Reviewing The Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons

After listening to my gripes with the anticlimax of Hyperion, I heard from a few people that The Fall of Hyperion should really be considered part of the same volume. The story’s climax couldn’t fit into Hyperion’s Canterbury Tales format and ended up getting pushed to the next installment. I think that’s certainly right. Inside a more traditional narrative structure, The Fall of Hyperion wraps up storylines from book 1 and expands on the backstory of the universe. While the book was engaging and entertaining I wouldn’t say I felt particularly satisfied by the end. Simmons continues to rely on heavy exposition to resolve plot tension, and this time I actually had trouble following along and keeping track of the revealed information. Many characters spouted their own philosophy, and at least for me it didn’t really land. The main emotional arc ended up intertwined with the main twist, and both fell flat for me, in addition to having some pretty disturbing implications for some previous…