David Colborne reviewed The Rise of Endymion by Dan Simmons (Hyperion Cantos, #4)
Questions are easier to raise than answers
3 stars
Give Dan Simmons credit — he tried. He tried to answer every question raised by his Chaucerian space pilgrimage in "Hyperion."
Do the answers make sense? Largely they do not.
Does Raul Endymion — the trapped narrator-protagonist in the final two books of the Hyperion Cantos — become increasingly sympathetic as the series finished? Largely he does not.
In the final book of the series, Simmons does his best to tie together all of the loose threads scattered around the Cantos to tie the convoluted space-time plot together into something coherent. In many respects, this was likely a mistake — reality never comes together neatly, so presenting every event in time and space across a vast, infinite universe as coming together towards a conclusion would stretch belief under the best of circumstances.
Frustratingly, Simmons decided to strap the sprawling conclusion to the back of Raul Endymion …
Give Dan Simmons credit — he tried. He tried to answer every question raised by his Chaucerian space pilgrimage in "Hyperion."
Do the answers make sense? Largely they do not.
Does Raul Endymion — the trapped narrator-protagonist in the final two books of the Hyperion Cantos — become increasingly sympathetic as the series finished? Largely he does not.
In the final book of the series, Simmons does his best to tie together all of the loose threads scattered around the Cantos to tie the convoluted space-time plot together into something coherent. In many respects, this was likely a mistake — reality never comes together neatly, so presenting every event in time and space across a vast, infinite universe as coming together towards a conclusion would stretch belief under the best of circumstances.
Frustratingly, Simmons decided to strap the sprawling conclusion to the back of Raul Endymion — a man chosen by a poet to protect the reluctant young female Messiah he's told repeatedly (by her when she's 11 and he's in his 20s) that he will eventually fall madly in love with. In the previous book, Raul seems generally competent and affable, if not especially bright; "Rise of Endymion," however, quickly turns him into a petulant and clueless brat who spends most of the novel whining to or at someone while the Smartest And Most Attractive Human In The Universe seduces him.
Charitably, this may have been on purpose. The book's message, beyond "Choose again," is that love is a source of energy, and the relationship between Raul and Aenia is supposed to signify the ideal of this novel energy source. With this in mind, turning Raul into a man who's only capable of an obsessive all-consuming codependent love for Aenia, one capable of scouring time and space for every trace of her so that her entire story can be told,.makes a certain kind of narrative sense.
I'd be lying if I said I found it to be an especially satisfying read, however, especially by the end.
