Markus’s Reviews > The Fall of Hyperion > Status Update

"Sometimes," said General Morpurgo, taking her hand, "dreams are all that separate us from the machines."

Wow, Morpurgo has gotten infected with extreme levels of awesomeness!

"The Final Days are here, priest. The prophecies given to us by the Avatar centuries ago are unfolding before our eyes. What you call riots are the first death throes of a society which deserves to die. The Days of Atonement are upon us and the Lord of Pain soon will walk among us."

This book has been going downhill for a while, but it seems to be improving again!

"...as another leader told his people on the eve of attack almost eight centuries ago -'I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat.' You ask, what is our policy? I say to you: It is to wage war, in space, on land, in the air, by sea, wage war with all our might and with all the strength justice and right can give us."

My respect for CEO Gladstone, already considerable, just rocketed skyward.

In the dead city, screams echoed for another minute, growing fainter and farther away. Then there was a silence broken only by the doves returning to their nests, dropping into the shattered domes and towers with a soft rustle of wings.

Battle rages between the Hegemony and the Ousters in the Hyperion system, and the Ousters are initiating a full-scale invasion.
After a long debate, the government of the Hegemony decides to respond by declaring war.
I bet this completely unexpected surprise leaves the Ousters terrified!

Much has changed from the first book, but not the fact that I can't stand Martin Silenus!

Learning more about the politics of the Web and the mysteries of the Valley of the Time Tombs both. This has been an interesting start to the second novel of the Hyperion Cantos!

On the day the armada went off to war, on the last day of life as we knew it, I was invited to a party.

Pretty awesome opening sentence.