I just finished reading
Hyperion by Dan Simmons and (edited two days later) also finished the manga
Fire Punch by Tatsuko Fujimoto. This manga is fire and I'd really recommend it, with a small warning for really weird things...
It gives a perspective on survival and how a strong belief can entrap us.
Here's Hyperion's Goodreads page:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/77566.Hyperion
This book took me some extra focus die to constantly changing perspective, but it was executed well..
Seven protagonists on a journey to a distant planet in an Interstellar society with the goal of uncovering the mystery of the anomalous ruins that don't obey the laws of time...
The author did do a bit of research before dealing with the sci-fi concepts, including the fact that space travel can cause "time debts", (ex: you traveling for something that would seem like an 8 month period to you but to your planet it's 10 years)
The Shrike is an enigmatic character, but what I enjoyed is how the author dealt with individual stories, what ranged from a poet's first person perspective to the diary entry-ish but nonetheless chilling record of a certain church figure...and then a Hollywood detective flick in another's case.
All of these significantly different scenarios, split bh planets and eras are unified by the grand technological advancements of this world building.
Would definitely recommend I'd you're a sci-fi fan but it is a great work of imagination.
I'll move on to the sequel but I think I'll take a break from sci-fi and read something else for a while.
I'm reading The Shining currently by Stephen King and it's gripped me
Edit: Hyperion is said to he like The Canterbury Tales, which I haven't read but it's been mentioned a lot so I thought I'd mention it too.