this might just be my favourite book in the series?

deviating from the sci-fi / horror genre fusion of the first two instalments in the hyperion cantos, ‘endymion’ is a fun adventure story that is primarily an exploration of this universe. our new hero, raul endymion, is tasked with an almost impossible quest of finding and protecting aenea, the future messiah. it involves toppling corrupt religious empires, time-bending aliens, and a tonne of other fun sci-fi things

the general consensus on goodreads is that ‘endymion’ doesn’t live up to the first two books within this series - i both agree and disagree. i don’t think that ‘endymion’ is as well-written as the first two books, but it is certainly the most enjoyable book in this series. where ‘hyperion’ is arguably simmons’ magnum opus, a complex piece that explores a range of artistic, theological, philosophical topics, ‘endymion’ is just a tonne of fun. it’s meta, it’s funny, it’s almost a love story?? it’s just a good time. that’s not to say it’s lacking in discussions - this instalment expands on the themes introduced at the start of this series - from religious fanaticism, to critiques on empire and colonisation, as well as an emphasis on the importance and value of art and culture within society

furthermore, i loved how diverse this book is. as endymion and aenea traverse the universe, we meet a range of peoples from indigenous to muslim planets. i love that this book actually represents humanity, and not just the western portion of the world

i do think the first half was better than the second (pace could’ve been better, there were a lot of moments that dragged for me), and i feel very uncomfortable about the romance introduced in here. it’s questionable, to say the least. but i’m still excited to see how everything unravels in the final book!!

overall, yes the first two books have more to offer, but this one was much more enjoyable to read, in my opinion

My reaction to this book after reading #1 and #2:
My god, for the sake of all that is good and holy in this imperfect world, DO NOT read this book.

Never, I mean literally never before in my life, have I been so in love with an author to be so let down.

I don't even know. This might sound a little melodramatic, but reading this book honestly put me off reading scifi for months, so crushing was the blow. I haven't recovered yet.

I don't even know how to critique this book. I don't want to dredge up the memories of bland-she-jesus and her bland companions on their bland journey through bland internal and yet more bland external adventures.

I only gave it 2 stars, and not just 1, because I suspect if Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion hadn't be so good, I wouldn't be so bitter and dejected about book 3. Really, it's more a testament to Simmon's talent that he could get this reaction out of me.

An accurate description of Simmons thought process while writing it:
"And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth" (Matthew 13:41-42)

If you write a book in which a 26 year old man befriends a 12 year old girl and then tell me, multiple times, that when that 12 year old girl grows up she will enter a sexual relationship with the man, you are a fucking creep! Even more so if the man refers to the girl as “kiddo” and muses about how he feels protective of her as if he were her dad! Gross gross gross it is the worst fuck off Dan Simmons your gross old man is showing.

I knew that entropy existed in the universe, but Endymion proves that it applies to great book series too. The only word which I can think after finishing this book is disappointment. The series just took nose dive for me into oblivion in this book. I just can't find the words to express my disappointment regarding this book, and this is partly due to the fact that I really liked the first two books in Hyperion series.

Some of the weak points of the book are

1.The story seems to be going no where.
2.Flat characters.
3.Deus ex machine syndrome.

Let me elaborate on the above points

1.The story seems to be going no where.

The book definitely starts strongly when we are introduced to the lead character in the series Raul Endymion, we are also given his background story and shown the circumstances due to which he has ended where is now.

Simmons uses the solid world initially and some of the pilgrim characters from the previous books also make a comeback, but once this is done the chase starts then actually the problem with the book starts.

This book should have been aptly titled Hitchhiker's guide to hegemony because our protagonist seem to travel through travel different planets for the heck of it, without giving us the reader any motive for this travel.

The travelogues consists basically of huge descriptions regarding of atmosphere of the planet along with its flora and fauna and also the civilization of that planet. Although it starts interestingly but this pattern keeps on repeating itself until finally Simmons realizes that the book should end where in he gives us some meaning for this travel and raps up the book.

2.Flat characters.

The previous books were interesting due to the fact that, they had some amazing characters in them and each of their story explained to us the world of hegemony. We did not need huge info dumps regarding anything in this world as it flowed fluidly with the story.

The less said the better regarding the characters in this book, because I was not able to connect with any of the characters in this book, I cared for the previous characters and wanted to know what happened to each of them in previous books, but in Endymion I just did not give a damn as to what was happening to the characters.

3.Deus ex machine syndrome.

It was ok to have a Deus ex machine aka Shrike in the previous books, but in Endymion the author just solves any problem with this strategy. Also having one Deus ex machine is understandable, but when you have three of them throughout the story then for me something is terribly wrong with the story.

