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bradleyallf 's review for:
The Rise of Endymion
by Dan Simmons
As in the other books in this series, this story is unbelievably imaginative. This book in particular often managed to make long sections of philosophical musing engaging.
I do think the first act groaned on a bit, dwelling overlong on the scheming Pax characters I never found very interesting and couldn’t keep straight. I also thought, for all the unique mysticism in this series, the Nemes baddies were disappointingly one-dimensional, like villains out of a Marvel movie or something. It’s hard to square having an antagonist in this universe as compelling as the Shrike alongside these overpowered TechnoCore warriors that trash talk while they fight.
I was also distracted by the improbable number of references to 20th century western thought, as if nothing else of interest happened in the intervening millenium (or prior to). This is a recurring issue I had with this series.
I felt myself rolling my eyes at Raul a lot. He can be petulant and melodramatic, shaking his fist at the sky cuttlefish, getting upset the instant he doesn’t understand something. His defeat of the Nemes creature in a bare-knuckles fight was pretty unbelievable. And I never quite understand the chemistry between him and Aenea or what she sees in him (I felt the same way about the relationship between the god-adjacent Keats cybrid and the occasionally insufferable character Brawne Lamia).
Speaking of improbable relationships, the alliance between the Core and the Pax went on longer than seemed to make sense, the Core seeming to cow to the Pax at times (I.e. allowing Aenea to escape because one priest didn’t want to be attacked by the shrike on Tien-Shan) despite being overwhelmingly more powerful. The motivations of the Core were generally fuzzy to me; they are very selectively ruthless. They seemed to have no problem wiping out entire planets from space yet when Aenea, an existential threat to them, gets trapped on a planet that they have surrounded, they don’t even seem to consider doing so.
A few other plot issues: the cruciforms suddenly seem much less powerful in these last books of the series, unable to resurrect people unless someone is in a creche under ideal conditions, it seems. Yet the cruciform in Hyperion stayed glued to Duré while he was nailed to a Tesla tree for years?
Raul spent a few chapters in pain because he had kidney stones, which just seems like an oddly prosaic problem for a character in this universe…?
Ok, all that criticism aside, this story is a fitting conclusion to the Hyperion Cantos and its last act ties up so many questions and character arcs in a really lovely way (while still leaving room for some mystery surrounding the Lions and Tigers and Bears, the Shrike, and Rachel). The ending is bittersweet and heartfelt in a similar way as the ending of Fall of Hyperion. And the overall arc of the books, as well as the philosophizing of the characters, has something really interesting to say about multiculturalism and the tenacious directionality of evolution towards more life. I’m willing to forgive my plot and character quibbles because of just how delicately rendered this narrative universe is, and its sheer imagination.
I do think the first act groaned on a bit, dwelling overlong on the scheming Pax characters I never found very interesting and couldn’t keep straight. I also thought, for all the unique mysticism in this series, the Nemes baddies were disappointingly one-dimensional, like villains out of a Marvel movie or something. It’s hard to square having an antagonist in this universe as compelling as the Shrike alongside these overpowered TechnoCore warriors that trash talk while they fight.
I was also distracted by the improbable number of references to 20th century western thought, as if nothing else of interest happened in the intervening millenium (or prior to). This is a recurring issue I had with this series.
I felt myself rolling my eyes at Raul a lot. He can be petulant and melodramatic, shaking his fist at the sky cuttlefish, getting upset the instant he doesn’t understand something. His defeat of the Nemes creature in a bare-knuckles fight was pretty unbelievable. And I never quite understand the chemistry between him and Aenea or what she sees in him (I felt the same way about the relationship between the god-adjacent Keats cybrid and the occasionally insufferable character Brawne Lamia).
Speaking of improbable relationships, the alliance between the Core and the Pax went on longer than seemed to make sense, the Core seeming to cow to the Pax at times (I.e. allowing Aenea to escape because one priest didn’t want to be attacked by the shrike on Tien-Shan) despite being overwhelmingly more powerful. The motivations of the Core were generally fuzzy to me; they are very selectively ruthless. They seemed to have no problem wiping out entire planets from space yet when Aenea, an existential threat to them, gets trapped on a planet that they have surrounded, they don’t even seem to consider doing so.
A few other plot issues: the cruciforms suddenly seem much less powerful in these last books of the series, unable to resurrect people unless someone is in a creche under ideal conditions, it seems. Yet the cruciform in Hyperion stayed glued to Duré while he was nailed to a Tesla tree for years?
Raul spent a few chapters in pain because he had kidney stones, which just seems like an oddly prosaic problem for a character in this universe…?
Ok, all that criticism aside, this story is a fitting conclusion to the Hyperion Cantos and its last act ties up so many questions and character arcs in a really lovely way (while still leaving room for some mystery surrounding the Lions and Tigers and Bears, the Shrike, and Rachel). The ending is bittersweet and heartfelt in a similar way as the ending of Fall of Hyperion. And the overall arc of the books, as well as the philosophizing of the characters, has something really interesting to say about multiculturalism and the tenacious directionality of evolution towards more life. I’m willing to forgive my plot and character quibbles because of just how delicately rendered this narrative universe is, and its sheer imagination.