Bog je rodjen, zove se Anea i voli da psuje.

This is a rather unique and perhaps somewhat controversial statement. It presents a rather unusual concept of a being named Anea who has a particular inclination.

E to je svet u kome bi ja voleo da zivim :).

Here, the author expresses a desire to live in a world that is related to this idea. It makes one wonder what exactly this world would be like and what kind of experiences and possibilities it would offer.

Saga o Hiperionu (Hiperion, Pad Hiperiona, Endimion i Uspon Endimiona) mozda su i najbolji serijal naucne fantastike na koji sam naisao!

The series about Hyperion (Hyperion, The Fall of Hyperion, Endymion, and The Rise of Endymion) is perhaps the best science fiction series that the author has come across. This shows the author's high regard for this particular series and implies that it has had a significant impact on them. It makes one curious to explore this series and discover what makes it so special.

Overall, this text presents a combination of strange ideas and a passion for a particular science fiction series, creating an interesting and thought-provoking piece.

I think I might have enjoyed this one even more than Hyperion.

The structure here is simpler, being essentially a quest story. In it, the protagonist is tasked with a cluster of seemingly impossible assignments. He has to embark on a journey with companions who possess their own sets of core competencies. (This is in contrast to Hyperion which was structured like The Canterbury Tales.)

In the hands of a mediocre writer, this book could have been a dull and derivative affair. However, I found myself completely swept along by the currents of imagination as Raul, Aenea, and A. Bettik traversed the river that crosses worlds. They struggled with constant danger while being relentlessly pursued by agents of the church.

All three characters became increasingly complex as the story progressed. Simmons addressed numerous issues such as bigotry and faith with subtlety and nuance, without dragging down the adventurous aspect.

About halfway through the book, I have a note that I hate Frederico De Soya. As he declares that he will kill every Lamp Mouth and anything else in his way as he attempts to capture Aenea to protect his precious church, this attitude disgusts me. But then by the end of the book, after the events with Rhadamanth Nemes, my view had softened. I still think that kind of destructive drive is horrible, but the character himself became more understandable if not relatable. And the fact that he would subject himself and his team to the rigors of repeated death and resurrection via the parasites was at least impressive.

I found it curious that at the beginning of the book, the narrator, Raul, starts by saying "You are reading this for the wrong reason." But Simmons actually uses this as a framing device at the end of the novel. I won't give away what he says, but I liked it.

There are numerous quotable bits, but I'll close with one of my favorites:

If there is a God, I thought, it's a painkiller

I finally took the plunge on Dan Simmons' third book in the series that began with "Hyperion." I was extremely hesitant, having endured some moments of confusion and head-scratching over certain plot points in "Fall of Hyperion." However, I'm glad that more than two years later, I dove into "Endymion." I had been led to believe, and some reviews here stubbornly assert, that the second pair of books are only vaguely related to the first two. But I found this to be completely untrue.

Sure, a few hundred years have passed, but "Endymion" and "Rise of Endymion" (I'm well into that one) build directly upon what happened in the first two. In fact, many of the mysteries from the first two that I worried about are actually explained (or, at least, pretty much) in the final two books.

I greatly enjoyed "Endymion" in part because the astonishing intricacies of "Fall of Hyperion" are absent here. Instead, it features a more straightforward chase through farcaster portals and new worlds as Raul Endymion, condemned to die, and Aenea, who is soon to be (apparently) a messiah, try to find Old Earth while incredibly sinister forces desire their capture or death.

Don't misunderstand me; Simmons' universe is still incredibly intricate. However, the straightforward adventure, through a water world, an ice world, and more, saves the day. I would strongly recommend reading all four books straight through and, frankly, taking notes. Or you can just push through the parts you don't understand; there are enough rewards to make the journey worthwhile.

Dan Simmons continues to surpass his ideas from Hyperion and develop the action that began there, approximately three centuries after the eponymous homage and battle.

