Hyperion Cantos: The Shrike Explained
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- čas přidán 8. 06. 2019
- This video will contain some spoilers for Dan Simmon's Hyperion Series.
The Hyperion Cantos is a series of Four science fiction novels written by Dan Simmons. The Story takes place hundreds of years in our future at a time where humankind has formed the hegemony, spreading out to many planets. Mankind also now had the technology to instantly travel from any world connected in the far-casting web, the books mainly center however on the far off Planet of Hyperion where the merciless shrike resided.
The creature known as the Shrike in the Hyperion Cantos is one of the most intriguing characters to come out of modern science fiction. The creature, which was named for carnivorous passerine birds of Old Earth, terrorizes the world of Hyperion. The Shrike is a being of mysterious origin and incredible power. The Shrike appeared in the books as four-armed, and vaguely humanoid. Its entire body was comprised of some strange metal similar to steel with countless barbs and spikes covering it.
Throughout the series the Shrike’s goals and motivations are ambiguous. It seems to act with no rhyme or reason. The Shrike First appeared on Hyperion with the Arrival of the time Tombs, 6 strange structures in a distant valley on the world. The Time Tombs were constructed at some time in the distant future and were sent hurtling backward through time. It is assumed early on that the shrike itself was also created at some distant point in the future, but for an unknown purpose.
Cover art: The Lord and the Colonel by Abiogenisis www.deviantart.com/abiogenisi...
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Thanks For Watching! - Zábava
"SOO..we have tech to take us ANYWHERE?"
--"Correct; even planet Hyperion where a thing called a SHRIKE impales ya alive for eons"
"Well let's not go there"
--"ok".
Can't they just bomb the planet?
@@imcool2931 Yeah if I knew this thing existed fuck everyone living on the planet, I'm pushing the exterminatus button
@@xxxxxx5868 wouldn't work too fast
@Chiefarino what about destabilizing the planet's core, causing it to explode?
@Chiefarino How about we build another Shrike and let them fight.
As someone who has been impaled on a sharp object, the trick is to not wiggle and eventually it stops hurting.
I had a wicked splinter, once...
Pretty much the same thing right?
Well the spike isn't real. You're actually hooked up to a nueralink simulating lifetimes of pain. Struggling on the spike is just a visual really.
U for real ?
If, as I suspect, the Tree of Pain is actively controlled by the Shrike, it'll do the wiggling for, nay, *_TO_* you.
I'll reserve this information just in case I also find myself impaled on a sharp object
Hey it's my artwork at 1:03 !! I did that a long time ago :). I was hoping it would make an appearance when I saw this video and it did haha.
Filipe Ferreira it’s awesome, congratulations!
That's awesome
awesome
Fantastic art! I still think about the Shrike, even 20 years after reading the books
You did a fucking excellent job, man!
Dark Eldar: Tree of pain you say? *Breathes heavily*
@Joshua Militar 40k in general makes the shrike look like a tea party
@@thesandman2964 Nah, the Shrike would eat most of 40K alive.
@@leonardhollsten8145 No way. There are worse creatures of chaos. I've read the Hyperion trilogy. He is powerful but in no way could he compete with some of the nastier chaos beasts, greater demons, and perhaps not even a space marine. I think a squad of battle brothers could eliminate him. Recall the story of a Druchii Incubus slaying an entire warshrine of striking scorpions and their exarch, a being that had 5 centuries of martial training and super human reflexes was cut down by a being so fast that he could not trace its movements (the incubus) theoretically a dark elf can have endless amounts of experience as long as he can create enough suffering and torment to sustain his life he will live forever and gain more and more experience. This is what makes them so deadly compared to normal Alederi. I bring this up because space marines have beaten druchhii time and time again and driven them back. An Imperial Fleet can deploy an army in the millions or grind a planet to dust half a galaxy away from Terra. They have advanced warmachines such as dreadnoughts and titans. I think the Shrike would be a creature that would have to strike and fade, avoiding the main Imperial forces sent against it in order to survive. Or suffer the horizon being set aflame around it from 10 million tons of concentrated artillery.
@@justinfrazier9555 ... I don't think you actually remember just how insane the Shrike is.
The Shrike can time travel, fast enough that he makes people faster than light feels as if they are as slow as a human by comparison, can literally never die because if you kill it it will still exist in time (which as I mentioned before he can time travel) he can go anywhere in the universe easily via Farcasting, he can duplicate etc.
It murdered over 30 000 troops along with several spaceships in 30 seconds and he was barely trying. The only reason people tend to survive him is that it pretends to be a slasher monster who usually stays on a single planet.
