Two evil fractions, one down to Earth and the physical world with the head in the faithful interstellar clouds and the big surprise one, are the basis of the finale of a bombastic, unforgettable sci-fi wonderwork. Simmons continues the deconstruction of faith, accelerates the plot, and leaves one afterward with the big questions of how much one didn´t get:Is it humankind misusing a gift or was the present always poisonous, its intent always negative and destructive?How many innuendos are hidden

The scene where Corporal Bassin Kee is undergoing torture at the hands of the Grand Inquisitor , who uses a machine that simulates "crushed testicles" and "hot wire behind right eye" in the victim's brain ... that's a good approximation of the experience I had reading this book. There's Dan Simmons sitting at his desk, finger poised over a computer keyboard. In the place of letters, each key has a different literary torture: "moldy info dump forced down throat", "insufferable protagonist buzzes

THE RISE OF ENDYMION is the fourth and final volume of Dan Simmons' Hyperion saga and the conclusion of the storyline begun in ENDYMION. I only plodded through that book because I wanted to reach the end, and with THE RISE OF ENDYMION even that motivation almost dried up.The problems are legion. The book is overlong, with huge sections that just serve no legitimate purpose, such as Raul's time in the Temple Hanging in Air. Simmons' extends his work as much as he can to give it an "epic" feel, bu...

This book could have been half the length and I would have been thrilled.Too much philosophizing. Too much useless description, too much exposition of the "science" behind why the characters were able to do what they did. The plot "twist," if it was meant to be one, was pretty damned obvious immediately.Again, de Soya was much more compelling than any of the major characters, and he's relegated to an even less important role in this book. SO DISAPPOINTING. He may be one of my favorite characters...

After four years on Old Earth, Raul Endymion resumes the voyage on the river Tethys to find the Consul's ship. Meanwhile, Aenea leaves Old Earth behind to find her destiny. In addition to hunting for the One Who Teaches, The Pax launches a Crusade to wipe out the Ouster menace once and for all. Will Aenea fulfill her destiny and end the Pax's reign once and for all?I have to admit, I was skeptical for the first half of this book. It wasn't urination-inducing good like the first two and I actuall...

The Great Hyperion re-read.You know, I actually PREFER it when I am flummoxed when I have to write a review. It usually means that there is often SO MUCH going on in the pages, or it must be read in context to the full four-book cycle to make TRUE sense, or it means that it just blew my mind.In this case, all three happened. And then I was told to Choose Again. Great line. Simple. Mysterious. And easily applicable to every single moment of our lives. Ask yourself, "Do you want to be doing this?

I hate this book. I hate the narrator. I hate the main character. Hyperion I enjoyed. And for the rest of the series, the story, the characters, the drama-- everything just... declined. When I read Hyperion, I had real investment in the characters-- making it through their quest alive (or not, but that's also a testament to how fantastic the story and character development were-- I had strong opinions about all of them), finding resolution, etc. By The Rise of Endymion, most of those characters

Finally I have finished the entire Hyperion Cantos, the series than began with the all-time sci-fi classic Hyperion, almost concluded in The Fall of Hyperion, launched a second arc in Endymion and ends here with The Rise of Endymion. These last two books read more like a duology than the third and fourth installations of a series. The Cantos is often discussed in PrintSF, my sci-fi books discussions online community. The second half of the series tend to be quite polarizing. Some people love it,...

Simmons dropped the ball on this one. He contradicts himself where he’s not blatantly spamming retcons in an attempt to steer his narrative onto a logical course before it concludes. He kills the wonderful momentum he’s built about halfway through the book by indulging himself in an orgy of mountain-climbing minutiae and introducing sixty fucking new characters who have a questionable reason for existing and contribution to the plot. He wraps up loose ends and provides explanations that are, if

The Rise of Endymion is the fourth and last of the full-length Hyperion Cantos novels by Dan Simmons. It is a well-written, exciting, thought-provoking, and wistful conclusion to one of my favorite series. As I finished reading it, memories of watching The Wizard of Oz for the first time on my grandmother's 15" RCA television, the kind set into a wooden cabinet, ran through my mind. Little Mr. Windup Bird, so sad that he couldn't jump into the television and go on an adventure with Dorothy, Toto...

