The third installment in the Hyperion Cantos series unfolds a few hundred years subsequent to the momentous final events chronicled in The Fall of Hyperion. Given the significant time lapse, it comes as little surprise that only a handful of familiar visages from the initial duology persist. This volume centers on the narrative of Aenea, the progeny of Brawne Lamia and the John Keats cybrid, and her traveling cohorts as she endeavors to journey to an unknown destination and elude the clutches of those who seek her demise.

It was indeed an engaging enough tale. Both Raul and Aenea emerged as captivating and endearing characters. I found Father De Soya to be slightly less appealing as a character, yet his point-of-view segments retained their interest. Simmons' Hyperion Universe is a meticulously crafted one, and it was effortless to seamlessly slip back into it and witness how matters have transformed and evolved over the span of centuries between the second and third book. I was pleased to observe Simmons elaborating on certain intriguing aspects of the earlier books that I felt were insufficiently exploited.

This was, for the most part, an absorbing read, albeit it did experience the occasional dull patch. Having said that, I felt that the first couple of books in the series endured similar lackluster moments. The plot was perhaps a shade less layered and intricate than the earlier novels, but there are copious hints suggesting that this will alter in the concluding book.

I must confess that some of the later occurrences in this one merely affirmed my suspicion that Dan Simmons is a die-hard fan of the Terminator movies!

Rating: 4 stars.

Audio Note: Victor Bevine once again did a commendable job narrating the audio.

The level of coincidence in this story, along with the foreknowledge of the messiah, and the incompetence of the authorities, not to mention the near-unlimited power of the Shrike, make this book about traveling along an interplanetary river surprisingly dull.

Once again, we ignored common sense.

Endymion, by Dan Simmons, nearly got me into a reading slump due to all the attention given to inventory, fleets, troops, weapons, and logistics. The titular character, Endymion, is not only boring and not very observant or sharp, but most of the time he is clueless and rather useless as well.

The premise of the book, focusing on a messiah and with a narrator locked up and clearly alive despite all the adventures, already takes away a lot of tension. The overtones of Dune, with the understanding of the future and the idea that fat is evil in chapter 2, are also clear.

The world itself is interesting. After the events of the Hyperion books, the Church has taken over as the great power in the interstellar human empire, powered by resurrection Cruciforms. Salvation is real and physical, and the Church has a near-endless hold on its subjects since this sacrament can be withheld. However, I still wonder why people are executed if they can be resurrected anyway. Note that death is still a hassle, comparable to heavy jetlag, and resurrection sometimes fails.

Technological development has basically stalled, with a centuries-old flying carpet playing a central role. Still, there is a war raging with genetically enhanced Ousters on the fringes of space.

All these workings of the Pax and the Church were actually quite interesting to me, but they couldn't save the overall story in my view. Maybe it's also because Simmons' writing in this book is not as tight as I remember it from Ilum and Hyperion, with him using the word "gossamer" every other chapter. Also, the level of coincidence and Aenea's foreknowledge, combined with the seeming total incompetence of the Pax authorities and the near-unlimited power of the Shrike, who just pops up at seemingly random, make it hard to be invested in the journey of the motley crew along the river Tethys.

Also, Endymion's fixation on the size difference compared to Aenea, not to mention the 15-year age difference and the fact that the girl is 12, is rather icky. His realization every few chapters that he is a hero is also tiring. This is further compounded by the many what-ifs and plan explanations before events unfold, where the reader sees some things from three different angles and sometimes even an additional flashback.

Somewhere, Endymion thinks to himself: "It’s easy to do, to rush this tale," but Simmons clearly disagrees.

Near the end, the pope turns out to be psychic and has visions, which he could have conveniently had earlier. On the same note, why wasn't the ultra-killer released earlier?

This all builds up to a rather weak plot twist at the end of this volume, with an underutilized kind of terminator and A. Bettik the android, who has more emotional depth than our narrator, Endymion.

Sorely disappointing and a lack of utilization of interesting settings and worlds.

As I’ve written in my reviews of Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion, Dan Simmons is truly attempting to melt my brain.

After weeks of medical treatment and therapy, I’ve managed to recover enough to be wheeled out to a sunny spot, with a nurse by my side to wipe the drool from my chin. Despite the doctors’ warnings about continued exposure to Hyperion, I’ve gone ahead and read the third book in the series, Endymion. While there are still monumentally big sci-fi ideas in this story, I believe that my earlier encounters have allowed me to build up some resistance to Simmons. I got through this one, and only went blind in my right eye and lost all sense of smell, but no coma this time.

It’s difficult to summarize this without giving away too much. It’s about 250 years after the events of the last book, and we’re introduced to Raul Endymion, a young man with a checkered job history who is saved from death by a familiar character. Raul is asked by this person to find and protect a young girl, Aenea, from the forces of the Catholic Church who want to capture her. Aenea had been sent forward in time via one of the Time Tombs on Hyperion, and the Church wants her captured immediately for unknown reasons.

The Church seized political and military power by using the parasitic cruciforms (conveniently shaped like crosses) that can resurrect a person from death to offer everlasting life to those who follow the Church’s line. Raul had refused to bow to Church authority and accept the cruciform, so he’s an outcast and seems like a good candidate to keep the mysterious Aenea out of their hands. However, the Church has sent the devout Father Captain Fredrico de Soya to capture the girl. With the help of the android A. Bettik and the intervention from the deadly entity known as the Shrike, Raul and Aenea escape and begin a journey between worlds that is supposed to enable her to fulfill the destiny the Church is terrified of.

This book is an interstellar chase story, with the dedicated de Soya hot on the heels of the fugitives as they run from planet to planet. De Soya was one of my favorite parts of this book. He’s dedicated and loyal to the Church, but he’s also a very decent man. He’s so committed to the hunt that he makes Tommy Lee Jones in The Fugitive look like a crybaby quitter. De Soya has an incredibly fast pursuit ship, but every jaunt between worlds kills him and turns his body to jelly, leaving his cruciform to resurrect him. It’s an incredibly dangerous and horrible experience, but de Soya doesn’t blink as he repeatedly turns himself into paste to get closer to Aenea.

There’s enough gooey sci-fi goodness like space travel, time travel, alien monsters, and cyborg killers to keep the most demanding geek fan boy happy. And all of this moves the overarching story of Hyperion towards its ultimate conclusion. I just hope I can live through the next book.