Horror master Stephen King said: "I look up to Dan Simmons." Dear reader, when you pick up this novel now, you may still wonder, who is Dan Simmons?How could it make the master of horror novels sigh "Jing Xing Xing Zhi"? , what kind of work is this?Then I will answer you: this is a erudite epic, this is a brilliant scroll, this is a drama with many ups and downs. As an epic, what does it remind us of? The Odyssey? The protagonist of "The Odyssey" drifted on the sea for ten years, and after going through all kinds of difficulties and dangers, he finally returned to his hometown; Go to the Tomb of Time to find the answers to the unsolved mysteries of their lives. Their discoveries may be the key to the salvation of mankind.” Telling the story of seven pilgrims, telling their extraordinary experiences, this experience , and how to bring them to Hyperion.In this sense, there is a certain resonance with "The Odyssey", which is the "Odyssey" of the future, a science fiction epic about seven people.

Is it true?In fact, this is not the case, because this is not only an epic about individuals, but also about the entire human race. , which is part volume epic.This is a four-part series of novels.In addition, it also includes "Andymion" and "The Rise of Andymion". These four volumes add up to truly constitute a magnificent epic. We said it all over again, what does it remind us of?In fact, in the final analysis, the real origin of this novel comes from John Keats, and his unfinished poem of the same name:. In addition, Keats also wrote "The Fall of Hyperion: A Dream" and "Andy Miss".The tetralogy is inextricably linked with Keats.

John Keats, an outstanding Romantic poet in England in the 19th century, has a very important position in the history of world literature.But it was this poet who died young at the age of twenty-six.His mythic epics were modeled on Milton's, but he gave up writing them after almost a year, one of the reasons being to get rid of Milton's influence. Keats, in the first three volumes completed, tells of the older generation of Titans headed by Saturn, who were overthrown and expelled by their sons, the Olympus gods headed by Jupiter. The Titans lost their power, and only Hyperion, the sun god, maintained their rule and dignity, but the Titans were unwilling to surrender, and they planned to restore it.And from Dan Simmons's tetralogy, we can vaguely see the shadow of it, as Silenus's "Psalms" said: "I renamed my poems "Hyperian Psalms". It It's not about the planet, it's about how a group of humans who called themselves Titans perished. It's about a race of mindless arrogance who, through carelessness, destroyed their homeworld and then brought that dangerous arrogance to Among the stars, unexpectedly met the wrath of a god there, and that god was created by human beings." Silenus's "Psalms" is actually telling the legendary story of the entire tetralogy.

But is that the end?Was Dan Simmons just paying homage to Keats?No, as I said before, it is a learned epic, a romantic romance written by a learned old man who has lived through the destruction of the earth, a mixture of flavors and elements.As a sci-fi work, it won the Hugo Award in 1990. Here, we can not only see the grand sci-fi background and structure constructed by the author himself, but also vaguely read the colorful fantasy wonders of other sci-fi writers, such as Jack Vance, William Gibson, Isaac Asimov...At the same time, we can also taste the characteristics of more types of literature-war, suspense, horror, action... Between the lines, you can see Shakespeare, Chaucer, Yeats and many other poets, especially Keats. In addition, you can also read the essence of Thea de Chardin, John Muir, and Norbert Wiener.We can even appreciate the Zen language of Yunmen Wenyan, a famous Zen monk in China.All this constitutes a learned epic; like a so-called frozen void, in which all conscious life, living and dead, is interwoven.All of this, Dan Simmons handles with ease, no wonder Stephen King's admiration.

As a scroll, what does it remind us of?The magnificent "Along the River During the Qingming Festival"?Indeed, in front of our eyes is a magnificent picture scroll of the Milky Way, where we can see real characters, planets, events... Overlords, Destroyers, technological cores, this is the Romance of the Three Kingdoms that appeared in this grand scene. After the three parties sing, I will appear on the stage, you come and go, intrigues, conspiracies, and dangers... The whole background is full of gunpowder and exciting... As for the characters in the picture, we can see that the priest Du Lei and the cross-shaped The struggle between life and death, the soldier Kassad and his unnamed lover, the poet Silenus and his mysterious muse, the scholar Winterberg and his daughter suffering from a mysterious disease, the detective Lamia and his Cybermen The lover, the consul and his ulterior secrets, as well as Masteen, Yueshi... All the characters are vividly vivid on the paper. Linas gritted his teeth, sighed for Winterbo, wiped his tears lightly because of Lamia, and was helpless because of the consul... Just like the poet said: "But in the end, my friend, what determines Is the work immortalized in the parchment, or is it lost? It is the character. Haven't you ever conceived the secret idea that at this very moment, somewhere, Huck and Jim are hauling their raft down some A river far away in the world, but, don’t they come more real than the shoe store clerk who came to try on our shoes in the long-forgotten days?” And looking at the many stars on the picture scroll, it is a star A real planet.The prosperous whale heart, the beautiful and pleasant Maui, the forest world of the saints, the god forest, the backward poisonous gas planet, the gate of heaven, the desert planet Hebron where the Jews live, the highly industrialized Luthers, the ocean planet Infinity Ocean, The Catholic planet Payson, the Muslim planet Qom Riyadh, the glacier world Tianlongxing 7, and the familiar Qingdao-Xishuangbanna... Of course, there is also Hyperion shrouded in mystery.

However, these are nothing. "A Picture of Shanghe on the Qingming Festival" depicts the content of a certain space at a specific time, and the scale of the scroll is even larger. It not only spans a cantilever of the entire Milky Way, but also spans for a whole millennium.From the birth of the first artificial intelligence in 2000, the big mistake in 2238, to the finale in 3136.The one thousand years in between are intricate and interlocking.For a long time, after the rise and fall of the hegemony regime, after the emergence and exit of artificial intelligence. As a multi-act drama with ups and downs.The whole drama will make us think of countless puzzles, cut constantly, and the reasoning is still chaotic.

At the outset, we might ask, what exactly is a Shrike?What exactly are Time Tombs?What is a maze?What is a cruciform?Who is Moneta?What fate will Rachel suffer?Why did the technical core create Jonny?Who's going to kill Johnny?Afterwards, enlightenment was given, and the mystery was revealed, but more questions followed one after another. What is the fate of the pilgrim?Why can Seven and Pilgrim connect?The fate of the ring planet?What exactly is the "comprehension, empathy, and condensed emptiness" in Yunmenkou?What the hell is going on with all of this?The so-called ups and downs are just like this: the answers that have already been revealed are overthrown again, doubts are born again... Is it a conspiracy?trick?is true?is fake?It took more than eight months for the two books to be counted. Although I have worked hard, I am very lucky to be able to coexist with great ideas.The translation is somewhat faithful, but I am ashamed that it is not smooth and smooth, and there are still things that need to be refined, waiting for readers to criticize.Here, I would like to thank Dan Simmons for his erudite epic; thank the editors of Bertelsmann for their kindness to the translator team and give us the opportunity to translate this star-studded science fiction masterpiece; Machines coexist harmoniously; thanks to all those who helped the translator group, Shenhuo, Niuniu, Inorganic, Peter, Johnny, Double Hump and many friends...