Although I did not like this book a bit I am still going to give it 2 stars and these are due to the fact that I really liked the first two books in this series, and hope that the last book is better than this one.

I really like Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion... But Endymion was plain awful. The book was 500 pages of exposition and story aspects that were almost entirely unnecessary to the narrative. Very little character growth or change, internal inconsistency in story line items (within the same book) and meshing of the overall timeline. I felt like reading it was a chore. It took me about six weeks to finish when such a book would normally only take a week. Overall I only read it to finish off the overall storyline, but I'd more or less tell people to stop at Fall of Hyperion.

In the faraway year of 3126 the 32nd century , things have regressed in a remote corner of the Milky Way Galaxy some two -hundred -seventy -four after the fall of the Hegemony Empire, a young man is sentenced to death on the once prosperous planet Hyperion were he was born, for a crime that was in actuality self-defense. Raul Endymion a hunting guide, was very angry understandably at a rich spoiled jerk , he and his friends disobeyed safety rules endangering him and others firing wildly, missing the flying ducks but killing his best friend. a four legged animal, his beloved dog. Throwing the idiot out of his boat and into the filthy swamp, later Raul barely escaping with his own life the gunman was seeking revenge, shooting at him instead the would- be assassin is killed . After a hasty kangaroo trial conviction, authorities here need the financial benefits hunters bring from the off worlds and the former shepherd in childhood awakes ... the day after his execution...it had been faked bribes paid and the confused Raul Endymion is taken to the deserted city of Endymion ( his family took that name for themselves). The famous poet who wrote Cantos Martin Silenus, now forbidden to be read, ( lives on an abandoned university campus) by the new rulers the Pax ( greatly influenced by a new Christian Church ) is still alive, modern medicine has preserved the 1,000 -year -old , he looks awful though, wrinkles over his whole body faint weak voice, the carcass cannot walk, a living fossil from the distant past of old long gone Earth. Martin has an impossible mission, save his "niece" Aenea ( a late friend's daughter) from being eliminated by the Pax and the Church, the 12 -year -old will be a threat to them in the future she is some kind of enigmatic messiah, arriving soon in the Time Tombs where the killing machine, the unstoppable .The Shrike's home is located, yet has not been seen for centuries...A flying carpet right out of an Arabian Nights fantasy will greatly help Raul and his new companion Silenus's former servant, the blue man A. Bettik well partly human still more human than many humanoids. A large lethal Pax Army awaits the duo but so does The Shrike, unbelievable carnage springs out of the Valley of Death thousands perish, a miracle occurs and the three now, (Aenea joins the party) flee in the vast confusion , through a "Farcaster " (an instant transportation apparatus) then ride a small raft they built from planet to planet , ice , desert, jungle, and even water worlds always searching for the next farcaster to find. And the relentlessly pursuing Father Captain, Frederico de Soya of the Pax never gives up in hunting them down, where they go he will follow... on the immense endless treacherous River Tethys in a long perilous journey , their unknown fate awaits , and still another menace is lurking about ... A terrific read and highly enjoyable for the adventurous crowd. Dan Simmons is a superb writer this series shows that undeniable fact...

Endymion by Dan Simmons is a Science Fiction novel on a grand space opera level with a very personal and detailed feel to the characters. It is the third in the Hyperion Cantos series.

The story starts off 274 years after the events of the second book, The Fall Of Hyperion. Raul Endymion, a shepherd and hunting guide living on Hyperion. He gets convicted of a murder and sentenced to death. After his execution things start to become far more complicated and difficult for him. He meets a familiar face from the past and is told he must go to the Time Tombs, rescue a young girl called Aenea from church controlled military forces when she leaves the Shrike Temple, and then escort her so her message can be heard at the right time and place. They are not allowed to merely stroll away without complications however. The Pax, the restored Roman church and religion, sends Father Captain De Soya after them to bring Aenea to Church control.

There is a small selection of continuous characters throughout the book; Raul, Aenea, the android A. Bettik, and Father Captain De Soya. The characters are all described extremely well, both physically and mentally. You quickly learn who they are and what drives them and motivates them to the acts they perform. As with the previous two books you get a true sense of personality and empathy with almost all major and most minor characters.

The world building is once again very impressive. After the events of the last book and the intervening 274 years there are many places and societies that have changed. The changes to familiar places feel very believable and the sense of continuity is maintained. Simmons portrays the idea that people, societies and entire worlds evolve and continue no matter what anyone or anything can do. I personally loved this about the book and felt involved in the worlds and places their little group visits.

In the first book, Hyperion, the pilgrims were on a gradual journey where you learn about them and the world they live in. Endymion has a similar feel to it; with the characters being chased across multiple worlds and environments learning what they can about each other and what they may need to do to accomplish their primary goals.


