Dan Simmons - The Hyperion Cantos Site

The enemy is not out there. The enemy is the need for an enemy.

“And you?” I asked. “What is your story?”

Yes.

“What, then?” I whispered.

The Consul knew. That is why he smiled. That is why he did nothing. Dan Simmons - The Hyperion Cantos

The story itself. The need for conflict. The hunger for a villain.

“I am an envoy,” I said, my voice steady only because my lungs had been bred for vacuum. “My people wish to know: are you a god, or a machine?” The enemy is not out there

It came at the false dawn—that moment when Hyperion’s twin suns tangled their light into paradox. Four meters of chrome and malice. Blades where hands should be. A face of such beautiful, pitiless geometry that I understood, for the first time, the true meaning of the word numinous .

Do you know who I am? he subvocalized on a band I barely heard. I was the poet. “What is your story

Both were wrong.

The Shrike tilted its head. A gesture almost human. Almost.