Took a chance on this.

Absolutely mind blowingly amazing. I don't have to words to describe the journey I just went on, but amazing!

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High quality

This is an interesting, innovative story for mature readers. Complex characters, complex topics, and with truly great narrators' performances.

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Inspired Sci-fi

I loved this book. It is beautifully written with brilliant characterisation and a really good storyline. The format means that there are six interesting stories narrated by each of the main characters and these in themselves are well-constructed sci-fi. The over-arching story kept me interested throughout and made me immediately order the sequel "Fall of Hyperion", which I also read and loved. Very highly recommended to people who like the genre - it is one of the best of it's kind. Well read.

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50 people found this helpful

Brilliant!

On the book...
I really liked this book - and have recently finished listening to all of the series. Iain M Banks is still my favourite sci-fi author, but I'd listened to all of his audio books and wanted some more epic contemporary sci-fi and people seemed to recommend this - and rightly so. As a whole the story is definitely epic, has great characters and a really great story. In this one, the sex scenes were a bit perverse and unnecessary. I could see the idea he was going for with it - but it didn't play out well really and was pretty cheesy at times. Other than that, the story is really good and well worth reading.

On narration...
I didn't really think much of the narrator - it sounded like English wasn't his first language maybe. He pronounced every single word - like 'to' and 'a' - fully, which - when you actually hear it done - is quite strange. He occasionally made little errors in pronunciation - saying the 'chasm' with a soft 'ch' sound - which is a bit weird - or maybe he just did the whole thing in one take without bothering to fix the error. He also pronounced 'Aargh' exactly as it is written, with a clear 'r' and then a hard 'g' sound on the end. No-one really says that when they scream - that's just obvious - again - weird. The thing I disliked the most though was his inability to portray anything other than a small range of emotions. Whenever he took on a woman's voice - there was one set tone - and any emotion - such as anger - was not portrayed at all - it was always just 'the soft woman tone'. The range of accents for the different characters was good - just a bit more attention to tone and emotion was needed.

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11 people found this helpful

Grand scale epic tale

Just read it!! Great characters with their personal great stories and a fascinating plot! If you like epic fantasy read this epic sci fi fantasy novel! You won't regret it

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1 person found this helpful

Fantastic and far reaching

Fantastic and far reaching sci-fi. Very different characters feature in several intertwined stories. A gradual and complex build up over an epic journey. Attention grabbing from the beginning. Well narrated by a cast of actors which helped differentiate the characters. Recommend to sci-fi readers of all genres.

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Loved it!

We follow stories of six different people who all end up at the same place - on the pilgrimage to the Shrike. I listened to the first story with a lot of interest. When it came time for the second story, I felt like I didn't want to hear it, I wanted to just go on with the first protagonist to the end, nothing could beat it. And I was so wrong for every of the next five times! They all were so unique, ingenious and touching stories! (I couldn't have guessed the storyline of any of them before!) It's amazing how they weaved together in the end. And the end of the book is no end at all, feels like just the beginning.

Written and read by true professionals! High quality work.

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Truly tedious

I hated it at first. The narration was pretty good but the story just didn't work and it was an act of will to finish it. I love scifi but this really sucked bad, no idea what other reviewers have been smoking

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Worth the warm up

One of the old-times sci fis, it expects you to invest an hour before you’re hooked. But it’s worth it. Good book.

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brilliant!

i can't believe that after about an hour or so of this book i was wandering if it was not for me. i found it a bit slow to begin with, but give it time! this is one of thebest books i have ever absorbed through reading or listening. the language is rich and poetic, the story is grand but thought provoking and the narratiom is excellent. absolutely recommend this book, it is fantastic.

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