Here I find that I’m moderately interested in the underlying story (two factions of humanity, one enmeshed with AI and one not, fighting it out or possibly fighting against the total destruction of humanity) while still not liking the writing style or characters very much. Still annoying: all characters who have sex experience it the same way, which includes a man getting raped by a woman (his former lover, who he currently considers an enemy), and then later deciding that he wanted it because he still loved her; the woman’s actions are treated as generally commendable and she is in fact presented as the embodiment of innocent heroism, although the rape was entirely extraneous to her mission. ( )

Really liked the individual stories, and the audiobook is well done. I was a little disappointed about the story not finishing until the next book. ( )

Unputdownable. I'm hooked enough to go on to Endymion. Well written, not easy to guess the outcome, and NOT 800 pages. Yay.
( )

Incredible journey but will not continue. I was more interested in Dan Simmons creative and writing pros/variety rather than the narrative. More nuanced in horror and mystery rather than sci-fi. In some aspects expecting this to be a sci-fi that actively involves the world in its characters was a notion I should've been less strict about. Hyperion/Fall of Hyperion is a horror book with incredible sci-fi elements that can be quite aimless at times. Some strong characters and a lot of mediocre ones. Predictable climax, the ones that weren't an ass pull that leads to Endymion lol, but nonetheless an enjoyable read.

*Without this followup Hyperion would've been 5/10. ( )

Quite an interesting book, but I think it would have been better if it had been a little less involved. ( )