Ruben

An enjoyable read that does well living in the universe created from the first book in the series. Doesn't add too many additional concepts, merely fleshes out what seemed like initial pure innovation. If the first book wasn't so fantastic in comparison I would have probably rated this higher.

Suffers from too many viewpoints. As the narrative switched between characters multiple times per chapter I ended up forgetting what particular characters were up to. The mini-cliffhangers also seemed cheap.

Some of the writing was a bit too highbrow for my taste. The constant Keats poetry was dull (call me a heathen if you want, I got glassy-eyed), and the final sections with Sol and Keats Persona #2 talking some rubbish about human love being all powerful.

Provided good closure to the universe, I think I will leave it there and not continue with the Endymion books.

I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream was the best short story out of the bunch. After that it sort of goes downhill a bit. I was expecting more stories about future AI but was disappointed.

A great collection of tales from a realm of characters that I had a faint feeling I knew from modern media including the Thor films and God of War (2018). This book provided me with a new appreciation for Norse folklore, something I feel goes unnoticed in the UK education system in comparison to Greco-Roman Gods.

Some of the characters and plot points seem to jump to odd conclusions, however I feel the author did a good job attempting to fictionalise and order the tales whilst remaining true to the source.

Incredible world building and story telling. It felt at times like reading pure poetry with the sentence composition. The descriptions of locations and future technology awed me at times, and I actively savoured it on occasions.

The narrative had good pacing, with the sense we were always building to the final showdown. The individual tales from the Pilgrims fleshed out the characters and provided reasoning behind their actions (except Silenus, he is just a dick). The story of Sol was just tragic and made me really root for him and Rachel.

I remember seeing this novel in pride of place on the bookshelf of my Grandfather when I was a child. I always thought it would be written in a distant, incomprehensible, grown-up language that I would never be able to understand. Now I wish I had read this earlier in my life so I could have discussed this with him.

No-one wants to live in this world that the author has fleshed out so horrifically, yet it seems some parts of the world would happily see their population subjected to forced surveillance and a reduction in free-speech and human rights if it meant greater control. Perhaps we would all be happier in a 1984-esque state with assigned jobs and wealth rather than worrying about the trivial woes of Western life, and isn't personal happiness the goal of a single human life?

Even though there are no heroes in this gloomy world, and no traditional villains, I found myself rooting for Winston and Julia, who I view as majorly flawed and unlikable. The sickening realisation of the trap, and the roles in which other characters played in it, made me feel extremely uncomfortable. The narrative flowed well and the description of the world was vivid. My brain automatically draws similarities to the tone of the recent video games We Happy Few and Bioshock Infinite, the sense that the mindless mob would happily report wrongdoers to a commanding authority if it was the social norm, Brrrr!