Endymion and the Rise of Endymion by Dan Simmons

Parts three and four of the Hyperion Cantos, these two books are a most satisfying ending of the previous two—which makes sense, since two or three little things were left unfinished for SIX YEARS while Dan Simmons collected praise and money for the first two.  Can’t really blame him.

I guess it was worth the wait, because these two books (I recommend the audiobooks and a lot of free time) expand on the previous universe and timestream and take place two hundred years later, after a frighteningly corrupt resurgent Catholic Church forces peace and a kind of immortality on the human universe…for certain values of “human”.

I quite liked the characters, action and pacing of these two books, and the fantastic stretches of imagination called for (the physics of the gas giant alone is imaginative, if completely impossible).  I read/heard with disgust the violence and soullessness of the bad guys in this series and hated the gruesome murders detailed within.  I am slightly more squeamish than most, though, so most people will not be as put off by that as am I, probably.

I do heartily recommend these two, available on Amazon.com and at sfpl.org, just as all good books should be.