I think the paternal/older brother relationship between Endymion and Aenea is quite sweet. If only the author didn't decide to then indicate that lovely dynamic would become a twisted sexual fantasy, I might rate this book with 3 or more stars. Sadly, that isn't what happened (and the next book offers only stronger condemnation of this choice).

I enjoy the Odyssian adventure along the river, through the different worlds, and I enjoy the sci-fi Catholic church that Simmons imagines. However, some cracks in the world building are beginning to show, and the big picture questions so eloquently posed by Hyperion, all they world building that was left vague and mysterious, are increasingly looking like they were better left that way.