He shows us Shrike in a different light and reveals the true face of evil. The Church, on its part, enters into an alliance with the evil forces in order to continue to rule over mankind. It has reached the cruciforms and uses them most shamelessly, sowing death among the wretched. The only being that can undermine the foundations of the Church is a little girl (Aenea), who was in the womb of detective Brawne Lamia in the previous two books. Although nearly three centuries have passed, Aenea is 12 years old because she has spent all that time in a safe place in the Tombs of Time and will soon come out of them. And then, she will stand against the scourge of the pseudo-religion and the cruciforms. And the Church will pursue her furiously all the time. The little girl is not alone in her mission. Watching over her is someone, and that is Shrike (in Endymion I started to like this Shrike

\\"If there is a God, I thought, it’s a painkiller.\\" This profound statement by Dan Simmons in Endymion really makes one stop and think. I just finished reading Endymion, and while I enjoyed it, it didn't quite reach the heights of Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion for me. It's like the Return of the Jedi in a sense. After being so enthralled by the first two installments, Endymion still had its moments that kept me engaged. There were certain parts that I truly relished, but at the same time, there were also some elements that seemed a bit overdone. Maybe it's because my expectations were so high after the first two amazing books. I'll definitely be coming back to review more in-depth later, but for now, I'm left with a somewhat bittersweet feeling about this installment in the Hyperion Cantos.

\\"If there is a God, I thought, it’s a painkiller.\\"
- Dan Simmons, Endymion

Enjoyed it, just not as much as Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion. This is the equivalent of the Return of the Jedi for me. Still buzzing from the first two, but not as good as the first two either. There are certain parts I enjoyed and somethings that just seemed a bit overdone. I'll review more later.

One idea is wiser than the previous 2 books, as if it suffers from middle book syndrome, although it is the 3rd book in the series, but again the brilliant Dan Simmons.

I am very angry that the Hyperion Cantos is such an underrated series, but it is not for everyone and I understand why people avoid it. Simmons weaves so many themes at different levels into a rather dim and rich in technical terms book, which makes the reader pay attention and forces him to be focused, it is read slowly one word at a time.

If themes related to the cosmos, space battles, travel out of the galaxy, artificial intelligence and religion excite you, this is the right book. It offers a unique and thought-provoking exploration of these complex and fascinating topics. Simmons' writing style is both engaging and challenging, making the reading experience both enjoyable and intellectually stimulating. Whether you are a science fiction enthusiast or simply looking for a good read, the Hyperion Cantos is definitely worth checking out.

Hyperion is one of the most fascinating sci-fi novels that I have ever read. The Fall of Hyperion is a quite solid cyberpunk story. However, Endymion, I only read it out of respect for the author. It is a tiring space opera, filled with overly long descriptions. From the middle, I started skipping sections, and towards the end, entire passages. If it weren't for the last hundred pages where something sort of happened, I would only give it one star.

Hyperion truly stands out with its unique world-building and complex characters.

The cyberpunk elements in The Fall of Hyperion add an exciting layer of grittiness and technological dystopia.

But Endymion just fails to engage me in the same way. Its long-winded descriptions make it a slog to get through.

And one more thing: One is not a prime number! This little factoid might seem random, but it just popped into my mind as I was reflecting on these books.

If you pen a book where a 26-year-old man strikes up a friendship with a 12-year-old girl and then repeatedly inform me that when that 12-year-old girl reaches adulthood, she will engage in a sexual relationship with the man, you are a goddamn creep!

It is even more disturbing when the man refers to the girl as “kiddo” and contemplates how he feels a sense of protectiveness towards her as if he were her father!

Gross, gross, gross! It is the absolute worst. Fuck off, Dan Simmons. Your revolting old man tendencies are on full display.

This kind of content is not only inappropriate but also highly concerning. It blurs the lines between appropriate relationships and crosses into the realm of sexualizing a minor.

Authors have a responsibility to create works that are respectful and do not promote such harmful and immoral ideas.

We should expect better from the literary world and condemn any form of content that normalizes or romanticizes such inappropriate behavior.

Occasionally, the thought crosses my mind that a significant portion, perhaps even a majority, of science fiction media presents immature stories overly fixated on pew pew lasers, explosions, and sexual encounters with attractive alien women (such as Darth Talon and Liara). For instance, Ted Chiang contends that Star Wars has forever associated the genre with “adventure stories dressed up in lasers.” Similarly, NPR Book's review of Ancillary Justice states, "If you don't know the Ancillary series by now, you probably should. Ann Leckie's sociopolitical space opera almost singlehandedly breathed new cool into the stereotype of spaceships trundling through far-off systems amid laser battles." In other words, there is a perception that much of science fiction is primarily targeted at teenage boys, who are supposedly mostly interested in action and sex.

For the sake of focus, I won't entirely dispute this claim (although in my experience, every part of it is more often untrue than true). However, when I see this claim applied to science fiction LITERATURE, I am truly confused. What on earth are these people talking about? I have never read a science fiction novel or short story that was more focused on pew pew lasers or xeno-copulation than on sociology, science, technology, culture, or ideas. Have you? Even YA sci-fi like Ender’s Game is far more interested in the psychology of a young genius or children in general than in space battles.

