The Rise of Endymion (Hyperion)

Best series since the Ender and Shadow series by Card. His books paint an eloquent picture in the mind of world's, beings and characters you can not help but, fall in love with. Still flawed and and very human even when not truly so. I was unsure at the beginning of book 1 how I felt as it came across pompous but, soon came to realize it set the tone for the most amazing adventure. I read 3-6 SciFi/Fantasy novels a month and this is now in my top 3!

While the first Endymion book, the third in the Hyperion Cantos, roared along at ftl speed, The Rise of Endymion gets a mid-section that is heavy on Buddhist philosophy and way too pastoral. I really don't want a laundry list of characters who have no relevance to the arc of the story. The key figures are given short shrift in favor of spectacle that seems out of place. Rachel, especially, given her central role in the Hyperion saga seems to always be peripheral in this book. Raul is way too obtuse for someone writing the prose that is attributed to him. The ending is telegraphed early on, but when it all starts to unfold, it still has impact thanks to Simmons writing. There is a little bit of a creep factor in Raul, who was basically Aenea's guardian becoming her lover. Although Aenea foreshadows this, it still feels a little like an authority figure taking advantage of his position, especially since he seems so clueless most of the time.

I, too, loved Hyperion and (to a lesser extent) The Fall of Hyperion. In comparison, the Endymion books are sad. Where the first books offered just about everything good science fiction can--mindbending situations, intricate world building, colorful characters, and thrilling adventure--the Endymion books substitute page upon page of padding, mundane chase plots with literally dozens of deus ex machinas, and gobs of unconvincing exposition to tie things up neatly at the end. There are also many sloppy plot points--like why does Aenea need to hanglide (for 50 pages!) to the far mountain if she can farcast anywhere.

The explanations provided in Hyperion go a long way in completing a fascinating tale and that overrides all other flaws of the book.

Dan Simmons had in a way left a lot of things unexplained at the end of the second Hyperion - perhaps the intended original tale-length. The added complication in the last two books is often contrived and irrational. Yet, one only realizes while reading the last book how much was unresolved in Hyperion and how the entire story makes more sense because of the explanations here. From the origin of shrike to the fate of Rachel, the unfinished accounts of Het Masteen and the working of Farcasters/fat lines or even the rationale of reverse-aging or the reason behind the existence - all these important loose ends are tied through an extremely intelligent construct in this book.

On the other hand, the journey down mysticism is more often than not anachronistic and only adds to the length of the book. Adventures to new lands and detailed descriptions of the fantastic places begin to bore. The eventual suspense is almost childish for a book of such great intelligence although the climax before that - coming after too long and stretched journey - was a fittingly purposeful and surprising event.

The travesty of Endymion and the first half of this book is regrettable but all said and done, Hyperion fans are better off with the end as provided by this book than the one at the end of the second book.

I enjoyed Hyperion and The 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 Simmons 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 sleeping with her.

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.

In the end, I'm glad I finished the journey. I just feel it could have been a more quick and efficient trip.

You don't realize how much Simmons actually left dangling from the previous three books until you get to the end of this one. Still, it's a testament to his genius that he manages to get mostly all of it explained in a way that makes sense. This book continued the grand tradition of the Hyperion books, not surpassing them but carrying it with ease. Most of it was suspenseful though the first person past tense/present tense switching was at times inexplicable and hinted that at least Endymion survived to the end.
One thing that Simmons never failed to do was shock me though, scenes like the TechnoCore explaining what their final motivation was still enough to give me a chill and some parts made me wonder just how far Simmons had planned in advance. Several things weren't explained, such as who the Lions and Tigers and Bears actually were and what they wanted, and how the hell the Shrike came about in the first place (we find out who he is, but never who's side he's on). Still those are minor complaints to what was one the best series ever to come out of science fiction, ever. Though I did miss the like forty plot threads from Hyperion/Fall of Hyperion and how they mixed this book was not only a suitable addition but a grand and graceful finale. The end is as close to perfect as they come, and shows that Simmons can always leave you wanting more.
I eagerly await to see where he's going to go from here.

I have come to a simple conclusion that people who consider this book "emotionally overdone" or "too sappy", have, quite clearly, never experienced true love, and those who consider it boring... all I can say is, "boring sets in the boring mind". I believe that those who consider it terrible in all respects, are either not very bright, or simply close-minded and aren't psychologically ready for something original, mind-challenging and eye-opening. That's exactly what this book was. I have read all four of the Hyperion/Endymion saga, and ROE was definitely the best one. I literally wept at the end of it. It is unique in many ways. The world that Simmons creates is so real, so masterly depicted, I'd serious suspicions that Mr. Simmons had really lived in that universe (OK, not really. But that's the feeling you get). You're THERE. The scope, language, imagination and emotion of this epic are mind-blowing and unforgettable.
I have read the rest of the reviews and noticed that many people wonder if there ever will be a continuation of this epic. Having had a correspondence with Mr. Simmons a few months ago, I'll convey this: he said that he will co-write a novella set in the Hyperion universe, with Fred Saberhagen. But as far as the Hyperion saga goes, it is finished. =( Good thing it was such a fantastic finale. Don't listen to the negative reviews, for the love of God(s). If you deem yourself spiritual, open-minded and imaginative, read this book, it'll amaze you.

