I’ve had both, the Hyperion series, and The Expanse series sitting on my shelf for years now, and only ever read a little bit of the first books of both series.
I’m currently re-reading the Lord of The Rings trilogy, but after, I’m planning on reading The Expanse or Hyperion series.
Which should I read first?
Edit: Thank you all so much for your feedback!! The general consensus seems to lean towards reading The Expanse first, so I think I’ll read through Leviathan Wakes and then read Hyperion unless Leviathan Wakes provokes me to directly continue into the second book.
The expanse. The end of that story is stupid good.
I mean, the beginning and middle are good too, but the end of The Expanse series wraps up so nicely in book format.
The last few pages of Leviathan Falls hyped me for a sequel that will never come like no other story ever has.
Man me too… and then like two days after I read the series… I read an article that said the authors wouldn’t ever return to it… lol
I mean it’s perfect… But c’mon man! Damnit!
In case you missed it, they released the novella The Sins of Our Fathers in 2022.
edit: the epilogue takes place in the far future after Leviathan Falls.
I think it’s only a month or two after. The far future is the epilogue of lf
Good catch! Comment has been edited to reflect that detail.
Holy shit how did I miss that??
Ope nevermind, I did read that.
My opinion: Hyperion is a beautiful work of art. I was in awe reading it. You get your mind bent in different ways and it was glorious. The Expanse is very good craftmanship. The authors took a lot of what is good about space opera and put it in this series and it is fun to read. You should read both, but Hyperion first. (it also goes better with the epic experience of Lotr)
Put it this way:
- Expanse is a wild and epic ride
- Hyperion is… heartbreakingly beautiful, and stretches your imagination in fascinating ways
Expanse is like reading an amazing and realistic adventure.
Hyperion is like reading an adventure while high on shrooms.
They’re both very well written and entertaining, but so different in their set-up.
Currently in my life I prefer realistic style scifi over mind bending stuff, so I’d recommend the expanse. .
Not as high as reading Annihilation
Oh man, what a great question. Whatever you choose first will absolutely be the correct choice with these two series. I’ve read through both but Expanse takes the cake for me. The characters and the story are so relatable and you feel like you are part of this world. Hyperion is a trip. The characters aren’t very relatable but they are great regardless. You feel like you are being told a story as opposed to being a part of it. Which makes sense once you start to read it. That doesn’t take away from how phenomenal it is but I just felt more immersed in the Expanse. I’ve also read all of the novellas and watched the show several times. It is inarguably my favorite series so I may be biased.
Expanse.
First Hyperion book is good but the pedo-apologist subtext that starts in the second book is pretty gross.
The fuck?
Goodness, what a choice to make. They are both excellent, and you should of course read both. Personally, I would start with Hyperion.
I’m about to go into Hyperion after a suggestion from a friend, just got through frank herbert’s Dune, finished chapterhouse. Before that I got through all of Asimov.
Not sure what hyperions about at all yet, but looking forward to finding the time! Sorry I don’t have a suggestion
Hyperion is about EVERYTHING!
Man, I loved Dune so much. I haven’t picked up the sequels yet because I still have so much in my backlog, lol.
I feel like the only person on the planet who just couldn’t get into Dune. Tried reading the first book like three separate times but it never grabbed me. I found the Dune wiki to be interesting as hell, and I love Warhammer 40k which I know is pretty directly inspired by Dune, so its weird that I didn’t like it but something about the way it’s written just makes it difficult to follow for me.
Maybe I should try the movies… Sounds kind of blasphemous to me though, even if they are legitimately good movies.
I’ve read the book several times, and seen the movie twice. The film is excellent, and captures the “feel” very well. Don’t worry about blasphemy. You gave the book a fair, honest chance (and while the story is widely praised, the writing is not. You aren’t alone).
No need to deny yourself a great film! I’m excited for the sequel!
Messiah (next book) is pretty short and a good place to stop/pause if you have tons of other stuff to read. When you continue to Messiah, you at least get to see Frank Herbert’s message about the dangers of messianic figures realized.
Honestly, I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t read the sequels. Dune, Messiah, and Children of Dune are phenomenal. The first two moreso. It gets real weird after that, and I don’t mean that lightly. Chapterhouse brings it back around a bit though. Kinda. I’m actually glad they’re stopping after the Dune Messiah movie. Don’t know how they’d make God Emperor interesting or if I’d even want to watch it.
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There’s plans for a Dune Messiah movie?
The director recently said that should the 3rd one get greenlit it will be his last. So it’s not confirmed but its been pretty successful so far.
I really hope we get a third one. I’m a big enough fan that I would happily see the full series in movie form, but I get why they would stop at 2 or 3.
Honestly, I’m just incredibly happy that we got one good movie out of it. Even if it stopped there I’d’ve been happy.
I’d have been a little upset considering the first movie ended half way through the 1st book. Lol
True, but even that much was way more than I thought I’d see in my lifetime. Definitely happy we’re getting the second part, though!
I didn’t care for the Dune sequels at all. The first book is a masterpiece, but the rest to me felt like a waste of time.
I recommend introduction to internal family systems by Richard Schwartz, not quite science fiction but it’s completely altered my consumption of fiction, and I’d love to be able to share that.
I highly recommend going into the rest. I recently read a book called Introduction to Internal Family Systems and I’m having a deeper look into my psyche, reading Dune’s sequels has really helped me understand what it means to have so many different parts of myself that I’m not quite familiar with, or at all really.
Each book really made me feel like Herbert did a lot of introspection, and made me feel better about conflicting emotions that made me feel like a hypocrite before, but accepting each one is the goal now.
The first Dune really explores him taking control of his own mind by “knowing,” the future, but the sequels really take that idea and breaks it down to what all the different parts of him are and how they respond to a single emotion of action, the “jihad.”
Expanse first.
The Expanse.
I just recently read the first Expanse (Leviathan Awakens) and am reading Hyperion. Depends on what you are in a mood for. Expanse is more action-packed and easier to follow. Hyperion is higher up there, takes time to digest.
Both are excellent series.
But the expanse is longer (especially if you’re only considering the first 2 Hyperion books, as some people do), so my suggestion is start the expanse and read Hyperion in between books when you need a break.
I think The Hyperion Cantos is one of the coolest sci-fi series I’ve ever read. It is thought provoking in a way that few stories in the genre are. It’s crazy, and outlandish, and confusing, and amazing! It covers poetry, philosophy, religion, AI, sentience, universal consciousness, and a ton of high-minded concepts. I haven’t read The Expanse, but after watching the series I don’t think it can even begin to compare with Hyperion. The Expanse is a complex sci-fi story that evaluates human destructiveness. Hyperion is a sci-fi story that evaluates everything.
I found Hyperion went on a bit but so did the Dune expanded series by Frank’s son.
Hyperion + the fall of Hyperion -> the expanse -> Endymion + the rise of Endymion
I haven’t read the expanse yet, but Hyperion -> Endymion was way too jarring. I quit the first few times, and loved it after taking a few months long break.
