Remembering Dan Simmons: Hyperion Author Dies at 77

His debut novel hit bookshelves in 1985 and won the 1986 World Fantasy Award. The book, inspired by a trip to Kolkata, tells the story of an American magazine editor in search of a precious manuscript by a mysterious poet. Instead of the poet, however, the editor finds a cult devoted to Kali, goddess of death. 

Song of Kali is a perfect representation of the horror and fantastical that defined his work. It was so successful that in 1987, Simmons took one of the most frightening steps any author can take when he quit his job and left teaching to become a full-time author.

Similar in structure to Chaucer's classic Canterbury Tales, the Hyperion Cantos is a classic in its own right. Published in 1989, just two years after Simmons quit teaching, Hyperion won the Hugo Award for best novel and kicked of a series that would define science fiction for years to come. Not only did the work enjoy commercial and critical success, but it's been cited as a major influence for current bestsellers like Pierce Brown.

Following multiple timelines in the distant future, the story details the Hegemony of Man: a collection of hundreds of planets connected by far-flung technology. One planet outside of this web is called Hyperion, and it cannot be accessed without incurring time dilation. The select few sent to Hyperion must infiltrate the Time Tombs and best the guardian of the tombs, a legendary creature called the Shrike. But how they each came to be selected is just as interesting as their quest.

If it weren't enough to publish Hyperion in 1989, Simmons also released Carrion Comfort, which won the Bram Stoker Award that year. The novel portrays a small faction of humanity with “The Ability,” otherwise known as psychic powers. Those with The Ability can make humans into their puppets from any distance, which means that everyone's actions may or may not be their own at any given moment…

In 1992, Simmons revealed his latest horror project, called Summer of Night. The novel, which won the 1992 Locus Award, is set in Elm Haven, Illinois. Someone (or something) has taken a child, which becomes the first in a series of unsettling events. 

This is only fitting, as the book itself kickstarted a four-book series that can be read independently of one another. The conclusion came 10 years later with 2002's A Winter Haunting. Combining his writerly instincts with his background as a teacher, Simmons writes about college professor and novelist Dale Stewart, who returns to Elm Haven following the disastrous end of his marriage. His new house once belonged to his boyhood friend, Duane McBride, who lost his life in an “accident” decades before…

Also published in 2002, Worlds Enough & Time proves that there's no end to Simmons's talent or imagination. This collection of five stories takes readers across galaxies and genres alike, spanning from dark fantasy to space opera and even mainstream fiction. Anyone curious to try a sample of his work without diving into an epic-length tale will be well-served by this collection.

The title of this book, which won the British Fantasy Award in 2008 and was adapted into an AMC TV series, is derived from a ship called HMS Terror. A fictionalized account of an 1845 expedition seeking to traverse the Northwest Passage, the Terror is stranded and its crew are plagued by starvation and illness. 

Mutiny and cannibalism are dangerous enough, and that's before considering the Arctic monster that seems to be tracking them…

An introspective novel about an astronaut returning from space, Phases of Gravity offers a distinct change of pace compared to the others on this list. Published in 2014, the novel follows Richard Baedecker as he contends with everything he lost while pursuing his dream.