Once again, like Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion, I am writing a joint review for Endymion and The Rise of Endymion as the two books comprise the totality of one story (I have seen some complain about this, but put the two books together and decide if you want to hold that while reading it!).

With Endymion and The Rise of Endymion, Dan Simmons has written a brilliant adventure tale that brings to conclusion the story begun in Hyperion. These two books are more than just another chapter in the universe; they are the next evolution in the story of humans, TechnoCore (AIs) and Lions and Tigers and Bears. Where Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion is a methodical, multi-viewpoint story of how humanity and the Hegemony had arrived at the point of being slaves to the TechnoCore, Endymion and The Rise of Endymion is an adventurous story about the savior of humanity from outside forces and itself.

Nearly 300 years after The Fall, the Catholic Church has risen from obscurity to control the Pax, the new empire of humanity that has slowly widened its grip on the former worlds of the Hegemony as well as waged war against the Ousters. Like the Hegemony, the Pax and church have made a deal with the devil (the TechnoCore), but secretly as most people think the TechnoCore destroyed or in hiding after The Fall. The cruciform has become the sacrament of immortality as administered by the church and is now the defining difference between the believes and followers of the church and Pax and the rest of humanity. This church, like its last incarnation in the previous Dark Ages (for the time after The Fall was a new Dark Age), this church has the same instruments of control such as the Holy Inquisition and the reward of your immortal soul.

Enter Raul Endymion, a non-christian hunting guide on Hyperion. After killing an off-world hunter, who is a dignitary of the Pax, for killing his dog and nearly killing him, Endymion is sentenced to death by firing squad. But, Raul has a guardian angel that secretly saves him from his fate: Martin Silenus. In exchange for his life, Silenus enlists Endymion to rescue and then protect Aenea, the daughter of Brawne Lamia, who will be exiting the Time Tombs in a few days as a 12 year old.

But, this task will not be easy, as the Church and Pax - whose Pope is Lenar Hoyt - know she is coming and they consider her an enemy of the state. Enter Father Captain De Soya, who is charged with the capture of Aenea at the Time Tombs.

With the help of a Magic Carpet, thus begins the adventures of Raul Endymion, his charge Aenea - the One Who Teaches - and their traveling companion, the Android Bettik as they travel from world to world via the thought dead farcasters of the River Tethys in search of Earth, the answers to humanity's future, and the destruction of the Pax and TechnoCore; All while being pursued by Father Captain De Soya and an even larger threat directly from the TechnoCore itself. Along the way, they will discover new friends, new worlds, and new love (no, Raul is not a pedophile!), and what the church and TechnoCore are planning for humanity.

Come along on this amazing adventure of discovery and redemption, and watch as a Mesiah-to-be grow up and as a new hero is born.

>>>>>>><<<<<<<

A Guide to my Book Rating System:

1 star = The wood pulp would have been better utilized as toilet paper.
2 stars = Don't bother, clean your bathroom instead.
3 stars = Wasn't a waste of time, but it was time wasted.
4 stars = Good book, but not life altering.
5 stars = This book changed my world in at least some small way.

Raul's journey with Aenea, alas, comes to an end...well, temporal mechanics can confound mortality, at least for a while.

Even though Dan Simmons has amply demonstrated his ability to write deep meaning and emotion into his characters, the love between Raul and Aenea never resonated as strongly with me as the devotion Saul Weintraub held for his daughter Rachel in "Hyperion". Perhaps this is because Aenea just seemed too enigmatic, too much of a meld between Joshua and Joan of Arc, with tragedy waiting behind a beatific smile while Raul's blind devotion seemed to rob him of his own choices and free will. Raul had free will, of course, but to exercise it he would have had to take Aenea up by her delicate porcelain neck and wring the truth out of her with an adamant, "Stop with these coy allusions and tragically prophetic pronouncements and give it to me straight so that I can make my own decisions!" That he never did this took away some of the authenticity of his character. Raul's love is sincere, but his actions are always manipulated to bring about a foregone conclusion, such that Simmons can only maintain the concept of free will if his central characters refuse to question or challenge. This is the main difference between the characterizations in "The Rise of Endymion" and those in "Hyperion", and why this book simply does not reach the same amplitude of effect as that first novel.

