Great review! I love the book, although I wasn’t spurred to keep reading right away after it, and the idea of re-reading it to get to the rest of the series always seems a bit overwhelming, as it’s an emotionally grueling read. Uniquely evocative. The farcasters are so cool, esp. the idea of buildings with rooms in buffet places. Subscribed and looking forward to your future stuff! You articulate what you like about the book so clearly that I feel like I just read it, but it’s probably been 5+years, great stuff! Please feel free to talk about books you read in Italian, either translations, or Italian work, that’s a cool voice that Anglo booktube doesn’t have enough of.
Hey, thanks! As for re-reading the book, I have to say I re-read most of it after first attempting to do it in Italian, and the audiobook version helped me a ton. It's well acted and it gives you a way to refresh things while you take a walk. And about talking about what I read in italian, I'll end up doing it for sure. I'm always happy if I can offer somewhat of a different point of view!
It's a great series, absolutely! I can't wait to read the third and the fourth book. And about the adaptation... I'm afraid they're gonna pull a "Foundation" like Apple Tv+ did. Let's hope not.
I didn’t know a series was being talked about. I have trouble imagining that anything will actually materialize once there’s public attention on what a fragile and bigoted human Simmons has become, he’s kinda a PR nightmare in 2024.
Oh, I must admit I haven't look too deeply into Simmons as a person yet. I tend to try - emphasis on try - to judge the books by the story and style and not by their authors. It's not like I'm a "death of the author" purist, but I think their biography shouldn't be a necessary companion guide to their ouvre.
@@MattSpeculates I generally agree. I’m a librarian, so I’m a pretty big believer that even the works of people with negative aspects can be worth reading, for many reasons. I think Hyperion mostly pre-dates Simmons’ turn to some yucky rhetoric online, and honestly I think the messages in Hyperion really go against ideas he promoted later, it’s actually quite interesting to see it as a window into one part of a persons complicated and evolving ideology over time. It’s not like he’s an altogether terrible person, and no accusations of wrongdoing in his personal life or anything, he simply seems to have fallen into a lot of conspiratorial and borderline Islamophobic thinking post 9/11, as many Americans did, and he was vocal online about it in the early 2000s. I know a lot of white American men of his age who were progressive in their youth, but 9/11 was the first domino to fall, and they gave into much more fear-oriented thinking, including people in my own family. No idea how his thinking has evolved since, but I suspect if movies are made it’ll pose an issue for the studio. It’s interesting, since for many people Simmons stands (deservedly so, I think!) as a great of sci-fi alongside names like Asimov, Herbert, Clark, Bradbury, Heineken, etc. but for most of those classic authors, being dead for so long means we never know their opinions about current issues, and can just assume we’d like them, and read our own modern preferences into their timeless works.
Dying certainly is the best way to not go down as a bigot stuck in the past ahah These topics are really interesting to me, I'm a pretty political person too, but if I ever decide to talk about them I'll probably do it in a separate video and not while talking about a specific book. I already know I'll touch more on female characters while talking about Fall of Hyperion, but I'll try to keep it story-related for now. Anyway, thanks for your perspective as a librarian and as a U.S. native, as much as I try to stay informed, some details about life and "old men" there just don't cross the pond and reach the mediterranean ahah
Why would you put more female characters in your book as you say? To appeal to audiences? Can’t authors just write the story they want, how they want? This isn’t some bs male grievance thing, but a good faith question. I don’t want stories that check social boxes, but are fun, interesting and what the author wants to tell. Not to appeal to peoples sociopolitical concerns. I want unlimited opportunities for female characters of all types, same for people of color, different sexual and gender situations. Not forced outcomes to check boxes. Would love to hear your reason for your comments.
Hey, I actually agree. Maybe I didn't express it clearly (ha, second language!) but I meant that I would have enjoyed seeing some other femail character's stories being explored to the same level of detail as the pilgrims' were. I guess this is my anthropology degree speaking, or maybe my love for worldbuilding, but I would have loved diving into what it means to be a woman in this future. Other kinds of motherhood maybe, a different role in religious sects (we have gesuits but no nuns, templars seem to be all male, the church of the final atonement seems to be mostly male, etc.). There must be some more interesting stuff going on. I hope I'm making myself clearer, I'll be sure to take some time to think about it more before the next review. But again it's not a political thing, it's genuinly a stylistic and worldbuilding-related complaint. Thanks for your question!
@@MattSpeculates You did a fine job, especially with english as your second language... and thank you for your interesting and well considered answer to my question. I found it well worth my time to read. On a tangential side note, I love the cover to that edition of the book as well. That actually what got me to click on the video in the first place. If we never speak again, take care and enjoy reading more of this series and whatever else strikes your fancy. You're a wonderful person to have a conversation with. Peace
Great review! I love the book, although I wasn’t spurred to keep reading right away after it, and the idea of re-reading it to get to the rest of the series always seems a bit overwhelming, as it’s an emotionally grueling read. Uniquely evocative. The farcasters are so cool, esp. the idea of buildings with rooms in buffet places.
