SciFi and Fantasy eBook Club discussion

Finished listening to it this morning and my first comment is that two hours later I am still singing The Wizard of Oz song--please, get out of my head! I did think that was quite an amusing thing to throw in there at the end.

As I feared, the ending was just the set-up for the next book. I really enjoyed this book; I liked the series of individual tales that let you get to know each character in depth. I thought the writing was great and I can see why this is a SciFi classic. However, I don't find myself compelled to read the next book and I'm not sure why.

The Wizard of Oz bit was amusing but I hated that it ended there. Each story was fascinating - especially the story of Rachel - and I was completely sucked in but it was 9600 locations of prologue. :(

Now, onto Rachel. Her story broke my heart. Living backwards and being confused each morning was sad but her parents also living backwards for 24 years was just such an incredible sacrifice ... I would like to think I would be that selfless ....

I'm still trying to figure out why I don't feel motivated to read the next book. Are you planning on reading the next one right away Geoffrey?

The Rachel story turned out to be really interesting. Until we got to that point, I couldn't figure out why this baby was even in the book. It just seemed so odd that one of these people would be carting a baby around and I thought how annoyed I would be if there was a baby crying all the time. ;)

Then hearing her story made everything clear. I agree Geoffrey, it was heart-breaking. He did a great job of conveying how awful that was not only for her and her parents but also her lover and her college friends. And the day that she lost speech...incredibly sad.

Rachel story was devastating. I found the whole book amazing but it must be said that it stops at the worst possible moment. Now I'm one third into the Fall of Hyperion and things are slowly falling into place. Shrike is one of the most hard core villains ever. Overall - fantastic book.

If you've gotten through Hyperion, then you have to read all 4 books of the series.

These were some of the best written books that I've ever read. Sure there are some slow parts, some things were predictable to some readers, and a few loose ends here and there, but they are easily overlooked. The first 2 and the second 2 do stand on their own pretty well but I found that I was really able to immerse myself in the last 2 books.

I've always said that if I ever meet Dan Simmons, I will punch him in the nose for what he wrote in the last book "Rise of Endymion." I can say that of all the books that I've ever read, that one hurt me the most.

Okay, so how did I go the last twenty-three years without reading this? I'm going to have to give one of my friends a good talking to... One of the indicators of how well this book is written is that each narrator has a different voice/ tone/ (style,) and it doesn't feel forced.

I will dissent, and say that I appreciated the ending as is. I'll read Fall of Hyperion, and perhaps after I do I'll feel as if this was just prologue, but for now I rather like the open question of "what happens next?," and the unanswered questions trailing in the wake.