"The Rise of Endymion" should also be read with "Endymion" as one novel. There is no reason for the pretense of two separate stories here; there is no interlude between the two. And then, waves of story from "Hyperion" crash against the shore of "The Rise of Endymion", with long passages dedicated to the explanation of events in the earlier novels, as if Simmons had received an abundance of mail from readers who could simply not piece it all together. One could almost recommend jumping straight from "Hyperion"--the beginning of the journey--to "The Rise of Endymion"--the end of the journey--for answers to those nagging questions and some salve for the emotional highs and lows of those earlier characters. Almost...

Despite these criticisms (and a Christ-figure count as numerous as the body counts from 1990s action movies), "The Rise of Endymion" is still vibrantly and brilliantly written, with scenes that rise from the text to become real. The endless journeys, from point to point through the quantum foam, are finally revealed to have had a singular purpose to the plot, and were not just exercises in colorful prose. There is a conclusion, finally (kind of), that satisfies and completes the arc of story. "The Rise of Endymion" was well worth reading, and essential for a full appreciation of the earlier novels.

THE RISE OF ENDYMION is the fourth and final volume of Dan Simmons' Hyperion saga and the conclusion of the storyline begun in ENDYMION. I only plodded through that book because I wanted to reach the end, and with THE RISE OF ENDYMION even that motivation almost dried up.
The problems are legion. The book is overlong, with huge sections that just serve no legitimate purpose, such as Raul's time in the Temple Hanging in Air. Simmons' extends his work as much as he can to give it an "epic" feel, but it ends up seeming boring and goofy.
Raul's love for Aenea continues to border on pedophilia for the first few hundred pages of the work, and then it graduates to simple obsession, if only because she's grown up. This whole piece of the story, which is in fact a huge chunk of the story, is utterly unconvincing. If Aenea is the messiah, one would think Raul would have better things to do than get jealous over her past and feel all squishy inside whenever she's around.
The resolution of the conflict is given a few scant pages, probably because Simmons spent too much time on high-faultin' philosophy and Raul's sexual tension. The book's structure is simply awful. Plus, Simmons causes the reader to have wasted reading the first two books in the series by dismissing the words of Ummon in THE FALL OF HYPERION as "a lie."
Argh. This book is simply awful. I'd recommend the first two books in the Hyperion saga, but stay well away from ENDYMION and THE RISE OF ENDYMION.

Where to begin? Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion moved me in ways that I hadn't really experienced before, or at least not in a good long while. For most of my life, I read books that were heavy on SF concept and rather weak on character. Then I happened upon works of wonder like Greg Bear's Forge of God and Simmon's Hyperion Cantos. Those books are something special. If you don't *feel* something by the time you close the last page of the book, there's something wrong with you. For Dan Simmon's gift to the world with his first two books in the Hyperion Cantos, I am eternally greatful.
However, I think Endymion and Rise of Endymion were a let down. Endymion was a slow ramping up that never really got anywhere even at the end. I remember feeling at the time that, with all that building up, Rise of Endymion was going to be one hell of a book even if Endymion was aggravating. What I found, though, was that most of the things I loved the most about the first two books were destroyed or made irrelevant. The Technocore bears not even the slightest resemblence to Ummon anymore. Granted, Ummon was a single character, but the Technocore AI's now are just evil humans in machine bodies with access to cool toys. Ummon was distinctly alien. He was not human, and that was as it should be, for he wasn't. I've *met* a few people like Albedo. Moreover, the Volitiles, Stables, and Ultimates were apparently a huge hoax concocted for who-knows-what reasons. That structure of the Technocore, of a distinctly non-human society, was one of the things that fascinated me most about the first two books. I was extremely annoyed at the way in RoE that Simmon's just casually mentioned, "Oh, that was all a lie." To what end? That's just one example.
I really appreciated the subtle details that were put into H and FoH, and it was rather annoying to see so many of them torn apart and replaced by, frankly, sloppy substitutes for what was there before. The whole part of the story about the future conflict bewteen the human and machine UI's was all but completely ignored. The time tombs, the Shrike... their origins may be "explained" now, but I think that if this is the explanation, it would have been better to leave it a mystery. The Shrike is a reincarnation of Kassad? If that were the case, why on Earth would it be rampaging about killing everyone when it gets a chance to in the first two books. I guess that leads to my other annoyance. In the first two books, the Shrike was scary. It literally made my skin crawl, and that is no small feat. The Shrike now has been turned into a "good-guy" for crying out loud! It isn't frightening at all. And there is still the question of why the Keat's cybrids were being created in the first place. If everything Ummon said about the Ultimates, Stables, and Volitiles was untrue, then we know approximately nothing about why Keats was created over and over again. Or by who, for that matter, if Ummon was such a liar. Perhaps he was made that Aenea might be born, but why on Earth would elements of the Technocore do THAT to themselves? This plot vacuum is annoying, particularly since it was at the heart of the first two books.
It isn't that simple, though. During Aenea's torture, I nearly threw the book at a wall; not something I'm generally prone to do. I was furious beyond anything rational. It *is* just a book, right? Well, though I can't speak for anyone else, it takes some pretty effective writing to elicit that strong a reaction out of me. I didn't even like Aenea very much, but being forced to watch everything they did to her and to see her die *that* way, it just pushed me over the edge. I nearly threw the book at a wall.
THAT is where the book redeems itself. Simmon's ability to make the reader *feel* something is still as present as it was in the first two books. I can't say I care for the direction he took his plot, and I know that many others agree with me on that note. However, he hasn't lost his knack for ripping your heart out and serving it to you on a golden platter. Whether or not you like his characters or not, whether or not you appreciate the pages upon pages of landscape and architechture descriptions, whether or not you roll your eyes at the "cop-out" directions some of the plot took, you will *feel* something by the time the book is over. Whether it was worth treading through everything else in between is a personal judgement call.