Subscribed and looking forward to your future stuff! You articulate what you like about the book so clearly that I feel like I just read it, but it’s probably been 5+years, great stuff!
Please feel free to talk about books you read in Italian, either translations, or Italian work, that’s a cool voice that Anglo booktube doesn’t have enough of.
Hey, thanks!
As for re-reading the book, I have to say I re-read most of it after first attempting to do it in Italian, and the audiobook version helped me a ton. It's well acted and it gives you a way to refresh things while you take a walk.
And about talking about what I read in italian, I'll end up doing it for sure. I'm always happy if I can offer somewhat of a different point of view!
It was great hearing you talk about this excellent book! Keep it up!
Thanks! I could have talked for hours (and I probably will someday ahah)
Nothing is perfect, but it’s a beautiful series. I fear the talked about movie series from WB will not do it Justice.
It's a great series, absolutely! I can't wait to read the third and the fourth book. And about the adaptation... I'm afraid they're gonna pull a "Foundation" like Apple Tv+ did. Let's hope not.
I didn’t know a series was being talked about. I have trouble imagining that anything will actually materialize once there’s public attention on what a fragile and bigoted human Simmons has become, he’s kinda a PR nightmare in 2024.
Oh, I must admit I haven't look too deeply into Simmons as a person yet. I tend to try - emphasis on try - to judge the books by the story and style and not by their authors. It's not like I'm a "death of the author" purist, but I think their biography shouldn't be a necessary companion guide to their ouvre.
@@MattSpeculates I generally agree. I’m a librarian, so I’m a pretty big believer that even the works of people with negative aspects can be worth reading, for many reasons. I think Hyperion mostly pre-dates Simmons’ turn to some yucky rhetoric online, and honestly I think the messages in Hyperion really go against ideas he promoted later, it’s actually quite interesting to see it as a window into one part of a persons complicated and evolving ideology over time. It’s not like he’s an altogether terrible person, and no accusations of wrongdoing in his personal life or anything, he simply seems to have fallen into a lot of conspiratorial and borderline Islamophobic thinking post 9/11, as many Americans did, and he was vocal online about it in the early 2000s. I know a lot of white American men of his age who were progressive in their youth, but 9/11 was the first domino to fall, and they gave into much more fear-oriented thinking, including people in my own family. No idea how his thinking has evolved since, but I suspect if movies are made it’ll pose an issue for the studio.
It’s interesting, since for many people Simmons stands (deservedly so, I think!) as a great of sci-fi alongside names like Asimov, Herbert, Clark, Bradbury, Heineken, etc. but for most of those classic authors, being dead for so long means we never know their opinions about current issues, and can just assume we’d like them, and read our own modern preferences into their timeless works.
Dying certainly is the best way to not go down as a bigot stuck in the past ahah
These topics are really interesting to me, I'm a pretty political person too, but if I ever decide to talk about them I'll probably do it in a separate video and not while talking about a specific book. I already know I'll touch more on female characters while talking about Fall of Hyperion, but I'll try to keep it story-related for now.
Anyway, thanks for your perspective as a librarian and as a U.S. native, as much as I try to stay informed, some details about life and "old men" there just don't cross the pond and reach the mediterranean ahah
Why would you put more female characters in your book as you say? To appeal to audiences? Can’t authors just write the story they want, how they want? This isn’t some bs male grievance thing, but a good faith question. I don’t want stories that check social boxes, but are fun, interesting and what the author wants to tell. Not to appeal to peoples sociopolitical concerns. I want unlimited opportunities for female characters of all types, same for people of color, different sexual and gender situations. Not forced outcomes to check boxes. Would love to hear your reason for your comments.
Hey, I actually agree. Maybe I didn't express it clearly (ha, second language!) but I meant that I would have enjoyed seeing some other femail character's stories being explored to the same level of detail as the pilgrims' were. I guess this is my anthropology degree speaking, or maybe my love for worldbuilding, but I would have loved diving into what it means to be a woman in this future. Other kinds of motherhood maybe, a different role in religious sects (we have gesuits but no nuns, templars seem to be all male, the church of the final atonement seems to be mostly male, etc.). There must be some more interesting stuff going on.
I hope I'm making myself clearer, I'll be sure to take some time to think about it more before the next review. But again it's not a political thing, it's genuinly a stylistic and worldbuilding-related complaint.
Thanks for your question!
@@MattSpeculates You did a fine job, especially with english as your second language... and thank you for your interesting and well considered answer to my question. I found it well worth my time to read. On a tangential side note, I love the cover to that edition of the book as well. That actually what got me to click on the video in the first place. If we never speak again, take care and enjoy reading more of this series and whatever else strikes your fancy. You're a wonderful person to have a conversation with. Peace