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4.0 AVERAGE
4.0 AVERAGE
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Insufferable characters, glacial pace, dull plot, and a creepy romance with a grown man and a 16-year-old girl made this brutal to read.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A simply amazing book.
This series as well as this book fights the old demons of religious confusion but also tells a tale of amazing adventure, loss and love. Not to mention to the details of the future and past.
This series as well as this book fights the old demons of religious confusion but also tells a tale of amazing adventure, loss and love. Not to mention to the details of the future and past.
In my opinion, Rise of Endymion sets the stage for a sequel way better than Hyperion did, but it looks like Simmons grew tired of it :). Guess we'll never unlock the secrets surrounding the Shrike.
I would have loved to see more of de Soya's interactions & adventures with his crew aboard the Raphael, because it's clear from that one scene that he treated them as family. But overall, I'm extremely happy with de Soya's (and Gregorious'!) character arc.
Go Aenea. We need more people like her in our lives.
I would have loved to see more of de Soya's interactions & adventures with his crew aboard the Raphael, because it's clear from that one scene that he treated them as family. But overall, I'm extremely happy with de Soya's (and Gregorious'!) character arc.
Go Aenea. We need more people like her in our lives.
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
I wish I could purge my recollection of both Endymion and Rise of Endymion. Not so I could go back and re-experience it for the first time, but rather to retain my enjoyment of Hyperion and the Fall of Hyperion without sullying them by association with this overly pretentious religious pontificating that ruined this series for me entirely.
Saving humanity has never been so tedious. I enjoyed Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion, and I flew through Endymion despite putting it off for a long time. Not wanting to forget any details and eager to finish a story that spans almost 1,000 years, I started Rise of Endymion immediately after finishing its predecessor.
That was a mistake.
Maybe if I had taken a brief Dan Simmon hiatus, I wouldn't have felt I was slogging through world after world that bore little impact on the plot. This book seemed to have exceptionally long, long, long descriptions. Yes, Dan Simmons, you are a wonderful artist of words, but this just felt like showing off.
Also, the book suffers from a big problem that isn't its fault: the longer it takes to resolve a mystery, the more disappointing the resolution will be. (See: Lost) But Simmons's solution to tie up loose ends made things even more of a let down. In this book, we are treated to PAGES of monologue from characters explaining everything. Some of these monologues are even in transcript form, making them even more impersonal.
Example:
AENEA: So, even though you wouldn't be reading this book if you hadn't read the previous three in the series, bear with me while I recap the entire plot for you over the course of three or four pages. You might remember it, you might not. Either way, what you were told was a lie. That's right: anything of any mystery or importance in the previous books was a source of misinformation. What really happened is this: [insert two pages] and that is because AIs are bad, except for the ones who are good, because they were sent by a higher power that we never knew about until this very moment and will never explain to you. By the way, all you need is love. Group hug!
*SPOILER*
The whole "love is a fundamental force of the universe" is an interesting theory, but doesn't quite gel with the visceral horror that permeates the rest of the Cantos. Also, Raul Endymion's relationship with Aenea never became *not* creepy to me. He starts as a twelve-year-old girl's guardian, then becomes her lover and father of her child. One thing he did that kept him in the creeper category: calls her "kiddo" after sex.
One thing that did work for me was Aenea's quest for universal empathy. While also being a little creepy--anyone in the universe can no what anyone else in the universe is thinking, feeling, and doing at any particular time--but it's pretty much the only solution to humanity's problems I can think of: complete empathy. It's hard to hurt, oppress, cheat, lie, etc. to another person when you can feel the pain that will result from it.
That was a mistake.
Maybe if I had taken a brief Dan Simmon hiatus, I wouldn't have felt I was slogging through world after world that bore little impact on the plot. This book seemed to have exceptionally long, long, long descriptions. Yes, Dan Simmons, you are a wonderful artist of words, but this just felt like showing off.
Also, the book suffers from a big problem that isn't its fault: the longer it takes to resolve a mystery, the more disappointing the resolution will be. (See: Lost) But Simmons's solution to tie up loose ends made things even more of a let down. In this book, we are treated to PAGES of monologue from characters explaining everything. Some of these monologues are even in transcript form, making them even more impersonal.
Example:
AENEA: So, even though you wouldn't be reading this book if you hadn't read the previous three in the series, bear with me while I recap the entire plot for you over the course of three or four pages. You might remember it, you might not. Either way, what you were told was a lie. That's right: anything of any mystery or importance in the previous books was a source of misinformation. What really happened is this: [insert two pages] and that is because AIs are bad, except for the ones who are good, because they were sent by a higher power that we never knew about until this very moment and will never explain to you. By the way, all you need is love. Group hug!
*SPOILER*
The whole "love is a fundamental force of the universe" is an interesting theory, but doesn't quite gel with the visceral horror that permeates the rest of the Cantos. Also, Raul Endymion's relationship with Aenea never became *not* creepy to me. He starts as a twelve-year-old girl's guardian, then becomes her lover and father of her child. One thing he did that kept him in the creeper category: calls her "kiddo" after sex.
One thing that did work for me was Aenea's quest for universal empathy. While also being a little creepy--anyone in the universe can no what anyone else in the universe is thinking, feeling, and doing at any particular time--but it's pretty much the only solution to humanity's problems I can think of: complete empathy. It's hard to hurt, oppress, cheat, lie, etc. to another person when you can feel the pain that will result from it.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated