The Best Sci-Fi Book of the Last 50 Years Is Also Unadaptable, and That’s Good
Some books are just waiting to be adapted into a movie or TV show. Just this year, we had two incredible book-to-movie adaptations, with Project Hail Mary and The Odyssey both breaking box office records and earning universal acclaim from critics and audiences. Indeed, many books seem tailor-made to be translated into either the big or small screens, with storylines that perfectly benefit from the adaptation treatment. However, many other books remain elusive and unknowable, avoiding the straightforward conventions that would make them ideal for an adaptation. Such is the case for Hyperion.
Written by the late Dan Simmons, Hyperion is a challenging yet immensely rewarding sci-fi epic and one of the best reading experiences of the last century or so. The word “masterpiece” is certainly overused, but if there’s one book that earns the title, it’s this one. Yet, what makes Hyperion special on the page is also what would make it impossible for anyone to do it justice in either film or show form. This ambitious triumph of the written word is perfect in its current form, and while many talented creatives could certainly take a chance and test their mettle by adapting it, there’s a strong chance they would simply fail to recreate what Simmons so effortlessly captured on the page.
What Is ‘Hyperion’ About?
Hyperion borrows the structure of the classic by Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, to tell its fascinating story. First, the basics of worldbuilding: in the far future — the year 2732, to be exact — thousands of planets across the universe make up the Hegemony of Man, each one connected by a farcaster portal. Other players include the TechnoCore, a civilization of advanced AIs, and the Ousters, a group of modified humans living in space stations and in constant conflict with the Hegemony.
Now, for the actual plot: a framing device presents a group of pilgrims sent to the planet of Hyperion, which exists outside the Hegemony. Because it has farcaster, one cannot visit Hyperion without incurring severe time dilation. The pilgrims mean to visit the Shrike, a powerful and dangerous metallic creature said to be capable of granting a wish to each of them. The Shrike, in turn, is the guardian of the Time Tombs, structures that are moving backwards in time.
As an Ouster invasion prepares to attack Hyperion, the pilgrims go on this final voyage, each one with a story to share about how and why they were chosen. They are: Lenar Hoyt, a Catholic priest in his 30s; Fedmahn Kassahd, a Martian of Palestinian descent who is part of the Hegemony’s military; Brawne Lamia, a private detective; Martin Silenus, a poet; Sol Weintraub, a Jewish scholar; Het Masteen, the ship’s captain; and the Consul, an enigmatic man. As for the Shrike, it remains elusive throughout the narrative, appearing constantly yet remaining shrouded in mystery regarding its origin, nature, and motives.
Is ‘Hyperion’ Truly Unadaptable?
Some books would never work as movies, and Hyperion is one. For starters, the structure itself is an issue. Divided into a prologue, an epilogue, and six chapters, Hyperion dedicates these six sections to exploring each of the pilgrims’ backstories, each one with a different genre. For example, Fedmahn’s chapter is a classic military sci-fi story, in keeping with his background as a colonel, while Lamia’s chapter is a hard-boiled detective story that uses noir conventions.
Thematically, Hyperion juggles a lot of very big ideas. Religion is a huge theme, mainly embodied by the character of Lenar and his predecessor, Paul Duré, the first Catholic priest to visit Hyperion. Particularly, Simmons’ book is concerned with the very nature of religion and faith, and how their purpose clashes with the institutions meant to uphold them. Lenar and Duré’s stories are a highlight of Hyperion, blending body horror with profound philosophical questions regarding humanity’s place in a larger universe that seems indifferent to suffering. There are no easy answers here — there’s hardly any answers at all. Instead, Simmons allows his prose to awaken something in us as readers, our curiosity to not only come to our own conclusions but to also look beyond what’s on the page and inwards.
Time is the other major theme in Hyperion. Simmons treats time as something unknowable, a primal force that simply cannot be understood, much less manipulated or toyed with. The book uses the concept of “time debt,” caused by the use of the farcasters and interstellar travel. Yet, the actual debt is more emotional and psychological, resulting in “unlived” time that literally separates an individual from everything they know. The universe of Hyperion is populated by people displaced from their origins, literally lost in space, existing outside of their time, drifting aimlessly in a vast and unforgiving universe that couldn’t care less about them.
All of these heady themes translate beautifully into the page thanks to Simmons’ insightful, soulful writing. The book allows him to explore these ideas in detail, and the use of a first-person perspective adds a layer of intimacy that makes the reader connect to the characters on a more personal level. Any movie or TV show would likely fail to replicate this approach, try as they might. Sure, a talented director or showrunner could easily nail the themes, but it’s the execution that would elude them. There’s a rawness to Simmons’ writing that makes Hyperion impactful, a poetic lyricism that allows him to find unexpected beauty and unembellished truth in heavy themes like grief, love, and sacrifice.
Will We Ever See a ‘Hyperion’ Adaptation?
As early as 2009, there were talks of a Hyperion adaptation. Scott Derrickson was attached at one point, and currently, Bradley Cooper is supposedly adapting it as a movie for Warner Bros. Yet, one can’t help but hesitate because both the TV and film mediums have limitations. If there needs to be an adaptation of this masterpiece, then it should be a TV show. The episodic nature of television would be better suited for Hyperion‘s structure, allowing each character an episode to themselves to truly capture the richness of their narratives. Yet, the book’s universal scope and the ambitious, terrifying nature of the Shrike would work better on a big screen and with the larger resources usually reserved for major blockbusters.
In other words, a Hyperion TV show would be too expensive, and a movie would be too constrictive. Will we ever see an adaptation? Maybe, but I wouldn’t hold my breath. After all, some works of art exist in their ideal form from the get-go, and Hyperion is one. The literary medium is the perfect home for this larger-than-life, genre-bending, once-in-a-lifetime work, a pillar of modern science fiction that has inspired countless writers and will inspire a thousand more.