The Hyperion Cantos 4-Book Bundle: Hyperion, The Fall of Hyperion, Endymion, The Rise of Endymion Kindle Edition

I had read the first book of this series many years ago, and that book is - in my opinion - one of the top 10 science fiction books of all time. Even today. You might think that something that mirrors the Canterbury Tales would be dry, and boring. You would be wrong. But, I had never read the second through fourth books. Seeing this omnibus edition, I decided to take the plunge - despite the somewhat high price.The author presents a far future, very advanced society. And a cast of interesting characters and several mysteries that are only partially resolved by the end of the first book. Each book continues the storyline, introducing new characters and answers to the many questions that arise in the earlier novels. While some of the characters span all of the books - there is a different cast of characters in the first two books and new cast in the last two books.Read all four books - and enjoy a grand adventure that spans centuries, and asks and tries to answer what is important about being human and the human condition.While the last three books aren't up to the stellar standard of the first, it is well worth the time and effort and to read all four books. I felt that second and third books dragged on a bit at times. But, it must be said - the author does tie up all the questions and story lines by the end. And, I felt the emotional involvement and payoff by the end are well worth the lulls in story arc midway through books 3 and until the middle of the fourth.The ending, and the points made by the end, are worth the slow going towards the end of the series.

Hard to write this review of the 4-book Bundle. There's a clear content divide between the Hyperion and the Endymion books. I try to be as non-spoiler-y as possible below.Hyperion is a very easy read (took me a while to get over Lenart Hoyt's story, and it is funny because that's the story that follows you over the entire cantos saga) that starts quite slow but picks up speed early on and leaves you desiring you had the second book close by...which in this case you do because you bought the 4 book bundle!Fall is probably the worst of the 4, but I believe that's because it has the difficult task of "closing" hyperion before moving forward with Endymion. The Keats* stories are the best part of this book for me.Endymion represents a switch to an almost different environment, but all well connected with the previous stories. There's something special about Aenea, and I think that SImmons really achieved his goal(?) of creating a childish but deep character. Same thing applies to Rise of Endymion.Best thing about the books? The soft sci-fi feel of undeveloped-ish future with a BIG role for time (instead of space) as a central theme. Oh, and religion appears in sci-fi, woah!

With regards to the E-Book itself and not the story it contains, there are some typographical errors I assume manifest during the scanning process, but these are rare and not especially glaring.As far as the Cantos itself is concerned, the story is complex, the characters compelling, and the underlying concepts interesting. This is a collection of four books, unusual in that you can walk away after book one or two and feel completely satisfied without reading books three or four, though I don’t necessarily suggest doing so, the remaining two books are quite enjoyable.There are (very) mild spoilers in the rest of this review. Continue at your own discretion.My gripes about the story itself are threefold ; first, books three and four take place centuries after the first two and center on characters not introduced prior. This is disorienting and it’s bittersweet moving away from the characters we meet in the first half of the Cantos, but it is far from a dealbreaker: Just jarring. Second and more egregious is the obvious and repeated retconning in the final two books. The author twists events and concepts presented in the first half of the story in ways he obviously hadn’t intended at the time. Events aren’t changed, just unpleasantly altered. Again, this is a largely insignificant complaint, but again, it was jarring. He does this several times, especially in the last book to disappointing effect (looking at you, Tree of Pain, Lord of Pain). Third and final, the story really starts to drag in the early/middle parts of book four, and sporadically at the end.The story is still very worthy, and would be appreciated by any fan of high concept science fiction, it is just not QUITE up to par with the real legends of the genre.

Hyperion Cantos(no spoilers)-all four booksMakes me realize how much drivel I normally consume! Can’t believe I waited almost 30 years to read the Hyperion books. I think I’ve carried “Hyperion” around since about 1990 and always knew the series would require an investment on my part so with my Kindle I got all 4 books and had a go. I’ve been reading science fiction for over 40 years and from my very first (Heinlein’s “Have Spacesuit will Travel” as a fourth grader) to Hyperion this series is at or near the top. The language, settings, characters, plot—all are worthy of a slow, take your time and smell the roses, read. Can’t recommend this enough. Two separate stories with some connecting threads that can be read apart (Hyperion and Endymion) but why?

This is a review of all four books. Epic in sweep - a galaxy of societies based on very intimate characters.I’d say I preferred the first two tales over the last two overall but they do book end and intertwine in very interesting ways to make for a very complete sense of a few hundred years.Time and space travel can make for some frustrating moments of paradox or worse nonsense but the author either dug in or left things blurry in a satisfying way.For those with an interest in sci-fi I give it a hearty recommendation.