Hyperion

I don’t usually love hyper-literate sci-fi / pop-culture books.

I find them pretentious and a little too in love with themselves (we get it, you read a lot of shit and you think very deeply … now gimme them spaceships!).

But “Hyperion,” despite being a very literate sci-fi story (it’s built on a narrative spine of poetry for chrissakes) is also entertaining, engaging, and emotional.

The story of Sol and his daughter Rachel really got me (she contracts a mysterious ailment that causes her to age backwards and forget her life; it’s heartbreaking). I’m going to read the other books in the series.

Another thing: Between Hyperion and The Dark Forest, I’m a bit exhausted and depressed about alien contact. In the “Hyperion” world, humanity wipes out potentially sentient species before they can become threats. In The Dark Forest, the universe appears to be built upon a law that says once sentient species become aware of each other they’ll spend the rest of their days hunting these threats to extinction. Isn’t that lovely? It’s the anti-“Star Trek.”