As I said in the reviews of the first books that the series is heavy on theological elements, this book takes the level to a sci-fi adaptation to a prohpet's tale, it is a modern inspiration of a classical tale, and it is a dark future for humanity, when after all the advances in technology and the spread of population over hundreds of worlds, still the greed for power and control over people will propagate into another tech based religious tyranny.

Simply explained, while the story jumps forward almost 300 years from the end of the Pilgrims' journey in book two, we see that during those centuries, after the fall of the Hegemony, there arose a new entity to fill in the power gap across the scattered worlds, the PAX, and this pax is a religiously based entity using the technology of the cruciform to enslave whole worlds into an eternal mass of believers, and just like any fanatic religious system, seeks to eradicate other belief systems that are not fallig in line with their calling.
Then comes the news of a new 'prophet' child, whose existence, if allowed to grow to full womanhood will endanger the PAX, and so, as expected from such a fanatic system, they plot their fastest and deadliest tools to kill this new prophet before she can be of threat to them.

The adventure that follows carries on another chapter in the battle between the core AI and humanity, with an ending that leaves the reader eager to grab the last book rightaway!

MiM

4.5 Stars

For a Simmons it is 4 Stars, cause it can not reach the epic quality and awesome structure of the first Hyperion book. Compared to some other SF books I gave 4 stars to, it is a 5 star read (not the first time I wished for ca more detailed rating system here)

For most part of the book the tone felt lighter in this third installation of the Hyperion Cantos. The multiple POV of the prequels is reduced to mainly two: the hero by chance, Raul Endymion, a former shepherd (among other) who sees himself suddenly confronted to take over the role of a hero by saving the girl, saving the world and destroying evil (well, kind of). The self-depracating tone of his POVs is refreshing and made me instantly like him. The twelve year old girl Aenea he tries to protect, though she clearly is much more in command of most situations than he is, too, was an immediate fav of mine. Their journey along the river Tethys towards a goal they don't really know read as a delightful adventure decorated with the elaborate world building the first books already excelled in.

Their parts are confronted with the POVs of a priest-captain whose goal it is to stop the girl, cause she will bring much harm to the church based cosmic order. Simmons does an excellent job in describing this Papal State. They are not the baddies, on the contrary, most of the characters there are quite likeable. The confrontation is between two world views and not between good and bad. Always the best and highest form of building suspension and driving a story.

One more of those books I could not lay down once I started reading. Simmons always gets me. I wonder if there is a novel of his that's not the least short of awesome. I've got some BRs coming up, and after them I will pick up the last part. I'm so excited to see how this plays out.

Neko sam kome fantastika bukvalno teče kroz vene ali epska, ne naučna iz prostog razloga jer naučna fantastika za mene nije fantastika. Sve mi je to realno i nešto što se već dešavalo/što se dešava.
Na primer, dovoljno je samo što je Mars razaran termonuklearnim ratovima pre 6 miliona godina. Možemo samo zamisliti kakva su to razaranja bila i ratovi i svemirski brodovi.
Istorija naše planete i galaksije je zanimljivija i luđa od bilo kog SF romana.
Imao sam sreću da za ulazak u SF pročitam remek delo Artura Klarka - Kraj detinjstva.
Kakva je to knjigetina koja se zauvek pamti!
Nakon pročitanog Točka vremena osećao sam veliku prazninu koju osećam i sada verovatno jer mi se čita taj serijal opet i nisam znao šta dalje...
Uzeo sam Hiperion i nije me oduševio. Neke fine priče, Štrajk Bog bola i tako to.
Not great not terrible. Nije me oduševio Hiperion, zaista nije iako sam silno to želeo.
Pad Hiperiona mi je dosta ozbiljnija knjiga kog koje uviđam Simonsovu maštu i mnogo mi se više svidela.
Dođoh do Endimiona gde dosta njih nije oduševljeno... Mene Endimion nije oduševio nego me je raspametio. Simons je jedan neverovatan pisac i skidam mu kapu za Endimion.
Toliko me je opčinila knjiga da sam juče čitao knjigu krišom iako je cela kuća bila prepuna gostiju zbog slave. Šta više da kažem?
Oduševljen sam svakim slovom, svakom rečenicom ove knjige i jedna je od retkih knjiga +600 strana a da ništa nije suvišno.
Endimion je remek delo naučne fantastike.
Sa istovremenim osećajem tuge i radosti idemo na završni deo "Uspon Endimiona"!

Key point: this book is full of descriptions of a female, underage main character that are uncomfortable and weird at best, predatory and sexualizing and gross at worst.

