Status
Available
Call number
Series
Publication
New York : Bantam Books, 1997.
Description
The time of reckoning has arrived. As a final genocidal Crusade threatens to enslave humanity forever, a new messiah has come of age. She is Aenea and she has undergone a strange apprenticeship to those known as the Others. Now her protector, Raul Endymion, onetime shepherd and convicted murderer, must help her deliver her startling message to her growing army of disciples. But first they must embark on a final spectacular mission to discover the underlying meaning of the universe itself. They have been followed on their journey by the mysterious Shrike--monster, angel, killing machine--who is about to reveal the long-held secret of its origin and purpose. And on the planet of Hyperion, where the story first began, the final revelation will be delivered--an apocalyptic message that unlocks the secrets of existence and the fate of humankind in the galaxy.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member edgeworth
The first book I read this year was Dan Simmons' Hyperion, which in turn led to The Fall of Hyperion and Endymion, comprising what I believe is one of the most well-written and compulsively readable science fiction adventures of our age. I really grew to love these books and the fascinating
The first three books consisted largely of high adventure, intergalactic politics, epic warfare and apolcayptic social collapse, and very slightly of things like religion and metaphysics and philosophy. The Rise of Endymion, unfortunately, flips that formula around. It continues the tale of Aenea, the child of Brawne Lamia destined to become a new messiah, chronicling her rise to greatness from the point of view of her bodyguard and lover Raul Endymion. It is, essentially, a gospel, and most of the book reads like one. It's not that it's a poorly-written or overly preachy or even a shallow gospel, but it is boring, and I had no desire to read it. I realised two-thirds of the way through that I wasn't enjoying reading it, and was counting the pages until it was over, which is not something I ever thought I'd be doing in the Hyperion series.
It has its moments. Raul's journey down the world-spanning River Tethys is great (yet over almost as soon as it begins), and the climax is gripping. But the rest of the book is tedious and extremely bloated. In particular, a 200+ page visit to a Tibetan-themed planet almost groans under the weight of all the superfluous geographic worldbuilding and endless background characters it must endure. (You can tell this book was written the same year Seven Years In Tibet and Kundun were released, when the Western obsession with Tibetan exoticism was at its zenith.) Likewise, there are wearying descriptions of the baroque splendour of the Vatican and its rituals. The entire book is, essentially, Simmons sinking into a whirpool of miscellanous religious iconography. He doesn't do so without purpose or objective merit, and I can see how this book would appeal to some, but personally I found it an unenjoyable ride.
Overall, The Rise of Endymion is an unsatisfying conclusion to an otherwise excellent science fiction series. Which is a shame, but honestly, three hits out of four isn't bad in this arena.
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universe they contain, so it was a bit of a bummer that the last book fell apart.The first three books consisted largely of high adventure, intergalactic politics, epic warfare and apolcayptic social collapse, and very slightly of things like religion and metaphysics and philosophy. The Rise of Endymion, unfortunately, flips that formula around. It continues the tale of Aenea, the child of Brawne Lamia destined to become a new messiah, chronicling her rise to greatness from the point of view of her bodyguard and lover Raul Endymion. It is, essentially, a gospel, and most of the book reads like one. It's not that it's a poorly-written or overly preachy or even a shallow gospel, but it is boring, and I had no desire to read it. I realised two-thirds of the way through that I wasn't enjoying reading it, and was counting the pages until it was over, which is not something I ever thought I'd be doing in the Hyperion series.
It has its moments. Raul's journey down the world-spanning River Tethys is great (yet over almost as soon as it begins), and the climax is gripping. But the rest of the book is tedious and extremely bloated. In particular, a 200+ page visit to a Tibetan-themed planet almost groans under the weight of all the superfluous geographic worldbuilding and endless background characters it must endure. (You can tell this book was written the same year Seven Years In Tibet and Kundun were released, when the Western obsession with Tibetan exoticism was at its zenith.) Likewise, there are wearying descriptions of the baroque splendour of the Vatican and its rituals. The entire book is, essentially, Simmons sinking into a whirpool of miscellanous religious iconography. He doesn't do so without purpose or objective merit, and I can see how this book would appeal to some, but personally I found it an unenjoyable ride.
Overall, The Rise of Endymion is an unsatisfying conclusion to an otherwise excellent science fiction series. Which is a shame, but honestly, three hits out of four isn't bad in this arena.
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LibraryThing member Lucky-Loki
I'll say this for Simmons: I found the ending satisfying enough. Unfortunately, though, the book as a whole is easily the weakest in the series, as Simmons succumbs to self-indulgent philosophizing over and over throughout the narrative -- plot relevant, yes, but incredibly repetitive as the ideas
But the story, as it is, is good. I saw the main end twist coming, but this is remedied by several of the characters (just not the protagonist) clearly doing the same, which hangs a lantern on it and makes it more palatable. (As does the fact that it, lack of surprise aside, is a very good twist from both narrative and emotional standpoints.) I'm impressed at how SImmons, after three books ending either on cliffhangers (1 and 3) or wrapping up with purposefully high amounts of loose ends (book 2), actually tied most of the narrative together and provided as much closure as this sweeping a narrative in a realistic setting ever could -- as life, naturally, will go on. If you've read and enjoyed book 3 already, there's no reason at all to stop before this one -- it provides a lot of answers and a surprising amount of closure, and, as the books that came before, has a lot of memorable characters to boot.
