14

In The Fall of Hyperion, a resurrected Paul Duré encounters the Shrike, and it's stated that the Shrike removes his cruciform/resurrection parasite as a means of granting his wish for death. That leaves him with just Lenar Hoyt's cruciform on his body, meaning that when Duré dies he'd resurrect as Hoyt and also that the resurrected Hoyt will not be able to resurrect as Duré when he passes away himself.

However, in subsequent novels it's stated that Duré does in fact resurrect each time Hoyt dies, and that Hoyt/Duré still carries two cruciforms on his body. Even towards the end of Fall of Hyperion the text makes mention of Duré still having two cruciforms (without explanation), seemingly forgetting about the one that the Shrike removed.

So what's the deal? Is this just a case of the author carelessly forgetting a (fairly major) plot point? Or did Duré get a third cruciform at some point to replace the one that the Shrike removed? Or did the Shrike not really remove the second one in the first place?

Is there any canonical explanation for the seemingly magical reappearance of Duré's second cruciform?

1
  • 4
    I don't have any textual support for this offhand, but I sorta thought that in the subsequent books, it is implied that Hyperion is the actual book Martin Silenus wrote, and that Silenus fudged some of the details for his own purposes, and as such the first book can be considered to have an unreliable narrator.
    – Paul
    Commented Oct 18, 2016 at 16:19

1 Answer 1

-1

I suspect the TechnoCore retained possession of the Duré cruciform and re-implanted it on Father Hoyt at its first opportunity.

As to why they would do that? Perhaps it was to provide a psychological hold on Hoyt, who was also likely aware of his alternating existence with Duré. The TechnoCore probably saw him as easier to control than Duré, so made a deal with him: do what we say, and we'll kill Duré each time he resurrects to allow you to live again.

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.