Apart from all of the critiques of pacing, logic, language etc. that others have outlined, which are also legitimate, even if it was a great book in all other ways, the descriptions of one of the main characters (Aenea, a 12 year old female "messiah?" child) by another main character/the narrator (Raul, an adult (late 20s early 30s?) male) would ruin this book anyway.

It honestly reads as if it was originally written in a more unambiguously sexualizing way, and then an editor came through and told the author "wow dude you really can't write this stuff, fix this and this and this" and the author just added "but totally not in a sexual way, obviously" after all of the problematic descriptions.

There isn't nearly enough literary, analytical, critical, or whatever other heft to even begin to try to justify these descriptions (as some people might justify Nabokov's Lolita, for example.) It's just gross. It's not *about* grossness, it's just gross.

First line of the entire book:
"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." Again, this is about a character who, in this book, is 12 years old. There are no sex acts in this book, but this is the reader's introduction to her. This is the framing of this character. She even "loses herself in time" and talks about showering with the narrator (again, an adult man) later in time. Seriously?

Even writing this review is making me uncomfortable.

After struggling through this book, I came on Goodreads expecting to find a ton of one-star ratings with similar critiques, and shockingly, only found a few (some in the 2 star rating section, some in the comments of 1 star ratings) and I wonder if it's my relative unfamiliarity and therefore lack of numbness to typical tropes in certain sci-fi subgenres? But if sexualized messiah-child is a an acceptable trope in some genre then nah, I'm good, we should probably fix that.

Anyway, it's a real shame, because the first two books in this series (as many have said) were pretty great and had some interesting concepts, despite the sexist and ethnofetishistic tidbits that are just par for the course in so much pulp fiction.

TL;DR: Child-sexualization grossness, none of the page-turner pacing you want in pulp and none of the substantive concepts you want in sci-fi. AVOID.

This was such a wild ride, I loved it! Compared to the first two books in the Hyperion Cantos, this was a much faster paced, easier to read, and thrilling story. I loved these characters, so full of heart and friendship, even the Pax crew were good, and I cannot wait to see what happens with them, and Aenea and A. Bettik. Hell, even the ship AI was a cool character and hope it's also in the next Rise of Endymion.

And now for something completely different!

heee, I've just noticed book's cover art - Shrike is standing all casual on the makeshift raft and Endymion is all casual, rowing wit a stick at leisure.
SHIRE WEIGHTS SEVERAL TONS, YOU LOONIES. There is no possible way for Shrike to go rafting or kayaking, or I don't know, windsurfing.

But I digress.

This is a completely different book that first two in the series. Plot takes us several hundreds years forward, yet some old characters still are rollin a steam.

What we get - a road trip, catch me if you can, assassin-murder-thriller drama and some weird bablings about lions and tigers and bears. A complete zoo if you ask me. This is probably a spoiler, but there you go.

It's a really good sci-fi book, Dan Simmons excels at world building. I liked the multilayered storytelling, with constant action and unpredictable plot twist, strong likable and well... hate-able? characters. As some characters seem to be created just to hate them and I hated them immensely. Dialogues though... Still good. Could be better, but good. At least there's very little talk about poetry.

The main heroine is twelve (12), yet ramblings about carnivorous mammals of Felidae and Ursidae families remain the single display of immaturity. And no pedo vibes, thank you cruciform (a parabole of religion being a parasite), author writes a child and we see her growing up. I liked tigers in my teens too.

My favorite character - the diligent Father Captain, Frederico de Soya, of the Pax, going after runaways, with no regard to any human and material loss. He dies a lot. I liked that. A lot.
Multilayered storytelling, as I said.

Completely different done good. Very very good.

I wasn't expecting this to be as good as Hyperion. A writer pens a classic and very rarely do they equal its awesomeness and originality. Endymion started great. It delivered all of the science fiction intrigue i've come to expect from Dan Simmons. The plot was nicely linked to the other two books and the whole idea of 'what message will she deliver' was interesting. But the more i read the less i liked. It was around page 400 i started to become bored. There's a couple of chapters of planet descriptions, journeying through tunnels and interacting with a new race of people which sucked the life out of my desire to give a damn. The 'message' the girl is carrying isn't explained until toward the end, which is too late because by then i was ready for the book to end. The main character, Raul, isn't the easiest person to like as he starts to become whiney and is overshadowed by Aenea. I would have liked more from Father De Soya as his mission is more interesting than Raul's.

A little disappointed but i will read Rise of Endymion.

