The Rise of Endymion

By: Dan Simmons

Narrated by: Victor Bevine

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.

4 hours of action, packed into 30 hours!

This is a hard book to review, considering I have more than 4 straight days of listening time invested in the series (Something like 97 hours total?)... But I came away from 'The Rise Of Endymion' with a strong sense of '4 hours of action inside of 30 hours of book'... it's very... wordy.

Not saying it's not worth listening to, it's very well worth the time, but some long parts of it are dragged way out (hours)... I feel like I attended Earth Day at a 'Running Man' festival, held on the home-site of a commune, with the 28+ year old hero being dragged around emotionally (and physically) by a 12 year old girl, for no real reason, while having The Wizard Of Oz banged into my head as we tool around in a flying Kayak after leaving the Hippies, while the author tries to convince me that he's really a master poet disguising his work in far flung Sci-Fi...

If that sounds confusing, you're getting my point. I see the deep symbolism the author is trying to convey, but not quite pulling off believably, due, among other things, to the strange lurches in technology. Once you've demonstrated the miraculous medical abilities of a culture, it's hard to listen to an hour of detailed descriptions of the hero being laid low by Kidney Stones. That sort of thing, combined with obvious points were the author seems to have abruptly trimmed long 'side-adventures' from the original text, really dampened my enjoyment and the flow of the book (Trimming the side-adventures was wise, but it was kind of abrupt just mentioning that you 'wanted to tell about them, but decided not to'). I also kinda dislike books that waste a lot of time by having the same events told from the point of view of each different character, one after another, in excruciating detail.

I guess I gave the 'series' a '4' overall, when I probably would have given this book in the series a 3 as a standalone book. When this happens in other series' I always feel like someone said, "Heh, just toss whatever into it, they've invested this much time in the series, so they'll buy this book in the series too'. I feel like this book contained an excellent Sci-Fi idea, but got 'fleshed out' way too much with the mundane. I'm not trying to be flippant when I say that the abridged version of this book is probably a real nail-biter.

Fantastic Series!!!

I loved all three. This one ties everything up nicely. A worthy listen and it's understandable why they are award winners.

Amazingly built story, plot and poetry...

... I see Hyperion Cantos books will still be recognized as so one thousand years from now. I'm grateful to author and narration team for my well spent time reading and listening to this timeless adventure.

Great series of books.

Great series of books. Very few plot holes in the story. Loved the mix of poetry and SxiFi

Sci-Fi must read

Continuing the Hyperion Series this novel offers more insight to the Original novels while adding its own interwoven greatness.