Both books chronicle almost everything that happened to Raul. So that’s another reason I forgive all the info-dumping and pointless descriptions. I think the Endymion duology read exactly the way it should have: a cross between a diary and a parent telling their child about their childhood. Or that we fear extinction so much that we take it upon ourselves to survive using technology.

Still, I find it quite sad that we need technology to ensure our survival. I understand that it’s necessary for their survival because it would have taken a bazillion years for them to evolve into a species that could survive on different environments (if they weren’t driven to extinction first). Yes, they’re evolving, but they’re doing it by genetic modification. I guess the Ousters are the last humans who have succumbed to nature, but they’re sort of ironic too.

Our need for them so that we would be resistant to evolution is kind of depressing. For instance, those cruciforms were anything but natural (though I know it wasn’t exactly humans who designed them). We always change the “natural” around us so that it’s better geared towards serving us. But then again, how do we define natural? We’ve sort of reinterpreted the word “natural” to be whatever suits our needs. Everything we have around us is totally not natural. (Of course, I’ll go into what I felt of the plot as well, but let me have a moment.) Yes, there are several characters whom I don’t remember the names of like the Ousters and Aenea’s students and the Treeships but I think that that conflict and theme were far more prevalent than any of their roles. I know that I don’t completely understand the whole business with the Intelligences and the Shrike (to the best of my knowledge, the Shrike was a creation of the Void Which Binds) but I think it’s fascinating how it’s essentially technology vs nature vs humanity’s greed and list all the negative attributes of humanity that you can think of here because I’m too lazy to do so. I guess I like the idea of love being the binding force of the universe though it’s a bit cliche. Then why, you may be asking if you follow this blog and haven’t stopped reading yet, did I give this four stars? There were parts which were really fun and drove the plot forward, but the majority was either info-dumping, Raul obsessing over Aenea or scenes of what was happening at the Pax (which were mostly boring). Like, so slow that I had to force myself to read two hundred pages every day in order to finish it before school starts this Wednesday (I kinda have a bet with my librarian). Aenea, meanwhile, prepares her students and herself for the inevitable facedown with the Pax. After four years on Old Earth, Raul Endymion goes on a journey across the River Tethys to find the Consul’s ship.

Rise of endymion