Rise of Endymion

Rating:
Summary: The end of the Cantos
Review: It's finally over. Simmons' "Cantos" series concludes in fairly good form, again the last 100 pages are eminently readable, but the rest still a little slow. What's more, like the later Dune books by Herbert or Xenocide by Card, Simmons gets a little too wrapped up in his world and his world gets a little too weird. The "floating city" and whole Buddhist mountain world bit was as tedious as Card's line tracing. Still, I guess I have to recommend reading the series, the slow spots and odd segments are the price we all have to pay to have another possible vision of the universe, and that's what reading most scifi is about anyway.

Rating:
Summary: Serendipity
Review: The Rise of Endymion represents the culmination of many things. It ends the Hyperion series, resolves all the questions asked therein, but most importantly it represents the culmination of all of the philosophical, ethical, and spiritual ideas, the seeds of which Simmons' plants throughout the Hyperion series. By the end of the book, I had begun to change my entire outlook on life, by questioning the principles Simmons' outlays in this novel. Quite simply, I have to comment that Dan Simmons is not only a master author, but an excellent philosopher, ethicist, and artist as well.

Rating:
Summary: Different in tone, but still satisfying
Review: Looking at the four Hyperion novels, it's interesting to see how Dan Simmons uses a different model for each book. The original Hyperion, with its Canterbury Tales model, could best be described as his "literary" volume. The Fall of Hyperion, bringing in massive concepts and ideas, is the "science-fiction" volume. Endymion has a feel of "action/adventure", with its wild chases across planets and constant brushes with the enemy. With all of that in mind, it's almost a little surprising to find The Rise of Endymion to take on a fourth role of "spiritual".

Simmons does a more than satisfactory job of tying up all the plot threads of the previous books (much more neatly done than in The Fall of Hyperion), but at the same time it's very clear that Simmons's characters have found a larger purpose. I appreciated that his characters don't preach to the reader, but instead keep their viewpoints to themselves as they tell the final leg of this epic journey.

My only real complaint is that in places, Simmons does too good a job of tying things up. There's so much going back to the first book that it almost felt like he was responding to criticisms of earlier books. Was it planned all along? Quite possibly. It still feels a little awkward in places as expository dialogue is suddenly dumped on the reader, but on the whole it's still enjoyable.

Those turned off by the shift in tone in Endymion should definitely return to the Hyperion Cantos for one final story; I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: An Unforgettable Journey
Review: I rarely read a book more than once, yet, I couldn't help but revisit Simmon's universe a second time. I'm now midway through The Rise of Endymion, having finished the previous three books in the series in near record time- two weeks for me. Each book delivers something different, something special to the reader. I have never been a huge fan of science fiction- i pick and choose, reading only the best, and I am convinced Dan Simmon's story of Raul and Aenea is eclipsed only by Frank Herbert's fantastic Dune. This series enthralled me from page one, even Endymion had its moments, though many of you gave that novel a less than favoring review. And, i admit, though I'm not sure i cried the first time, my throat had a bit of a tickle near the end of the series, (yet strangely, I bawl like a baby during the last ten minutes of Rudy- that movie gets me everytime). At any rate, read these books- Hyperion through The Rise of Endymion, and turn a blind eye to the inconsistencies- its easy to do with such a wonderful cast of characters and amazing world-building to support it. And by the way, thank you Mr. Simmons- I can't wait to read what you come up with next.

Rating:
Summary: good on ideas but a little self indulgent at times
Review: What I don't like about the book is the 'poetry' incorporated in the text. Dan Simmons is a first-class science fiction writer but I find the poems boring and unnnecessary. There is too much padding in parts, overdone descriptions of places.... Having said all of that the original 'Hyperion' is possibly the best scfi story I've ever read. The development of the characters and ideas is good. I particularly liked action sequences involving the Shrike in this the last of the Hyperion series

Rating:
Summary: Brilliantly realized
Review: I always see that phrase is reference to Dan Simmons books, "brilliantly realized." And it certainly applies to Rise of Endymion.

Any faults in this book are easily forgiven thanks to the amazing characterization, beautiful prose, stunning invented worlds, and exciting plot.

The emotional punch at the end has had me staggering for days. Run, don't walk, and get a copy of this book.

Rating:
Summary: Not the best in the series but a great read nonetheless
Review: I finished! Whew! Boy Mr. Simmons, you sure can get long winded at times. I think that this book could have been about 200 pages shorter than it's current 709. But I AM glad that some artist finally got the Shrike correctly represented on the cover (IT HAS 4 ARMS....YEAH!).

But enough of that. Now onto the book!

