Best Dan Simmons Audiobooks
Dan Simmons plays at a scale most science fiction writers don't dare attempt. The Hyperion Cantos — beginning with Hyperion and continuing through The Fall of Hyperion — is a structurally audacious series that borrows Chaucer's Canterbury Tales framework to deliver some of the genre's most haunting concepts: the time-devouring Shrike, the torment of the Time Tombs, futures where humanity has spread so far it has lost itself. Simmons writes with philosophical density and gothic atmosphere in equal measure, weaving literary allusions into hard SF without apology. His horror work runs just as dark — visceral and ideas-driven rather than purely visceral. Readers who want their science fiction to carry genuine weight, to grapple with mortality and meaning while still delivering propulsive plot, will find Simmons one of the genre's most rewarding writers. Not for the impatient — for the serious.
Where to Start with Dan Simmons
- Best entry point → Hyperion
- Best standalone → The Terror
- Start the Seasons of Horror series → Summer of Night
- What fans keep coming back to → The Fall of Hyperion
- Best narrator for Dan Simmons → Endymion
- Highest rated by listeners → The Rise of Endymion (Hyperion Cantos #4)
Best Dan Simmons Audiobooks
- 1
Endymion
Hyperion Cantos • Book 3
by Dan Simmons, Gary Ruddell
Narrated by Victor Bevine
★ 4.39 ABR Score (80.4K ratings)★ 4.19 Goodreads (71.6K) ★ 4.63 Audible (8.8K)More about this pick
Raoul Endymion embarks on a quest to protect Aenea, the messiah-child from Hyperion's Time Tombs. Bevine navigates Simmons's complex universe as the story shifts from pilgrimage to space opera across multiple worlds.
- 2
The Fall of Hyperion
Hyperion Cantos • Book 2
by Dan Simmons
Narrated by Victor Bevine
★ 4.38 ABR Score (165.0K ratings)★ 4.24 Goodreads (150.4K) ★ 4.53 Audible (14.6K)More about this pick
As the Time Tombs open on Hyperion, the fate of human civilization hangs in the balance between competing AIs and cosmic forces. Simmons concludes his space opera with universe-shaking revelations about humanity's destiny.
- 3
The Rise of Endymion
Hyperion Cantos • Book 4
by Dan Simmons
Narrated by Victor Bevine
★ 4.35 ABR Score (74.5K ratings)★ 4.17 Goodreads (65.8K) ★ 4.6 Audible (8.6K)More about this pick
Nearly 30 hours of space opera as Raul Endymion protects humanity's new messiah against a genocidal Crusade threatening to enslave the galaxy forever.
- 4
Hyperion
Hyperion • Book 1
by Dan Simmons
Narrated by Marc Vietor, Allyson Johnson, Kevin Pariseau, Jay Snyder, Victor Bevine
★ 4.31 ABR Score (328.7K ratings)★ 4.28 Goodreads (303.0K) ★ 4.37 Audible (25.7K)More about this pick
Seven pilgrims journey to meet the deadly Shrike in Canterbury Tales meets space opera. Multiple narrators handle each pilgrim's backstory, creating distinct voices for this sprawling, genre-bending epic about humanity's cosmic reckoning.
- 5
The Terror
by Dan Simmons
Narrated by Tom Sellwood
★ 4.20 ABR Score (80.8K ratings)★ 4.09 Goodreads (75.7K) ★ 4.43 Audible (5.1K) - 6
Summer of Night
Seasons of Horror • Book 1
by Dan Simmons
Narrated by Dan John Miller
★ 4.08 ABR Score (33.1K ratings)★ 4.04 Goodreads (29.2K) ★ 4.21 Audible (3.8K)More about this pick
Five twelve-year-old boys in 1960s Illinois face supernatural horror when classmates begin disappearing around their creepy old school. Simmons channels Stephen King's nostalgic terror in this coming-of-age nightmare.
- 7
Bloodsuckers: The Vampire Archives
Vampire Archives • Book 1
by Otto Penzler, Stephen King, Tanith Lee, Dan Simmons, Bram Stoker, Neil Gaiman - preface, Otto Penzler
Narrated by Scott Brick, Fred Sanders, Mark Deakens, Susan Duerden, Simon Vance, Marc Cashman, Stephen Hoye, Allyson Ryan
★ 3.42 ABR Score (461 ratings)★ 3.47 Goodreads (322) ★ 3.61 Audible (139)More about this pick
This comprehensive vampire anthology spans from Stoker to Stephen King, exploring every facet of undead horror across centuries. Eight different narrators including Scott Brick and Simon Vance tackle the diverse collection.