Review: Endymion

The Shrike series continues with Endymion, the third book of four. It's a bit different from Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion in that it only has two characters that narrate, which leaves the character of Aenea even more mysterious because she is not one of the two so we don't know what's going on in her brain.

The first is Raul Endymion, an aimless denizen of post-Fall Hyperion who gets sucked into events that he doesn't understand by Martin Silenus, the randy poet figure from the first two books. The second is Captain Father - you know, I can't remember. I really must learn to read these things more slowly.

Anyway, as I was reading, I was trying to piece together the rest of the pieces of the puzzle including Moneta, the Shrike -- who has a MUCH different role in this one -- the quicksilver suits, the Time Tombs, and how all this fits into the metasphere thing (That sentence would make sense if you've read the first two books.).

Unfortunately, none of these questions were really answered. As I believe I've mentioned before, I'm an American, which means that I have to have things spelled out for me a lot. Not that I'm stupid, just that I don't always make the connections that the author/artist/director might think are obvious.

I'm hoping that the final book, The Rise of Endymion, might finally answer some of these questions. Somehow, I doubt it, since even in this penultimate book in the series the author brings in a new (short-lived) character with 10 chapters to go that introduces all kinds of new plot questions that Simmons doesn't really take time to address. But hope springs eternal, yadda yadda yadda.