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discussed tend to be the same ones (with a minor add-on tagged on to the basic reasoning every time it is brought back up). And worse is the numerous pages spent on recounting scenery and local geography on the places the protagonist goes, which slows the book down to the point where my wife (who positively loved the original "Hyperion" (even more than I) but (unlike me) didn't care much for books 2 and 3) gave up and skimmed her way to the end just to feel she'd finished it. Myself, it didn't bother as much (likely because I really liked books 2 and 3 and had a larger investment), there's still a good story in this book, albeit one frequently and unreasonably slowed down. But even I did skim a page or two whenever the descriptions got too unnecessarily detailed and long-winded. The book has half again the page count of the others in the series, and it really didn't need to.But the story, as it is, is good. I saw the main end twist coming, but this is remedied by several of the characters (just not the protagonist) clearly doing the same, which hangs a lantern on it and makes it more palatable. (As does the fact that it, lack of surprise aside, is a very good twist from both narrative and emotional standpoints.) I'm impressed at how SImmons, after three books ending either on cliffhangers (1 and 3) or wrapping up with purposefully high amounts of loose ends (book 2), actually tied most of the narrative together and provided as much closure as this sweeping a narrative in a realistic setting ever could -- as life, naturally, will go on. If you've read and enjoyed book 3 already, there's no reason at all to stop before this one -- it provides a lot of answers and a surprising amount of closure, and, as the books that came before, has a lot of memorable characters to boot.
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LibraryThing member RobertDay
This final volume in Simmons' 'Hyperion Cantos' series delves into its story in very great depth; it certainly could not be read as a stand-alone novel. Raul Endymion and his ward/lover, Aenea, engage, both together and separately, in a trans-galactic odyssey to frustrate the will of the Pax
This is all very fine, and I engaged with Raul Endymion, even though he continually admits to himself and others that he isn't the sharpest tool in the box; and sure enough, he spends around a third of the novel fretting about something that I (and lots of others, to judge by other reviews) worked out for ourselves pretty quickly. But then again, Simmons perhaps put that in so as to hide revelations about other characters; and those revelations did come as a surprise.
I wasn't so keen on some of the info-dumping; there are a number of stodgy expository lumps in this novel, and a couple of them are quite important in terms of containing important plot points. But others begin to look like the padding of an author being paid by the word; there's a four-page description of the mountaintop view on the world of T'ien Shan, and elsewhere there are lists of people or places which look like fillers. Some of these people do have walk-on parts in the story itself, but others are just figures in a crowd scene.
In the course of his journey, Raul Endymion traverses a number of worlds, and the book begins to look like a travelogue. But T'ien Shan, where the action finally begins to settle down, is well-realised; a civilization built on Himalayan slopes that poke up through clouds of poisonous phosgene gas, themselves covering an ocean of acid makes for an unusual setting (but it didn't need the vista described to us).
Ultimately, this book is more than just a conclusion to the 'Hyperion Cantos'; it has important things to say about the need for death after life. It is also highly critical of its version of the Catholic Church, enough for another critic to offer a one-word review - "blasphemy" - and says it as though that were a bad thing. Yet one of the heroes of the book is Father-Captain de Soya, who in the course of the story rebels but in the end rediscovers faith. So, in all, a very worthwhile read but quite hard going if the reader is not prepared to pay attention.
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(Catholic Church to you and me) and the AIs of the TechnoCore, to preserve the Void Which Binds, and to bring an end to the tyranny of immortality granted by the cruciform symbiotes, because only in that way can death be brought back, allowing humanity, in all its various forms, to progress and develop.This is all very fine, and I engaged with Raul Endymion, even though he continually admits to himself and others that he isn't the sharpest tool in the box; and sure enough, he spends around a third of the novel fretting about something that I (and lots of others, to judge by other reviews) worked out for ourselves pretty quickly. But then again, Simmons perhaps put that in so as to hide revelations about other characters; and those revelations did come as a surprise.
I wasn't so keen on some of the info-dumping; there are a number of stodgy expository lumps in this novel, and a couple of them are quite important in terms of containing important plot points. But others begin to look like the padding of an author being paid by the word; there's a four-page description of the mountaintop view on the world of T'ien Shan, and elsewhere there are lists of people or places which look like fillers. Some of these people do have walk-on parts in the story itself, but others are just figures in a crowd scene.
In the course of his journey, Raul Endymion traverses a number of worlds, and the book begins to look like a travelogue. But T'ien Shan, where the action finally begins to settle down, is well-realised; a civilization built on Himalayan slopes that poke up through clouds of poisonous phosgene gas, themselves covering an ocean of acid makes for an unusual setting (but it didn't need the vista described to us).
