On the world called Hyperion, beyond the law of the Hegemony of Man, there waits the creature called the Shrike. There are those who worship it.

At Jodrell Band in England Observatory in England, a radio telescope has detected a mysterious signal of extraterrestrial origin--a message that

"Agent Gordon's distress calls to P.U.R.S.T. (Pets of the Universe Ready for Space Travel) have gone unanswered. His humans and fellow agents hav