Hyperion (Hyperion Cantos#1) by Dan Simmons

In my never-ending quest to find a world to sink into as deeply as I did my beloved The Realm of the Elderlings, I tried the first book in the much beloved Hyperion Cantos saga, Hyperion by Dan Simmons. 

In this book, it is the 29th century and seven pilgrims are on a mission to save humanity. I think.  Actually, maybe their mission is to die while they figure out what's going on at that weird Hyperion planet?  Or maybe it's to save themselves while saving humanity?  It's all pretty wishy-washy.  Anyway, it's the future and there are seven pilgrims and they're going to Hyperion.  Then Simmons tells us part of the backstory of six of the pilgrims by using the excuse that each of the pilgrims should know each other's tales.  I guess if that framing device is good enough for Chaucer, it's good enough for Simmons.

Pilgrim #1: A Catholic priest whose mentor went to Hyperion and never returned.

Pilgrim #2: A soldier turned anti-war activist who kind of, sort of, maybe hallucinates a lover during stressful times in his life.

Pilgrim #3: The poet who has lost his muse.

Pilgrim #4: A professor whose daughter used to be a researcher on Hyperion when something interesting bad strange happened to her.

Pilgrim #5: The only woman in the group, a private detective whose dead client's baby she carries.

Pilgrim #6: The politician in the group whose backstory involves an intricate genealogical chronology, double crossing, and, of course, absolute treachery. 

We don't hear the seventh pilgrim's tale because he's off page halfway through the novel, although it's not clear if he'll come back or not.

I liked this book, but I didn't love it. I thought Simmons created an interesting world, but the weakness in this book is definitely the voice.  If we're going to hear six different stories from six different people, they should all have different voices and, with the exception of the super obnoxious poet, all of the pilgrims have the same tone, diction, and even sentence structure.  If I didn't read the the section titles, it would not have been clear to me what character was telling the story and I really desperately want that distinction to be very clear to me as a reader.  

The book is also almost 500 pages long, so it was quite a commitment to read it.  I'll put the next book in the series on my hold list, but I won't be too disappointed if the wait list is months long!