''Mixing classical themes of John Keats' poetry with action-packed storytelling, Dan Simmons singlehandedly breathed new life into the subgenré known as space opera. With only three novels (''Hyperion,'' ''The Fall of Hyperion'' and ''Endymion''), he managed to become an important force in science fiction. Boasting more action and adventure than all three ''Star Wars'' movies combined, ''The Rise of Endymion'' is Simmons' conclusion to his far-future saga. A resurrected Pope Julius XIV has declared a Holy War on all nonbelievers. He has tagged Aenea, the new Messiah, as an abomination who must be captured. Raul Endymion, A. Bettik and a host of others join forces to save Aenea and defeat the Pax. Along the way, Simmons finds time to let his creations ruminate upon religion, godhood and the true nature of love (as did Keats). This book is a page-turning delight that (like all his novels) begs another read so one can savor the many wonders. And like Isaac Asimov's Foundation books, Simmons' Hyperion/Endymion saga will loom large in the genre for years to come. (copyright) 1997, San Antonio Express-News.

I enjoyed diving into the world Dan Simmons created with Hyperion. He creates a world with bizzare and often horrifying consequences when it comes in contact with mankind.

What aggravates me is the irregularities and inconsistencies from the Hyperion series to this set of books about Endymion. Simmons tries to offer an explanation by using the "unreliable narrator" method -- explaining that the first two books of the series were actually written by a character in the story -- and that our author made up sections of the story. Its a cheap tactic and it annoys me especially when its employed to cover up inconsistences or change the outcome of something he had decided. He retcons character motivations and character's themselves. Personalities are dramatically changed to serve the authors purpose of delivering some kind of esoteric message about love and religion. Characters that are deemed 100% dead in the first set of books are brought back to life by unexplained space magic.

Heck he even retcons an event so that a specific character is not born out of wedlock (which has no real consequences on the story, so I am clueless as to why he would even bother) -- its done in such a crass and obvious manner that it feels like Simmons was either padding out the story or worried about the faux pas of a fictional bastard savior.

After a while it just becomes tiresome to follow where Simmons is actually going with these books.

Ok, there are some valid literary criticisms of this book, but nobody who's review I've read is qualified to make them. I'll address them one-by-one.
1. How many of you nay-sayers are smart enough to understand Teilhard de Chardin, much less disagree with his conclusions?
2. Predictability--Raul explains this in his description of Grandam's school of rhetoric. Everyone in the first century AD already knew the ending of the Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Aeneid (ok, the name identification with Troy's favorite son is Simmons throwing high-school dropouts a bone), and nobody seemed to mind.
3. The Shrike--I'll explain it once and once only: a creation of the TechnoCore's Reaper viruses, adamantly opposed to immortality, be it the vainglory of the poets in the first book, or the artificial cruciform. The Shrike doesn't change from villain to hero; rather we change our perception of death and rebirth.
4. Formulaisms--All great epics have them. If you can't deal with it, wait for the movie, but not the real one, the one they cut down for TBS and USA.
Of course it's long. Of course there are a lot of references to our time. (The Aeneid was a long tribute to Octavian Augustus Caesar). These books put the 20th century in perspective. Homer and Virgil used the Trojan War, Bocaccio used the Black Death, and Simmons uses the future. All authors use as a backdrop to their epics a characterization of what society at the time fears.
As I said in my review of the first book, this series will not be widely accessible until there is a commentary to go with it. You people who complain about arcane references remind me of sorority girls in college who didn't read their assignments because they were "boring." You want spoon-feeding? Stick with Crichton. This series separates the men from the boys as a class of educated readers.