If the Imperium sends an army after it, that army will be dead before it even sent the order.
@@leonardhollsten8145 I understand and the strike is an impressive character. But again the Warhammer universe will always win when it comes to grim dark. Don't even think about the dark eldar. Just Conrad Kurse, he is a Primark That can see into the future and is 5x more violent and aggressive. His actions make the shrike look like a Robin hood for the people of nastraumo. Again it's just because in the universe that the shrike lives in there's nothing that can combat against him but in the 40K universe there are more than enough things to fight the shrike and beat the shrike. I mean hell a couple gray nights could probably do it.
Jesus... I wouldn't want to be in 10 light years of Hyperion if this horrile thing dwelled there. The Tree of Pain is a pretty horrifying concept.
You find out more about it in the last book.
That’s the neat thing about it, there is literally nowhere in time and space for you to hide. If it really wants to kill or torture you, there is nothing stopping it from doing so.
I think the cruciform would be worse
@@bkr1895 ok mom, I'll finish my vegetables
I wouldn’t risk living in the same universe. As soon as I found out about it’s existence, I would kill myself.
"The Shrike ain't shit."
-Nemes, probably
*gets punched through a rock*
@@kurtwynn1090Then gets outsmarted by Raul Endymion. Friggin Raul Endymion! Of all people!
Still remember one of Martin's best comebacks -
"He seems to have been killed by an edged weapon of some sort"
"The fucking Shrike IS an edged weapon!"
The Hyperion books affected me greatly. Where Dune changed my reality and will probably forever shape my experience of it, Hyperion taught me some deep things about myself. I think Simmons intended us to experience The Shrike as a catalyst.
Well said. I shall reflect on this.
Like what ... there isn't a single deep thing in Hyperion I'm sorry.
Explain
i cried my eyes out but i dont think it teached me anything, what am i missing
...examples?
Two points:
1. In the Books the Shrike is described as mercury flowing over chrome and not plain common steel. This is think is one of the things many artists omit out there, when they create their versions of the entity;
2. The Shrike's goal was indeed to draw out the human UI (more exactly the empathic component of it), but never to eliminate it before it became more powerful, but rather to bring it back (or make it come back) to the future from the past (where It had escaped to and was hiding), so the two UI's can finally resolve their conflict.
Wasn’t the Shrike afraid of the human UI for some reason? Wasn’t the human UI, God?
@@CDs_CZcams_ unclear, especially because the Endymion books portray it as somewhat allied to the Aeneans.
@@ilejovcevski79 🤷🏼♂️ I vaguely remember the book saying the artificial UI looked into a different dimension, discovered to human UI, and it was afraid. Then the Artificial UI fled from it, and used the tree to fight it at a time and place where it had an advantage.
I did read all the books,,,but,,, dam that was 15 years ago. When it got to the point where the AI teleported the Earth and made a copy, I had to study for school and completed the remainder a month or so later.
Guess I have something to listen to now when I drive.
Dude that makes the videos needs to quote the book, it would be a better video.
@@CDs_CZcams_ yeah, quotes would definitely help!
I must have read the first 2 books 3 times in the last doze of years or so, the last 2 2 times.
I am considering giving them another go, but i have very little time available, and other books to read, books i read for the first time.
But the Hyperion books are by far my favorite SF of all time, bar none!
@@ilejovcevski79 Probably already read it, but the art of war is a one sit read and it’s makes watching war documentarys more interesting. You can’t violate 2 or 3 rules and win a war. It’s weird how it applies to all wars. 💤💤💤💤💤😴💤💤
I wonder if this was the influence for how the Geth turned humans into Husks in Mass Effect?
it is a possibility given that mankind believed that the shrike was created by amalgamating artificial intelligence under the reaper program
The mass effect writers are fans of Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion.
@@tasosalexiadis7748 Interesante.
@@vladiantasca6256 seems very likely, also because humans are impaled on spikes to become geth in the game
‘Reapers’ ‘The Shrike Abyssal’ Sentient AI’s…there’s plenty of Hyperion nods in mass effect
This was a fun, weird series. A true space opera with great sci-fi concepts; I loved the idea of a time war between gods that exist in the far future. Looking forward to your coverage!
Mildly unpopular reaction here, but I will throw it in for balance: I got fed up with the Shrike by the time the story was over. Invulnerable, indestructible monsters whose motives or background you can never figure out get kind of boring after a while (q.v. LOST).
its motives are simple once you realize whoever was on top controlled the shrike!! Hence it flip flops all over because the 2 gods war with each other. As one ascended control would slip to the ascendant. Its pretty obvious when the war dude enters the future war against the shrike. Then next book the shrike is now defending humanity(he won the battle).
