Hyperion

Dan Simmons' science fiction novel Hyperion about a group of space pilgrims is a homage to Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. Though the setting is different and more static—that of a group of nobles recusing themselves from the plague—Boccaccio’s Decameron is a similar idea. "Old wine in new bottles," is the analogy Strindberg uses in the preface to Miss Julie. In 10,000 years an earthling might engage in a quotidian activity albeit with a host of other forces at work. Chaucer’s would not have been able to envision a large metal bird (e.g. an Airbus 320) flying above his Pardoner. Baby boomers did not envision the internet anymore than Gen X did AI. What will be next?

read the review of The Wormhole Society by Francis Levy and Joseph Silver in The East Hampton Star