Anyone who read Hyperion feels compelled to read all of the books in the series. The first book was one of the most creative and fascinating SF books I have ever read. Unfortunately, by the time you reach the finale, things have changed. The thick-headed, dim-witted hero, Raul, can be quite tiresome. He is nothing, however, compared to the messiah, Aenea. She spends the entire book brooding and depressed. The reader is promised that her emotions will be explained later. An explanation comes at the end, but it is much too late for me. The author, through Aenea, seems to insist that we listen to his philosophies on love, religion and technology. The scenes with Aenea teaching (there are many)quickly become tiresome. The two stars I give are for the authors wonderful efforts leading up to this conclusion. He is obviously a gifted writer, he just needs to know when to say when.

If u havent' read pervious 2 books read them first,
however this book is even more interesting, dynamic and unpredictible.

PS
I placed 4 stars because I didn't like the behaviour of one of the characters. My oppinion is that the bouncer can not act like a sissy boy.

To be sure, following up "Hyperion," one of the best SF books ever written, would be a daunting task for anyone, so it's hard to blame Simmons for the let-down. "Fall of Hyperion," while excellent, lacked the drama of its predecessor, and while "Endymion" introduced some intriguing ideas, it also painted Simmons into a corner which from which he (or, rather, Raul & Aenea) couldn't escape without sone magic and deus ex machina. "The Rise of Endymion" is disappointing on several accounts. The reader can predict, 200 pages before Raul does, the resolution of several major plot points, such as the identity of the Outsiders and the nature of Aenea's "missing two years." (The first of those turns out to be meaningless, plot-wise, such it's unclear why Simmons builds it up so much.) After a strong start, the plot disintegrates into a weird amalgam of Olaf Stapledon's "The Star Maker," Frank Herbert's "Du! ne," and Clarke's "Childhood's End." Cliches such as "love is the ultimate power" abound, and Simmons also succumbs to a Heinlein-like need to insert brief, meaningless cameos of characters from previous books, and, unlike his previous books, all of the characters are decidedly more one-dimensional. Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of this book is how casually Simmons dismisses the "truths" revealed in the other books in this series, rewriting the past in such a way that the main characters can get out of the corner into which they'd been painted. To be sure, the news is not all bad: Simmons's wonderful, lyrical style of writing and description, matched only by Guy Gavriel Kay these days, can be seen throughout the book (though not continuously), and he certainly is able to guide his readers into the appropriate reactions to passages of bliss and horror. From any other author, this would be a very good book. From Simmons, though, I ! expect a bit more.

Overall, this series was well done if a little predicable.
If you can not figure out the ending before you read it, perhaps you should go to college and enroll in a Kiddie Lit. class. The ending really ruined the series for me.

Dan Simmons has managed to write a great ending to the most wonderful series in SF, bringing all the threads together and providing answers to all our questions. One more thing, Dan, should you ever read this: have you forgotton that Aenea was a vegetarian?

This book will undoubtably rank among my favorite books ever, if not topping the list. While I agree with others that the third book was not quite to par with the original two, the Rise of Endymion is a step above.

Someone mentioned this before me, but it is impossible to not fall in love with Aenea as the story progresses. Her character, and to a lesser extend Raul and Bettik, takes a complex and enveloping personality guaranteed to draw the reader in. I would suggest bringing tissues for the last hundred pages, as I certainly cried by the last pages. Raul Endymion and Bettik are fairly regular characters caught in Aenea's wake, but I felt a connection to them as well by the conclusion.

The story and plot itself is a masterpiece. Like any book, there is a bit of filler, but I firmly believe the ending would not be as powerful without the development and slower pace set with the less exciting moments. It is possible to have too much of a good thing. If you've made it to this last book, I suggest savoring every word. The final pages left me breathless and desperate for more of the story of Aenea and Raul, but one year, eleven months, one week, and six hours will have to be enough.

Read this, and the rest of the series, if you love space battles and opera, deep questions and deeper answers, or need a good cry.

After reading Hyperion, it's Fall and Endymion almost in one sitting, I was very disappointed with the Rise of Endymion. Simmons painted such a beautifully diverse universe interwoven with interesting characters and dramatic plot twists. With the Rise of Endymion, the uniqueness of the universe is smashed flat along with the characters. Reading any novel involving all 4 dimensions is tricky to begin with but Simmons definetly does not help the reader. As if the Rachel/Moneta thing wasn't hard enough to figure out, she pops up AGAIN. I don't understand Kassad's presence and Het Masteen's presence esentially ignores key plot elements from The Fall of Hyperion. Father Dure's appearance seemed to altoegther ignore the removal of his cruciform by the Shrike. As a matter of fact, many things were not explained to satisfaction and those that were usually were explained at the expense of the earlier novels. The cruciform, that crucial plot element which spanned all four novels, is at last revealed through anticlimax, it's previous presence among the Bikura ignored. I could go on. Simmons created a wonderful world but should have left well enough alone with the Fall of Hyperion. Trying to tie up every loose end results in having Simmons throw away every thing he's built up for quick and unsatisfactory conclusions.