I've never read any of these books. This video just showed up on my feed but honestly I can see why you would. An omnipotent creature that's dark and edgy for no reason is kinda lazy writing.
@@RecordedMercury "Ive never read the books but I'm going to judge them anyways"
lol
@@OfLanceTheLonginus Yeah? That's the entire point of this video is talking about the character. You just sound fucking stupid
@@OfLanceTheLonginus not even talking about the entirety of the book I might add. Just one character that *seems* to be a major part of the series.
I stopped this video after two minutes and started reading Hyperion. Thanks!
Great decision ^^
@Roland Deschain Long days and pleasant nights, sai gunslinger
@Roland Deschain I see we are well met... Hyperion is pretty great so far btw.
Glad to see you covering this.
These books are incomparable. I gotta say, Endymion and Rise of Endymion are my favorites of the series (favorite books ever). Dan Simmons is an insane writer. So damn good.
Have you read his other stuff? I liked the cantos so much I'm wanting to read his straight horror books.
@@JoshBryan I’ve only read ‘Worlds Enough and Time’ and ‘Prayers to Broken Stones’. Both are collections of short stories. ‘Worlds Enough and Time’ has a short story from the Hyperion universe. It’s great. ‘Prayers to Broken Stones’ has the original story of Siri on Maui Covenant. It’s also really good. I own but haven’t started ‘Olympos’ and ‘Illium’, and ‘The Terror’.
@@NoahReadsSlowly Read Carrion Comfort and Summer of Night...
@@grahamtaylor8912 those are on my list 👍🏼
@@NoahReadsSlowly Children of the Night is another good one too... 👍🏼
I just finished reading Hyperion! It was so good! Please continue to make more Hyperion content!
Caleb Tuper Make sure you get through the three sequels! They’re not quite at the same level but the overall narrative is stupendous.
@@Kujakuseki01 I've heard everything from they ruin the series to they're better than Hyperion. Guess I'll just to have find out for myself lol
@@elricofmelnibone425 I actually think Hyperion is by far the worst of the series, even though I like it. I guess opinions really vary on this! :)
@@SannasBookshelf But it's so good? Lol
I have to agree with Sanna, it's not that good of a sci-fi series. The first book isn't even a complete story, and the second book drops most of the characters you followed in the first book (what was even the point of them?) And then there's the third-person present-tense...yikes! I wanted to finish the series, but just couldn't.
Thank you kindly. The Hyperion Cantons (and Illium/Olympos) are my favorite SF sagas which in my opinion are greatly underappreciated.. I'd love more content on them :)
Are you kidding? Everyone is practically worshipping Hyperion. It's one of the most overrated SF saga with Foundation.
@@Ezullof Well if there is a sci-fi saga that deserves worshipping, it's The Cantos.
Do u have any other videos on these book? Fyi love love the dune seriers you did. Fantastic
@@Ezullof Foundation was not my cup of tea either. Its writing felt old, like the mid-20th century period in which it was written. Also, there was no central character to connect to throughout. I liked Hyperion, but The Fall of Hyperion was even better in part because a central character was introduced that I could follow and care about.
@@Ezullof You're clearly an idiot.
My god,this thing sounds like a 40k Daemon or some sort of Eldritch being
Is there a difference? Only asking half seriously, as I haven't researched WH40000.
@@jimijenkins2548 There's a bit of one. Daemons are generally a bit more understandable than things that we put under Eldritch Being. Though there are plenty of strange and confusing Daemons.
its more a DAoT Man of Iron corrupted/posessed by chaos
@@hawkticus_history_cornerTzeentch is 40k and an eldritch being and there are plenty of other eldritch stuff in Warhammer
@@jimijenkins2548 Warhammer 40K is much worse in my opinion. Just the Tyranid race alone makes it terrible to exist. They surround humanity on all sides and leaves to a chilling hypothesis. Perhaps they have wiped out the entire universe and now the Tyranid close in on the last bastion of life from all sides like a snake coiling around its victim.
Oh please please please continue with this book's content!
When I read Hyperion, almost Thirty years after its first edition, I was floored by how Simmons predicted certain things. I've not read the other books. Yet. But I do like that the Time Tombs, and The Shrike itself, seem like a way of balancing out the equation of Humanity going around the laws of known physics. He wrote this long before Event Horizon, or The Matrix.
Jules Verne wrote "From Earth to Moon" in 1865.
@@justinfrazier9555 Well, I like Toitles.
Holy shit, you're doing Hyperion?!?!?!? THIS IS AWESOME!!!!!