Ultimately, this book is more than just a conclusion to the 'Hyperion Cantos'; it has important things to say about the need for death after life. It is also highly critical of its version of the Catholic Church, enough for another critic to offer a one-word review - "blasphemy" - and says it as though that were a bad thing. Yet one of the heroes of the book is Father-Captain de Soya, who in the course of the story rebels but in the end rediscovers faith. So, in all, a very worthwhile read but quite hard going if the reader is not prepared to pay attention.
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LibraryThing member anabellebf
Conclusion to the Hyperion Cantos. All (almost...) the mysteries are solved, and a new dawn rises on the Hegemony through the teachings of Enea - all seen through a rather minor actor in all of it, Raul Endymion.
Dan Simmons is among my favourite authors EVER, and it is quite something to say for
Dan Simmons is among my favourite authors EVER, and it is quite something to say for
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me. I have read this many years ago and it still haunts me. A must-read for literati and science-fiction fans alike. Show Less
LibraryThing member Karlstar
This is the conclusion to the Hyperion series. While this one is a little more about metaphysics and less about action and plot, it still follows the general theme of the series. For very advanced science fiction with a lot of personal drama, its hard to do better than this series. A fitting
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conclusion. I highly recommend this for science fiction fans. Show Less
LibraryThing member Skribe
Dan Simmons' (now classic) massive science fiction epic tetralogy draws to a close on a very intimate note. All the universal, mind-expanding themes set up in the first three books are interwoven into a completely satisfying conclusion, about how ultimately we could and should change to the point
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where can all just get along: simple and yet very, very complex. The themes are so grand, the story played out on such a galactic stage that it reminded me of some of the classics by Clarke, Heinlein, Asimov, et al., when science fiction was more about ideas than a love/hate approach to a dystopian future. Simmons plays out his themes with a large cast of characters that I was genuinely saddened to leave when it was all over. The structure of the end is protracted, as if he doesn't want to say farewell after spending so many years writing them, and I was right there with him. This is classic science fiction as it should be. Show Less
LibraryThing member erecstebbins
What to say about a beautiful, tragic, epic, transformative, visionary conclusion to likely the greatest sci-fi series every written? Perhaps that it is even better than the first two books, and a fitting mate to the third. Hyperion, and Fall of Hyperion had the advantage of the shocking newness of
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this epic vision, but, especially Hyperion, was somewhat stilted in its marriage to the literary conceit of the Canterbury Tales (which was fun, up to a point). The two "Endymion" novels find a better harmony with this continued play with old literature, and the story takes on deeper personal aspects that retell the gospel story in a much more modern context of scientific knowledge. Gut-wrenching, mind-expanding, and with a deep heart at its core, you can't ask for anything more in a novel of any genre. Show Less
LibraryThing member Drakhir
Superb. An awesome and totally right ending to the Hyperion Cantos. What can I say about this book? You are reading it because you have read the other three. Really, there isn't much point otherwise. Hyperion was so strong, that even the brilliance of the Fall of Hyperion could not quite match it,
But this is all turned around in this book. the reasons for everything, right from the beginning, are explained. And how Raul and Aenea fit in to the story and change the universe.
A few passages of Simmons' are annoying, particularly when he talks of Aenea from Raul's experience of their love, but otherwise, the prose is expertly put together. The way all the books of the Cantos fit within Keats' vision of his poems is also brilliant.
I am not going to say any more, except, read it. If you haven't read the other three yet, what the hell are you doing here, looking at reviews of the last one for? Go and read Hyperion.
NOW!
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although it had a pretty good go. Endymion is the weakest of the four, and could be easily half the length. It's more a saga than anything else, just adventures, with no great purpose to where and why, albeit enjoyable in itself and well-written.But this is all turned around in this book. the reasons for everything, right from the beginning, are explained. And how Raul and Aenea fit in to the story and change the universe.
A few passages of Simmons' are annoying, particularly when he talks of Aenea from Raul's experience of their love, but otherwise, the prose is expertly put together. The way all the books of the Cantos fit within Keats' vision of his poems is also brilliant.
I am not going to say any more, except, read it. If you haven't read the other three yet, what the hell are you doing here, looking at reviews of the last one for? Go and read Hyperion.
NOW!
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LibraryThing member Bustok
This continues the Hyperion series hundereds of years after 'Fall of Hyperion'. Since the fall of the farcasters, the universe is ruled by the Pax- a religious group derived from Catholocism. The story resumes with the story of Raul Endymion, a fishing guide on Hyperion who has not committed to the
The book continues to be at least as good as the rest of the series, telling the reader just enough to keep him curious while making him need to read the next. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
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church. Raul (rhymes with 'tall') must protect a child that may one day have the power to bring down the Pax by hopping between worlds that have not been linked since the fall of the farcasters.The book continues to be at least as good as the rest of the series, telling the reader just enough to keep him curious while making him need to read the next. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
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LibraryThing member godinpain
Second readthrough has elevated this series to my all-time favorite books of any genre. Holy hell. So much passion and beauty in these and it gets better as the series goes on.
LibraryThing member publiusdb
I was eager to finish the story started in Hyperion, and while I had to splurge to do it (the library did not carry it, so I actually had to pay for this one), I was somewhat disappointed with the finale.