Does Simmons get paid by the page? Because there are FAR TOO MANY unnecessary, irrelevant, tedious, boring pages in this book. At least 25% of this book could be deleted with no impact on the plot or character development, and it would be a much better book. I simply DO NOT WANT to know the names of dozens of mountains and towns that no character visits or is even from. And that's just one example. There are numerous detailed descriptions of "stuff" that just doesn't matter and should have been omitted. I think Simmons is showing off his imagination, which is impressive, but it's just TOO MUCH FLUFF.

I am in fact ANGRY. After reading about 1300 pages of the Hyperion series, I am giving up after reading about 75% of The Rise of Endymion. I'd like know how it ends, but it's no longer worth my time to slog through scores and scores of dry, boring pages where nothing relevant occurs.

This book marks the dissappointing conclusion to a series that started with much promise. I recommend the first two books of the series; steer clear of the rest.

'Hyperion's collections of tales were quite good and work up to a nice climax that brought the drama into the next book. The 'Fall of Hyperion', while it left several plot threads hanging, more then made up for that in added drama and emotion. It was even better then its predecessor. But 'Endymion' and, even more, the 'Rise of Endymion' are awful, awful, awful.

The good point first: The author deserves credit for the fact that, in his last book, his messiah's aims are one you might not agree with, i.e. his perspective is thought provoking. An argument can be made that his messiah is actually evil. The bad guys may be using evil means for ends that are potentially worthy. The hero by contrast, uses nobel means and engages in New Testament-evoking suffering to get to ambiguous goals. It's all in your point of view. I thought the authors vision of the future of humanity was interesting in that sense and his perspective on what is the common thread of humanity was worthy of much thought and scratched at the surface about what can be great in science fiction. To bad about the rest of it though...

There are several issues, with this work. First, the plot is plodding and, most damning, often borderline incoherent. Many threads either do not make sense or just are out there. Some threads are never really resolved, such as the motivation of the Shrike.

Second, and related to the first point, the very strange universe the author creates and the belief system he posits is an awful mix of new-agey beliefs mixed with some variant of Catholicism. It is useful to note here that the first of the new 'Star Wars' failed in its mix of hokey religion and psuedo science - when the 'Force' was changed from the life force of the universe into some measurable bacteria reading. The problem here is similar. This book compares negatively to earlier works in this genre, particularly 'A Canticle for Lebowitz' (another work that brings science fiction and Catholicism together).

Third, the books boldly attempt to reinterpret the earlier pieces of the series. Had it worked such a revision would have been compelling. But it failed completely.

Fourth, the writing style. In short, the book is fairly boring. Major pieces of the story are told in boring monologues. The last two books also suffer from the shift in writing style from a focus on a variety of individuals to that of the pawn Raul Endymion.

Fifth, Raul Endymion, the main character, is not very compelling. Indeed, one never feels close to him or, for that matter, any other character in the work.

I've seen some compare this work to 'Dune.' Dune's power lay with the power of the visions it evoked. This wasn't even close.

This serial has been a pleasure to read. The author's use of all essential elements of science fiction such as time travel, space battle, religious and political drama against a backdrop of classical literature and romance made it hard to put down.

The Hyperion universe was one of the richest, most intelligent, and highly engaging ones I've ever encountered. Too bad that the final book in the series not only doesn't capitalize on this great foundation, but actually takes great strides to erode the millieu that Simmon's so effectively created in the first three novels. In its attempt to answer unresolved questions or plot elements from earlier books, _Rise_ either makes things more confusing via contradiction or puts you to sleep with the simplistic and unbelievable answers to what should be significant questions like "what is the Shrike". This disappointing book undermines the brilliant premises set forth in the first two books. It's clear that Simmons really didn't have all the answers in mind when he wrote Hyperion, and his attempt to resolve them in this book do more harm than good.

At long last, Simmons reveals the reason he wrote this series. I would give the story five stars, because not only is the story great, but the message is powerful, but there is one problem. Towards the end of the book Simmons gets a bit heavy handed-not a crippling flaw, but a painful mistake in an otherwise beautifully written piece of literature. On the upside, if you didn't get the message for whatever reason while reading the rest of the book, it is spelled out for you at the end.

The final book in the Hyperion series finally tries to explain the fantasy science behind the other stories while taking you on a tour of multiple imagined planets. It was good to see the Shrike back in action!

I just finished reading the Rise of Endymion. It is quite easy to cast stones and expect more from authors but seems a bit too facile so I generally avoid writing negative comments. In this case Simmons has clearly put a lot of effort to write something well and I disagree with some of the one-star reviews that felt that Aenea's character was unlikable or her relationship with Raul contrived. Aenea in my opinion exhibited a well-balanced and interesting character. One can disagree with the semi-nihilistic philospophy she espoused and the ease of ascribing "love" as the primal force of the universe associated with mechanistic laws (and I share these criticisms) but they do not consist for me a deal-breaker.