-
Request: Could you talk about Malazan Book of the Fallen?!
^^^ This guy’s got the right idea.
Seconded and thirded...
Malazan deserves so much more attention. It's amazing.
Malazan would provide his channel with infinite content lol
Yes and double yes!
Malazan Book of the Fallen is the best Fantasy series of all time.
No way!!! I love these books! Also, the Ilium/Olympos books! YES!!! THANK YOU!!!
What are the Olympos books about?
love the ilium and olympos books.
@@ZeusEBoy The Trojan war, Humans living in a post Human world, A pair of robots traveling to mars. It is fantastic. Also read "The Song of Kali".
Julio Camargo III Dan Simmons is phenomenal.
Tj Rowe I’ll check them out, thank you for the answer and recommendation dude!
There was only ONE Shrike--but it occurred through many iterations and many existences throughout the entire arc of human existence. You'll note that in Books III and IV of the Cantos, it began "harvesting" the cruciforms--which was considered impossible up to that point. The cruciforms were designed by the TechnoCore as a way of controlling humanity and the Shrike began destroying them when the Time Tombs opened and it was released upon the Galaxy--and the Lesser Magellanic Cloud where the Lions, Tigers, and Bears had moved Old Earth for safekeeping.
The Shrike was in fact defeated but only once by Col. Fedmahn Kassad during a battle that literally spanned centuries. He died in the process, but his existence was limited to only one time line whereas the Shrike had many available to it. The Shrike was created by the far descendants of Humanity which included the Ousters who had evolved outside of the grasp of the TechnoCore and were in much closer contact to the Lions, Tigers and Bears who occupied the Void That Binds. It was a kind of Swiss Army knife: it could do anything required of it but its main task seemed to be the true destruction of the TechnoCore. (Which wasn't really damaged at all in the Fall of the Farcasters and the Hegemony.) To do that, it had to be everywhere and anywhere at once, so all of its appearances were simply momentary slices in the vast framework of Time itself.
The Cantos is an example of SF as Literature; not surprising, given Dan Simmons' academic background. If nothing else, it encouraged me to re-read the poetry of John Keats, which began as pretty juvenile, hackneyed stuff and progressed to the kind of quality Art we would expect of a man who knew he was dying and struggled to transcend his body's pain and the suffering of his mind. Pain and imminent death always have peculiar effects on the human psyche. Some curl into a ball and simply die passively, others fight to live on one more second, one more minute, an hour, a day, and become much more than what they were. His epitaph describes him rather well: "Here lies one whose name was writ in water."
Transcendence, folks.That's what the Cantos is all about.
@@samuilmnt Think of it as a test. Both Monita and the Ousters had to KNOW, unequivocally, that he was capable of doing serious, permanent damage to what was essentially an out of control AI that the Ousters had created and released in the far future. The Shrike was intended to guard Aenea in all her incarnations and prevent the TechnoCore from killing or corrupting her. But since it was an AI too, it developed its own agenda and began doing things far outside the scope of its original programming. Killing humans that wore the cruciform, for example.
It worked too well, in fact, and introduced far too many elements into what should have been a much simpler equation. Thus, it had to be defeated, symbolically, by a relatively unenhanced human. Kassad was "only" a very well-trained soldier--but he was the BEST soldier ever trained, a true Champion. He was destined to be the Champion of Humanity. He HAD to fight the Shrike and die in the process, to demonstrate to both the TechnoCore and the Church that true humans would never be defeated. In many ways, he served as a role model, an Avatar, even to those who had never heard of him. Even his death was symbolic: "Death Before Dishonor." Neither the TechnoCore nor the Church understood "honor" and Father Captain de Soya and his three fellow mutineers followed his example, even if they weren't consciously aware of it.
At the close of the Cantos, we see the Shrike finally shutting down, shifting its consciousness to a kind of permanent idle mode. Its task had ended, finally, and it too could rest. We may be assured that the Ousters and Humanity never again attempted the creation of something so horrifyingly powerful. But it was necessary to defeat both Nemes and its filthy kin and at least symbolically defeat Kassad.
Consider the irony VERY carefully, please. This is IMPORTANT. Nemes was not physically destroyed. Yet it was defeated in the battle at the remains of the World Tree, entombed in lava, thus proving to the TechnoCore that their obscene creations could be stopped. Kassad's physical body was killed, but his soul, his spirit was NEVER defeated. Do you see the difference and the ironical contrast? It's subtle, to be sure, but unmistakable once you consider ALL the elements as part of a Grand Design to ennoble Mankind. In a very real way, Kassad served as the kind of martyr to human freedom and faith that both Aenea and the Christos, indeed, ALL true martyrs have exemplified throughout all our joint histories.
