The Rise of Endymion

By: Dan Simmons

Narrated by: Victor Bevine

Length: 29 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's Summary

In the stunning continuation of the epic adventure begun in Hyperion, Simmons returns us to a far future resplendent with drama and invention. On the world of Hyperion, the mysterious Time Tombs are opening. And the secrets they contain mean that nothing - nothing anywhere in the universe - will ever be the same.

©1997 Dan Simmons (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

Simmons' Magnum Opus

This is the crowning finale to Dan Simmons' sprawling Hyperion Cantos. There are resolutions, big reveals, and shocking twists a-plenty, but Simmons still leaves a some things in the shadows, only partly explained. But this is a good thing, as it heightens the mystery of his universe and spurs the reader to imagine what will happen next after the final paragraph.

This is epic sci fi at its very best: imagining an all-too plausible future universe where people struggle with age-old conundrums and ever-evolving moral responsibilities, shadowed by the persistent anxiety of man versus his machines. Though the Cantos is most definitely a polemic against organized religion, and Roman Catholicism in particular, Simmons shows a surprising gentleness to the church in the series' resolution, and allows the reader to draw their own conclusions about whether the church saved its own soul or not.

If you are a fan of science fiction, this series has it all: time travel, space battles, realistic physics and limitations in space travel, artificial intelligence, and, yes, a sweeping romance. This is a series of immense ideas and mind-bending scope. Do not miss it.

Worst novel of the Hyperion Cantos

This is largely a predictable milieu story that goes into enormous detail describing people, places, and tangential events that are better left to the imagination while failing to follow through for the most important events. While Simmons does this in the other novels of the cantos, this one is the worst.

There is so much rambling in this novel that I was often tempted to skip ahead. For example, after arriving on an unknown world, we spend thirty minutes hearing about the sky, rolling storms, and Raul’s tiresome, Aenea-obsessed, internal dialogue. Also, after Aenea and Raul are reunited after years of time debt, they have a lot of sex, and Simmons indulges us with every raunchy detail. Thankfully, he never goes into detail about their bowel habits, but this novel could easily be cut by half without doing any harm.

At least we finally learn the backstory behind the TechnoCore, the cruciform, and other mysteries. Unfortunately, much of it supplants, or is forced to fit with, the story told in the Hyperion novels. I don’t think Simmons had all of this planned out from the beginning and it shows. There is a lot of fun and interesting religious and philosophical interplay here, but it hardly makes up for the novel’s many other faults.

The ending is just wretched. Just as we reach the confrontation between the Church and Aenea, Simmons jumps ahead a year and only briefly touches on it. There is no final conflict, no epic battle, no sense of achievement, and no satisfaction. As if that weren’t annoying enough, we aren’t even there to witness Raul’s miraculous escape from the long-feared Schrödinger box prison. Instead, it becomes all love story, all the time, and even this wraps to a few weak final scenes which we have seen coming since the two were reunited on T’ien Shan.

If you read the other novels of the Cantos, this one is necessary but it is without a doubt the most boring and the least fulfilling of all the novels.

A long but satisfying conclusion...

I figured out that if you listen to this whole four book series you are looking at about 96 hours of audio. If that sounds daunting, it is, but when every loose end is neatly tied up at the end of this last book it is worth it. This is an epic of science fiction storytelling and the narration is awesome.

Well written and narrated

The grand finale of the Hyperion Cantos! Well written, gut wrenching and ends well. I'm sad to see the series end, but.... That's life, right? I'll give it a year or two and then re-listen to the entire cantos again.

Satisfying conclusion to the Hyperion series.

I took a little break between Endymion and this final book of the series because it is one of those rare stories that you just don't want to end. Its nice to be able to look forward to the next installment of a story of proven quality and endurance. Anyway, after savoring anticipation for a while, I finally went ahead with this final Hyperion book.

If you have completed Hyperion, The Fall of Hyperion, and Endymion, then there probably won't be that many suprises in this book. Everything unfolds roughly the way you might expect, although there were a few minor unexpected twists. All loose ends are tied up rather neatly. Within the Hyperion Universe that Simmons has created, pretty much anything is possible. Because of this, I was hoping that Simmons would offer of a different fate for "the one who teaches." At least, one that was different than the one I was expecting.

If you haven't completed the book, I don't want to say anything more on that subject. Again, all I will say is that there are no major suprises in this book. I understand why certain events were required for the plot, but some events are unfortunate.

All in all, this was an outstanding series and I thank Simmons for sharing it with us. Once again, Bevine provides outstanding narration. The series ends on a good note and I am glad for that.

Highly Recommend all books in the Hyperion Saga!!

Fantastic conclusion to a great series

I really enjoyed the whole series, and this book was an excellent finale.

