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?
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. It takes place in the far future after Leviathan Falls.
Holy shit how did I miss that??
Ope nevermind, I did read that.
I think it’s only a month or two after. The far future is the epilogue of lf
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.
First Hyperion book is good but the pedo-apologist subtext that starts in the second book is pretty gross.
Goodness, what a choice to make. They are both excellent, and you should of course read both. Personally, I would start with Hyperion.
Expanse first.
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
Just jump in and hold on. The story emerges beautifully in book one and only gets better.
Man, I loved Dune so much. I haven’t picked up the sequels yet because I still have so much in my backlog, lol.
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.
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 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.
The Expanse.
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. .
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.
I found Hyperion went on a bit but so did the Dune expanded series by Frank’s son.
