Hyperion, or, judging artists by their later politics

Does Mike Nelson's current Yoostabee-ism prevent me from still liking Mystery Science Theater 3000? Can I not still laugh at the mocking of the brilliantly inept Space Mutiny simply because the head writer of MST3K went crazy after 9/11? Is it merely a political disagreement, or do I now disagree with the artist on a more fundamental level? Questions that must be wrestled with in the hypercharged politics of the 21st century.

And also a question I asked myself after reading Hyperion and wanting to look into more by author Dan Simmons. As it turns out, and after wanting to read more by the author, I uncovered that he likes to have political discussions on his website/blog and message board, which usually involve stories of him politely pointing out the flaws in his liberal friends' logic, and arguing with readers on his messageboards who found some sections of his Illium series borderline anti-Islamic.

I didn't know this before I read Hyperion. All I knew about Hyperion was that it won a Hugo, it was recommended to Kyon by Nagato Yuki, and I bought it for half off the cover price at Bookman's about 2 years prior without getting around to reading it.

Hyperion is hard to describe as it is several small plots woven into one large, sweeping Sci-Fi story. It compares itself to Chaucer, due to the way the narrative is divided into each major character telling their tale of how they came to Hyperion for the momentous occasion of the opening of the Time Tombs, the mysterious and eventually sort of explained galactic MacGuffin which drives the overall plot. Some of the stories are very good. The opening tale, that of the priest, is particularly interesting, and the desire to read more led to me reading about 1/3 of the book in one sitting on a 12 hour flight.

The individual nature of the stories makes Hyperion a very character-driven novel, and some of the characters are quite strong, while others seem to be a bit more archetypal (the hard-boiled detective [IN SPACE!] in particular was too cliche and didn't really interest me much personally), but their motives and drives are still well thought-out. It's easy to see after reading Hyperion that it quietly influenced a lot of genre (including anime, somehow) in the years since its release, and it didn't win the Hugo for no good reason. It's an very solid book, and worth a read. I can't really recommend looking further into Dan Simmons's politics and personal beliefs, however. Contemporary religious politics, specifically lauding one while damning another have no place in discussions of Science Fiction, as far as I'm concerned. But try keeping that knowledge out of your head while reading the depictions of the Catholic Church and Islam in this novel now.

Yes, there are sequels, and no, they didn't win Hugos.

Overall Grade: A