Don't get me wrong: Dan Simmons did not fail to provide a great story. He filled in the
That said, this did finish the story, and it did finish it satisfyingly.
Don't get me wrong: Dan Simmons did not fail to provide a great story. He filled in the
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blanks, answered the questions, and completed the circle. But unlike the previous three, which i enjoyed immensely, this one seemed to ramble. Information dumps were all over the place, and at times I felt bogged down as one character or another explained everything...and I do mean "everything." The story is epic, and with the vast scope introduced, but hardly fathomed, in Hyperion a lot had to be explained. While the previous three seemed to flow the information with the plot, leaving morsels of details along the way, this one left large dumps of information in long passages of dialogue. I felt myself asking: who really talks this way?That said, this did finish the story, and it did finish it satisfyingly.
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LibraryThing member texascheeseman
The Rise of Endymion
By Dan Simmons
Publisher: Bantam Books
Published In: New York City, NY, USA
Date: 1997
Pgs: 579
Summary:
The time has come for Aenea and her flock to return to Pax Space. Destiny calls. They must discover the Meaning. They must bring it to the people. And again, the spiked monster,
Genre:
science fiction, space opera, militaria, destiny of man
Why this book:
Because this is the last official book in the canon of The Hyperion Cantos. And, because, I loved the other three. I have misgivings about this one with the themes expressed.
This Story is About:
Railing against faith being forced upon you or your being coerced into its trappings whether you believe or not. Wandering the wonders of Simmons imagined megaverse through the partially defunct farcaster portals...this isn’t what the story is supposed to be about, but it cinches the middle portion of the book together. I get that it is supposed to show us how far and wide the beings who wish to know of and about Aenea are, but it comes across odd to me.
The story is about predestination more than faith or destiny. The tragedy that all stories become when you think about the what happens next and next and next. Life ends. People die. The end comes. Fight the good fight.
Favorite Character:
Aenea is a Jesus figure in the story. She is a favorite as is Raul. A. Bettik doesn’t get enough screen time. He is probably my favorite favorite in the book. And though I had misgivings about him, Father DeSoya grows back into the character that I loved from the previous book.
Least Favorite Character:
The clones of the Noble Guard. They’re cardboard boogeymen.
Cardinal Lourdusammy. He’s the fat cleric, the Richlieu, the villain whose motives you can’t be sure of...until you get to the resurrection scene with Dure. After that point, you start watching him more closely.
Character I Most Identified With:
Raul Endymion. That might be a function of this novel being almost entirely from his perspective, even when he is omniscient narrating events that took place outside of his sight.
The Feel:
Gloom at impending destiny or doom through the early part of the book when Raul is separated from Aenea and A. Bettik. There is a definitive difference in the feel of this books versus the other books of the Hyperion Cantos. There is a feel like there is too much story and not enough pages as I read toward the end of the book.
Favorite Scene:
The scene where Raul comes through the farcaster into the Jovian world. Especially when added to my thoughts on how he left that world, he didn’t arrive at the next world in quite the way I would have envisioned. I had visions of his being spit through another farcaster by one of the giant floating squid creatures...or worse coming out the other end of one.
The scene where Raul is thinking about the first intimate night he shared with Aenea and his exposition concerning love which is too awesome not to quote.
“It is a problem to tell of such things. To share the most private and sacred of moments. It feels like a violation to put such things into words. And a lie not to.
To see and feel one’s beloved naked for the first time is one of life’s pure, irreducible epiphanies. If there is a true religion in the universe, it must include the truth of contact or be forever hollow. To make love to the one true person who deserves that love is one of the few absolute rewards of being a human being, balancing all of the pain, loss, awkwardness, loneliness, idiocy, compromise, and clumsiness that go with the human condition. To make love to the right person makes up for a lot of mistakes.
I had never made love to the right person before. I knew that even as Aenea and I first kissed and lay against each other, even before we began moving slowly, then quickly, then slowly again. I realized that I had never really made love to anyone before that. The young-soldier-on-leave sex with friendly women or the bargeman and bargewoman we-have-the-opportunity-so-why-not? sex that I thought had explored and discovered everything to do with the subject was not even the beginning.”
The hang glider flight off the mountaintops of Tien Shan.
The battle at the Temple Hanging in Air. I find myself much more emotionally involved in this than I thought. I was on Simmons for the way the book was written. But this scene is a great capstone. It makes the previous 400 pages worthwhile. I’m very pleased with this scene. And the battle’s aftermath in the Ouster system, that’s what big science fiction is.
My heart aches at the scene near the end in Castel Sant’Angelo on Pacem. Very well written.
Settings:
Old Earth, space, Pacem, the defunct but still functional worlds linked by farcaster, Jovian high atmosphere. The book does play a bit too much of travelogue when it begins detailing Tien Shan, which sounds like an awesome place, but did we really need to interrupt the story to exposit all the known habitats of Tien Shan along with where the people living there were from: nationally, culturally, racially. Tree rings around distant stars.
