Re: Paul Atreides and the "chosen one who is really special defeats a great, evil power" trope:

This book is a complete mess. If Goodreads allowed half-star ratings this would be a shining example of a 2.5 star book.

Gone is the episodic structure of the first book in the series, which played to Simmons' apparent strengths and focused on shorter narratives that often wore their inspirations on their sleeves (the Neuromancer-worshiping in Brawne Lamia's tale was especially well-done) and, in hindsight, helped to obscure Simmons' lack of a distinctive voice (or, at least, a distinctive voice that's worthwhile).

The Fall of Hyperion falls into the unfortunate trap of having to explain all of the unanswered questions laid out in the first book; the rub being that the explanations are vastly less interesting than their associated mysteries (or, in some cases, are outright stupid). Without the benefit of the episodic storytelling, all of this stuff gets burped out in rather dull, generic sci-fi prose interspersed with occasional misguided forays into the literary. The sexiness of the tech and weaponry has lost some of its appeal as we were already treated to some quality gun-and-spaceships porn in the first book, so there's little that's fresh and exciting enough to make up for the huge step down in structure and narrative.

Not to mention John bloody Keats. At the center of this whole story is Simmons' obsession with John Keats, weaving his poetry and persona into every conceivable facet of the story. If that sounds hamfisted and awkward, that's because it absolutely is. Every Keats-heavy segment dragged and dragged, with extended scenes recreating events from Keats' life and even blurting out of lengthy chunks of his verse that Simmons is determined to force into his space opera. It's sort of fascinatingly bizarre that Simmons has such a love for finely crafted verse and profound literature, yet in the same book he will have characters see something dramatic and literally utter the phrase, "My god..." completely unironically. Some segments of the book read like cheap bargain bin sci-fi while others are more like historical fiction lit worship and I'm seriously disappointed that Simmons wasn't able to better meld the two disparate ends of palette (the closest he comes are the conversations with Ummon, with his Zen-like koans that actually sort of work).

That said, the book isn't without redeeming qualities. Some of the battle scenes are pretty neat, the Ousters are quite cool, and the Neuromancer-worshippy parts are still somewhat fun, but it's still quite a letdown after the very exciting (if far from truly great) first book in the series. I'll probably get to subsequent books eventually, but I'm not in a huge hurry after slowly working my way through this one.

Some Samuel R. Delany

I dunno what to read after I finish Wolfe's Wizard Knight books.

Going back to scifi sounds appealing. Maybe I should tackle some of the Culture books? The Forever War? Some Samuel R. Delany, Mervyn Peake, A. A. Attanasio, Cordwainer Smith? Just a few authors I've been considering lately. I wouldn't mind something a little bit literary, kind of craving the writing style of Eco/Borges/Wolfe.

Just finished the first 2 books in Stephen King's Dark Tower cycle, "The Gunslinger" and "The drawing of the three" . Actually enjoyed these quite a lot.Next up is Thomas Picketty's "Capital in the 21st century"

Well it's not really sci-fi at all but I can't recommend the Titus Groan books enough. All three were absolutely sublime but the second especially was seriously life-affirming/altering shit for me. Really kicking myself for not having read those books when I was younger.

Also R. A. Lafferty could be a good addition to that list there, as failsafe might agree.

Stop right there with Wheel of Time! It's alllllllll downhill after that.

Alllright, so this dude at work just stopped by my desk and saw my copy of The Silmarillion and asked if I'm into fantasy in general or just Tolkien in particular, so when I told him I like fantasy in general he recommended I read Stephen R. Donaldson's The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant novels (or, he says, just the first three since they go downhill after that). Can any of you vouch for him?

Ahhh, I'd at least keep going to The Wastelands before taking a break; IMO it's the best in The Dark Tower series if not one of the best Stephen King books period. Beautifully fleshes out the world/atmosphere from the first two books without getting stuck a bit far up its own asshole like the later books did.

Decided I'm gonna read Zelazny's Lord of Light, because I hear it's great and I love Eastern religion/philosophy. Heinlein's Stranger was actually the last scifi I read...any other essential scifi books with Eastern themes?

Alllright, so this dude at work just stopped by my desk and saw my copy of The Silmarillion and asked if I'm into fantasy in general or just Tolkien in particular, so when I told him I like fantasy in general he recommended I read Stephen R. Donaldson's The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant novels (or, he says, just the first three since they go downhill after that). Can any of you vouch for him? Even the Wikipedia page for the series doesn't have the nicest things to say in the "Critical Reception" section...

Anyone read Robert Merle's Malevil?

Yeah, Lord of Light rocks. Can't go wrong with Buddhists vs Hindu gods.

I've also got myself a copy of Michael Moorcock's Elric of Melnibone and Other Stories, the first in a re-issued set of the Elric saga. Was inspired by Cirith Ungol's album covers to give it a read (unfortunately, the book re-issues don't have that artwork). So far, I haven't gotten to the meat of it yet, but it seems interesting what with the whole multiverse and cosmos walking sort of stuff. Reminds me of the setting of the game Planescape: Torment.