Of the four books in the Hyperion Cantos, Endymion may be the least of the litter. Since Dan Simmons is the author, that still makes for a darn good book.
Endymion picks up some time after the events of Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion. In those two books, humanity and AI had forged an alliance allowing humans, via Farcasting, to instantaneously travel and communicate across vast stretches of space. However, the alliance was a sham and the characters of Hyperion brought about the downfall of those technologies and the interplanetary capabilities they supported.
Fast forward two hundred and seventy four years. The known galaxy is in the grip of a resurrected Roman Catholic Church. Humans can literally receive a sacrament of resurrection. Although not without cost, the sacrament is repeatable, and thus real death is mostly unknown in this current age. Farcasting is still busted, but slower than light travel is in use. To put it mildly, Simmons’ Catholic Church is pure evil.
On the planet Hyperion, the old poet Martin Silenus (yes the one from the first book Hyperion) enlists the aid of a young, poor, local hunter, named Raul Endymion. Endymion is to protect the timetraveling child Aenea, daughter of another pair of characters from the Hyperion books. It is Silenus’ vision that Aenea bring about the downfall of the Church, allowing him to write the conclusion of his Cantos. The only aid Silenus provides Endymion is an android assistant and an intelligent spaceship.
The Church however is aware of Aenea’s forthcoming presence and sets out to eliminate her. Thus begins a long chase, the mighty forces of the Church desperately seeking a barely pubescent girl, her somewhat slow, backwater bodyguard, and a blue faux human.
The odds are not in favor of the good guys.
Through Aenea’s power to resuscitate Farcaster portals, Endymion and Aenea lead the hunt across a dizzying array of planets. Simmons has a gift for making each stop a unique tale unto itself. Yet each contributes into an increasingly ugly picture of the horror that the Church is perpetrating. Behind them follows the devout Father-Captain De Soya in a ship that kills its occupants to achieve faster than light transport. Such are the possibilities when resurrection is possible. Yet despite the vast resources of the Church, at every turn De Soya just misses snatching our heroes.
I’ve written earlier about Endymion’s sequel The Rise of Endymion and how excellent it was. Endymion only suffers through comparison to its sibling and its predecessors. The Rise of Endymion has the advantage of the grand climax. Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion have the benefit of being much more literary, and of course being first. Many of the negative reviews I’ve read are simple dissatisfaction that Endymion is not Hyperion.
But on its own merits Endymion is a really good book. Looking back from a distance, I appreciate the mysteries and conundrums that Simmons set up. The time put into Endymion’s characters makes the final payoff that much more bittersweet. For 2008, Simmons character building is probably the best in any of the books I read. Gaiman may give him a run for the money, but no one else even comes close. Be warned though, if you’re a devout Catholic or other Christian, you may be turned off by his extremely dark vision of organized religion. Other than that caveat I can highly recommend Endymion.