The Rise of Endymion

The last one of the books I found unnecessary longwinded at times. I found myself skipping through passages just to get on with the story.

Brutal ending to a great series. I found raul to be incredibly annoying and boring. Very unconvincing love story for a book who tries to argue that love is a universal energy force was quite disappointing. Tons of unnecessary info/characters that just muddled up the plot and took time away from good characters like de soya. I always hate the fake-out death and although this technically doesnt count as a real fake out in practice it 100% is and ruins a lot of the ending scene. The shrike is reduced from the cool mythical being of the first books to an ex machina anytime the plot needs it. My list of frustrations could go on for a while. I'll give it a 2.5 since there were some interesting themes/characters/scenes sprinkled amongst the mix but my god are they few and far between in this book. Also they did my boy A. Bettik a disservice in this book.

The Rise of Endymion was a great conclusion to the Hyperion Cantos. Action packed adventure with multiple POVs that provide unique context and perspective on the events occurring in the galaxy.

Loved how the original pilgrims in the first Hyperion Cantos entry still had a presence in the continuation of this story.

RoE had moments of expansive space battles, national treasure type crypt discoveries, robot AI hand to hand fights, and mysteries upon mysteries spread throughout the whole Cantos where you actually get answers to questions from all the books.

Great series that I recommend to anyone who even slightly enjoys the sci-fi genre.

“Choose again”

Great storytelling, as in the previous books. However, I was not very thrilled by the biblical, messianic part. I felt as if it was a big dilution of the rich story built before. The whole Jesus-like story didn't feel like it was bringing anything new. I was really counting on something touching more on sentient life, role of art, or other, much more nuanced topics which seemed to play the major role in the previous books.

This is the 4th and final book of the Hyperion Cantos series. I definitely enjoyed it more than Endymion as a lot of unexplained things from Endymion are explained in this final book of the cantos and I have very little if any critiques.

The book follows our 2 main character, Anea and Raul (Endymion) as they return from old earth which had been taken away and hidden in another galaxy by the “lions tigers and bears”

Raul tells his story from his shroedengers prison in orbit around a empty world. This is his prison for 13 or so months. He is in complete isolation in a small orbital box which is set to release poison in his air if the right quantum particle is detected. Telling his story is the only way he can remain sane.

Anea has basically been set up as Jesus Christ figure with Endymion as her diciple/lover.

Anea is tasked with basically redeeming mankind by introducing death and mortality and destroying the Catholic church and the pax control over humanity. She is a fusion of the AI ultimate intellegence aka god and humanity and the carrier of a genetic nano virus that is contained in her blood. This nano virus seeks out and destroys the cruciform which acts as a tool of ressurection and growing the techno cores control over humanity via the church.

Essentially this book is a time travelling jesus preaching the gospel gaining diciples. Allegorical in nature and a kind of twisted dark anit-christ type alternate version. This one bringing death instead of life and rather than the cross or cruciform being a symbol of faith the destruction and rejection of it being the symbol of faith.

The sacrement of the wine mixed with her literal blood to bring about this viral change in her followers and eventual self sacrifice by the authorities of the day but they ultimatley fail to stop the spread of Anea's message.

All throughout her mission she speaks of the void which binds powered by the force of love. Love being that powerful force which gives us the means to thrive in the one life we have.

I loved the anti-christ-christ sort of a dark christ story telling that can almost be viewed as a scathing rebuke of the religious ideology and mind set. Almost to suggest that rejection of religion is what brings love, compassion and care for all.

Overall I loved this book!! The angle from which it tells this clearly relious story is really intriguing read and capture my imagination at least! 5 stars for me easily.

This is quite an epic, sci-fi story. It's got space battles, aliens, action, alien worlds, monsters, tons of characters, romance, mythology, and even a little cyberpunk. The amount of detail was quite overwhelming at times. Dan Simmons really outdid himself on world-building. I also really enjoyed the mythology of the entire series, including the two Hyperions books. Raul is an entertaining character and makes a fine narrator for this and the previous book. He's a hero but not too perfect. Brave when he needed to be and his battle with Nemes was the highpoint of the book for me.

I was also enthralled with the mythology of this series. The mystery of the time tombs, the Shrike, and the cruciform. As the last book in the series, Simmons resolved a lot of these secrets nicely. The idea of a future where the Catholic Church takes over the galaxy was intriguing.

Now the not-so-good stuff. The Aenea character because once you've set up a character as a messiah, how does she live up to that? Unfortunately, it causes her to lose her personality. She went from being a fun and bright kid to an adult that all the other characters worship or want to kill. Also, there is the problem that a lot of things were resolved simply by having the all-knowing Aenea tell herfollwers, and the reader, the secret to the mysteries that had been set up. Not the most exciting way to reveal.

Then there's the problem of her and Aenea as lovers. This was set up long ago as something that was “destiny” because she knew her future and Raul's future as a child. So when it finally happens, it's not that exciting, nor can I convince myself that the characters have any real attraction there. I hate destiny. It's also difficult because he knew her as a child and it's a little gross that they would end up in bed. Like having sex with someone you once babysat. Not to mention that she's his messiah and his lover;it's a complicated relationship.

Despite these less-than-satisfying elements, I did enjoy this book and this series very much. The resolution to the conflict with the Pax was surprising, convincing, and satisfying. Aenea lived up to her purpose. I was also happy to see Raul was not going to end up left out in the cold. He was a good man and deserved some happiness.

A haunting end to an epic series, unrivalled in any genre.

A very satisfactory read, an amazing closing to an amazing story. I truly enjoyed this book from the first to the last page. I am also very glad about the ending that really explains pretty much everything that needed to be explained.

All my complaints I might have had about unexplained parts at the end of the second book, they are all explained in these two books.

