Watching bad 90's scifi/horror + reading great science fiction

As a kid one Christmas, my brother received Carnosaur on VHS from my Grandma. She must have thought that it was going to be more of a Jurassic Park type of adventure movie. Instead, it is a bad early 90's movie about a a geneticist who plans to breed dinosaurs with spliced DNA. The movie is bad but great in its own right. More violence than you'd think a lower budget movie would have. The puppets themselves look a billion times better than if they would have used CGI animation. I'm watching the movie right now and am enjoying it very much, probably more so for nostalgic reasons. I'd implore anybody to check out the movie if they had a great amount of time on their hands, but there are plenty of other bad movies to watch other than this one.

About 2 weeks ago, I finished reading Hyperion by Dan Simmons. This was an amazing book. One that had me completely engrossed when reading it and one that had me putting off other priorities in order to read it. Often described as a sci-fi version of the Canterbury Tales, the book follows a group of people as they embark on a pilgrimage to confront the Shrike- a mysterious being who acts as the ultimate "villain" in this book. Even at the beginning of the book, it was not what I was expecting. But then again, I didn't really know what I was expecting because I didn't actually know the premise of the novel. I think the fact that it was a series of interconnected stories gave it some gravy points with me. The characters seemed flat at first, but with each character telling their story the development grew substantially. This isn't to say that that a good book MUST have excellent character development. Just look at Rendezvous With Rama. Character development was lacking in that book, however, the story and Clarke's ability to paint an evolving picture of another world is entirely unique and nearly unsurpassable. Back to Hyperion (and it's great cover art):

This book and Fall of Hyperion (it's sequel) were written as one but broken up and released separately. This explains the sudden and seemingly abrupt ending. While some science fiction relies on hypothetical technologies, galactic conflict, or alien environments, Hyperion uses excellent story telling with those elements interspersed. All of the character's tales were very engrossing. The crew involves a preacher, a poet, a scholar, a detective, a soldier, and a consul. The scholar's tale in particular was pretty depressing by itself. His daughter ages backwards until she is literally two weeks old and his wife dies in an accident. The Shrike and the Time Tombs at fault. Let me add that this book was released in 1989, so that's almost twenty years before the movie Benjamin Button (about a man who ages in reverse or something...I haven't seen it). With the development of each story, it seems like a piece of the puzzle is quietly put together as a whole. I appreciated that between stories there was a little break and an update on the progress of the pilgrimage was given. Sometimes it didn't really add much, but it was a reminder of where all the characters currently were in the story. 

The more I think about this book, the more I love the stories. Many different elements here. It's sort of a space opera, deals with A.I., time travel, poetry, and religion. It all blends well in a way that isn't smug or over the top. I give kudos to the author for having the immense talent to write in a way that is inviting and purposeful. This is a classic in my eyes, no doubt. I don't expect that Fall of Hyperion will be as great as this one, but I'm still looking forward to reading it soon to discover how the pilgrimage will end.