While its predecessor, HYPERION, served only to pose new questions and mysteries, THE FALL OF HYPERION actually answers a lot. This isn't to say I fully understand what all happened. There are still some mysteries, almost entirely related to time travel, that either haven't been unraveled yet or were to complex for me to figure out on my own. From skimming some spoiler-free reviews of the following two books, it sounds like some of these things are eventually explained. But the important thing here is that strings are tied up, characters are given resolution. Heck, this book even has happy ending.

I struggle with giving it a lower numerical value than HYPERION. On one hand, this book explains so much, and takes us deep into things that were mere mysteries previously. Repeatedly, a reveal would arrive and explain something big, and I would be surprised and delighted and pleased by it.

But on the other hand, time travel can make things messy, and there's enough ambiguity and contrivance by the end this book that I simply can't give it 5 stars. It's still good though. Really good.