Re-read the books and cogitate fully on the meaning thereof. Eventually, it will come to you. When it does, rejoice, because you will have taken a very great step toward maturity, truly the kind of quantum leap in consciousness of which the Teacher Aenea spoke.
Patience, Gemstone. Think! Use that fine mind of yours. It will come to you...
@@Trans909 Your posts are accurate summaries of the books. I read them about every two years during the winter. There are lots of interesting little details in these books. The depth of the back story/mythos/technology is significant. For example, explaining the behavior of the Core as hyper parasites because of their primordial beginnings as viruses.
Later alligator...
@@zTheBigFishz My heavens, yes! That was the very basis of the Core's danger to humans; we couldn't possibly think we could control a parasitical organism--even if we invented it. Simmon's point--and the basis of many of Aenea's lectures--was that a hyper-parasitical organism will ALWAYS be an enemy.
The advantage we have in dealing with such an enemy is that it has no real creativity. It can only imitate, steal, impersonate. It can never "invent" anything. So it can be out-thought, defeated, because it cannot accurately predict the randomness of organic life--except on a large scale and then only general trends.
It was those general trends that so terrified the Core. It thought it had humans permanently in its clutches--and then up pops this absolutely unpredictable form of life which seems similar to the free humans, the Ousters. To a hyper-parasite, it's not a multivalued equation at all. It's two choices: kill or be killed. But the energy that the LT&B's expended with such seeming ease utterly freaked them out, didn't it? (Well, it would freak ME out to discover that a confederacy of incredibly diverse lifeforms was blowing up galaxies for unknown purposes!)
The backstory! It's brilliant, isn't it? Not just detailed but LUSH. Vibrant and vivid. All those worlds! I really mourned the Fall of the Hegemony. Such a marvelous society--even if propped up by a form of mental vampirism. But I confess I probably would have been much like Sol Weintraub and settled on Barnard's World, been a college professor, and raised a family beneath the warm ruddy glow of a quiet little red dwarf.
But Oh! What I would have given to see the Worldtree on God's Grove!
While, crocodile...
Greatest comment. Love your insight. What do you think about the Shrike as a Kali figure?
@@zatoichi1 More like Shiva, Destroyer of Worlds--or any of that Hindu deity's avatars. (You probably noticed that the entire Cantos is jammed to overflowing with avatars of one sort or another,) Inasmuch as Shiva is known as her consort, the Tantric Saivist goddess Kali is unquestionably a Mother-image--and the Shrike is unmistakably male.
Consider the descriptions Simmons has given us: the Shrike is large, shaped by masculine proportions, designed to fight in a particularly male hand-to-hand style. I agree that the four arms are a bit deceptive but we Westerners often do not consider the more subtle aspects of Kali's physical appearance, particularly her expression. Her extended tongue is often regarded as proof of Kali's savagery but it's actually an expression of embarrassment. No, I might accept Moneta as an avatar of Kali, but not so much the Shrike.
15 people are not of the cruciform.
78 now. We will handle them.
@@SeanHummer The Lord of pain is going to have a full tree.
They are not a part of the three score and ten, the must have there throat cut with a sharpened stone, and there life blood drained until they do not move.
I get it!
I started reading the book and now i get it lol
Thanks for covering Dan Simmon's Hyperion books. Great video.
I cannot hear “Shrike” without hearing Sam O’ Nella say “Shit spike” in the back of my mind.
same. the shit spike will always be imprinted in my brain.
YES!!!! I was hoping you would do the Hyperion Cantos. It's a favorite of mine.
My high school had the collection and I read it so many times. I loved how everything connected.
You're covering my favourite thing of all time, thank you!
I'd love to see videos like this for more characters from the Cantos. Aenea especially, but also A. Bettik, Raul Endymion of course, any others at all. Great work here! Every time the Shrike appeared in the books, I was flooded with chills and goosebumps.
I didn't know you were covering the Hyperion books, too! Excellent!
Oh, I love seeing some Hyperion videos from you! There is so much going on in these books worth analysing, and this video was great.
Dude I honestly didnt think I could love your videos more, and then you drop some awesome coverage on the Shrike/Hyperion Cantos! Awesome stuff!
Didn't expect you to cover this great series.
Thank God that horrible TV show is over now you can focus on good material. I am glad you are doing this series. The first book had me crying at several points.
Are you talking about Game Of Thrones it was the best show ever
@@blackskyirregular9876 did you ever watch the show as it's from the Book of A Song Of Ice an Fire , have you read the books ? I haven't I want to get them on Audible I'd find it better to understand by listening to them
@@cherylbaxterstormborn477 It was until it subverted our expectations and made all the characters dumb.
