Fabulous novel. One even the literary snob types might like, given the structure and all the Keats work.The novel has a Canterbury Tales type feel, as a group of men and women travelling to the important planet Hyperion tell their stories.Travel is instantaneous throughout the galaxy thanks to the TechnoCore, an AI group and their farcaster technology. People can literally have different rooms of their houses on different planets.Hyperion is the site of the Time Tombs, an artifact travelling back in time, sent by an unknown entity.The planet will be the site of an attack by a rogue group of far travelling humanity called the Ousters, upon the stay at homes, unflatteringly terming themselves the Hegemony.The travelling band must also deal with The Shrike, a monstrous avatar of pain.