Hyperion by Dan Simmons
The Human Hegemony’s universe is in danger in the 29th century. The warlike Ousters are about to invade, and the strange plots of the secessionist AI TechnoCore are bringing disaster closer. Seven pilgrims embark on a last-ditch journey to the fabled Time Tombs on Hyperion, the home of the Shrike, a deadly hybrid of a god and a killing machine whose abilities transcend space and time, just before tragedy strikes and the entire galaxy is at war. The pilgrims have made the decision to pass away before learning anything less than the secrets of the cosmos.
Hyperion by Dan Simmons
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An incredibly creative look at the (fantasy) future of humanity some hundred years in the future, following their migration (Hegira) from the wrecked Earth.
A small group of seven unrelated individuals travel in peril to the contested and enigmatic world of Hyperion to make a request of something called The Shrike. They may all perish horribly, or one of them may somehow persuade The Shrike with their story and be granted their greatest, and magical, wish, as an apocalyptic war between opposing sides of the descendants of humanity builds to its ultimate confrontation.
They become acquainted by telling each other their personal stories, each of which is gripping as an individual Tale and also offers hints as to the nature of how the world currently functions, as they move through the various phases of their journey and as events in the world outside the near-light-speed phase of their journey advance quickly (since real-world time is moving at a much faster rate of time).
They each have a heartbreakingly compelling story to tell, a need or wish that they believe only The Shrike can fulfil, and they are aware that, at best, only one of them will have their wish fulfilled. However, it is their last hope to embark on this perilous, and most likely fatal, expedition in order to have their wish granted. They come from different backgrounds on different worlds that had been settled and altered by their distant Earthling ancestors.
The Hegemony, which rules the larger universe in which they all reside, is controlled by one of them, and that person is a spy, possibly, in some way. Will the telling of their stories disclose which of them is the traitor, and are any, or all, of them, speaking the whole truth?
