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Rather light reading, probably targeting a wider audience. The main story was ok, with some cheap tricks to grab your attention early on. Phrases like "If only they hadn't..." and "They were the lucky ones..." are used frequently which to me felt more like spoiling the surprise than anything else.

Some characters develop pretty far but sometimes this is very sudden and hard to accept. The book is loosely based on the computer game, but this is mainly by mentioning some tech here, and some civilizations there.

A large portion of the environmental description focuses on describing what seems like misunderstood concepts in astrophysics. While that doesn't necessarily mean poor sci-fi, this book gave me the impression that the author skimmed through some out-dated low quality popular science magazine as the background research.

All in all and ok read.

Pretty interesting wrap up but some parts felt like unnecessary filling material. Large portions are spent on presenting geography and listing various religious and cultural groups. This is somewhat necessary to get an idea of the scale of events but it's done in a dull and repetitive way. That said, the main story was interesting and well worth reading, although I can't help thinking that it could have been condensed to about half as long without losing anything important.

The second book in the series is ramping up the epicness. We get a glance at the technocore's AI-ecosystem, the religious factions and a few hints at how the story might grow to encompass much bigger scales (over both space and time). And of course, the final showdown at Hyperion. There is double crossing, spectacular losses, plenty of background story and some character development.

Simmons keeps throwing poetry at the reader, and I keep skipping it or skimming through it at a glance. The more interesting aspects are the way the ousters and the AI are presented, and the division in the hegemonic leadership. We keep following the pilgrims, but to me this was mostly interesting as a bridge from the the first book.