The Rise of Endymion / Dan Simmons

The Rise of Endymion by Dan Simmons
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Choose again.

A wonderful conclusion to a universe-wide saga, dealing with vast themes. The nature of mortality/immortality, the nature of religion, the necessity of freedom of choice, the joy of evolution. Really big stuff that it's difficult to talk about.

I read a lot and I don't often cry, but I cried often during the closing chapters of this novel. After four books, I've become attached to these characters, this universe. But I preferred that to all the panic induced by time spent in the Temple of Hanging Air or in paragliders over the mountains of that planet. I have just enough fear of heights that I nightmare about such things and I got way too involved in those descriptions, causing me to set the book aside frequently to let my heart rate & breathing subside.

I think the biggest idea that I come away from this novel with is that life requires change. We need our finite lifespans in order to appreciate what we have. Just like we need unhappiness to let us enjoy happiness or contentment when we experience them. People need choices to feel fulfilled, choice about religion (or the lack thereof), choice about work, choice about who we spend our time with.

Once again, I am impressed with Simmons' range of knowledge, this time including climbing technique, hang gliding, Buddhism, and poetry, among other things. I know that other Simmons books are going to find their way onto my TBR in the future. In the meantime, let's learn the languages of the living and the dead and hear the music of the spheres.

Book number 379 of my Science Fiction & Fantasy Reading Project.


View all my reviews