Endymion (Simmons, Dan, 1996)

Endymion (Simmons, Dan, 1996)

Nearly 300-years have passed since the farcaster network constructed by the TechnoCore collapsed, ending the prosperous Hegemony of Man, starting the era of the Pax and its ongoing war against the Ousters, whom the TechnoCore framed as a threat for the human race. The Pax of the Catholic Church is now the supreme ruler of humanity and the former Web worlds. They rose to power by having mastered the Cruciform parasite, which before them rendered the resurrected into sexless and emotionless beings. With the Pax, the Catholic Church can now offer true immortality for any, who take the Cruciform.

After the collapse of the Hegemony, the reluctant Paul Dure, carrying the Cruciform of Lenar Hoyt, was selected to be the pope. Upon his passing, Hoyt was reborn through Dure's double Cruciform. Hoyt was selected to be the pope, under whom the Chuch began to flourish again, starting its mission of uniting the now hard to reach web-worlds. Bit by bit, the Pax troops, carrying the Cruciform with them, brought the worlds into the fold by promising the people back the old prosperity, accompanied by immortality through Cruciform.

But that's all just for the background, the setting that followed how the Fall of Hyperion, the second book in the Hyperion Cantos, ended. The world and the universe are different now. Most of the characters from the previous books have now become legends, characters people know only from the pages of the forbidden Cantos written by Martin Silenius, who still lives thanks to his Poulson treatments and additional time debt gained from space travel.

This time around, the first-person narration is given to Raul Endymion. He begins his narration imprisoned in a Schrödringer cube, a death penalty jail, which can kill him at any given time. So begins the tale of Aena, the One Who Teaches, the daughter of the detective Lamia and the Keats cybrid, as told by Raul.

For his bad luck, before even hearing of Aena, Raul is sentenced to death the first time for a murder of a leisure hunter, who with his stupid use of weapons killed Rauls dog. This happened before his second death sentence in the Cube. As Raul is not of the Cruciform, this death would be a true death for him, so he is offered the possibility to convert. He chooses not to, willing to embrace his death. So you can imagine his surprise when he wakes up alive at the hands of the legendary poet Silenius.

Martin Silenius has a couple of simple tasks for the young man. The first is to rescue Aena, who is about to emerge from the Time Tombs. There's only a small matter of the Pax elite troopers surrounding the tomb, in wait for the child to emerge. Then Raul has to take a spaceship, the one that belonged to the Consul, to get away from Hyperion with the girl and keep her away from the hands of Pax. Then Raul has to meet up with the Ousters and get their help in taking care of Pax and the rest of the TechnoCore. And find the Old Earth. So, nothing major, as far as adventures go.

The majority of the 3rd person narrative is given to Pax commander, Father Captain de Soya, who is assigned by the Pax to chase and capture Aena. For this, he is given one of the three ships in existence that can travel between long distances in minutes instead of years. The tradeoff is, that each jump kills the crew, meaning they have to resurrect each time a jump is made and this isn't entirely painless.

As Aena, Raul and android A. Bettik have ended up travelling through river Tethys farcaster portals, the river that ran through several worlds, de Soya doesn't know where to follow them, as this is the first time in centuries the portals have been active. So with his crew of three commandos, de Soya vows to jump in each known Tethys world to find her.

A good bulk of Endymion is about the runaways jumping from one world into another with Pax on their heels. The pretext for this is to get Aena to her goal, the teacher who is supposed to apprentice her of her powers and future as the One Who Teaches. Of course, this pretext allows Simmons to explore the universe of Hyperion Cantos even further as well as different philosophical, religious, scientific and evolutionary aspects of it.

More interesting than the journey of Aena and her companions is really the whole new form of Catholicism with its new power to offer genuine immortality to its followers. They still do preach of the True Resurrection, the one with the kingdom of Heaven, but the main boon of the new form of Christianity is the Cruciform. There are people, who have rejected it, like the Muslims and the Jews, but many people have jumped to the possibility of embracing true immortality. And really, why wouldn't they? What is allegiance to a church, if the tradeoff is true immortality in a world, where travelling takes decades.

In the background looms, again, the threat of the TechnoCore and their ongoing quest towards the Ultimate Intelligence. Endymion doesn't get far with this yet, as the plot points of the final chapter of the series are unraveled only at the final stretches of the story.

The world-building and the philosophical questions aside, this story really serves more as an introduction to the main characters of the final half of the long saga. Raul, the 1st person narrator, is somewhat of a boring case, playing the role of a hero. He is tasked as the protector and Bettik is the 2nd companion, whose own purpose for joining the long journey is revealed only later on in the story. Aena is just a child, whose growth to something more is only teased.

Father Captain de Soya ends up being the most compelling of the new characters despite him being the antagonist of the tale. He is a man of faith, who embarks on his own stretch because he believes in the church and what the Pax does. He believes, that what he does, he does for the good of humanity and for the glory of God. His task is not to kill, but to capture and this he intends to do even if it would kill him and his crew, to true death.

Endymion is at places perhaps a bit too sprawling of a tale. At times, it feels it's not going anywhere, as Simmons does love exploring the world he's created in-depth, especially now that so much of it has been ravaged by the matters that took place during the previous books. There are moments, where it feels almost too much, but, in the end, despite the story ending with a cliff-hanger, Endymion is a rewarding read.

When it ends, the board is set for a final match. The journey that began with the seven pilgrims on their way to the Time Tombs is now finally nearing its end. The One Who Teaches has arrived, the TehcnoCore knows it and fears her, as she might spell their doom just as she might spell the doom for Pax as well. And then there's Shrike, whose ominous presence still keeps puzzling the different parties, as none of them is truly certain who has sent it and why.

I've seen others commenting, that Endymion is not as strong of a book as the previous two and to a degree, I do agree with that. There is the air of aimlessness that plagues it at times and Raul is a tad boring protagonist, but as a whole, it still is a very good science-fiction tale. Or space opera, whichever way you want to think of it.

The final part of the saga is the Rise of Endymion and the end of the 3rd part gives it a good springboard to go forward. As I stated, the board is now set and I'm truly waiting to see what the final movie ends up as.