Two days ago I've started reading Hyperion by Dan Simmons. It had been waiting for 2 years, I think, so I'm happy to finally get to it.
I finished the Hyperion Cantos almost exactly one year later and I'm so happy to be free! I didn't expect it to take me so long, especially after the first two books which I finished at my regular pace. This is how it went:
It took me one month to finish the first book, I mostly enjoyed it, and then another month to
almost finish the second. But right at the end I had a chat with my friend about the series (he didn't spoil anything!) and after that my interest suddenly died out. I think I didn't read anything for the next ~3 months, and after that time I finally finished the second book right before my summer vacation break.
Then I read parts 3 and 4 at a much slower pace and it took way longer. I didn't really want to read during my free time, I only read those books just before sleep or when I couldn't sleep in the middle of the night. So it was either 10 minutes or 1-2 hours in one sitting. Most of the time it was the first option.
And now my thoughts about the series (no direct spoilers or story description):
I think I can say that I liked it, but at the same time I didn’t. More precisely I had quite a few issues with the story. I enjoyed parts 1-2 much more than 3-4, about half of 3-4 was sooo boring, but at the same time I wanted to learn more about the world and see how it would all turn out in the end.
The world and the story were pretty complex, which was great, but I didn't like some of the smaller parts of it: some events were really naive or hard to believe. It all looks much better when seen as a whole, and analyzed in a way like "this led to that, which resulted in this, and later that, and oohhh that's clever!" without focusing too much on the details. Then the whole thing feels very cool and impressive from a world building perspective.
It was definitely quite a journey, but I don't want to go back to it ever again. That doesn't mean I think Hyperion Cantos is bad! It just required too much investment from me without holding my interest, especially during the second part.
Yay, I can read other stuff now