OMG. The Scholar's tale. ;_;
The last book hit me so hard, I remember just sitting there, sick to my stomach, unable to look up or read more.
Thank you for this. The Hyperion series has been among my favoritesfor years now. Keep being awesome.
I’m intrigued. Getting this series on audible now. Thank you Quinn!
I'm 2/3 of the way through Book 1 of the Hyperion Cantos. Absolutely love it! Thanks for inspiring me to read it. I wouldn't have read it had i not watched this video on the Shrike.
Love it! Hope you make more videos on hyperion
One of my favorite series, glad to see you covering it!
Been hoping for a long time that you would cover the Hyperion Cantos! Many thanks. Looking forward to future episodes regarding this series.
3:43
"It was called the Reaper program."
Wait...is this where Mass Effect got its ideas from?
The shrike is such a troll he transformed so the protagonist almost killed himself midnut and had to dodge a spiky death.
Edit: protag was having himself a fun time and then suddenly the shrike took the place of his lover.
It would be a painful death.
Context?!
@Chris p What the actual fuck
@Chris p Lmao what, now i want to read it.
@Chris p what???
So he banged the shrike???
I guess the shrike wanted to be impaled too
@Chris p other asoiaf wild shit?
Dude...This is my fav series, and my favorite character. So nice work.
Started reading Hyperion cause of your videos.. Really drew me in INSTANTLY with the slow burn of all the characters connecting their stories. Im just getting to the end of the Poets tale and it only made me wanna finish the book hearing you say you dont even wrap their stories up till the 2nd book. Thank you for revealing a new series to me I never would have found otherwise.
Omg! I love you... I've always wanted to ask you to do a Hyperion video. Thanks a bunch ❤️
Brain Herbert should've been smart and asked Dan Simmons to finish off the Dune series.
I can see both that working out well and poorly. The characters would’ve been better at the very least.
@@merrittanimation7721 Yea I'd take Dan Simmons Poorly over Brain Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson Poorly. I'd rather re-read Saga of the Seven Suns then delve into their Dune continuations.
The trouble with Hyperion is that the ending collapses the mysticism into a kind of meta-physical materialism whereas Dune retains its mystical poise. I don't think Simmons is capable of finishing Dune.
🤔🤔🤔🤔
He wanted to be part of the legacy. You really can't blame him.
One of my favorite books. Thanks for covering this as well IOAF
I love this series and am very happy to have you making videos on it
The best sci fi book I've ever read in my life! I swear!
It's good but give a chance to Dune, too :)
Never read it, can I get a summary?
Omg you're doing Simmons now! Great!
So glad you decided to cover this series.
Thanks for covering Hyperion! I loved your series on Dune and can't wait for your new content. Dune and Hyperion are probably my favorite sci fi book series!
Loved the 1st book! Ages ago, read it. Started the sequel, but life ,and stuff couldn't let me continue...have to go back to this series.
This is one of those rare book series that truly deserves a TV/Film adaptation.
The mystery of the Shrike would seriously provoke as much curiosity as with the White Walkers in GoT. The best thing is, the Shrike is a key "character" up until the very end, unlike the WW.
Yay! Thanks for covering Hyperion!
Oh my god, just the other day I thought of this series and how much I’d enjoy some Hyperion videos from you!
Personally, I'm a Martin Silenus fan, so more of this please! :)
I didn't like Silenus at first...but he definitely grew on me. I'm only about 1/6th of the way through Endymion so I've still got, pretty much, two books to go....
Jason Vyzer Same. I hated him at first. Then grew to love him.
He was such an excellent character
YES. 1000 TIMES YES. HYPERION IS AMAZING
Yeah, but I think that Ilion and Olympo is even better.
@@The-Man-On-The-Mountain Geez no. He went way overboard with the "Intertextuality" there. Fuck was that a chore to read. The genius thing about Hyperion is that he very lightly powdered in the references, and didn't clobber us with it every fuxking page.
Awesome! I was just searching your videos last week looking for any on the Hyperion Cantos! Thank you!
YES! Omg thank you for covering Hyperion. Not enough people have essays about this wildly original series.
Finished Endymion today... best SciFi Epos ever.
I kinda struggled through it. But overall paid off.
It is not an easy read, especially when Simmons describes every single fucking mountain on T'ien Shan, he lost me a bit. But I really enjoyed every single scene with the Shrike and all the pay offs. Read it in German though, the cover art of the German version is a little bit boring. The Polish cover arts are great.
