Chronicles of Kanjisheik

Book 1: Endymion
Book 2: The Rise of Endymion

It's about 250 years after the events of The Fall of Hyperion. The book begins with the hero, Raul Endymion, a prisoner in an unusual execution device, writing how he became the bodyguard of the One Who Teaches, the messiah foretold at the end of The Fall of Hyperion, who is a twelve-year-old girl (at least at the start of this story). His tale starts as a native guide to off-world hunters on the planet Hyperion and then transforms into a travelogue and chase through several worlds of the old Hegemony.

Endymion is probably the weakest book of the tetralogy. While some plots were left dangling for a sequel, Endymion feels a bit rushed at times and Dan Simmons engages in reinterpreting the past story. It's also a less interesting story because it doesn't have the storytelling brilliance of Hyperion or the enormous sweep of The Fall of Hyperion. It is mostly a travelogue; as a result, how much you enjoy the book is likely to have a lot to do with how interesting you find the exploration of the various worlds of the old Hegemony.

There is a larger plot, though. Endymion introduces the Pax- the revamped Catholic Church- the new "government" that has taken over after the conclusion of The Fall of Hyperion and now dominates mankind far more than the Hegemony ever did. Half the book is told from the perspective of Raul Endymion and the other half from the perspective of a priest of the Pax who is chasing Raul and Aenea, and I thought that the Pax sections were the strongest of the book. The Pax government is chilling but believable given their technology, and for most of the book Simmons does a good job slowly building a picture of their nature and motives.

Much of the trouble with Endymion is that it's a bridge book. It's trying to take the world of a mostly completed space opera story and prepare it as a backdrop in which to tell a very different story about religion, belief, and messiahs. Accordingly, it is neither chalk nor cheese, ends up feeling occasionally forced, and leaves one with the feeling that not a lot really happened. The Rise of Endymion is the real payoff to this story, and Endymion serves primarily to get the reader to the point where that story can be told. But I still did like it, largely due to the enjoyable conversation with the ancient poet Martin Silenus at the beginning of it, the Pax portions of the book, and Aenea.

The Rise of Endymion completes the transition begun in Endymion and takes the story in a totally different direction. This is defintiely not a story about interstellar governments or space battles, although both do feature in it. Rather, it is the gospel of a messiah of empathic humanism, set against the backdrop of a space opera universe. If you're not comfortable with the idea of love being a fundamental force of the universe and with the science and technology being backgrounded into a supporting role for the symbology that Simmons is trying to create, you may not like this book.

The symbology impressed me a great deal. Countering the Old Testament world of politics, war, vengeance, and collapse found in Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion, Aenea's philosophy focuses on individuals and their relationships, on trust, communities, forgiveness, redemption, and non-violent resistance. The story is told in the form of a first-person account written by her companion and lover, and Catholic and Christian imagery is used extensively throughout. The traditional form of Church rituals are a centerpiece of the Pax church, which lays claim to Catholic tradition while underneath is an exercise in cynical technology. Aenea's rituals are superficially ways of interacting with physical laws and science, but take on the form of those same Christian rituals, redeeming them for something closer to their spiritual purpose.

The messiah Aenea's life and teaching methods parallel the stories of Jesus, making similar moral points and frequently producing echos that will cause the reader to nod in recognition. However, Aenea has the advantage of having a spirituality that can produce obvious and measurable effects on the world, and Dan Simmons uses this to change the moral struggle from one of faith to the choice between safe, controlled, and artificial existence and uncontrolled, dangerous, and dynamic life, a leap of faith of a very different and more humanist kind.

Aenea is one of my favorite fictional characters, and that's an amazing feat for a character who is cast in the role of messiah, carrying with it both foreknowledge and near-infallibility. Throughout the story she exudes an enthusiastic joy and love of life that's infectious and delightful to read. She also has the best two-word mission statement of any religious figure I've read about.

This series is one of the most marvellous ones I've read. Together with the Hyperion Omnibus, these 4 books probably rank among the all time greats of SF writing. Dan Simmons rocks!!! And the ending packs a huge emotional punch... Worth a 9.5 on 10.