THE FALL OF HYPERION

War looms, and hundreds of billions of lives—and time itself—hang in the balance. In the detailed and fully imagined universe of this second volume of the Hyperion Cantos series, narrator Victor Bevine finds a distinct voice and accent for each character and projects riveting emotions into each scene. The characters are many—from the dozen or so pilgrims (reminiscent of those in THE CANTERBURY TALES), to President Gladstone and her bureaucratic minions, to the all-important Joseph Severn, who has the ability to dream of events that are about to occur. Bevine is adept at handling Simmons's specialized vocabularies—social and technical—which create a world as complete and engrossing as that of Frank Herbert's DUNE series. B.P. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine [Published: SEPTEMBER 2009]