You'd think that with thousands and thousands of years of experience and history, humans would have figured out a way to settle their differences that didn't involve guns and giant honking bombs. Nope. Even 700 years from now, we're still fighting and killing. Hyperion shows us a couple of wars that occurred before the main narrative takes place, most of the battles over land and resources. And then there's the war-mongering Ousters, who are war-mongering, but we can't even figure out what their angle is. All we know is that the Hegemony sees them as a threat. The brutal fights with this race of people (who seem to be just as human as we are) makes us echo the late Rodney King when we say, "Can't we all get along?"
Questions About War
- What are the reasons for war in the 28th century? Land? Resources? Boredom? Are we supposed think that war is just universal, and there's no way to stop it?
- How has warfare changed in 700 years? What's stayed the same? How plausible is it that tacticians would still be studying ancient wars?
- Why is the Hegemony at war with the Ousters?
- Do you believe there is such a thing as honorable warfare?