| SF Reviews by Aaron M. Renn | By Author - By Title - By Date Reviewed |
Conclusion: Recommended
I finally got around to checking out the two sequel volumes to the Hyperion novel. These somewhat follow the traditional form of epic sequels. Namely, we get to discover that much of what we thought we found out in the Hyperion duology was not correct and that there is actually a higher order explanation going on. Again, not everything is resolved at the end.
Fast forwarding a couple hundred years from Hyperion, we find a galaxy recovering from the destruction of the farcasters and fatline. An ascendant Catholic church is now in charge, this new hegemony enforced by its military Pax arm. Despite being limited to Hawking drive FTL rather than instantaneous farcaster, the Pax has managed to set up quite an empire. Much of this is due to their control of resurrection technology. The church found a way to harness the power of the Hyperion cruciforms to provide for life after death - an unlimited number of lives in fact.
Raul Endymion is a minor nobody on planet Hyperion until rescued from certain death by poet Martin Selenius of Hyperion quest fame. Martin charges Endymion with guarding one Aenea, the prophesied One Who Teaches who will rescue humanity from all sorts of evil things that Martin is sure lurks right around the corner.
Sure enough, Martin isn't the only one who knows that Aenea will soon be emerging from the Sphinx time tomb. The Church also knows it and is determined to see that she is captured.
The first book in this series is basically the tale of Raul and Aenea as they try mightily to avoid the clutches of the Church and Pax. We also get to pick up new tidbits about this higher order reality of the universe as well as explore a few more of the old worlds of the former Hegemony. The second books uncovers more of the mystery (unfortunately all too frequently through the device of outright lecture) and brings the matter to a head.
Hyperion, with its Canterbury Tales like story of pilgrims, was one of the most refreshing SF novels I've read. The Fall of Hyperion was quite a different book, but still enjoyable. This series is a little more what I would call standard science fiction. Or to be more precise, science fantasy. To an even greater degree than the first novels, these descend into rampant mysticism. A lot of the "harrowing escape" episodes were rather so-so, and considering the large number of them, particularly in the first book, I figured I would not like it. But I found them very enjoyable reads. I did not want to stop reading them. Despite the length of these two books, I probably wouldn't mind having read a third. I tend to like good mysteries, and these two definitely kept me turning the pages to find out what is really going on with the universe.
These books are a notch down from Hyperion, but still pretty good, especially for a sequel.
%A Simmons, Dan %T Endymion %I Bantam Spectra %D 1996-12 (original publication 1996-01) %G ISBN 0-553-57294-6 %P 563 pp. %O mass market paperback, US$5.99
%A Simmons, Dan %T The Rise of Endymion %I Bantam Spectra %D 1998-07 (original publication 1997-09) %G ISBN 0-553-57298-9 %P 709 pp. %O mass market paperback, US$6.50
Reviewed on 2002-12-30
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