Rise Of Endymion
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''The Rise of Endymion'' is a 1997
science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...
novel by American writer
Dan Simmons Dan Simmons (born April 4, 1948) is an American science fiction and horror writer. He is the author of the Hyperion Cantos and the Ilium/Olympos cycles, among other works that span the science fiction, horror, and fantasy genres, sometimes ...
. It is the fourth and final novel in his ''
Hyperion Cantos The ''Hyperion Cantos'' is a series of science fiction novels by Dan Simmons. The title was originally used for the collection of the first pair of books in the series, '' Hyperion'' and '' The Fall of Hyperion'', and later came to refer to the ...
'' fictional universe. It won the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, and was nominated for the
Hugo Award The Hugo Award is an annual literary award for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year, given at the World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) and chosen by its members. The award is administered by th ...
for Best Novel in 1998.


Plot


Premise

''The Rise of Endymion'' is set more than 275 years after the fall of the Hegemony of Man, an interstellar organization connected by farcaster portals. At the time of this novel, the Roman Catholic Church has formed the Pax, an administrative entity that formalizes the Church's control and implements a
theocracy Theocracy is a form of autocracy or oligarchy in which one or more deity, deities are recognized as supreme ruling authorities, giving divine guidance to human intermediaries, with executive and legislative power, who manage the government's ...
. The Church and the Pax have secretly been collaborating with representatives of the TechnoCore. The Core provides the Church with cruciforms, which allow humans to be resurrected and gain functional immortality. However, the TechnoCore fears that Aenea, daughter of a human being and a TechnoCore intelligence, will destroy their hold on 31st-century society. The world Hyperion has been assimilated into the Pax. However, other worlds resist Pax control, with independence movements springing up on worlds with different religious and philosophical traditions.


Summary

Raul is still imprisoned and writing his memoirs of his time with Aenea. On Pacem, Lenar Hoyt (now known as Pope Urban XVI) announces a new
Crusade The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding t ...
against the Ousters. Father de Soya finds the murder of Ouster children unconscionable, and he mutinies. On Old Earth, Aenea becomes a teacher, instructing others about "the Void which Binds". When she is sixteen, Aenea tells Raul to leave Earth and retrieve the Consul's ship. On God's Grove, three cyborgs retrieve Radamanth Nemes. The four almost catch up with Raul, but they are intercepted by the Shrike. Raul finds the Consul's ship. Travel to the
Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...
planet T'ien Shan creates a 5-year time debt, and Aenea is 21 when she and Raul reunite. On T'ien Shan, Raul becomes Aenea's lover. Aenea reveals that many people on the planets she has visited have taken communion from her. People who take this communion undergo several changes due to the virus she carries, including gaining the ability to access the Void which Binds and losing the ability to carry a cruciform. Aenea tells Raul that during their separation, she married someone and had a child; they lived together for two years. Raul is heartbroken. Aenea transfers the Consul's ship away from T'ien Shan through freecasting, using the Void to travel without a portal. They travel to an Ouster
Dyson Sphere A Dyson sphere is a hypothetical megastructure that encompasses a star and captures a large percentage of its power output. The concept is a thought experiment that attempts to imagine how a spacefaring civilization would meet its energy re ...
. There Raul meets Het Masteen and Fedmahn Kassad, two of the Hyperion pilgrims who had died in alternate timelines. Raul learns the truth about the cruciforms. The resurrection uses energy from The Void, causing irreparable damage to the Void. The Core murders humans whenever they need more neural processing power. Pax troops arrive in the Biosphere, committing genocide on an unprecedented level. Aenea, Raul, many other humans, and the Shrike escape on a treeship captained by Het Masteen. Aenea freecasts to many star systems, dropping off passengers who will continue spreading her communion. The ship is destroyed, and the Shrike returns Masteen to his original timeline. On Pacem, Aenea confronts Urban; she and Raul are arrested. Raul is placed in the Schrödinger cat box, from which he has been narrating the previous two books. Aenea is tortured by Nemes. Lourdusamy rebels against the Core and burns Aenea to death. Raul completes his memoirs and escapes the cat box by freecasting. At the moment of her death, Aenea's thoughts were broadcast to most of humanity through the Void, creating a widespread rebellion against the Pax and the TechnoCore. Raul travels to Earth, where he meets Aenea. Raul discovers that he is the man with whom Aenea had a child. They will have two years together before she returns to the past. Aenea tells Raul that she hasn't looked into the future for the coming two years, and that these two years can be an eternity for them.


