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耿 庆文 564176785d339 — Anyone who's read my reviews of the first and last books in the Twilight saga knows that this review won't consist of much. Twilight was the beginning, the best book, the start of something great. Or at least, it should have been. Breaking Dawn was the bitterly disappointing ending to the saga that had potential, but just didn't deliver. New Moon and Eclipse were the pointless, disappointing, utterly forgettable filler books in this tragedy sandwich. You know it's sad when, three days after I read this book, I couldn't immediately remember what it was about. I still don't remember much of what happened in it, aside from the fight scene towards the end. The only reason I remember said fight scene is because I'm still infuriated that Bella was able to act like such a spoiled, selfish little brat and somehow have fate reward her for it. When Edward and his family are preparing for battle, Bella has an emotional breakdown and decides she just can't live without Edward. So she asks him to stay out of the fight. For her. Internally, she feels terrible for requesting it, but she can't reconcile those feelings with the overwhelming fear of losing Edward. So she never takes it back. Edward, like the totally pussy-whipped doormat he's become (completely uncharacteristic of him considering his behavior in the first and second books), agrees. The explanation is that he feels so badly about leaving Bella for eight months (in the second book) that he can't refuse her anything. Even if it means leaving his family to fight, alone, against a sadistic, revenge-bent she-vamp whose only target is Edward's own precious little girlfriend. So he does just that. He leaves the werewolves and his family to fight alone while he and Bella camp out in the mountains. But wait! It's okay because the she-vamp has other plans. While she sends her army of newborn vamps to fight the Cullens (the ones who didn't allow some selfish bitch to talk them out of fighting, anyway) and the werewolves, *she* loops around to the mountains with her freshly-made lover-vamp to take Bella out while the others are preoccupied. It's a real good thing she asked Edward to stay out of the fight, otherwise he wouldn't have been on that mountain to defend her from Bonnie and Clyde Vampire. Please. Don't even get me started on Bella's other admirable traits. As the series progresses, she gets dumber, more selfish, and less empathetic. I hate this character. She's not the same character as the Bella in Twilight. Not even close. Her attitude and behavior make this book barely tolerable.

Dmitry Malyovaniy vpalto — This is a re-read. It's even better the second time around. "Hyperion" is the first of two novels, "The Fall of Hyperion" being the sequel of a continuous story. Dan Simmons says he wrote them as "space opera" and followed up with two books set in the same universe, but with different characters, the "Endymion" series. But Simmons also delights in telling us that he is not a sci-fi writer; his books are in many different genres, chief of which is probablhy contemporary horror (his "Carrion Comfort" won the best novel byu the Horror Writers of America" back in the late '80's). (See his official website, www.dansimmons.com.) As a successful multi-genre writer, Simmons confirms what "Hyperion" shows -- that his books are excellent examples of the postmodernity of genre writing. I find the Hyperion series to be a sort of flip-side to the novels of Umberto Eco. Eco's "The Name of the Rose" uses the popular mystery novel genre, but turns the basic properties of the mystery novel on their end by bringing up questions of contemporary (and historical) philosophy, signs and signifiers in language itself, and the relationship of such concerns to genre novel writing. In Eco, the philosophy actually becomes foreground. Simmons, on the other hand, spins a pulp-fiction yarn in traditional "space-opera" fashion, but still he weaves in questions of literary theory (John Keats permeates the work, even to the point of becoming a character in it) and the philosophy of creativity, especially creative evolution per Teilhard, and how this aesthetic relates to romantic poetics, and in turn to contemporary genre writing. Twenty years ago, on first reading Hyperion, I did not go on to read the sequel. This time I started again at the beginning and continued on through the two volume epic. "The Fall..." abandons the Canturbury Tales-like format of "Hyperion" wherin each of a group of pilgrims relates his/her story within the framework of a larger mission. This format is one of the attractive features of the first book. It presents different aspects of the Hyperion universe from seven different points of view, each one reflecting and adding to the entire storyline. The second volume has a more straightforward storytelling style, smaller chapters alternating between locales and characters, between the pilgrims who have reached their goal and now face life-and-death adventures, and the various diplomatic warrooms where the leaders of humanity play with the fate of the known worlds. And though "The Fall" completes the story, for twenty years I have never felt like I was shortchanged in stopping with "Hyperion" on my first read. That novel itself is big and boisterous and full of felt-life. The sequel, though perhaps not as grand, is a pleasant fulfillment of the story. In the Dan Simmons output, both books remind us that pulp literature can transcend its genre, even while spinning a good tale.

Mauricio Sanchez chingon102879b9 — 4.5 Stars. This book made me laugh out loud - intentionally. Always a good thing! Really fun read. Well-written too!

Cristina Gago crisgagoo329ac — I'm still reading, but I'm thinking everyone over 35 should read this...for the trip down memory lane, if nothing else. Finished and it was fabulous! (And thought-provoking, too.)