@@HerrFenrisWolf If Simmons didn't overwrite (especially when he makes you feel like you just finished a college course on a topic) than he is (to me) the best in the Biz bar none.
Unfortunately he(like King) never seems to throw anything out.
I always say if 'The Terror' was 200 pages less, Than in 150 years when the academics are still blathering about Dracula and Frankenstein, They would have added The Terror as being on the Mount Rushmore of Famed Horror Novels. Many still think it is, and sometimes I do too, Some times I want to snatch Damn Simmons Bald making me read about what each Gawdamn Button represents on a Navel Officers Uniform and such shit.
Greatness sometimes falls in love with itself(which frankly Is easy to do I assume)
Dan Simmons is probably one of the most info-dumping authors in fiction -but he does it gloriously. I’m still working on finishing the first Hyperion novel. It’s mostly due to the extremely small text that I’m taking so long.
Hell yea this series is amazing. Re reading it for the second time right now. Halfway through Rise Of Endymion.
Halfway through book two, I'll come back to watch this when I'm done. Can't wait to watch it dude.
Once again, mucho kudos to an excellent presentation to the major character linking the Hyperion Cantos novels. Eagerly awaiting the discourse and videos of Hyperion and conversation comparing them to Dune. Keep Up The Amazing Work !!
Like your voice. Perfect for sci fi. You should voice god emeperor of dune audiobook.
Utterly amazing books! If you cover this im gona die from joy.
I was hoping you would do it! Excited.
The Shrike sounds like an evil Bionicle. And we all know how much it hurts to step on LEGO.
Love the Hyperion Cantos after reading it just this past year! Great video too. Question though:
You talk about the origins of the Shrike as if it was difinitively explained why and by whom it was created. After having read the books once, I seem to recall that it was ambiguous who created the Shrike for which purpose, and that it seems that both the Technocore created it as described in this video (to combat the human Ultimate Intelligence), but also the Lions and Tigers and Bears created it for its opposite purpose, to guide the creation of the first and second John Keats cybrids and thus create Aenea (the start toward creating the human Ultimate Intelligence). This ambiguity adds to another layer to the mystery of the Shrike: perhaps it was the Technocore, perhaps the Lions and Tigers and Bears, perhaps both, books 1&2 having one and 3&4 the other.
At least that's how I remember it after having read it once several months ago. Would love to hear your thoughts
Its been years since i read it. But didnt it turn out to be fedman kassad that is the shrike? Through some time travelling shenanigans?
I remember clearly being floored by this revelation. Am i misremembering?
@@samibehada4197 You recall it well. Though it has been decades since I read it, I recall The Shrike being actually beaten and hacked by Fedman Kassad, in a battle in the distant future. After it Kassad became the Shrike to battle it in the past, thus the different actions of the Shrike. I also recall in the last book how the TechnoCore agents pursuing Aenea said how inadequate and poorly designed the original Shrike was. Those agents were way more powerful than the Shrike.
@@claudiomarcosmacielleme3668 I find it funny that those agents were also killed by the shrike, and their leader got her ass kicked by what is essentially just some dude.
I believe the Shrike can also move through time without causing paradox. This is a power it uses to create an army of itself by simply having multiple instances of itself come back through time to the instant it existed and fight next to each other. One of the reasons its so strong is that its an endgame time manipulation HARD sci-fi threat in what could be considered a hybrid soft and hard sci-fi setting. Shrike is like a Xeelee that found itself in the Witcher setting.
It's an acausal being just like a nightfighter
This is crazy to me. I'm about 1/3 of the way through Chapterhouse: Dune and the next series I was curious about tackling was Hyperion. Your channel sparked my interest in the Dune saga several months ago and now it's pretty well confirming another recent interest! Thanks for the videos.
Hello from the future, King.
Thank you for this awesome video!
My favorite Scifi book ever! Lets gooooo!
Have you read Illium?
@@Revealingstorm. No, is it good? I also want to suggest 3 Body Problem and it's sequel The Dark Forest.
Would you recommend it!
The Reaper Program? ...Sovereign is that you?
Yeah when I first played mass effect I was actually reading the first hyperion book and many aspects of the reapers strongly reminded me of the shrike. But ME is basically a conglomerate of various sci fi stories and universes
@@foxmulder8955 Never read Hyperion, so when I heard Reaper Program, AI...my ME fanboy kicked in.
Glad to have found this video! I read the first two books about 3 years ago and I remember there wasn't a lot of supplementary info on the internet about it.
WOW!!! I didn't expect that you or anyone would be speaking about HYPERION! Imagine my surprise to see it on my YT recommended list. This is a series I've loved for a long time and I'm glad I'm not the only one out here who feels the same way. Thanks for putting this out there!