Една идея по- мудна от предните 2 книги, сякаш страда от middle book syndrome, макар да е 3та книга в поредицата, но отново брилянтен Дан Симънс.
Много ме е яд, че Кантос е толкова недооценена поредица, но не е за всеки и разбирам защо хората я избягват. Симънс вплита толкова теми на различна нива в една доста димамична и богата на технически термини книга, което кара читателя да внимава и си налага да е съсредоточен, чете се бавно с една дума.
Ако ви вълнуват теми относно космос, битки в космоса, пътуване из галактиката, изкуствен интелект и религия това е правилната книга.

Fall from grace but still not a bad book

I loved, LOVED this books predecessors Hyperion and the Fall of Hyperion. In fact you can just stop reading this review and go read those two books. They are some of the best books in sci fi. Unfortunately Endymion did not meet the same standards but overall it is not a bad book. It starts out really well, several hundred years later with a great cast and with lots of call back to the prior two books. For the first 20% I was all in. But what began as stagnant pacing devolved into a cat and mouse story that fell flat. There is so much dead air in the book of characters hanging out in a space ship or just chilling on a raft and talking. The McGuffin wasn't enough to keep me engaged. There was also just cringe stuff with a 12 year old girl that I really disliked. For example, why would the narrator explicitly describe the nude body of a minor and state that he is not attracted? GROSS.

I don't think I'll be reading the last book, I'll just read a plot summary and call it a day. My take away here is Hyperion and the Fall of Hyperion are must read. Endymion you can take or leave it.

Here's my reviews for those two books:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Чого бракує третій книзі? Бракує дій. Головні герої протягом кількасот сторінок гасають по різним зоряним системам, щоб наприкінці вступити у нерівний двобій. Попередні книги тримали у напрузі більше.
Спойлери до перших книг. Майже через три століття після подій попередніх частин людство занурилося у своєрідні Темні віки. Штучний інтелект прогнали, швидке пересування між світами відсутнє, Вигнанці спустошили багато планет, розрізнені світи потроху об’єднує Церква, якій відкрилася таємниця вічного життя. На Гіперіоні живе Рол Ендіміон. Йому доводиться рятувати 12-річну Енею, на яку полює Церква, вважаючи, що дівчинка призведе до загибелі всього людства.
Що здивувало? Що за штучним інтелектом ховається ще сильніший гравець. Тобто повторюється ідея попередніх книг про те, що за кожним лялькарем ховається інший лялькар. Сама ідея невідомої сили цікава тільки тим, що вона справді невідома. Але повторення тієї ж ідеї протягом трьох книг навряд чи виправдовує себе. Особливо, якщо врахувати, наскільки вони товсті, і те, що є ще четверта, найоб’ємніша. І це нагадує самокатування. Буду дочитувати, просто щоб дізнатися, чим все закінчилося.

I really enjoyed this book. Some people told me that book 3 wasn't the match of books one and two, but I really quite enjoyed it. I'm struggling to put my finger on it, but I think the dynamic of Raul, Aenea, and A Bettik was a strong one - they clearly cared for each other, and you could see that they would even love each other in the future.

It had all the elements of a great epic: strong heroes on a mission that is important to humanity, an evil empire trying to stop them, and a mysterious force in the universe trying to help them. The world is almost 300 years after the fall of the farcasters, and is described in such a way as to almost be nostalgic. The hawking mat, all the characters and elements of Cantos, the consul's ship, etc.

One of the major themes of the book seems to be how the universe can be incredibly harsh. This quote captures it nicely:

"The universe is indifferent to our fates. This was the crushing burden that the character took with him as he struggled through the surf toward survival or extinction. The universe just does not give a shit."

And I just loved this one:

"I remembered Grandam telling me about an early Old Earth scientist, one Charles Darwin, who had come up with one of the early theories of evolution or gravitation or somesuch, and how—although raised a devout Christian even before the reward of the cruciform—he had become an atheist while studying a terrestrial wasp that paralyzed some large species of spider, planted its embryo, and let the spider recover and go about its business until it was time for the hatched wasp larvae to burrow its way out of the living spider’s abdomen.”

In harsh times, people often turn towards religion. Fascinating to see that after the Fall, after all the chaos and war and death that ensued, it was the Catholic church that rose to power, and goes onto to rule the universe. People are comforted by its ability to make the universe safe for them with the power of the cruciform.

One of the themes of the book is definitely fear. Fear of death in particular. De Soya fears each death he has, Raul came close to death on Mare Infinitus with the sharks. The Chitchatuk were interesting here - having to live a particularly fearful life, dependent on the thing that eats them for food (artic wraiths).

But love is the counter to the theme of fear. We keep getting hints that Aenea is the missionary from the human god and will show us all a better path through love. Raul follows her because he believes in her - and it's clearly foreshadowed they will love each other.

Just pickup the next book, because you cant just stop here….. although so far this is my least fav hyperion book. I understand why people stop here. You have to push thru.