>>213426338
Another anon was also reading and mentioned it. Some security guy. Anyways Hyperion can feel a little colder than New Sun even with it's emotionally poignant moments. I get the feeling Dan Simmons is a big history guy, his story comes off with the coldness of a historical lens rather than the raw emotional whirlwind of Gene Wolfe. It's got the same kind of crypto-Christian themes, but it's the difference between reading about religion, and feeling the terrible weight of actual religious experience which deforms the mind.
Another difference is that Hyperion definitely has a more traditional confrontational antagonist that our heroes are up against. The various confrontations that Severian experiences are up against people who very much feel like they are just part of the world as surely as the Innkeeper and Jolenta, all just players in one show.

On the note of experiences which permanently deform the mind, since New Sun trains you to read Gene Wolfe, there are places you can go after that. Can't really say they are better, or even suggest them. All I can say is that it's hard to go back to Book of the New Sun after reading them.