Pacing:
This is one of those books where you blink or you yawn and realize that you have read a hundred pages. The book seems to stop for a breather when Raul reaches Tien Shan. Stuff still happens, i.e. the rope slide between the kilometers apart mountain ledges and the race down the treacherous ice shelf. It breaks the books up a bit for me. In a series where the evil has been man/alien/cyber made, this interrupter where we get the conflicts with nature feels sort of like being drawn offsides. There’s too much story left to tell and too many pieces still on the chessboard for this interregnum.
Nearing the end of the books, I want it to last. I want it to be longer. This has been an incredible series and I don’t want to read the last page of the last full novel in the series.
Plot Holes/Out of Character:
Father Captain DeSoya is a horrible character burning the defenseless. After his appearance in the previous book, Endymion, this is horridly out-of-character even when factored against his busting down in rank and removal from the Fleet. The lessons he learned and internalized while chasing Aenea in the previous book have been lost or forgotten. The character is doing the same things that gave him such nightmares in the previous book. Meh. Though after his being busted down and removed from rank and the fleet, perhaps that caused him to see the good that the Church was doing as opposed to the actions that his conscience was giving him problems with. He does make a move in this book. but he disappears from the stage for a great hunk of the book.
Aenea and Raul walking up and sticking their heads in the Pax’s trap on T’ien Shan is stupid. And I’ve come to expect these two characters to not be stupid. Way, way O-O-C.
Last Page Sound:
I wish it wasn’t over.
Author Assessment:
I love Dan Simmons work, by and large. The Rise of Endymion may be the weakest of the Hyperion Cantos books. I wonder if there was too much time between the writing of Endymion and The Rise of Endymion. I take it back. The story may drag at some places, but it makes up for it. And yes, it is a tragedy, but it’s a triumph as well. Very well done.
Editorial Assessment:
Wonder if this book represented one of those points where editors didn’t feel like they could or should challenge the author and therefore let him have his head. Not saying that’s why this book is different in feel than the other three, but there is definitely a difference.
Disposition of Book:
Irving Public Library via the InterLibrary Loan program and the Dallas Public Library
Why isn’t there a screenplay?
The Hyperion Cantos should be a movie, though I do fear that it wouldn’t live up to the awesomeness of the whole.
Casting call:
Joseph Gordon-Levitt could absolutely fill the role of Raul Endymion.
Aenea would be one of those roles where you would need 3 actresses to fill the role properly. Not sure who would play the youngest Aenea, but I could see Chloe Moretz as the late teenage/early adult Aenea. Maybe Reese Witherspoon as the adult-adult Aenea.
Would recommend to:
Genre fans, space opera fans, sci fi fans, philosophers interested in a free will versus predestination debate.
By Dan Simmons
Publisher: Bantam Books
Published In: New York City, NY, USA
Date: 1997
Pgs: 579
Summary:
The time has come for Aenea and her flock to return to Pax Space. Destiny calls. They must discover the Meaning. They must bring it to the people. And again, the spiked monster,
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the Shrike, dogs their steps. As do, the Pax who see her as a threat to the power of their church and theocracy, and their unholy alliance with the very machines that were ready to destroy Mankind in The Fall of Hyperion. The Meaning of the Universe. The Secrets of Existence. The Fate of the Universe. ...while the TechnoCore’s supra-bioorganic killing machines dressed in the garb of the Church stalk them through space.Genre:
science fiction, space opera, militaria, destiny of man
Why this book:
Because this is the last official book in the canon of The Hyperion Cantos. And, because, I loved the other three. I have misgivings about this one with the themes expressed.
This Story is About:
Railing against faith being forced upon you or your being coerced into its trappings whether you believe or not. Wandering the wonders of Simmons imagined megaverse through the partially defunct farcaster portals...this isn’t what the story is supposed to be about, but it cinches the middle portion of the book together. I get that it is supposed to show us how far and wide the beings who wish to know of and about Aenea are, but it comes across odd to me.
The story is about predestination more than faith or destiny. The tragedy that all stories become when you think about the what happens next and next and next. Life ends. People die. The end comes. Fight the good fight.
Favorite Character:
Aenea is a Jesus figure in the story. She is a favorite as is Raul. A. Bettik doesn’t get enough screen time. He is probably my favorite favorite in the book. And though I had misgivings about him, Father DeSoya grows back into the character that I loved from the previous book.
Least Favorite Character:
The clones of the Noble Guard. They’re cardboard boogeymen.
Cardinal Lourdusammy. He’s the fat cleric, the Richlieu, the villain whose motives you can’t be sure of...until you get to the resurrection scene with Dure. After that point, you start watching him more closely.
Character I Most Identified With:
Raul Endymion. That might be a function of this novel being almost entirely from his perspective, even when he is omniscient narrating events that took place outside of his sight.
The Feel:
Gloom at impending destiny or doom through the early part of the book when Raul is separated from Aenea and A. Bettik. There is a definitive difference in the feel of this books versus the other books of the Hyperion Cantos. There is a feel like there is too much story and not enough pages as I read toward the end of the book.
Favorite Scene:
The scene where Raul comes through the farcaster into the Jovian world. Especially when added to my thoughts on how he left that world, he didn’t arrive at the next world in quite the way I would have envisioned. I had visions of his being spit through another farcaster by one of the giant floating squid creatures...or worse coming out the other end of one.