Would LOVE to see more... hint, hint...
Sounds to me like the Shrike needs to be introduced to a Deathwatch killteam
For the Emperor!
hey, long time i haven't heard of hyperion, make me almost want to re-read it.
Make that maybe into a yes ;)
Thanks man! A story that needed some love too!
oh yeah, this is great. i was hoping hyperion would show up on your channel at some point.
can't wait for all the wonderful things you'll put together.
Yes, but there is no better feeling than having The Shrike on your side! 🥰🥰
Have you read the Stormlight Archive? It's not nearly as gory or enigmatic as your other book videos.
But reading it for the second time and there's actually quite a lot to unravel.
I loved the first book. But it took so long for Book 2 to come out that I felt I needed to do a re-read to refresh my memory. Now I"m so far behind that I doubt I'll ever catch up. I've heard the later installments are not as good? And the series isn't complete, right?I need to just start series when they are done. This waiting years between books is too difficult.I read a lot of books & have a bad memory. I can't remember details from a book I read a year or more ago. I admire those who do. But that's not me.
Thank you for introducing me to this series of books, it seems to be a pretty interesting ones.
Just ordered it, can't wait for it to arrive.
Thank you. I came across your channel whilst searching for Dune information. I was aware of Asimov but never engaged in his works. You have opened up a few more paths for me to tread. Again, thank you.
Talk about Robert Heinlein's timeline of future history
I thought the Shrike was helping humanity, and the soldier from Mars turned into him?
Awesome coverage of the Shrike, Hyperion Cantos is my favorite space opera epic.
Thanks for turning me on to this series, got the books right away; very excited.
A sacrifice to the shrike of our time, the CZcams algorithm....may it shine upon your channel and let you revel in the recommended page!
the two hyperion books are my favorite of all time. I don't care for the endymion books at all
they completely ruined all of the mystery and world building that happened in 1&2. Moreover, the romance plot is creepy as fuck when you think about it.
OMG thank you! This is one of my fave series.
Shrike who?! Time to make him my backsratcher! Here, hold my 🍺!
I'm waiting for you to get into Malazan book of the fallen
Excellent! Love your Dune coverage, Hyperion is my other favorite far future series! Love the Shrike! --
I really enjoy these offshoot from other series.
Keep it up.
Loved the Hyperion ‘cantos’.
There was talk of turning it into a movie awhile ago, not sure if it would translate well to the screen though.
>not sure if it would translate well to the screen though.
certainly easier than dune, and they are trying that again
masta182 it’s been awhile since I read the novels but I remember thinking they’d have a hard time with some of the ouster stuff and the Yggdrasil. Also portraying the different techno core factions, not sure how they’d do that. I love to see them try though.
@@S1doubleU the ouster and yggdrasil stuff should be easy enough if costly, I mean avatar is now what, ten years old?
the technocore on the other hand needs some really good imagination to visualize.
anyway, imagine how amazing a well made biosphere would look if they made a movie with like disney money behind it.
masta182 well apparently Warner brothers owns the rights to all 4 books, so maybe one day.
There’s a thread about it on reddit.
@@S1doubleU There was a website something like hyperion the movie, and Bradley cooper of all people was going to "adapt it" at least that was news like 2015. Unlikely to happen and ya, not easy to do.
I clicked this only because of the thumbnail. I don't know what this is about 😁
Same
Its a really good book series.
The best damn scifi series ever. Seriously, I didn't read for recreation before two years ago. Then after the first 15 minutes of Hyperion, I couldn't put it down.
After I finished it all, I kept reading new books and nothing has been able to equal the greatness of Thr Hyperion Cantos.
@@DJRonnieG
I was the same. I think I read it *too* quickly, because I can't remember the whole thing right now. I just couldn't stop. I need to do a re-read!
You put a smile on my face, thanks!
Well, you have convinced me to give this series a read, sounds fascinating.
It’s so great, you’ll love it. 😄
When I was in High School. I came up with a monster that was pretty much the Shrike. I even called it the Shrike at first. I never read the books but it always caught my eye. I was really obsessed with coming up with something original so I felt upset with myself that I ended up just coming up with a derivative. I still kept my version. I quickly gave it a different name back then that I've held on to.
If any aspiring young writers are seeing this. Don't let your inability to come up with something brand-new deter you. Don't let nonconstructive criticism convince you your work is not worth anything.
When it comes right down to it. Everything in entertainment is a derivative of the stories we used to tell while huddled around fires at night.
LagiNaLangAko23 That’s what I said.