The Fall of Hyperion

On the world called Hyperion the mysterious Time Tombs are opening and seven pilgrims risk their lives to petition the entity called the Shrike - a creature that may well control the fate of all mankind. The Hegemony of Man - a thousand thousand worlds linked by a network of farcaster portals and high-tech gateways - is under siege by Ousters, strange, half-human tribes mutated almost beyond recognition. The AIs - Artificial Intelligences whose synthetic wisdom created and maintains the nets that bind the Hegemony - have become a threat; it seems they have turned against the Hegemony and all mankind. And there is evidence that they have begun a project to create the Ultimate Intelligence - to build, in short, God. God of Machines: the ultimate deus ex machina. His genesis may well mean man's annihilation. Something is drawing the Hegemony, the AIs, the Ousters, and indeed the entire universe, towards the Shrike and the Time Tombs from which it has arisen. In a moment the paths of man, machine and god will intersect. Nothing will ever be the same.