Review: Endymion by Dan Simmons

Endymion by Dan Simmons

Published: Bantam Spectra, 1996

Series: Book 3 of the Hyperion Cantos

Awards Nominated: Locus SF Award

The Book:

“Humanity once ruled an interstellar empire, held together by farcaster portals that allowed people to step directly over vast distances. When it was discovered that AIs were hijacking human brains while in transit, the portal system was destroyed, leaving each planet to its own devices. Nearly 300 years later, the Catholic Church offered something new to bridge the vast distances -- immortality through symbiosis with cruciform-shaped alien parasites. Billions of people were eager to accept the new sacraments of the Church. Raul Endymion was not one of them.

Raul was a young former soldier who found himself entrusted with the protection of a special child, Aenea, who traveled from the future to once again change human society forever.  Together with an android and a personal spaceship, they fled from the relentless agents of the Church. Their path was down the river Tethys, which once flowed across many different worlds, and did so again with Aenea’s influence.” ~Allie

This is the third book of the Hyperion series, and I listened to it via audio while commuting to and from work.      

My Thoughts:

Endymion seems to be a straightforward adventure story, which makes it a little different from the previous books in the series.  It primarily follows Aenea, Raul, and A. Bettik floating down a river through wildly different worlds, encountering exciting and dangerous obstacles. The other half of the story involves the pursuing warrior-priest, Federico de Soya, a man of true faith who is troubled by his increasing awareness of the ruthlessness of his organization. I think the structure of the story was especially appealing to me, since the broad strokes are so similar to pretend games I played as a child.  I loved seeing the environments and lifeforms of each world, as well as seeing how the isolated human populations had adapted to live. I feel like I got to see so much more of this universe than I had from the previous novels.

I also really enjoyed reading about these particular characters. Raul is a kind and resourceful guy, and a pretty good narrator. I don’t really understand the obsession science fiction and fantasy seem to have with magical children, but I thought Aenea felt pretty genuine as a person and not just a plot device. It’s strongly hinted that Raul and Aenea will be romantically involved at some point in the future, but for this book their relationship is entirely platonic (I’ll talk more about this issue in my review of the final book). I was not terribly interested in the inner workings of the fictional future Catholic Church, but Father de Soya was a surprisingly sympathetic antagonist. I appreciated that even though a corrupt church is the villain in this story, we also see people who are true believers and who take the moral doctrine of their faith seriously.  

My Rating: 5/5

The third book of the Hyperion Cantos picks up the story several centuries later, with an almost entirely new cast of characters. Endymion is an exciting chase story, with our heroes (Raul, Aenea and A.Bettik) fleeing across many interesting worlds while the Catholic Church continues its pursuit.  It was really fun to explore more of this universe, and to see what happened to the people after the destruction of the farcasters. The main plot is resolved within the novel, but it is also clearly the first half of a larger story. I was pretty eager to jump right into the finale, and it also does not disappoint.  I can see why this series is considered a classic of science fiction.

Review: Hyperion by Dan Simmons

Hyperion by Dan Simmons

First Published: Headline Publishing Group/Doubleday Foundation (1989)

Series: Book 1 in the Hyperion Cantos

Awards Won: Hugo and Locus SF Awards

Awards Nominated: BSFA and Arthur C. Clarke Awards

The Book:

“On the world called Hyperion, beyond the law of the Hegemony of Man, there waits the creature called the Shrike. There are those who worship it. There are those who fear it. And there are those who have vowed to destroy it. In the Valley of the Time Tombs, where huge, brooding structures move backward through time, the Shrike waits for them all. On the eve of Armageddon, with the entire galaxy at war, seven pilgrims set forth on a final voyage to Hyperion seeking the answers to the unsolved riddles of their lives. Each carries a desperate hope--and a terrible secret. And one may hold the fate of humanity in his hands.” ~WWend.com

This is a series I’ve been meaning to read for ages, and I am finally getting started with it in audiobook form!  The audiobook had five narrators, which made it feel more like a dramatic presentation than simply a story read out loud.  I thought the production was really well done. 

I haven’t read anything by Dan Simmons before, so my only knowledge going into Hyperion was that it was a kind of far-future Canterbury Tales, and that just about every sci-fi fan I know was horrified I hadn’t read the series yet.  I’ve also heard a rumor that Syfy is going to adapt Hyperion/The Fall of Hyperion into a miniseries.  I haven’t seen any trailers yet, but I am cautiously excited.

My Thoughts:

Hyperion clearly carries a number of literary influences, the most obvious being Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and Keats unfinished epic poem Hyperion. As in Canterbury Tales, the basic story structure is of a group of pilgrims sharing their stories while traveling.  In this case, though, they are traveling to the mysterious Time Tombs on a planet known as Hyperion, which is a holy site for those who worship the murderous Shrike (a religion to which none of the pilgrims actually belong).  I found the setting and the characters’ motivations in the framing story to be really confusing at first, but each of their tales fleshed out both the universe and their places in it. Each tale also provided an opportunity to explore a different subgenre, as well as a different angle on the sprawling far-future human civilization.  With all so many different styles, I think there’s bound to be something here to appeal to any science fiction fan.  

I was hooked right away by the Priest’s Tale, a religious sci-fi horror that explores the wilds of Hyperion.  The Soldier’s Tale was less to my interests, as a military SF tale featuring battles and sex with a fantasy girl, but it gave background information about the war between the Ousters and the rest of humanity.  The Poet’s Tale was a dramatic memoir about the state of art and the publishing industry in this sprawling galactic civilization.  The Scholar’s Tale was a moving tragedy that explored being Jewish in a post-Earth society as well as a heartbreaking time-field-related illness.  The Detective’s Tale was more noir, and had some interesting ideas about identity (as well as an awesome magic ‘Hawking’ carpet). Finally, the Consul’s Tale was a romance revolving around the effects of the time differential caused by interstellar travel.  I initially thought it killed the novel’s momentum, but in the end I understood while his tale needed to be the last to be told.            

While I enjoyed some stories more than others, I think it was impressive the way they built on one another to slowly explain the current situation of both human and AI civilization, to reveal the inner thoughts of each character, and to develop the meaning and purpose of the pilgrimage.  The universe of Hyperion seems vast and complicated--I was constantly surprised to see that there was yet another aspect to explore, and that all the details held together as a coherent whole.  For one small fascinating detail out of many, I was surprised that the story both took into account the effects of time dilation in interstellar travel, and introduced ‘farcasters’ that physically cut through space. The world of Hyperion was delightfully complex and strange, and the story effectively built up the ominous atmosphere surrounding it.  My only frustration is that I want to know what happens after the pilgrimage is complete, and for that I must carry on to The Fall of Hyperion, preferably soon.

My Rating: 5/5

I’m glad I finally got around to reading the first book of Simmons’s classic series, Hyperion, which somehow makes the idea of a far-future science fiction Canterbury Tales work extremely well.  There’s far too much in this book to discuss in just a short review, but I loved how each of the pilgrim’s tales gave us a different perspective on the creative universe Simmons has imagined.  Each tale also fell into a different subgenre, providing a wide variety of styles that likely appeal to many different kinds of readers.  I’m excited to see what the rest of the series has to offer!