If the name Hyperion sounds familiar, you must have been paying attention in mythology class, that Romantic poetry lecture, or both. Hyperion was the Titan god of light. You know, the Titans, those giant things from Greek mythology that are always Clashing and full of Wrath?
More important to this book though, is the fact that Romantic poet John Keats wrote two poems, "Hyperion" and "The Fall of Hyperion." Dan Simmons drew heavily from these poems, and others by Keats, to create his Hyperion Cantos. (Check out our "Character Analysis" for cybrid Johnny to find out more about that.)
Keats didn't finish his poem Hyperion, and, in a way, Simmons didn't finish his Hyperion, either. You'll have to read both Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion to get the whole story.