The scene where Raul is thinking about the first intimate night he shared with Aenea and his exposition concerning love which is too awesome not to quote.
“It is a problem to tell of such things. To share the most private and sacred of moments. It feels like a violation to put such things into words. And a lie not to.
To see and feel one’s beloved naked for the first time is one of life’s pure, irreducible epiphanies. If there is a true religion in the universe, it must include the truth of contact or be forever hollow. To make love to the one true person who deserves that love is one of the few absolute rewards of being a human being, balancing all of the pain, loss, awkwardness, loneliness, idiocy, compromise, and clumsiness that go with the human condition. To make love to the right person makes up for a lot of mistakes.
I had never made love to the right person before. I knew that even as Aenea and I first kissed and lay against each other, even before we began moving slowly, then quickly, then slowly again. I realized that I had never really made love to anyone before that. The young-soldier-on-leave sex with friendly women or the bargeman and bargewoman we-have-the-opportunity-so-why-not? sex that I thought had explored and discovered everything to do with the subject was not even the beginning.”
The hang glider flight off the mountaintops of Tien Shan.
The battle at the Temple Hanging in Air. I find myself much more emotionally involved in this than I thought. I was on Simmons for the way the book was written. But this scene is a great capstone. It makes the previous 400 pages worthwhile. I’m very pleased with this scene. And the battle’s aftermath in the Ouster system, that’s what big science fiction is.
My heart aches at the scene near the end in Castel Sant’Angelo on Pacem. Very well written.
Settings:
Old Earth, space, Pacem, the defunct but still functional worlds linked by farcaster, Jovian high atmosphere. The book does play a bit too much of travelogue when it begins detailing Tien Shan, which sounds like an awesome place, but did we really need to interrupt the story to exposit all the known habitats of Tien Shan along with where the people living there were from: nationally, culturally, racially. Tree rings around distant stars.
Pacing:
This is one of those books where you blink or you yawn and realize that you have read a hundred pages. The book seems to stop for a breather when Raul reaches Tien Shan. Stuff still happens, i.e. the rope slide between the kilometers apart mountain ledges and the race down the treacherous ice shelf. It breaks the books up a bit for me. In a series where the evil has been man/alien/cyber made, this interrupter where we get the conflicts with nature feels sort of like being drawn offsides. There’s too much story left to tell and too many pieces still on the chessboard for this interregnum.
Nearing the end of the books, I want it to last. I want it to be longer. This has been an incredible series and I don’t want to read the last page of the last full novel in the series.
Plot Holes/Out of Character:
Father Captain DeSoya is a horrible character burning the defenseless. After his appearance in the previous book, Endymion, this is horridly out-of-character even when factored against his busting down in rank and removal from the Fleet. The lessons he learned and internalized while chasing Aenea in the previous book have been lost or forgotten. The character is doing the same things that gave him such nightmares in the previous book. Meh. Though after his being busted down and removed from rank and the fleet, perhaps that caused him to see the good that the Church was doing as opposed to the actions that his conscience was giving him problems with. He does make a move in this book. but he disappears from the stage for a great hunk of the book.
Aenea and Raul walking up and sticking their heads in the Pax’s trap on T’ien Shan is stupid. And I’ve come to expect these two characters to not be stupid. Way, way O-O-C.
Last Page Sound:
I wish it wasn’t over.
Author Assessment:
I love Dan Simmons work, by and large. The Rise of Endymion may be the weakest of the Hyperion Cantos books. I wonder if there was too much time between the writing of Endymion and The Rise of Endymion. I take it back. The story may drag at some places, but it makes up for it. And yes, it is a tragedy, but it’s a triumph as well. Very well done.
Editorial Assessment:
Wonder if this book represented one of those points where editors didn’t feel like they could or should challenge the author and therefore let him have his head. Not saying that’s why this book is different in feel than the other three, but there is definitely a difference.
Disposition of Book:
Irving Public Library via the InterLibrary Loan program and the Dallas Public Library
Why isn’t there a screenplay?
The Hyperion Cantos should be a movie, though I do fear that it wouldn’t live up to the awesomeness of the whole.
Casting call:
Joseph Gordon-Levitt could absolutely fill the role of Raul Endymion.
Aenea would be one of those roles where you would need 3 actresses to fill the role properly. Not sure who would play the youngest Aenea, but I could see Chloe Moretz as the late teenage/early adult Aenea. Maybe Reese Witherspoon as the adult-adult Aenea.
Would recommend to:
Genre fans, space opera fans, sci fi fans, philosophers interested in a free will versus predestination debate.
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LibraryThing member KarenHerndon
Another reread.yes, I love Dan Simmons !
LibraryThing member Toast.x2
I hate to see good things come to an end. Simultaneously, I feel that a well crafted conclusion to a great series is one of the highlights to reading. There was no disappointment to the Hyperion Cantos.
Warning to readers, this book is far more dense than others in the series. You have to expect as
The far flung planet of Hyperion has been left behind. The palindromic character Aenea and her partner Endymion begin on Old Earth. Rise of Endymion (book 4) picks up a few years after the close of Endymion (book 3). With the death of The Architect, the crew is forced to leave the relative safety of this Magellanic Cloud which hides the stolen planet earth from the Catholic Pax monstrosity.
