Jon PENNYCOOK reviewed The Rise of Endymion by Dan Simmons (Hyperion)
Review of 'The Rise of Endymion' on 'Goodreads'
2 stars
Stop after reading the first two books of the Hyperion Cantos. The second two books throw away the original storyline, rather like a modern reboot of some classic film.
The two "Endymion" books are very repetitive - they move to a new planet, bad stuff happens, they move on. There are enormous, boring, infodumps about a Christian sect, a Buddhist sect, and sex between the two main characters. The world building is excessive - nothing is left to the imagination. The explanation for why the name of the magic carpet should not be capitalised was boring in its repetitiveness.
In order to rescue a story going nowhere, magic is invoked. Also, wherever the author can't deal with continuity from the previous novels, the narrator implies that the original narrator didn't really know what was going on, which seems lazy.
Apparently love is the key to everything, and it has magical effects, and many characters are in love with others that the characters lack depth.
This use of magic reminds me of a Sherri S Tepper novel. Also like Tepper's works, the males are fairly useless or evil.
The books also have similarities to The Door Into Summer by Robert A Heinlein, with the cat replaced by an android.
Perhaps the "Endymion" books might work as Young Adult fiction.