating story in itself. The world is now full of unused old calculators stuffed into cupboards and drawers as their function has largely been absorbed into computers and their recent offspring the smartphone. I'm not sure how I feel about events that took place essentially during my lifetime now being part of a historical study.

I enjoyed the tale Houston had to tell, it might be a little too niche for many readers but it is well worth your time to dip into and perhaps learn more about how we got to our current technological situation.