Reviews tagging 'Xenophobia'

Triumf Endymiona by Dan Simmons

2 reviews

matteo_of_eld's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

If you like Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion, I cannot impress upon you enough how much you should not read this book or Endymion. Stupid retcons that ruin thematic content in Hyperion, weird character arcs, borderline pedophilia, long boring philosophical tracts. One of the worst books I've read in a long time, with a dumb, unearned conclusion.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Cancer, Death, Fatphobia, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Vomit, Islamophobia, Medical content, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Abandonment, and War

sanjica's review against another edition

challenging slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.25

A poor ending to a great series, making the previous books, and particularly the very unique Hyperion, worse by unnecessarily retconing plot elements. 

Three things I particularly disliked:

1. Our protagonist is a crybaby, and too many pages are spent on him being aggressively jealous of other people in his beloved child-bride's life (trigger warning:
   who he still calls kiddo while having sex with her?!?
   ), which bring me to...
2. Aenea - the prophet, the teacher, and the plot-device. There is nothing to be said about her character as, in the end, none of her "teachings" matter at all. She could've been a magical blood bucket and the whole plot would remain the same (but with less whining from Raul).
3. Speaking of, the plot of the book meanders and could've been edited down significantly without losing anything of importance. Example: author often wastes pages on naming every single elaborately-named character in a scene, even when 30+ characters are present.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Torture, and Vomit

Moderate: Genocide and War

Minor: Xenophobia and Religious bigotry

The central relationship of the book would very much be considered grooming.