The story picks up exactly where Endymion left us hanging. Raul is still in his 'Cat Box' waiting for death, writing his memoirs on vellum and feeding the recycled paper into the computer. He tells us about Aenea and her life surrounded by these wonderful people (A. Bettik the Android, Martin Silenus the old poet with a mouthful of obscenities, Father-Captain de Soya, the Nemes things, and, of course, the Core with it's Lions and Tigers and Bears).

Humanity is on the verge of stagnation thanks to the evil portions of the Core who utilize the Cruciform as a parasite upon the bodies of humans. It is a feeding parasite that allows the Core entities to harness a lot of power and walk amongst the human race. Aenea knows this and is out to stop the stagnation and end the rule of the Pax Church (that requires it's members to wear the resurrecting Cruciform). She also wants to bring back Old Earth to it's rightful place in the Sol system, and unite humanity in a way that was never thought possible. Through the Void Which Binds, Aenea achieves her goal, switching back and forth through time using her soon to be not-so-unique powers that enable her to travel anywhere in the universe where her love, or those who love her, have been.

And throughout this entire journey, there is Raul Endymion, writing the story of Aenea and her life. But he's really writing the Cantos, unbeknownst to himself but revealed later by Martin Silenus (I'm not really giving that much away here, there is much more to this book than just this particular line of plot). What Raul finally realizes, after he finishes his 'memoirs' is that life cannot be lived in an enclosed egg and he now has the ability to leave after finishing his story. He just needed the insight and now he has it, thanks to Aenea, Martin Silenus, the Pax, the Ousters, A. Bettik, and the Void Which Binds --- love, change, and choose again.

Rating:
Summary: A pitiful ending to a could-have-been-better series
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Satisfying ending to an engaging series.
Review: With this book, Simmons ties up all the loose ends from the previous three books (HYPERION, FALL OF HYPERION, and ENDYMION), but, at the same time, leaves the reader wondering, "What happens next?" I, personally, wonder what life has in store for Raul Endymion after his adventures in these last two books. Will his life be peaceful? Will he play an important part in humanity's future? Hopefully, Simmons will let us wonder...it seems more appropriate than having him spell it out for us.

We finally get to see Aenea confront the Pax in this book. It's not a clash of arms and men, but, rather, a contest of wills. I'd like to give my take on this final confrontation, but it would ruin it for those who have not read it. Suffice it to say, it took guts on Simmons' part to do it this way, but, in the end, I'd have to say that I was very satisfied.

As with the first three books, Simmons' characters are beautifully vivid and their interactions with each other are realistic and a joy to read. My one disappointment with the book was the lack of action compared to the previous book. There was more soul searching and philosophizing in this book. We see a lot of Aenea proselytizing to the masses, trying to enlighten them in regards to the corruption of the Pax and its detrimental effects to humanity. One thing I thoroughly enjoyed was the expanded role of the Core in this book as compared to the previous one (or at least one facet of the Core).

All in all, I think this book was a very satisfying conclusion to the entire series. It brought to a close the adventures started with seven Shrike pilgrims almost three hundred years ago. Beautifully done!

Rating:
Summary: Dan Simmons proves he can hit every note.
Review: You can say bad things about The Rise of Endymion, and some people have. It has plot holes and inconsistencies. You can see the ending coming from a mile away. It's preachy, emotional, and not as intelligent as Hyperion.

It's also the only book that's ever made this hard-case cry. When Aenea fulfilled her destiny, I...uh, must have had some dust in my eye or something, because I had to put this book down for a while. It's never happened before, and I don't expect it will happen again - but it happened this time and Simmons has earned my admiration as a result. Until The Rise of Endymion, I've never been so engrossed in a book and its characters that their suffering became my own.

Sure the book has plot holes; why was the Shrike so ineffective in Endymion but so unstoppable now? These inconsistencies are annoying but in no way lessen the book's impact. The ending is fairly obvious, but as one reviewer mentioned, since when is a "surprise ending" the measure of a book's greatness? This ain't The Sixth Sense or Murder on the Orient Express.

Simmons dazzled me with his intelligence and world-building in Hyperion. He's written a dozen novels demonstrating his skills at characterization and genre-hopping. The one thing he's never done - until now - is make me feel anything other than cool appreciation for the quality of his ideas. Well, this time Simmons delivered. He hit me right in the gut and made me care about what happened to his characters. Simmons can play every note; he's the total package.

So the bottom line is this: if you love the way that Simmons switches gears on you with every novel, and if you could use a book with real emotional power, then The Rise of Endymion is it. If, on the other hand, you want Hyperion Part 4, you're going to be disappointed. Then again, if you just want more of the same, why are you reading Dan Simmons anyway? He's never been a "more of the same" type of guy.