The Rise of Endymion

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.