In Summary: An amazing SF novel with good characters and impressive world that manages to stay faithful to the world and feel of the first two books. It may not be quite as good as Hyperion but I still thought it was excellent and gave it 5 stars.

Jedan od najboljih sci-fi serijala koje sam ikada imala prilike da pročitam.
Nakon pređene 3/4 ovog međugalaktičkog puta, mogu samo da kažem da praznina koja nas spaja nikada nije bila jača.

Buddy read with Athena, Desinka, Gavin & Kaora

3.5 stars

“You want to be a hero,” he repeated. “You want to be one of those rare human beings who make history, rather than merely watch it flow around them like water around a rock.”

More than two centuries have passed since the pilgrimage to the Valley of the Time Tombs, and the Hegemony of Man, the beating heart of humanity, has been completely destroyed. The Worldweb is gone, along with the farcaster network and everything that made the universe what it once was. Rising from the ashes is the Pax, an all-encompassing totalitarian regime founded by the remainder of the Catholic Church; ruling with the help of the strongest armada in existence and the power to provide its faithful followers with eternal life…

This third book in the Hyperion Cantos saga takes place centuries after the other two, and it opens up with a ton of questions. How did the Pax come to rule everything? Where have the other old powers, the Ousters and the TechnoCore, gone? And what does the Church actually want? Watching Dan Simmons try to answer all these questions while making a captivating story out of it all is a delightful experience. He does it, as always, rather skilfully.

The main character of Endymion is Aenea, the daughter of Brawne Lamia and the cybrid known as John Keats. In another time she stepped through the portals in the Valley of the Time Tombs on Hyperion itself, and arrived in this distant future. Now the Church sees her as a threat that must be dealt with by any means possible, and while she journeys across the universe to find out what she is actually supposed to do, the agents of the Pax are hunting her.

While Aenea is the main character of the book, she is actually not a POV character. Of those there are two: Raul Endymion, the man who accompanies and protects Aenea, and Father Captain Federico de Soya, the man who has been given the task of hunting her down. All three characters are interesting in their way, and Simmons keeps much of their personalities and motivations hidden throughout most of the book. And the narration, switching back and forth between the hunter and the hunted, is particularly interesting.

Like the other books in the series, this one also throws in a new and fabulous concept that I've never seen anything even remotely similar to before. Namely the River Tethys (wonderfully portrayed further below), the river on which Aenea and Raul embark upon their journey. Perhaps a mere river does not seem so remarkably interesting, but then again there are few rivers stretching from world to world across the entire universe. The River Tethys takes our protagonists to jungle worlds and ocean worlds, to abandoned population centres and lost planets. And that is precisely what makes both the river and the journey on it so amazing.

Sadly there is almost always a downside. The problem with Endymion is that it falls into just the same trap as The Fall of Hyperion. One should think Simmons had learned from his mistakes in that one, but nope. Once again an interesting book with a really fascinating concept turns into a drearily boring tale in the mid-sections, only to improve immensely towards the end. Except for the fabulous first book in the series, I’m starting to think this a pattern for all the books, but then again it might also just be that both book two and three suffer from a lengthy case of second book syndrome.

That said, I don’t think Dan Simmons knows how to write a bad book either, and this was definitely both an enjoyable and a thought-provoking read. And it sets things up perfectly for the last book, from which I am now expecting quite a lot.

3,5 / 5

Doscientos setenta y cuatro años desde la caída de Hyperion, la Hegemonía ha resurgido en una teocracia gobernada por Pax, una organización militar de la Iglesia católica. Aunque durante la Caída el cristianismo estaba en plena fase de extinción, gracias al cruciforme y su inmortalidad, hacen de Pax un poder en expansión. Pero estos temen la llegada de un nuevo mesías anunciado, Aenea, la hija del cibrido Keats y Brawne Lamia, que regresará de las Tumbas de Tiempo en Hyperion. A su vez, un joven pastor que se dedica al negocio de cazar patos, Raul Endymion, se embarcará en la misión de proteger a esta niña junto con el androide Bettik, para que pueda cumplir su destino.

Tercera parte de la descomunal tetralogía Los cantos de Hyperion de Dan Simmons, que trata de continuar y atar algunos cabos sueltos de las dos primeras novelas dándonos un salto temporal de 274 años, para mostrarnos las consecuencias de la caída de la Hegemonia, la situación de los exters y el Tecnonúcleo. Simmons sorprende de nuevo, utilizando en esta ocasión una narración desde dos puntos de vista, en la que uno puede ser el héroe y el otro el cazador que los persigue. Por un lado, tendremos la de Raúl Endymion, con un estilo más íntimo y sencillo, donde comparte con el lector sus pensamientos, temores, impresiones, hablándonos en pasado. Por el otro, el Padre capitán Federico de Soya, usando un tiempo presente y un estilo que conlleva mucha más acción.

