Major Characters
- The Shrike is a menacing and immensely powerful creature of uncertain origin and motives which appears throughout the narrative, often in a seemingly antagonistic role. It is known for impaling people on a massive tree made of metal, whose branches are massive thorns. It is named after the "Shrike" bird which impales insects and small animals on the thorns of a tree. The pilgrims expect to find the Shrike in the Time Tombs, which are the ultimate destination of their journey, but as they tell their individual tales it becomes clear that the creature is already deeply connected to each of them.
- The Consul is the former planetary governor of Hyperion. He is for much of the first novel enigmatic, observing and recording the stories of the other Shrike Pilgrims but reluctant to record his own. He is one of the few dozens of people amongst the hundred and fifty billion of Hegemony citizens to own his own private starship.
- Meina Gladstone is the CEO of the Hegemony of Man and Commander in Chief, former senator, residing on Tau Ceti Center.
- Lenar Hoyt is a Roman Catholic priest in his early 30's, in a universe where Catholicism has shrunk to a shadow of its former self, claiming only a few thousand followers.
- Fedmahn Kassad is a colonel in the Hegemony of Man's FORCE military, of Palestinian descent from Mars.
- Brawne Lamia is a private detective. Her name likely derives from a combination of Fanny Brawne, the unrequited love of John Keats, and the eponymous creature of his Lamia and Other Poems. Brawne is the daughter of Senator Byron Lamia, once a friend of CEO Meina Gladstone's, who "apparently" committed suicide when Brawne was a child.
- Het Masteen is the most mysterious of all seven pilgrims. He is a Templar—a nature priest of sorts—who captains the Treeship Yggdrasill that brings the pilgrims to Hyperion.
- Treeships are living trees that are propelled by ergs (an alien being that emits force fields) through space. The ergs also generate the containment fields (force fields) around the tree that keep its atmosphere intact. There are only four treeships in existence including the Yggdrasill.
- Martin Silenus is a foul-mouthed poet. Born on Earth before its destruction, he is incredibly old. Like Keats, he is working on an unfinished epic poem.
- Sol Weintraub is a Jewish scholar. His daughter was afflicted with an illness dubbed the "Merlin Sickness" that caused her to age backwards: she gets younger as time progresses.
Read more about this topic: Hyperion (Simmons novel)
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