Cantos ^new^ — Dan Simmons - The Hyperion

A gritty, time-dilated military romance.

I am transmitting this from inside the Shrike’s chest. The door led to a library. Not of books, but of possible pasts . I see now that the Hegemony-Ouster War was never about resources, or territory, or even ideology. It was a sacrifice. A ritual feeding. The Shrike does not kill for pleasure or strategy. It kills because we need it to kill. Without the Shrike, the Hegemony would have no enemy to unite against. Without the Shrike, the Ousters would have no martyr to worship. Without the Shrike, the TechnoCore would have no chaos to optimize. Dan Simmons - The Hyperion Cantos

We are treated to a hard-boiled noir detective story in "The Long Good-Bye"; a heart-wrenching domestic tragedy concerning an academic and his daughter who ages backwards ("The Scholar's Tale"); a military thriller; a religious conversion narrative; and a grand, poetic space opera. A gritty, time-dilated military romance

The Hyperion Cantos is not a comfort read. It is not a quick adventure. It is a long, painful, luminous argument for the value of mortal life in the face of immortal horror. Not of books, but of possible pasts