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4.0 AVERAGE
4.0 AVERAGE
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
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
This book was, overall, an excellent read. It tied up the Hyperion cantos in a satisfying and logical way, making space for both joyful and heart-wrenching outcomes. The only reason I gave it four instead of five stars was that there was some dialogue in the final chapter that didn't seem to fit, based on the established character dispositions. Otherwise, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
This book finally tied everything together for me! I hate to have a story be unfinished and I am so glad I pushed to the end. This final book was well worth a read. If you made it through the first 3, then do yourself a favor and read the final book. I would give this book 4.5 stars if I could. It was the best book of the four in the series.
Favorite book series of all time. Don't forget to read all 4!
I'm exhausted. This series has spanned 2.200+ pages and more than 10 centuries! It covers lifetimes of characters, many lived over and over and a few lived once throughout the entire story! (20 years shy of 1000 years old, one character!) The story was convoluted and continuously changed which ultimately worked for and against the series.
As the concluding novel in this epic story, it felt a little hollow. There were definitely moments of amazement and creativity and Simmons intelligence once again comes across unquestionably, but for some reason it just felt a little hollow and most definitely rushed at the end. Even though I hadn't fully thought through the end of the novel when I got there I was not surprised at the ending. It did feel a little deus ex machina (Wikipedia link), but with a "machine" like the Shrike, how could it be any other way?
Continue reading on my book blog at geoffwhaley.com.
As the concluding novel in this epic story, it felt a little hollow. There were definitely moments of amazement and creativity and Simmons intelligence once again comes across unquestionably, but for some reason it just felt a little hollow and most definitely rushed at the end. Even though I hadn't fully thought through the end of the novel when I got there I was not surprised at the ending. It did feel a little deus ex machina (Wikipedia link), but with a "machine" like the Shrike, how could it be any other way?
Continue reading on my book blog at geoffwhaley.com.
"Yo había pensado —aun mientras escribía el relato en la pizarra que tenía bajo el brazo, en la celda de Schrödinger— que era simplemente un viajero en una serie de peripecias. Pero todo tenía un propósito. Había sido un amante viajando con mi amor—o hacia mi amor— a través de una partitura musical de mundos. Una partitura que tenía que aprender de memoria para poder tocarla de nuevo algún día".
Te venero Dan Simmons, te venero.
Te venero Dan Simmons, te venero.
After a Time Skip during which Aenea is trained as an architect just so that she can have a crafting profession that parallels Jesus' carpentry, the adventure continues. Nemes, who was defeated in the previous installment, is dragged out to be the threat again. Father Captain de Soya, who turned to Aenea's aid at the end of the last installment is called back into action so that he can turn to her aid again. The Shrike, whose only real function was fighting against the evil robots gets brought back to fight against those same evil robots again. There's some more farcasting to new locales, and Dan Simmons delivers on the promised boning, now that Aenea is officially old enough, before a high speed parade of familiar characters and exposition closes out the series.
Can you tell I'm real fuckin' thrilled about this one? God, what a slog. It repeats the beats of the previous installment, it peppers in some really tired philosophy that puts a vaguely technological spin on New Agey weirdness, it spends paragraphs describing various knots and climbing gear, and then it wraps up with a stretch that's just "and that's how all this actually shakes out," providing answers to mysteries, when the questions were so much more interesting. At one point, Raul exclaims "We seem to have the entire cast of the Hyperion fucking Cantos showing up!", echoing my thoughts precisely.
I feel like I'd have enjoyed these two books much more if they were focused on de Soya's conflict between his faith and his personal ethics, rather than moody, whiny, petulant Raul and his fetish for climbing gear.
Overall Grade: D-. There's still some cool ideas dealing with the Catholic church, but they don't buoy it up out of the muck, let alone justify this novel's ponderous pace over this length.