I could also live with the long, and sometimes inaccurate descriptions of flying machines, mountaineering, and garments and landscapes. What really made me want to note my dissatisfaction with the book and perhaps initiate a discussion if others see differently are some glaring in-your-face plot holes and my apparent inability to reconcile the Endymion version (books 3-4) and Hyperion version of the universe especially with regards to the role and provenance of the Shrike. As such this review is mostly directed to readers of the book that may wonder about the same issues but it also may help potential readers to just stick with the beginning of the series.

If you do not wish to read the spoilers, my conclusion is that Simmons seems to have run out of steam in trying to sustain such a complex Universe structure that he had to rely in emotional manipulation, Deus Ex Machina tricks and multiple silent "revisions" and in some cases total neglect of previous issues. As such the book is unsatisfying in tying together everything in a coherent manner.

SPOILERS AHEAD

In Hyperion 2, we have the Shrike managing the tree of pain actively as a lure and trap for the expected Messiah. This we have primary information on as Silenus was on that tree for sometime until freed and it cannot be explained away as inaccurate narration. So this tree simply disappears in Endymion Rising. It seems to have never happened and is never mentioned. Instead the tree of pain is now a treeship moving around to drop people off to act as transponders for Aenea's torturous redemption.

The Shrike himself (we now become privy to gender) becomes just a cute little helper of Aenea appearing everywhere convenienlyt to save the day. Never threatening her or anyone non-Pax or core. This occurs with no apparent explanation of why this change happened and how it could be reconciled with the future battle that we are told kills the Shrike.

Why? No explanation whatsoever. Btw, why do you even need that ship if Aenea can farcast everywhere she wanted already by "locking-on" the people of the place.

Going back to the whole reason of traveling with the tree ship to seed people "infected" by Aenea to the different worlds becomes a bit unnecessary if Aenea has the potential to farcast at will. A parenthesis here for a couple of minor holes - towards the end it appears to Raul as if the whole Farcasting through the portals was just a ruse and Aenea was putting them through the casters of Tethys by herself. Yet, Nemes was able to drill into them and find whether they were activated so clearly inconsistent with the latest explanation "reveal". Which also leaves a question of the whole attack on the Farcasters of Hyperion 2 by Gladstone - if the machinery is impossible to destroy as presented later and fully controlled by the Void that Binds entities, then why was it even necessary to wait for Gladstone to disable them?

Finally, the whole time travel aspect just brings a slew of problems which have never been handled well to my knowledge (in SciFi generally not in this book). Either there is continuity in which case there is full predestination and if someone indeed comes back from the future knows what will happen with perfect clarity or not, in which case the whole of time/history can change as a landscape can when a determined bulldozer operates on it. In the version of the tetralogy we somehow get the first but the second is always feared but never happens.

For example, why was De Soya "chosen" by the Church/Core to lead the hunt of Aenea in the first place. They thought he was instrumental in capturing her but he was instrumental in saving her?

Below are some additional questions: how was the Core "hiding" in the cruciform? How was it communicating without using the Void that Binds which is controlled by the other entities.
What difference do the voices of the Dead make if they are just recordings of their lives?
What tears were created in the Void by the use of fatlline or the Gideon drive or farcasting when its ability to store information and personality fronts is apparently infinite? How could the Core manipulate this storing when it did not have that access?

And a final note, Christianity is presented as essentially meaningless and while the history of catholicism is presented in some detail there is no reference to Patristic views and the whole other side of it that is the Orthodox church (which never appears while we have almost any other religion doing an appearance).

This book may disappoint the science fiction fans who read the first three books. It slows down, moving away from the intertwined story arcs and space ships of the Hyperion series.

Instead, Dan Simmons offers a vision of hope for our mucked up, violent and tribal world. While pulling together the story lines he left behind, he offers up a vision of love, interconnectedness and acceptance that just might work to help our besotted race survive and advance.

This is fiction at its best: engaging, imaginative, and most of all - inspiring.

The series in general is a worth while read. HYPERION ranks as one of those "must read" novels if you are a Sci-fi fan. The first novel leaves you hanging to some extent which is somehow not bad for the story if left alone. The remaining novels do not stand up to the first. Dan Simons has a knack for describing world's and environments that helps keep the reader engaged and overlook the drab, cliche and somewhat predictable ending.
Spoilers ahead. I need to express my dissapointment in the story direction. Dan dealt with the conundrum that all writers deal with after their masterpiece. Hard act to follow. Then he wrote novels that teeter on bad. Not just in comparison with the original. Thing that drove me nuts as a true sci-fi fan: the ultimate power in the universe is love??! Campy and coppied. Hold hands to power up?! Terminators from the core sent to kill everybody!? The "mystery" of Aeneas child, who didn't figure that out? The Shrike is a good guy that battles the core now? All of the bad guys get what's comming and everybody lives happily ever after. All very sad because the stage was set for so many awsome and mysterious outcomes.
Summary: read the final three but temper your expectations.

