Review: Rise of Endymion

Well, I finally finished the Shrike (or Hyperion as I guess it's called) series. The last book, Rise of Endymion, does tie up some loose ends, but to a linear thinker like me there are still some questions to answer.

There are some loopy time-shifting things going on, and Simmons doesn't bother to go back and explain where the empathy part of the human UI has gone or fits into the narrative and why John Keats of all other poets is important... I think I'm even confusing myself trying to write about it. It does end on a bit of a happy note, albeit still confusing because of the time travel things as I think back over the story of all four books. Maybe I should just accept that I won't understand it and leave it at that.

Still left me feeling a bit unsatisfied, though. Simmons creates a slow-on-the-uptake narrator in Raul Endymion that keeps him from having to explain things. Serves his purposes, but not mine. Grumble grumble grumble.