I finished The Fall of Hyperion!
I'm so glad I continued this series right away... Fall of Hyperion tied up so many of the remaining plot points from the first book that I hadn't been sure about and turned what was already an impressive book into something extra fantastic.
Many, though not all, of the Time Tombs have their purposes finally revealed in this book, and we get to see how each of our six pilgrims find the endings to their stories. Some are good, some are tragic, but all are appropriate to the story and are great payoffs for the reader.
The Fall of Hyperion focuses on the three factions we are introduced to in the first book almost as much as it does our six pilgrims - the Hegemony of Man, the AI Technocore, and the Ousters all had reason to want the Hyperion system, and as we saw at the end of the first book, this led to war among the factions. In this book we get to understand the motivations of each faction better, and some pretty big shifts happen that played out will have dramatic consequences for the entire universe. I suspect a lot of the fallout of this book will be explored in the final two books of the Cantos.
It was a fantastic read... Honestly, I think it was much better than the first book as it was a bit more action-packed and had so much going on. Every tale in the first book felt important, but not all of them were entertaining. That can't be said about this second book. It all felt important. It all was entertaining.
From the beginning to the end, it was a great read. I don't know what else I can say without giving away plot points, but I definitely recommend The Fall of Hyperion.
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