Characters

* Aenea, often described as a
messiah In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; , ; , ; ) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of '' mashiach'', messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a ''mashiach ...
, is a young woman who is the daughter of a human, Brawne Lamia, and an artificial intelligence persona of
John Keats John Keats (31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821) was an English poet of the second generation of Romantic poets, along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. His poems had been in publication for less than four years when he died of tub ...
. She becomes a teacher and a semi-religious figure. She becomes a martyr and catalyst for the destruction of the Pax. * Raul Endymion. Previously a nomadic shepherd on Hyperion, he was enlisted into Aenea's service by Martin Silenus. Endymion becomes Aenea's love interest. * Father Captain Federico de Soya. De Soya is a Pax Fleet officer and Catholic priest who attempted to capture Aenea in the novel ''
Endymion Endymion primarily refers to: * Endymion (mythology), an Ancient Greek shepherd * ''Endymion'' (poem), by John Keats Endymion may also refer to: Fictional characters * Prince Endymion, a character in the ''Sailor Moon'' anime franchise * Ra ...
''. After saving her life, de Soya was exiled to MadredeDios and stripped of his command, but is called back into service at the beginning of this novel. He mutinies again after witnessing atrocities committed by the Pax Fleet and renounces the cruciform. * A. Bettik, an
android Android most commonly refers to: *Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human * Android (operating system), a mobile operating system primarily developed by Google * Android TV, a operating system developed ...
. Born several hundred years before the Fall of the Farcasters in the 29th century, Bettik was a laborer on Hyperion for centuries. He then worked for Martin Silenus. Befriended by Raul, he has accompanied Aenea on their journey. At the conclusion he is revealed to be an observer from an otherwise undescribed advanced alien race that also utilizes The Void Which Binds.


Church and Pax figures

* Cardinal Simon Augustino Lourdusamy, a prelate and the Vatican's Secretary of State, is the effective head of the Catholic Church and the dominant force behind Pope Urban XVI. Lourdusamy masterminds the search for Aenea and plans the crusade against the Ousters with Urban's approval. * Father Lenar Hoyt. A central character in '' Hyperion'', Hoyt was one of the last pilgrims to Hyperion and wears both his cruciform and that of Father Paul Duré. Hoyt has served as Pope multiple times after the Fall of the Farcasters, and reigns as Urban XVI at the time of the novel. * Cardinal John Domenico Mustafa. The Grand Inquisitor of the
Holy Office The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) is a department of the Roman Curia in charge of the religious discipline of the Catholic Church. The Dicastery is the oldest among the departments of the Roman Curia. Its seat is the Palace o ...
, he is among the most powerful Cardinals and is not a close ally of Lourdusamy's faction. He personally investigates the Shrike's massacres on Mars and is the Church's direct representative throughout the search for Aenea on T'ien Shan. He confronts TechnoCore forces twice during the novel; he is wounded by Nemes the first time and murdered by Albedo the next. * Kenzo Isozaki is the CEO of the Pax Mercantilus, a Church-recognized super-corporation, and considered to be almost as powerful as Cardinal Lourdusamy. He schemes against the Church leadership throughout the novel and is subsequently relegated to the titular command of an anti-Ouster crusade. At the end of the novel, Isozaki takes control of Pacem, driving out TechnoCore forces, and establishes a provisional democracy on the planet. * Admiral Marget Wu. The temporary commander of Pax Fleet, Wu plays a supporting role in the novel and is murdered by the Nemes clones on T'ien Shan. * Rhadamanth
Nemes Nemes () consisted of pieces of striped head cloth worn by pharaohs in ancient Egypt. It covered the whole crown and behind of the head and nape of the neck (sometimes also extending a little way down the back) and had lappets, two large flaps ...
, the Core-created robot who acts as a guard for the Vatican and who hunts Aenea. She has three siblings:
Scylla In Greek mythology, Scylla ( ; , ) is a legendary, man-eating monster that lives on one side of a narrow channel of water, opposite her counterpart, the sea-swallowing monster Charybdis. The two sides of the strait are within an arrow's range o ...
, Gyges, and
Briareus In Greek mythology, the Hecatoncheires (), also called Hundred-Handers or Centimanes (; ), were three monstrous giants, of enormous size and strength, each with fifty heads and one hundred arms. They were individually named Cottus (the furious), ...
.


Reception and awards

The novel's critical reception was moderately positive. ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' referred to the entire series as "one of the finest achievements of modern science fiction" and praised the novel's epic scope, worldbuilding, and serious exploration of the relationship between science and religion. ''
Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...
'' praised its action sequences, but criticized its overly complex plot and Aenea's unclear explanation of her purpose. Other reviews criticized it for having too much exposition and too little plot, while acknowledging the author's creativity. The novel won the 1998
Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel The Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel is one of the annual Locus Awards presented by the science fiction and fantasy magazine Locus (magazine), ''Locus''. Awards presented in a given year are for works published in the previous calendar ...
and was nominated for the 1998
Hugo Award for Best Novel The Hugo Award for Best Novel is one of the Hugo Awards given each year by the World Science Fiction Society for science fiction or fantasy stories published in, or translated to, English during the previous calendar year. The novel award is ava ...
.


References


External links


The Rise of Endymion
at Worlds Without End
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rise Of Endymion
Hyperion Cantos The ''Hyperion Cantos'' is a series of science fiction novels by Dan Simmons. The title was originally used for the collection of the first pair of books in the series, '' Hyperion'' and '' The Fall of Hyperion'', and later came to refer to the ...
Hyperion Cantos The ''Hyperion Cantos'' is a series of science fiction novels by Dan Simmons. The title was originally used for the collection of the first pair of books in the series, '' Hyperion'' and '' The Fall of Hyperion'', and later came to refer to the ...
1997 American novels 1997 science fiction novels American science fiction novels Novels by Dan Simmons Novels set in Rome Religion in science fiction Bantam Books books Novels set on fictional planets Locus Award–winning works