6.0 stars. On my list of All Time Favorites (along with the other three books of the Hyperion Cantos). In my opinion, along with the Dune series, the Hyperion Cantos is the best SF space opera series ever written and Dan Simmons is one of the best writers working today. Hyperion is a recognized classic in SF, but I believe that the other three books in the Cantos, The Fall of Hyperion, Endymion and this novel are equally superb and I think readers are really missing out if they stop at the first...

I survived!As I’ve reported in my previous reviews of this series there were times where it seemed as if my gray matter was going to be permanently fried by this epic sci-fi story. I finally got through to the end with most of my marbles still in the bag they came in.It’s almost impossible to give a summary of this without spoiling the previous book so I’ll just say that Aenea and Raul Endymion continue their interstellar journey to fulfill her ultimate destiny as the powerful forces of a corrup...

I will never get over the perfection of Hyperion Cantos. I am obsessed. Speechless. Confused.But moved. 😭🤍

This review is for both Endymion, book 3 in the Hyperion Cantos tetrology and Rise of Endymion, which is book 4. If you have not read Books 1 and 2, take a look at my review here first. I was a big fan of Books 1 and 2, but I'm split right down the middle on Books 3 and 4. Book 3 was a thrilling sci fi adventure ride, but Book 4 drove me up a wall. Different kind of ride. The following review probably won't make much sense, or be worth reading, unless you are familiar with Books 1 and 2 or my pr...

Very disappointed with the conclusion of the series. Halfway through the book I paused and checked to make sure I wasn't reading Twilight. The evolution into a love story was forced and I felt absolutely none of the chemistry and undying love and loyalty that was supposed to have grown between Raul and Aenea. On top of that, her repeated response of "I'll explain later" to a lot of the plot-hole seeming sections were never actually explained! The sex scenes were unnecessary and just seemed like

In a galaxy far, far away, (the Large Magellanic Cloud, 160,000 light years from Sol) and over 1,000 years in the future, there lived two fugitives devoted lovers, Raul Endymion of Hyperion and the new messiah Aenea, a product of human and nonhuman parents. The strange thing is they reside on Old Earth somehow our planet has been poached there by AI, artificial intelligence ( some are immensely evil). Still the couple is happy a quiet, peaceful existence after a titanic struggle for survival, bu...

Aye on the shores of darkness there is light,And precipices show untrodden green;There is a budding morrow in midnight;There's a triple sight in blindness keen...I don't think I'll be able to review this one properly, and as it's the fourth and last book, I hardly think I'll be able to influence anyone to read the series or not either way.So all I have to say is that I've really enjoyed this journey Dan Simmons has allowed me to go on, in the countless worlds of his Hyperion Cantos. This book ha...

The titular character being hurt and clueless is initially literally his only quality in this book. The variety of planets depicted is more appealing than in the predecessor book, as is the fact that the wider conflict between homogeneity/stability versus diversity/growth/uncertainty finally gets into focusIrritated by all of these puzzles hidden in enigmas hidden in codeMuch better than Endymion, but also (again) massively too long. The whole solo quest of Endymion (following the rather well wo...

Holy shitballs. I'm finally done with this book. With this series! So this shit right here is exactly why I read science fiction. It’s got EVERYTHING YOU COULD POSSIBLY WANT. Well, these last two books have been lacking the humor of the first two, mostly because the foul-mouthed poet Martin Silenus was relegated to a background role, but he was there a little bit at the beginning of the last book and the beginning and end of this one, so there was a little bit of humor there. But seriously EVERY...

This proved to be a satisfying conclusion to the Endymion duology and the Hyperion Cantos series as a whole. The quality of the series remained consistent throughout and Dan Simmons did a fantastic job of wrapping up all the ongoing story arcs and mysteries. Much like the first Endymion book this one mainly focused on telling the tale of Raul Endymion and his lover, the new Messiah, Aenea as they sought to expose the corruption of the Pax Church and to fight against the corruption of the Void Th...