More importantly, this entire dichotomy – adventure story OR science/depth/complexity/ideas – represents a fundamental misunderstanding of how science fiction operates. It employs the Trojan horse technique of captivating readers with a good story, enabling it to explore less immediately thrilling but ultimately more interesting complex science and societal concepts. Sci-fi is one of the few genres where we can – and indeed must – have both adventure AND depth. To quote from Analog magazine’s submission page: “[Science fiction stories are those] in which some aspect of future science or technology is so integral to the plot that, if that aspect were removed, the story would collapse. Try to picture Mary Shelley's Frankenstein without the science and you'll see what I mean. No story!”

Endymion is a perfect example of how adventure and ideas combine to form science fiction. Now, yes, I'll admit along with the chorus of reviewers that it's not as good as Hyperion. But since Hyperion is one of the best science fiction books ever written, this is like saying, “This ruby isn't as good as this diamond.” Endymion is a real gem. It has everything I desire and expect from my science fiction. It features romance (albeit a strange Lolita-esque version that I'll discuss further in my sequel review), fantastical settings ranging from jungle planets with mysterious ruins to ocean planets with massive sea monsters and high-gravity frozen planets inhabited by yetis and ice wyrms. It also has a flying carpet, prophecies and mysteries, a blue-skinned android, FTL travel, space marines, awesome battles, the return of the Shrike creature, dastardly villains, and more. In short, it's unmistakably an ADVENTURE. Reading it is an absolute blast!
However, to dismiss Endymion based solely on its adventure elements would be to overlook its thematic foundations of religion, time, death, belief, love, space, and AI. In Endymion, the relatively liberal values of the Hegemony have been replaced by more conservative, anti-science, xenophobic ones – as one might expect given the catastrophic collapse of civilization at the end of Hyperion. The Catholic religion has made a significant comeback, with the adoption of the “sacrament” of the cruciform organism, which grants immortality to all wearers, as the primary means of its ascension. The pope (Father Lenar Hoyt from Hyperion) has died, been revived, and re-elected numerous times. Meanwhile, the protagonist, Raul Endymion, is recruited by our favorite poet, Martin Silenus, to meet a supposed savior who has jumped forward approximately 250 years into the future via anti-entropic fields. And, of course, lurking in the shadows and occasionally emerging into the light is the AI TechnoCore. In fact, humanity's interactions with the AI TechnoCore form the very basis of the plot, just as they did in Hyperion.
This is especially interesting to me because I've recently come to believe that the development and ethics of AI is the single most important topic for humanity. If I were to claim that by 2100, humanity will either be extinct or immortal, you might scoff and think I'm being overly optimistic. You might believe I'm making the same kind of error as Back to the Future, which predicted flying cars and hoverboards by 2015. Well, you'd be wrong. The 2100 date is actually conservative. The median expert guess for when we will develop an ASI (Artificial Super Intelligence) is around 2060. After that, it won't be long until we're either immortal (likely in machine or software form) or extinct.
Let me explain: if Moore’s Law holds true (and it has so far), then by 2025, a CPU with the computational power of the human brain will be available at a relatively inexpensive price. If we're conservative, we might say it'll take another 25 years (by which time our CPUs will be incredibly powerful) until we've sufficiently understood the human brain to create our first Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). Once that occurs, however, we enter a realm where it's no longer the HUMAN beings improving the AI, but the AI itself. And as the AI becomes smarter, the faster it will be able to upgrade itself (this is similar to how human society functions – it's called an accelerated rate of change, and the recent US election demonstrates how problematic this can be, as human institutions and corresponding values/morals change much more slowly than technology). Soon after that, the AGI will become an ASI, which will be to us as we are to ants. It will possess God-like powers, with unfathomable motivations. [If you're interested in AI topics, see my reviews of Bostrom's Superintelligence, Kurzweil's The Singularity is Near, and James Barrat's Our Final Invention].
Depending on how we introduce that ASI, it will either assist us immensely or erase us from existence. While most people agree that the latter option is definitely bad, the idea of immortality may not necessarily be well-received either. Regardless, it's crucial for us to start introducing real AI (not the anthropomorphized Hollywood version) into the collective societal consciousness now. We need politicians to begin considering their positions on AI issues. We need our children (and future scientists) to start grappling with the concept of artificial intelligence, robot psychology, and the pros and cons of immortality. And, of course, the dangers of ASI – which are greater than those posed by global warming and nuclear weapon proliferation – need to be part of our conversation now because the work that may lead to such a creature is happening right now.
And those are just future concerns! There are plenty of AI-related issues to deal with at present. There is a hedge fund that is entirely controlled by AI. Is that fair or wise? [See Nick Wolven’s short story: On the Night of the Robo-bulls and Zombie Dancers]. What about the current loss of manufacturing jobs to automation? Ignorance about this issue (i.e., many people falsely believe that manufacturing job loss is more due to globalization than mechanization) has changed the course of an election, which in turn will likely alter the American political and moral landscape for the next fifty years.
So, there are many great ideas in Endymion, which fills the gaps between its adventure set-pieces with moments of discussion and reflection. It strikes a wonderful balance between depth and plot, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Perhaps more importantly, it made me excited to explore both new sci-fi stories and non-fiction on AI, and indeed excited about the possibilities of adventure and science in the future. What more could a sci-fi reader ask for?