Meh... Doesn't really recapture the brilliance of the original Cantos. Got a little hamfisted with Anea's preaching and the sex scenes were pretty laughable. But still, a pretty fun if ultimately forgettable read.

This book was a truly beautiful ending to a wonderful series. I have rarely found myself spinning through such an emotional whirlwind as I did in the last few chapters of The Rise of Endymion. At first I cried in sorrow, and finally, at the end, I cried with joy. Never before has a book evoked such an intense reaction from me. It is true that some parts of RoE - and of its predecessor - seem a maze of extraneous detail (at one point I remember an entire page that was just a list of names, which while informative, probably could have been managed in a better way).

That being said, I was blown away by how much knowledge Dan Simmons weaved into this series: of technology, history, life, and not least of all, love. The true beauty of this novel lies in its profound examination of love. What amazed me was Simmons' portrayal of love in so many of its forms, whether the true, mind-numbing, eternity-altering love between Aenea and Raul, or the agape love that Aenea teaches her followers to share. His success in touching even the smallest truth of one of life's grandest transcendent mysteries is incredible. Precious few authors have the ability to cover so broad a range of topics with such insight and imagination. It was inspiring in a way rarely achieved.

Note: This is the same review for Fall of Hyperion, Endymion, and Rise of Endymion - this issue is on all three Kindle conversions (I did not buy Hyperion on Kindle.)

I'm not reviewing the book here, just the Kindle conversion. The book is excellent.

Whatever process that was done to recently convert the book to Kindle has some glaring flaws. Typos are everywhere and the same typos occur time and time again.

(Lines below are from Rise of Endymion)
"...corn-log's navigational..."
"...their drives off, their corns silenced..."
"The corn-unit element of the..."

"Corn" should be "com", by the way.

Every other page has a glaring and disruptive typo that distracts the reader. One or two typos a chapter is fine (even normal), but whoever did this conversion needed to double check the software's work. This book, in this form, should never have been released.

Just want to say that I'm not some grammar fanatic either, but it just feels like shoddy work. This excellent book seems amateurish because of these problems.

The prequel(s) are the same.

reply to the poster below:

"(who, by the way, never DOES resolve very well how he got into that stupid poison capsule thing, and more importantly how he knows the events of things outside of his experience)"

simmons definately resolves these two things. i don't want to give plot spoilers, so let me just give you some keywords: Pacem.Aenea.What Happens Afterwards. the chapter right after that explains why raul is in the Schr?dinger's catbox and how he got there.

and you think simmons didn't explain how raul knows all of this? come on man! lol. here are the keywords: the Void Which Binds. i don't think you even finished reading the book lol.

Ok, this was an extremely well-written and enjoyable sojourn to conclude the Endymion story, which is a sequel to the Hyperion series. That being said, Dan Simmons puts extensive verse into building word pictures of new worlds, creatures, ideas, and character development, creating a sort of plodding and unnecessary branches of story line that made the book slow, and maybe painfully slow. However, I found myself engrossed in it, and after 1200 pages (both books) found myself very sad the story finished and the book was complete. So, rather than reading for story, I found myself enjoying meandering through a garden of visualizations and found pleasure in just reading; which is frankly, very hard for me. Therefore, five stars. And... if you make it ... a great and rewarding ending.

I love the endymion books best of the hyperion stories because in the hyperion books, tracking the stories of the pilgrims, I felt some times that I was missing things. I knew i was reading something cool but I knew i was missing stuff. The endymion books focus on Raul and Aenea, its focused, you get the narrative, the travel story and all the subplot and context as well. I read these books every other year and i'm anticipating when my kids will be old enough for me to read these to them. I hope they like them as much as I do.

And quite frankly, the greatest series I have ever read. I write this review with a bittersweet feeling, having just finished this book, it saddens me that there is no more to read, no more to learn of Raul and Anea, of the pilgrims and the Ousters and the Templars. And yet, I can't help but just feel joy that it happened, that I got to experience this fantastic voyage across space and through time, and that I was privileged enough to experience it alongside the characters which so enthralled me and whose thought processes and own experiences were so lovingly described, and allows my senses to wander from the reading room and through such diverse and detailed environments. It has been a pleasure and a enrichment to immerse myself in this world, and to occasionally catch glimpses of others. Choose again. And I shall, I shall choose this masterpiece over an over again until the faintest memory has faded from my imagination.