be brutally honest

>>9592928
No its fucking shit and nothing happens about the shrike in it. It forces you to read the next book with sucks ass.

>>9592928
if you've struggled to read it 3 separate times, i doubt a 4th is going to change things and that you'd enjoy it.

i love it, have read if 4-5 times. i also love fall of hyperion, which i know gets a lot of shit from lots of places. i enjoy how it's a very explicit conversation with the canterbury tales (which i also enjoy) but in a space opera setting. i also enjoy john keats as a character and the inclusion of his poetry. i also enjoyed the spiritual elements in it, which is not commonly explored in science fiction.

i think that giving it a 4th try is going to depend on why you want to read it. if you're just looking for a simple read and some easily forgettable space opera, i'd suggest looking elsewhere. if you want something like what i described above, you should give it a 4th shot and know that it gets better after the priest's story.

>>9592981
i like what it did for scifi, but its still a cautious step in the right direction.

>i enjoy how it's a very explicit conversation with the canterbury tales
sadly this will be remembered as a gimmick. it was even dropped in the second book.

>john keats as a character and the inclusion of his poetry.
the story with keats was one of the worst in it. this was a very frustrating part of simmons's narration.

>i also enjoyed the spiritual elements in it, which is not commonly explored in science fiction.
there is a metric fuckton of spirituality in science fiction. read swanwick, p j farmer, pkd, the dune series, some heinlein, the atheistic spirituality that was arthur clarke's tone, and zelazny. it was the whole feature of an entire generation of scifi writers.

>>9592976
>nothing happens about the shrike in it.
this, so much this. i can understand making it mysterious, but not even giving the shrike a proper defining moment? big mistake.

>forces you to read the next book with sucks ass.
another poor aspect of the book.

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>>9592981
I've also re-read this book a few times. The second one is good, too.

The two Endymion books are a decent continuation of the series and wrap things up fairly well. I was disappointed in the ending...too Deux ex Machina...but I figure that by that point, Simmons had written himself into a corner and decided to pull himself out of a jam.

it's OK and the sequel is aggressively shit

would not recommend

The Fall of Hyperion is by far superior to this turd which can't even be called a novel and the only book in the series worth reading. Some shit taste here again