What is the Shrike? What’s the real purpose driving the Techno-Core? What are the lions, tigers, and bears? etc.
To avoid spoilers, I will just advise that your questions will be answered. Everything that you have wondered about from the prior 3 novels will be addressed with very few exceptions. Sci-fi aficionados who fail to read this series are doing themselves a horrible injustice.
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xpost RawBlurb.com
Warning to readers, this book is far more dense than others in the series. You have to expect as
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much considering that there is so much to discuss. The religious, technological, and philosophical merge in this novel.The far flung planet of Hyperion has been left behind. The palindromic character Aenea and her partner Endymion begin on Old Earth. Rise of Endymion (book 4) picks up a few years after the close of Endymion (book 3). With the death of The Architect, the crew is forced to leave the relative safety of this Magellanic Cloud which hides the stolen planet earth from the Catholic Pax monstrosity.
What is the Shrike? What’s the real purpose driving the Techno-Core? What are the lions, tigers, and bears? etc.
To avoid spoilers, I will just advise that your questions will be answered. Everything that you have wondered about from the prior 3 novels will be addressed with very few exceptions. Sci-fi aficionados who fail to read this series are doing themselves a horrible injustice.
--
xpost RawBlurb.com
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LibraryThing member ub1707
Like many, I was let down by this continuation of the Hyperion universe. They are still a good read, but it's hard to make up for the fact that they can't stand alongside the first two books.
LibraryThing member oumike
Fantastic ending to the series.
LibraryThing member Traveller1
Ok, finished the two novels of the second half of the Hyperion story last night. I enjoyed, overall, but not as much fun as the first two novels. As with most sequels these two suffer from the need to wrap all of the lose ends together and also, something I find very annoying, find it necessary to
The story—three centuries later. A new chap enters the scene, his job is to bring a new messiah (a little girl, related to the first novels), into the new world. He does this with lots of adventures. The post-Hegemony universe has been replaced with a Catholic church dictatorship, created and supported with a church sponsored earthly resurrection. Yes, if you submit to the CC, have a "cruciform" implanted on your chest, after you die you will be restored. Cool. The problem is that the cruciforms are links and part of the evil AI network (the "core"), and the resurrection process does immense damage to the universe. The blood of the little girl, now grown, when consumed, kills the cruciform.
There is a great deal of interesting story telling here, and some interesting characters. Yet, I still prefer the first two novels, and, I prefer the "Troy" novels to the "Hyperion". That is just me.
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throw away part of the back story to move the plot along. The story—three centuries later. A new chap enters the scene, his job is to bring a new messiah (a little girl, related to the first novels), into the new world. He does this with lots of adventures. The post-Hegemony universe has been replaced with a Catholic church dictatorship, created and supported with a church sponsored earthly resurrection. Yes, if you submit to the CC, have a "cruciform" implanted on your chest, after you die you will be restored. Cool. The problem is that the cruciforms are links and part of the evil AI network (the "core"), and the resurrection process does immense damage to the universe. The blood of the little girl, now grown, when consumed, kills the cruciform.
There is a great deal of interesting story telling here, and some interesting characters. Yet, I still prefer the first two novels, and, I prefer the "Troy" novels to the "Hyperion". That is just me.
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LibraryThing member SeriousGrace
At the end of Endymion Raul Endymion had saved Aenea from the Shrike (among other robot/monsters). As the potential New Messiah she definitely needed saving. All of humanity is depending on her to grow up. Now, in The Rise of Endymion, Aenea has undergone a training with a Cybrid personality
Meanwhile, in Father de Soya's world, the Pope has died (again) and it's time to pick a new one. The monster woman called Nemes now has a family of scariness to support her quest to find and destroy Aenea...and then there's the Shrike. It's still lurking around as well.
One of the best techniques of sci-fi suspense is the age-old good guy as the underdog. (think Star Wars). Rise of Endymion does not disappoint. Of course the good guy's grungy-grimy starship is out of date while the enemy's is gleaming high tech. Of course it is. They have all the best stuff. The good guys are a bumbling, easily injured human and an amputee android while the enemy can die a thousand times over and still have superpower skills to hunt and destroy. Classic. Another sci-fi trick is time travel. This plays a huge role in the final twist of Rise of Endymion. I won't give it away except to say Raul's time debt conveniently allows Aenea to turn 21 while he's away...
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reconstructed from a Pre-Hegira human architect; none other than Frank Lloyd Wright. She and Raul live with him and his strange group called "The Others" in a commune. As Aenea's knowledge and powers grow, so does her legion of followers. One of the coolest of Aenea's powers is the ability to "remember" the future. Sometimes only fragments of memory come into focus; details are missing and conclusions are incomplete but what she does remember helps Endymion navigate through trial and tribulations to keep her safe. Meanwhile, in Father de Soya's world, the Pope has died (again) and it's time to pick a new one. The monster woman called Nemes now has a family of scariness to support her quest to find and destroy Aenea...and then there's the Shrike. It's still lurking around as well.