Este volumen, al igual que ocurría con Hyperion en su momento, es la antesala de lo que vendrá en El ascenso de Endymion, como si se tratará de una gran introducción. La historia puede resultar muy clásica, el héroe trata de ayudar a la dama en apuros a cumplir su propósito mientras son perseguidos por todo el universo por su enemigo. Pero Simmons tiene la habilidad de hacer esto de forma hábil e interesante, cambiando de planetas sin parar (todos y cada uno de ellos con nuevas características y extrañas culturas) que no dejan de sorprender por la desbordante imaginación que implican. Tengo que reconocer que llega un momento en que peca de ser demasiado lineal y repetitiva, sabes que nuestros protagonistas llegarán a un nuevo emplazamiento y puedes discernir lo que va a ocurrir, pero el placer de descubrir un nuevo planeta y algunas de sus caracteristicas hace que sigas leyendo sin ninguna molestia.

En cuanto a personajes, se nos presenta un elenco totalmente renovado, pero que no carece de complejidad, atractivo y carisma; pero no faltarán multitud de personajes conocidos, como Martin Silenus o incluso el famoso Alcaudón, que, aunque no es centro argumental, sigue aportando ese granito de misterio y ferocidad con cada aparición. Nos sumerge de nuevo en una odisea por su universo aportándonos conocimiento sobre la situación que ha surgido tras la caída de la hegemonía, a través de mundos a cada cual más llamativo, como selvas inmensas, cavernas de hielo o desiertos abrasivos. Este prologo que se completará con El ascenso de Endymion, resulta una historia llena de acción y aventura, una especie de juego del gato y el ratón, una persecución continua que parece no tener fin y que en su tramo final es imparable. Tengo muchas ganas (y a la vez no) de ponerme con el último volumen de estos impresionantes Cantos de Hyperion y saber cómo Simmons se las ha ingeniado de nuevo para atar todos sus cabos y concluir su historia por todo lo alto.

Endymion es la tercera entrega de la saga de los cantos de hyperios del autor Dan Simmons. Aunque es la continuación de los anteriores libros del canto de hyperion, no es por así decirlo la continuación de la historia que conocemos de los anteriores libros. La historia transcurre casi tres siglos estándar después de lo ocurriendo en hyperion y con el Alcaudon, los personajes principales vienen a ser el mismo Endymion, quien al parecer siempre ha querido ser un héroe, aunque de momento sus objetivos no me parecieron muy claros, tal vez se involucro en todo esto por gratitud o solo porque no tenía nada más que hacer, en fin. El otro personaje es Aenea, la que enseña, ella es un misterio, si bien se responden muchas preguntas a lo largo del libro, siguen quedando muchas preguntas sin respuesta.
El libro en si es bueno, es el típico estilo de simmons que conocemos, pero esta vez pareciera que la historia es completamente lineal, lo que hace que sea más fácil la lectura, pero no por ello deja de ser algo denso, como todos sus libros sobre ciencia ficcion futurista. Si quieren empezar a leer a simmons o ciencia ficción, tal vez estos libros no sean la mejor primera opción, quizás después de unos cuantos libros de ficción autoconclusivos podrían animarse con esta saga.
Lo único que reparo de este libro es que me pareció que la historia no avanzo lo suficientemente rápido a mi gusto. Creo que se pudieron haber acortado capítulos y páginas si no hubiésemos dado tantas vueltas en lo mismo. Aún así lo recomiendo para los amantes de la ciencia ficción y quienes ya hayan leído los dos libros anteriores. Se que les gustará. Lo recomiendo al 100%.

First of all, I thought it was such a cool and almost unprecedented idea having the third book in this momentous series being so far ahead (270+ years) of the previous book, especially as it also allows as long a break as one wants parts two and three. So it's back to this utterly spellbinding reality where travel between worlds is enabled by the wondrous amalgamation of ancient alien portals and... waterways!

This book was never going to reach the heights of the previous two (because they were actually genius!) but alongside essentially a narrow almost linear drama between two opposing groups; what we do get is more of this lavishly and lovingly(?) created fictional far-future reality, more of it's ridiculously well conceived history, and ultimately more of the incomparable... what can be truly called, cosmos building from Simmons. I really like how he portrays how the core Earth religions have evolved in the far future. Want to find out how? Read the book :). If you loved Hyperion, truly loved it, you just can't miss out on reading the subsequent books; if you only liked Hyperion stick to the first two. Next... The Rise of Endymion :). A 9 out of 12, Four Star read.

2017 read