Highly recommended, a must read if you read the first two books. And if not, read the first two books before reading this one. Obviously.

Good Lord! This has to be one of the best conclusions to a set of books I have ever read.
Each builds on the last expanding the story telling and universe.
After finishing it became aparent that like Orson Scott Card he needed to build a whole set of books to tell the message of this one.

Flailing his way through
not exactly up to speed
one day it will click.

Bah, okay, no, that was just SOOOOO long and so ridiculous. It won't make sense if you haven't read the previous three Hyperion books, and it's only because of all the hand wavey space magical CLIFFHANGER MYSTERIES of the previous books that I even read this to the end. To the last, bitter, endlessly delayed end. Good Lord. My advice: just read books 1-3. Skip 4. Who cares!

Umm. How to describe the plot? It's basically Dan Simmons' fanfic about the Hyperion universe, starring Raul Endymion as the Marty Stu authorial stand-in, and Aenea as a pretty ridiculous messiah figure slash sexy 20somethin. I mean. I read the previous three books. I know Dan Simmons loves his Catholicism. LOAFFFS IT. Loves the power and the glory of the Church; the good stuff (as represented in Aenea's messiah stuff or Father-Captain de Soya's (he's back! hooray!) humility or that Charlton Heston (Paul Dure?) priest man's “sad eyes” or whatever) and the bad stuff (the evil Pax Empire/corrupt Vatican). Okay, fine. But the problem with presenting a messiah character is that, unless that messiah says stuff that is convincingly profound, it just feels ohhhhh man eye-rolly. Eye-gauging! Just bad. And I was not convinced. We're TOLD - repeatedly, one bajillion times - that Aenea is so wonderfully charismatic and messiah-y and so DEEP AND SO PROFOUND, but, honestly, girl just quotes poetry a lot and says empathy is important. Yeah, derp.

It was so apparent that Aenea was just Simmons's dream babe - and, hey, ain't no shame in that, I write a lot o' dream dudes in space myself - that it was, for a person NOT interested in the way the sunlight plays on her hair (goddamn, if I hear about her hair color ONE. MORE. TIME.), it's just boring. BORINNGGGG.

So this was kinda like the last episode of Battlestar Galactica. And I say this as someone who quite liked that episode! And bought into its space mysticism! I did not buy into this space mysticism. This felt like bad romance in space.

Meanwhile, in other news, on my super favveee character (my dream dude!), the tortured Pax military priest-spaceship captain, Father-Captain Federico de Soya, well... I rate this book a 2/5 de Soyas on the de Soya scale. It's like, fine, whatever. He gets up to some hijinx. He's not in the book as much as my OWN dream-dude fanfic would have (still to come, I'm workin on it).

The first half of the book is a bit better. The second half is a SLOG. I skim-read. A LOT. There's an extended, EXTENDED sequence on a Tibet-in-space planet with a clearly obviously this-Dalai Lama as a young man and total complete transplant of pre-1953 Tibet amidst some Bespin-style cloud planet. Pretty cool. I mean, I like Tibetan history and culture. And I, too, have put it in space from time to time. And, yes, I did admire Dan Simmons's deep DEEP dive into Tibetan monasteries and history and so forth. I guess he took a trip to Lhasa? Or Leh? Or Dharamsala? I dunno. BUT! I was still like, “ugh, this feels Orientalist and why do all sci-fi writers use Buddhism as a boring stand-in for enlightened space religion?” Again, I say this as someone who does it herself. Even Kim Stanley Robinson does it (and THAT man is a genius). Maybe Buddhism will make it to space. I dunno. But it still felt, ugh, kinda dull.

Also - the descriptions - oof - too long. WAAAAY too long. Did he have no editor?

So yeah. Kinda a boring conclusion. Raul Endymion, I do not care how much you love Aenea. Dan Simmons, I do not care about the goddamn color of Aenea's goddamn hair. Federico de Soya, you're fine, you just keep doing you.

Le point final d'une oeuvre magnifique, avec ce quatrième volume de la saga Hyperion / Endymion. Un très grand souvenir.

As last books in a series go, this was the most rewarding ending I've ever read. Topics introduced at the beginning of book 4 are handled. Topics that other authors might spend entire chapters on are only touched on briefly, and left for the reader to expand on.

As last books in a series go, this was the most rewarding ending I've ever read. Topics introduced at the beginning of book 4 are handled. Topics that other authors might spend entire chapters on are only touched on briefly, and left for the reader to expand on.

I'm all choked up and emotional at finishing this series. This last book is also probably my favorite. Simmons' skill seems to grow with every chapter, and his world-creation is about the most perfect I've ever read. I have no idea how one person can imagine so many worlds and then capture them all in such a small space. Particularly, the sky city of T'ien Shan captivated me and gave me a very physical sense of vertigo.

Thematically, this book and Endymion before it align almost perfectly with my current ideas about religion, spirituality, and all the positive and negative aspects of both. I hadn't been Aenea's biggest fan before, but the character reveals made in this book made everything about the entire Cantos much more understandable. I will say, I did call where Aenea would be during her 2 year absence and A. Bettik's role, but calling those made me feel like I was being rewarded for paying attention and not like the writer was being sloppy.

My only disappointment is I would've liked a bit more Shrike. The reveals about it were interesting enough and the knockdown fight with the Nemes (about a billion times more terrifying than the Shrike) were great, but man the Shrike is a great creature and I rather want more of it.

Overall brilliant series that I'm very happy fell in my lap via Sword and Laser.

This is one of those series of books that draws you in hard and right with the narration, story, intriguing and characters. The author did a superb job investing time and energy and emotion and life into the whole story. Easily one of the best fictions I've ever read.