Each a every character from both books is on a pilgrimage of some sort or other, and that all the action and development is framed out of the internal struggles of the varied PoV to assign meaning and perspective to what is going on around them. One of the truly powerful aspects of Cantos is that each character leads to a different understanding, interaction, intersection, with that "Greater Meaning" of human existence.

Simmons is a very difficult measuring stick if you want to be a speculative fiction writer. When he is at the top of his game, there are few writers that can match him. The results of that work can, and often are, amazing.