Choose Again

Endymion and it's follow up The Rise of Endymion have been, without doubt two of the best books I have ever read or ever will read.  I had, as I'd previously said, loved the two preceding books Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion.  Nothing had prepared me for the giant, thousand page omnibus of a follow up.  I mean that.  I feel different after reading it.

Reviewing it would be a pointless exercise, the story, essentially a love story, is too far reaching and far too complex to try and explain in a single post.  What might be better is to try and explain how I felt reading it.  What, if nothing else, it has stirred.

I'd forgotten how hungry my brain can be.  How hungry everyone's brain is for nourishment.  And mine has fed off of Endymion like it's never fed off of another book.  Whether that's because I left it so long without reading one or whether it is actually a work of genius I'm not sure.

It felt like an experience.  An amazing ride through the lives of good people that existed in a man's imagination, tightly bound in a story that spoke volumes.  It's not changed my world view, or my belief system it's just... I'm not sure I have the words.  I'm not sure there are words.  Maybe the simplest thing is to say that it jogged something.  Something indefinable yet huge.

I'm concious of the impact it's had on my words over the last week.  My typed words.  I think that's a good thing for those of you that turn up here and read and I sincerely hope that continues to be the case.

But in essence, there was a message in the book and a powerful one.  I can't explain what that means for me, but I think it might be a significant change.

I choose again.