The Fall of Hyperion

Executive Summary: While the ending was satisfying the book as a whole wasn't nearly as enjoyable for me as [b:Hyperion 77566 Hyperion (Hyperion Cantos #1) Dan Simmons https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1405546838s/77566.jpg 1383900]. 3.5 stars, rounded down because it was just too slow at times.Audiobook: After how great the audiobook for [b:Hyperion 77566 Hyperion (Hyperion Cantos #1) Dan Simmons https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1405546838s/77566.jpg 1383900] was, this one was a bit of a letdown. Victor Bevine does a good job, but to go from an ensemble to a single narrator was hard. Given the structure of this book compared to the last, it makes sense to only have 1 narrator, but I wouldn't have missed it if they had only used Mr. Bevine for the first as well. Still, audio is a decent option here in my opinion.Full ReviewAfter finishing [b:Hyperion 77566 Hyperion (Hyperion Cantos #1) Dan Simmons https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1405546838s/77566.jpg 1383900] there was no way I couldn't jump right into this. I just had to know what happened next.However, the format of this part of the story was largely different than the last book. Instead of several different stories with different narrators combining into one larger story, we had a single narrator acting as our conduit to several different subplots.However the format change wasn't my main issue. I just found the story moving far too slow. Maybe it is the format's problem. If I wasn't liking one story, it wouldn't be too long before a new one started that I might enjoy better. This was just one contiguous story (albeit one that jumped around between subplots rather frequently).Many of the elements I enjoyed from the first book are still present. The mystery of Hyperion and the Shrike. The politics of the Web worlds and the Ousters. Battles and intrigue. And the well written prose. But I found my attention wandering, and there were several points when I hoped things would just move along faster.Overall, I was happy with the ending of this. The main question/theory I wanted answered was done so by the end. In fact I feel like I could stop here and not read the next two. I do plan to read them eventually, but for now I'll be content taking a break to focus on other stories.