Conor’s Reviews > Hyperion > Status Update

Still singing loudly, not looking back, matching stride for stride, they descended into the valley.

That was an ending definitely intended to set up the sequel but I still enjoyed it.

After a weak start the first part of the Consul's tale came together alright. The main character was a knobhead but Mike was cool and Siri was just awesome. The second part felt rushed. There were some cool revelations about the plot and pieces of world-building (especially about the Ousters) that really should have been better explored. Also the Consul's motivations and conflict were interesting but glossed over.

I ’cast to Fuji and lost most of my ready marks betting on the bloody samurai fights there.

Have to be honest you guys; that sounds friggin' awesome :D

Confusing opening to the Consul's tale. Telling a story within the story about a character we've not met. And the story is skipping all over the place in no chronological order. I've read 5 Malazan books but I can't recall ever being jerked around as much at the start of a story. Mike's a cool character though.

Really liked Lamia's tale. At the start it was a pretty typical, kind of dull, detective story. But the world-building with regards to AI's and the revelations and action scenes at the end, were really awesome.

All the references to him in this book have made me want to look into the life and works of 19th century poet John Keats. First time I've researched a poet/poetry that wasn't for an English essay. LOOK AT WHAT YOU'VE MADE ME DO DAN SIMMONS!

I'm kind of conflicted about the Ousters right now you guys. On one hand they're a bunch of 2-dimensional, evil wankers whose only contribution to the story so far has been to murder, burn and pillage a lot. On the other hand they're space(!) barbarians(!) which is a combination of 2 really cool things.

It was her last or her first smile.

Jesus, that was intense. The Scholar's tale was a well-written, powerful story with some really interesting musings on philosophy and morality and towards the end there were moments where I had a genuine lump in my throat. Really moving.

M. Silenus' story was brilliant. I didn't expect much from my least favourite member of the pilgrimage but it combined tragedy, comedy, action and more great world-building. Also Sad King Billy was an awesome character.

The soldier's story was pretty good. I thought it felt rushed though, with the descriptions of a lot of important events feeling kind of perfunctory. His early life and the battle of Bressia both could have been expanded imo.