The Rise of Endymion (1997)

Superb. An awesome and totally right ending to the Hyperion Cantos. What can I say about this book? You are reading it because you have read the other three. Really, there isn't much point otherwise. Hyperion was so strong, that even the brilliance of the Fall of Hyperion could not quite match it, although it had a pretty good go. Endymion is the weakest of the four, and could be easily half the length. It's more a saga than anything else, just adventures, with no great purpose to where and why, albeit enjoyable in itself and well-written.

But this is all turned around in this book. the reasons for everything, right from the beginning, are explained. And how Raul and Aenea fit in to the story and change the universe.

A few passages of Simmons' are annoying, particularly when he talks of Aenea from Raul's experience of their love, but otherwise, the prose is expertly put together. The way all the books of the Cantos fit within Keats' vision of his poems is also brilliant.

I am not going to say any more, except, read it. If you haven't read the other three yet, what the hell are you doing here, looking at reviews of the last one for? Go and read Hyperion.

NOW! ( )

Ok, finished the two novels of the second half of the Hyperion story last night. I enjoyed, overall, but not as much fun as the first two novels. As with most sequels these two suffer from the need to wrap all of the lose ends together and also, something I find very annoying, find it necessary to throw away part of the back story to move the plot along.

The story—three centuries later. A new chap enters the scene, his job is to bring a new messiah (a little girl, related to the first novels), into the new world. He does this with lots of adventures. The post-Hegemony universe has been replaced with a Catholic church dictatorship, created and supported with a church sponsored earthly resurrection. Yes, if you submit to the CC, have a "cruciform" implanted on your chest, after you die you will be restored. Cool. The problem is that the cruciforms are links and part of the evil AI network (the "core"), and the resurrection process does immense damage to the universe. The blood of the little girl, now grown, when consumed, kills the cruciform.

There is a great deal of interesting story telling here, and some interesting characters. Yet, I still prefer the first two novels, and, I prefer the "Troy" novels to the "Hyperion". That is just me. ( )

Second readthrough has elevated this series to my all-time favorite books of any genre. Holy hell. So much passion and beauty in these and it gets better as the series goes on. ( )

Gave up reading this e-book because of the numerous syntax errors. Great read - if it's the hardback edition.

http://speculiction.blogspot.com/2012/10/review-of-rise-of-endymion-by-dan.html ( )