Hyperion Series by Dan Simmons
So I just finished a decent SciFi series by Dan Simmons. This is the first I’ve read of his work, and I thought it was pretty decent as current SciFi stuff goes. It’s a commentary on my reading style that I have to go through books a couple of times before I really know where I stand on them sometimes. This is one of those; when I reached the end, I wasn’t really sure how to feel. I will say the ending has been cycling in my head for a few days now. It does carry some emotion. He seems to have a knack for his characters most of the time; they’re unique, lifelike, interesting (mostly), and make sense in their context.
Anyway, you can tell from the paragraph above that I’m a little scattered on this one. The series consists of four books: Hyperion, The Fall of Hyperion, Endymion, and The Rise of Endymion. It’s more like two pair than a real series; the events of the second two books are separated by nearly three hundred years from the first two, so you can take a breather in between and read something else.
I guess some of my problem with this is religious. SciFi a lot of times tried to present answers to the flaws in our lives, and does a pretty miserable job at it. The author’s characters have no belief in any life after death, and the way they deal with it seems empty. I know some folks would call me deluded to think about life after death, but I get a very hollow feeling when I read some of these attempts to deal with grief and loss. "They live on in their loved ones and memories." Pretty weak. There’s something so vital and vibrant in each person, that having it just quit at death doesn’t feel right to most people. Dan Simmons makes a very vibrant and powerful personality in the second two books, and the belief that nothing but memories is left after death feels sad and wrong to me. I guess that’s my main complaint against the books, and others may not have the same issues.
