History Literature / HyperionCantos

* Really700YearsOld: Courtesy of spending over a century as a HumanPopsicle on a slower-than-light ship, time debt from relativistic travel, and liberal application of anti-aging treatments, Martin Silenus is much older than he looks. The physical signs of Pulson treatments make him look around 150, but he was born on a planet that was destroyed 400 years before the start of the series.

* SciFiWritersHave/NoSenseOfEnergy: Certain starships are depicted as capable of devastating entire planets and blowing up ''stars''. However, any time actual firepower is described, it is kiloton level beams and megaton-level missiles, delivered in single-digit salvos. You'd have to spend a ''long'' time destroying anything as big as a planet (or a trillion square kilometers of [[spoiler:forcefield-protected tree]]) that way.
** Could be because all explicitly noted firepower yields were for Ouster and [[spoiler:[=TechnoCore=] masquerading as Ouster]] ships, which are generally inferior to Hegemony/Pax ships and fight using Zerg Rush tactics.
** Also, even the best ships seem to have real problems when entering the upper layers of red giants.Red giants are relatively cool and ''really'' low density. You'll be hard pressed to absorb more than a couple megatons per hour inside one.

* AIIsACrapshoot: The [=TechnoCore=] is composed of artifical intelligences who seceded from human control several centuries ago and peacefully coexist with humanity. This looks like a subversion until we learn the inner politics of the core, with the [=AIs=] falling into three political factions. Of the three, one wants to continue peaceful coexistence with humanity, one wants to wipe humanity out, and the third wants to keep humanity around--at least until it finishes its goal of creating the Ultimate Intelligence, of which humanity ''could'' be a useful component, and then they can let the Ultimate Intelligence decide what to do with humanity. This stalemate of "spare," "kill," and "don't kill right now," is what leads to the Core's nominally symbiotic relationship with the Hegemony. This trope is played ''much'' straighter in ''The Fall of Hyperion.''

** The [=TechnoCore=] AI Ummon describes in the form of {{Koan}} vagueties that the [=TechnoCore=] actually looks at ''IBM'' and other big electronics firms that began mass-producing in bulk as their primitive, distant ancestor. Specifically, the parts ''produced'' were their "ancestors", not the producents themselves. They look at these parts and what Earth used them for much in the same way a human might look at a caveman and be perplexed that humans survived to the modern day.

* MerlinSickness: The TropeNamer. A "disease" in ''Hyperion'' that Rachel Weintraub contracts after contact with the Time Tombs causes her to age backwards (as well as progressively lose her memory).

** Nemes, when phase shifted, shows invulnerability second only to the Shrike. Even a laser measured in the gigawatts (stated to be the full energy output of a warship at TimTaylorTechnology levels) does little more than seal her in.

* DoingInTheWizard: Zig-zagged. In the first two books the Shrike has an air of mystery heightening its scariness. In the later two book its origins are fully explained and retconned in a way that make it clear that it is ''still'' a bit short of being an outright PhysicalGod. [[WrestlerInAllOfUs It still dropkicked the living shit out of the only thing that could even look at it funny at one point]], so there's still AwaysABiggerFish.

* DoingInTheWizard: In the first two books the Shrike has an air of mystery heightening its scariness. In the later two book its origins are fully explained and retconned in a way that rather diminishes its badassness.

* AllHailTheGreatGodMickey: The Templars and the Voice of the Tree appear to worship [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Muir John Muir]], a major proponent for the preservation of American forests in the early 19th Century. A book by Muir is found among Het Masteen's possessions after [[spoiler:he is apparently killed by the Shrike.]] The Templars' devotion to Muir vaguely resembles that of Literature/BraveNewWorld's adulation of Henry Ford as a god-figure in the future, except done for the sake of hardcore environmentalism instead of worshipping the inventor of the car.

* LackOfEmpathy: ''Rise of Endymion'' states this to be a defining characteristic of the [=TechnoCore=]. Having evolved from parasitic proto-A.I.s that cannibalized one another to survive, modern A.I.s are incapable of viewing other life forms--even fellow A.I.s--as anything but potential hosts, tools to be used and discarded once they are no longer useful, or threats. This predatory mindset and lack of empathy prevents them from properly attuning with the Void Which Binds, forcing them to rely on inefficient technological workarounds.

* AllHailTheGreatGodMickey: The Templars and the Voice of the Tree appear to worship [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Muir John Muir]], a major proponent for the preservation of American forests in the early 19th Century. A book by Muir is found among Het Masteen's possessions after [[spoiler:he is apparently killed by the Shrike.]] The Templars' devotion to Muir vaguely resembles that of Literature/BraveNewWorld's adulation of Henry Ford as a god-figure in the future.

* RubberForeheadAliens: Averted. Several sapient species described in Hyperion are incredibly different. Even the Ousters, who are genetically altered humans, look radically different from normal humans.

* BodyHorror: The cruciforms are embedded in the flesh of their hosts.

* SpaceCossacks: The Ousters are seen as barbarians by the Hegemony who altered their body to inhuman degree so they could live in zero gravity society.

* AwesomeMcCoolname / NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast:
** Rhadamanth Nemes, and her three siblings Scylla, Gyges, and Briareus.
** The Shrike.

* GlorifiedSpermDonor: Martin's father takes this trope UpToEleven.

* FaceHeelTurn: It's revealed in ''Endymion'' that [[spoiler:Hoyt murders Duré and becomes the Pope. By spreading the cruciform to all of humanity, he enslaves it to the Core.]]
* FalloutShelterFail: In the second book, the leader of one religion builds a shelter for himself deep inside a mountain to live in comfort until the end of the world his church expects. He gets a massive Oh, Crap! moment when the end of the world doesn't come...but the collapse of the PortalNetwork does. To explain, the portals were the only way to get in or out of the shelter...or to let air ''in.''
* FalseFlagOperation: In Fall of Hyperion, [[spoiler:the [=TechnoCore=] attacks dozens of Web worlds with fake Ouster Swarms in a ploy to convince the Hegemony that the Ousters are genocidal monsters who can't be stopped by conventional means. This fake invasion makes the Hegemony's leaders desperate enough to consider using a hideously destructive superweapon against the real Ousters, which is exactly what the Core wants.]]
* FantasticReligiousWeirdness: A very heavy theme throughout the series. In the first two books, religions have gone through some changes. The Roman Catholic Church, for example, is almost dead, and have made Jesuit philosopher Teilhard de Chardin a saint, integrating his teachings heavily into the Catechism. Judaism, with Israel destroyed, has "lost its significance". And while many communities exist, the whole practice has become [[ReplacementGoldfish like a theme park]], according to Sol at least. A syncretic religion called "Zen Gnosticism", [[BeenThereShapedHistory created in part by Martin Silenus]], has evolved out of what were Christianity and Buddhism, and is apparently the most followed faith in the Hegemony. And Islam has become something called "High Islam".

* HumanPopsicle: Used for interstellar travel. Silenus uses this to extend his life, and [[spoiler:the Core does this to billions of humans in the second half of the series to use them as massive parallel processors.]]