Dan Simmons' Endymion - A Wild Water Ride Across The Universe

Today I finished Dan Simmons' brilliant third book of his Hyperion Cantos: Endymion. I devoured this probably even more eagerly than the previous two books. So, why not summarize a few thoughts about the book while they're still fresh?

The group travelling the River Tethys nearing the final confrontation on God's Grove.

Endymion, as third book in the series, continues the story of Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion in a loose way: The story takes place nearly three centuries after The Fall. 'The Fall' is understood in this new world as the end of the Hegemony of Man, FORCE, the TechnoCore and its Farcaster network in the final battle against the space-mutant-barbarians called the Ousters (remember, they were not the real enemies) - the cumulation of events that lead to the climax in The Fall of Hyperion.

Endymion, like Frank Herbert's God Emperor of Dune, introduces the reader to a second, connected series in the Hyperion universe. The world is familiar, yet changed. Endymion, in the previous two books just briefly mentioned as a large city on Hyperion, is here actually the name of the hero protagonist through whose eyes much of the story is told. Raul Endymion is a young man from Hyperion who is saved from execution by an old (very old thanks to the Poulsen Treatments) acquaintance - the poet/ drinker Martin Silenus. He, the android A. Bettik (who played a minor role in the first book) and The Consul's ship (formerly known as A.I./cybrid Joseph Severn) are sent on a mission to save the prophet child of Brawne Lamia, one of the previous cycle's pilgrims, from the clutches of the Pax - the Catholic Church, previously a forgotten religious cult, now ruling the galaxy from their vatican world of Pacem.

Throw in the mysterious killing machine The Shrike making surprise appearances and you have the ingredients for a great journey-novel. The journey follows the River Tethys - until The Fall a gift from the TechnoCore to the Hegemony, a river connected by farcaster technology over a plentitude of worlds. With Anea's evolving abilities as The One Who Teaches the unlikely band is able to traverse through the inactive farcaster portals - and face terrifying challenges that they can only master together.

The group trapped on the ice world of Sol Draconis Septem.

By this Simmons further elaborates the universe he created in the first two books, now seen under new circumstances and sometimes cut off from galactic civilization. His imaginary power leads to vivid impressions, believability and empathization with the characters, be they friends or foes. And speaking of foes, nothing here is as it seems.

As with Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion I found Endymion to be an excellent read. Released in 1995 - which was twenty years ago canyoubelieveit, I don't want to compare it to its predecessors as the third book in the series is for me just that - another brilliant iteration in the author's magnum opus. I will start reading the final entry in the series, The Rise of Endymion, tonight and hope for a conclusion of the ambitious story and answers to questions that Endymion left open.

Thoughts after reading Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons.

Hyperion is a far future science fiction novel by Dan Simmons released in 1989. The book was well received and won the Hugo Award. The story follows seven pilgrims on their journey to the labyrinthine world of Hyperion.

cover art for the first novel

On this backwater world The Shrike, a mysterious creature worshipped by some as a god, watches over the Time Tombs. These tombs were send back through time from a possible future to save or annihilate human kind. Each pilgrim has his/her own reason to wish for an audience with the Shrike and the first book tells the tales of each pilgrim while they are on their journey to meet their fate.

There's Lennart Hoyd, a catholic priest on search for his missing mentor, there's Martin Silenus, the poet who's the only one who know Old Earth before its destruction in the Big Mistake. There's the soldier, Fedmahn Kassad, a Palestinian from Mars and the Jewish scholar, Sol Weintraub, who hopes to save his daughter from the backwards aging disease Merlin's sickness. The Consul, who's not introduced by another name in the entire two books, has reasons that go far beyond mere diplomacy. The detective, Brawne Lamia, seeks truth for the murder of her lover. They are lead by the Templar Hed Masteen, prophet of a futuristic religion and captain of a so called Tree Ship. Besides the pilgrims there is a wider cast of supporting characters that detail the different galactic factions of humanity, the autonomous artificial intelligence 'TechnoCore' which governs all tech intergalactic human civilization relies on and the Ousters, pariahs once human, now mutant barbarians that were driven out of The Web of human colonized planets.

This is how fans imagine the Templar Tree Ship Yggdrasil.

The backstories are all worth reading and bring understanding of the wider universe Simmons created. This is a world in which so called 'far caster' technology allows for instant transportation spanning light years of travel. Good old faster than light-travel (called Hawking's Drive after contemporary professor Stephen Hawking) plays a secondary role here. 'Fatline' technology is something like a universe (here called The Web) wide internet. Simmons does not introduce these terms, he takes them for granted so it takes a while for the reader to understand all the hard sci-fi terms.

Hyperion was split in two books for reasons I do not know. The story continues in The Fall of Hyperion released a year later in 1990. While the first book covers the pilgrim's motives and the journey the second plays in the Valley of the Time Tombs, where the pilgrims fight for their survival, the second book introduces a new character, narrated in the first person, who in his dreams sees what is going on with the pilgrims on Hyperion but also participates the interstellar diplomacy section of the story. This sounds complicated and results in use of tempo which is at times a little confusing. Overall, however, it is working.

Simmons' Hyperion Cantos pays tribute to John Keats, a 19th century poet from England, in very interesting ways. Not unlike Stephen King, who created his magnum opus The Dark Tower after a poem by Robert Browning , Simmons achieves to take inspiration from the past to create something completely new in a science fiction world.

The four armed time travelling menace called The Shrike.

My verdict after reading the first two books is a good one. The book introduces a fantastic world with believable characters and reminds even a little of the 'A Song of Ice and Fire' series by George R.R. Martin in terms of realpolitik and war. Ideas like the huge planet wide labyrinth keep the experience fresh and mind expanding. The Shrike, also referenced to as The Lord of Pain, is more than a simple killing machine like the Terminator and its motives, if it has these, are never clear. I was very well entertained and started reading the third novel in this four part series, Endymion, the same day. So Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion get a clear recommendation for sci-fi fans from me.

On a side note: At this point I don't want to draw a comparison with Frank Herbert's Dune series, which involves similar elements, just yet. Will include these thoughts after finishing the series. There's also a TV show coming.

Great Literature Quotes - Ummon from Fall of Hyperion

"The Lord and the Colonel" by Alex Ries. Another great scene from the 2nd book in this four book series.

There's a lot of truth to be found reading between the lines. I want to capture some unique moments from novels in this new category of my blog. Currently I am reading through Dan Simmons' fantastic Hyperion cantos and in the middle of the second book I stumbled across these words of mystery and wisdom. Ummon, one of the great artificial intelligences in this far fiction series on why Old Earth (our planet) was destroyed:

The Earth was needed elsewhere
in our experiments
so we let it die
and spread humankind among the
stars
like the windblown seeds
you were

Poetic.