One of the best techniques of sci-fi suspense is the age-old good guy as the underdog. (think Star Wars). Rise of Endymion does not disappoint. Of course the good guy's grungy-grimy starship is out of date while the enemy's is gleaming high tech. Of course it is. They have all the best stuff. The good guys are a bumbling, easily injured human and an amputee android while the enemy can die a thousand times over and still have superpower skills to hunt and destroy. Classic. Another sci-fi trick is time travel. This plays a huge role in the final twist of Rise of Endymion. I won't give it away except to say Raul's time debt conveniently allows Aenea to turn 21 while he's away...
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LibraryThing member Phrim
The Rise of Endymion is the final book in the four-part Hyperion series. The first half of the book features Raul traveling from world to world much like in the previous book, except this time without Aenea. In this way, the reader learns more about how people view the Messiah-like Aenea, as well
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as a little bit about the role she's supposed to play. The second half features Raul's reunion with Aenea, who's no longer a child due to some tricks with time dilation. We learn about Aenea's "disease" which free the populace from cruciform parasite (which we've learned is controlled by the TechnoCore), and watch as Raul and Aenea become lovers (which the author has been hinting at since the characters were introduced). Along with this we watch Raul's jealousy over a mystery lover that Aenea had while Raul was away--this struck me as particularly irrational and perhaps a little out of character, but Raul continues to dwell upon it for the entire book to the point of becoming an obsession. As any good Messiah stories go, this one ends with a martyrdom, though with a final twist that wasn't really that hard to predict. I thought this made a good ending to the epic, and the book certainly kept my interest all the way through, but the whole bit about Raul's jealousy left me a little bit baffled. Show Less
LibraryThing member brakketh
Mostly satisfying conclusion to this series. I am getting a little tired of the messianic story lines in speculative fiction.
LibraryThing member Stevil2001
I would have never guessed that a Dan Simmons Hyperion novel could be so boring. Once Father-Captain de Soya exits the plot about the third of the way in, there's no character and no idea left in this book that I really care about-- once again, too much time is spent on dull travelogue, with this
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book adding cod-philosophy for good measure, and also resurrecting bunches of characters from the first two books only to undermine what we learned about them there. I don't even get what Simmons could have been thinking. I should have listened and ended with book 2, or maybe even book 1. Show Less
LibraryThing member High_Enginseer
The conclusion to the Hyperion Cantos, and a decent enough ending. Captain de Soya is still the most interesting character, as once again his conscience and faith move him to realize that his church has lost its soul. Raul finally begins being a more active protagonist towards the end. The second
The main reason for the 3.5 rating is during the middle of the book, the descriptions of the location goes into way too much detail, to the point where it bogs down the plot. Those chapters just felt way longer than necessary.
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half also puts him through an emotional roller coaster. During this time it becomes a bit easier to connect with him. Most importantly, we finally get to see why the Pax feared Aenea and her ideas. She reveals much that has been happening in the background of events, building upon an encounter from The Fall of Hyperion. The main reason for the 3.5 rating is during the middle of the book, the descriptions of the location goes into way too much detail, to the point where it bogs down the plot. Those chapters just felt way longer than necessary.
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LibraryThing member grandpahobo
This was very engrossing and intense from beginning to end. In fact, I think it was the most engrossing of the four volumes.
The author does a magnificent job of completing all the story lines in a way that leaves you feeling satisfied without being forced or sentimental.
The author does a magnificent job of completing all the story lines in a way that leaves you feeling satisfied without being forced or sentimental.
LibraryThing member sami7
Too Science Fictiony; gadget x does so & so, much better than the previous gadget y in so & so. Reads like a slow episode of a good show. Raul always in a pinch describing how difficult it is without being relatable at all with a continuous listing of names & characters with little or no background
On the other hand, still have its good moments.
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making for some of the most dull moments of any book I've read in a while. On the other hand, still have its good moments.
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LibraryThing member Paul_S
The Catholic church is the best villain you can have. Better than any criminal organisation or any government. Because it can be evil, know it is evil and non-ironically be convinced it's doing the right thing which others can only do two out of three. And they can issue 50 Hail Mary's as penance
Shame about the retcons (and demoting the Shrike to a T-800). And the fact that the "ending" lasts about half of the book - although there's a good excuse for this one as the plotline has grown quite convoluted by the 4th book.
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not for killing thousands of newborn babies but for doubting your orders to do so. OK, maybe that part went a bit into parody. Not the best book I've read but probably the best series. Epic.Shame about the retcons (and demoting the Shrike to a T-800). And the fact that the "ending" lasts about half of the book - although there's a good excuse for this one as the plotline has grown quite convoluted by the 4th book.
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Subjects
Awards
Hugo Award (Nominee — Novel — 1998)
Locus Award (Finalist — Science Fiction Novel — 1998)
SF Site Reader's Choice (1998)
Gigamesh Award (1999)
Italia Award (Finalist — 2000)
Prix Ozone (1999)
Language
Original publication date
1997-09
Physical description
579 p.; 24 cm
ISBN
055310652X / 9780553106527