Some very, very boring passages

Most of the sections that deal with R. Endymion are boring, and it does not help that the guy is pictured as a moron. The sex/love scenes in particular are just plain boring and way too long, making the audiobook hard to finish. I gave up (despite reading the books a few years back - there you have the ease of skipping over the boring parts).

I wanted to like this more.

I've listened to all of the stories in this series and I find myself having to push to get to the end of this one. It's like he needed a good editor to come in an help cut so much unnecessary stuff. I like so much of what was in the Hyperion books (both Hyperion books are must listens) and Endymion. But this feels like it's retreading a lot of the same material over and over. Other times it changes some of things established in early books for no good reason. Long stretches just get too boring. Being such a fan of this series it pains me to have this end on such a weak book.

Nice finish to a complex story

Books about time always seem to have a paradox to them. This book avoids this problem nicely. This is the end of a four book series and you should start with Hyperion. Rise of Endymion is the glorious climax to this series. I would not have missed this sci-fi tour de force for nothing. It is on of those audio books that you think you might listen too again.

Sorry to get to the end of it.

Just finished the last of this series and I really hated to see it end. The entire story is very well put together with a lot of attention to detail. The Rise of Endymion wrapped up the entire series very well. If I had to say anything negative it would be the occasionally somewhat long winded monologues by some of the books characters. The "evil and pompous" Catholic empire was wearing on me long before the end of the book but that just may be because of my total rejection of"authoritarianism". Dan Simmons has an amazing imagination and tells a believable story that melds the worlds of science and spirituality. By the the end of the book you could almost believe that "freecasting" to another world was possible! !t would be nice if it was that easy!! Victor Bevine does an outstanding job of acting the parts and consistently differentiating the characters from start to finish. I could pop into any part of this audible and know exactly which character is speaking. I have heard a few audibles that were sort of irritating to listen to because of the poor voice impressions of the reader. Not so with Victor Bevine he was a pleasure to listen to through the entire series.

What happened to this series?!

Raul Endymion has to be one of the most irritating characters ever. He’s an Everyman.. born a nomad on a backwater planet, that knows masterpieces of music and literature. Can play Bach like the best of them.

He’s a hunter, soldier, miner, sailor, explosives expert... even suddenly becomes a writer half way through this book when he decides randomly pick up a ‘stylus’ and record a bit of conversation. All clumsily delivered because that’s what the narrative needed at a given time.

Characters are introduced and forgotten about within chapters of their introduction. Facts that’s had been given in the previous books are thrown out (all the dolphin herders are extinct in Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion, but not in this book).

It’s a poor book... with a terrible realised protagonist. Read Hyperion, and Fall of Hyperion and stop there.

Best Sci-fi ever

Seriously, this is like the third time through this series. It is a master work. Amazing

What a let down

I was excited to start the final story in the hyperion saga.

The first three books had created a such a full and rich universe. I couldn't wait to hear the conclusion, learn what the skriek really was and where humanity really found itself.

This anticipation made the disappointment worse. The final instalment drags painfully. The author seems to revel in his ability to make up names from different cultures, and insists on naming each and every character in every room.

I have been forced to stop and re-start this book so many times due to these periods of pointless navel gazing.

maybe on a page these lists could be skipped over with a blink of the eye, but in audio book format its frankly painful.

A real shame to end such a wonderfully spun narative this way.

The best science fiction series now in print

This was an eye-opener! The whole series was exquisitely crafted and sensitively narrated and so good I hope it wins many many awards. The ONLY writer to rival Ian M Banks.

Solid but a little dragging

A good follow up to hyperion, but not as griping in my opinion. Very well performed

Absolutely superb conclusion

This four-book series kept its momentum until the very end and was a pleasure to listen to from start to finish. This is my all-time favourite series of sci-fi books and I cannot recommend them highly enough. Excellent, interesting Sci-fi, beautifully written and read.

Almost great

Hyper hyper hyper hyper average. Oh and it over used the word hyper.

Personally I though the beginning dragged and by the end I didn't really care what happened.

A dissappointing end to the saga. Not terrible, but it felt like it fell short of its potential.

The final book

I think each book in the series was better than the last. This is definitely the best.

should have left the series alone

Firstly the good. Strong narrator with a good range.

Sadly the series should have stopped after the first two books. Raul was terrible and gave off them Woody Allen vibes if you know what I mean ....

Got there in the end

The first book was interesting and moved along well, after that things just .......went on a bit. Really the series should have been a trilogy. So much unwanted and meandering drivel in some passages, I was skipping big chunks. No twists at the end it was all a bit ‘Disney musical’ where they all live happily ever after, and do actually go off into the sunset.