If you squint really hard, and don’t think too much about the necromancy, it’s basically an astrophysics textbook with a healthy side of lesbianism. For their galactic travels, Simmons has graciously conceptualized several far-out spaceships whose merit hard sci-fi fans will be happy to debate. The seamless blend of hard sci-fi and space fantasy makes Hyperion my favorite book of all time. The spider society—including spider architecture, spider language, spider fiction archetypes, and more—is a master class in not just world-building but culture-building that I’m still thinking about over a decade later. I find it hard to imagine a single virus adaptable enough to guide an entire species to technological prowess.