How do I know what I think until I see what I say? wrote some pre-Hegira writer. Precisely. I must see these things in order to know what to think of them.

Endymion begins with its POV character Raul Endymion, stuck in a prison where he is to die. He is writing the events in this book in an attempt to understand. His story follows his rescue of the child Aenea, who is being hunted by the church, and his accompanying her on a quest along with the android A. Bettik. The trio travels along the river Tethys through farcaster portals and strange new worlds as they strive to reach their destination.

I feel like this book had less action than the others, focusing more on the new worlds that the characters encounter. This was fine with me, as there is such diversity in the worlds that Dan Simmons imagines. Combined with his beautiful prose, it creates multiple stunning worlds that I can vividly visualize.

A thing of beauty is a joy forever;
Its loveliness increases, it will never
Pass into nothingness

Endymion had two POV characters, Raul and de Soya, the man the church has sent to capture the child. I found myself liking both characters, even though de Soya is considered "the bad guy". While he made some morally questionable decisions, Simmons has crafted such an extensive background for his characters that you can understand why they act the way they do.

However, I think the best part is that as the book progresses, de Soya begins to change as a result of his new experiences. Simmons did a great job creating a believable character, and de Soya quickly became a favorite.

There are a number of ethical gray areas explored in this book, but it is done in a way that isn't off-putting. It forces you to think, rather than dictating what you should think.

Looking forward to the last book in this series.

Cross posted at Kaora's Corner.

This book is truly a disappointment.

It is filled with descriptions of a female, underage main character that range from uncomfortable and weird to predatory, sexualizing, and just plain gross.

Besides the valid critiques of pacing, logic, and language that others have pointed out, the way one of the main characters, Aenea, a 12-year-old female "messiah?" child, is described by another main character/the narrator, Raul, an adult (late 20s early 30s?) male, ruins the entire book.

It reads as if the author originally wrote it in a more blatantly sexualizing way and then had to make some changes after an editor's feedback, but the attempts to tone it down are half-hearted and still leave a bad taste.

There is simply not enough literary, analytical, or critical weight to justify these descriptions. It's not like Lolita, where there might be some attempt at a deeper exploration. It's just gross for the sake of being gross.

The first line of the book sets a disturbing tone: "You are reading this for the wrong reason. If you are reading this to learn what it was like to make love to a messiah - our messiah - then you should not read on, because you are little more than a voyeur." This is about a 12-year-old character, and while there are no actual sex acts in the book, this is how the reader is introduced to her.

Even writing this review makes me uncomfortable. After struggling through the book, I expected to find many one-star ratings with similar critiques on Goodreads, but was shocked to find only a few. I wonder if it's because I'm not as familiar with the typical tropes in certain sci-fi subgenres and therefore not as numb to them. But if sexualized messiah-child is an acceptable trope in some genre, then that's a problem that needs to be fixed.

It's a real shame because the first two books in this series had some interesting concepts, despite the sexist and ethnofetishistic elements that are unfortunately common in pulp fiction.

TL;DR: Avoid this book due to the child-sexualization grossness, lack of page-turner pacing, and absence of substantive sci-fi concepts.

Endymion continues the Hyperion cycle, maintaining its reading quality as well.

Perhaps it is slightly inferior to the first two novels, but it inevitably pays the price for the fact that the reader is already deeply involved in the story.

There are some rather slow and subdued passages in the central part, but for the rest, it is an excellent book.

There are so many interesting themes: the role of AI in unexpected times, a Church ready for anything, and a love story that spans from the future to the present and intersects with what happened in the first two volumes.

All that remains is to read the fourth and final book to get all the answers!