# Endymion

![Book cover of Endymion](/books/covers/endymion.jpg)

by [Dan Simmons](/books/authors/dan_simmons/)
Book 3 of [Hyperion Cantos](/books/series/hyperion_cantos/)
★★★☆☆

## Review

_Endymion_, by Dan Simmons,
is the third book in the _Hyperion Cantos_. It follows a
new cast of characters---Aenea, Raul, and Bettik---as they flee the oppressive
forces of the Pax via a raft on the River Tethys. Set centuries after the
earlier books, the story reveals a galaxy reshaped by the Church and its dark
covenant of immortality.

Simmons's [_Hyperion_](/books/hyperion/) and [_The Fall of Hyperion_](/books/the_fall_of_hyperion/)
model their plots and themes on John Keats's _Hyperion_ and _The Fall of Hyperion_. _Endymion_ follows suit, taking its inspiration from Keats's poem of the same name. It is the story of the
mortal shepherd Endymion, who falls in love with the moon goddess Cynthia.
This relationship shapes both works.

### Themes

One of the main themes of Keats's _Endymion_ is the pairing of the
mortal and the immortal, the earthly and the divine, and we see those same
pairings in Simmons's _Endymion_ as well.
Aenea is a messianic figure, a mix of humanity and the divine. The coming
Teilhardian human god, created from humanity evolving to godhood, is the same.
By contrast, the Pax has given up on the divine and turned to technology,
granting immortality through the cruciform parasite instead of true spiritual
immortality. Just as in [_Hyperion_](/books/hyperion/) and [_The Fall of Hyperion_](/books/the_fall_of_hyperion/), things must
"die into life", but the Pax, like the Hegemony before it, has refused death
and chosen stagnation.

The story in _Endymion_ follows the structure of Endymion's journey in
the poem, with Raul visiting the underworld (the ice cave of
Sol Draconi Septem) and the ocean floor (Mare Infinitus), and meeting
[Glaucus][glaucus]. It is influenced by other literature as well. The raft
voyage itself comes from Mark Twain's _Adventures of Huckleberry Finn_, with the formerly
enslaved android Bettik standing in as a Jim figure. Simmons, as he has done throughout the series, also likens his characters to those
from Baum's _The Wonderful Wizard of Oz_.

[glaucus]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glaucus

### Story

There was a lot I enjoyed in _Endymion_. The nominal antagonist, Federico
de Soya, is sympathetic even as he works against the heroes. His slow
realization that the Pax isn't the salvation of humanity he thought it was is
haunting. The pacing, once the real antagonist---Rhadamanth Nemes---is
revealed, is excellent, and I couldn't stop turning the pages. The additional
worldbuilding, showing how the universe has changed in 300 years, is also
really interesting, especially how humanity reacts to true resurrection and
the horrifying technology it enables. The freed android Bettik is another
great character: searching for his family, unwaveringly loyal and competent,
and unfortunately underutilized.

But for all that, this book is good, not great. The pacing is too slow
overall: Nemes isn't even introduced until the last quarter. Raul and Aenea
are both annoying---Raul because he spends most of the narrative passive, and
then screws things up when he finally acts; Aenea because she is supposed to
be a mix of an immature twelve-year-old and an all-knowing messiah, but
instead comes off as flipping back and forth between the two. Further, she
keeps talking about how she and Raul will someday be lovers, which is
uncomfortable given how young she is, and so Simmons has to
keep throwing in awkward narrator notes reminding us that Raul is not a
pedophile and does not find her attractive. At the same time, Simmons makes winking allusions to Vladimir Nabokov and _Lolita_.

### Literary References

Simmons always includes a lot of references to literature
and pop culture in his [_Hyperion Cantos_](/books/series/hyperion_cantos/), and this book is no exception. Some
of these influences are structural. The raft voyage, as mentioned, is like
Huck and Jim's trip down the Mississippi in _Adventures of Huckleberry Finn_. Raul as narrator,
writing the story of his and Aenea's lives with authorial interjections, is
like Severian writing his story in [Wolfe](/books/authors/gene_wolfe/)'s [_The Book of the New Sun_](/books/series/the_book_of_the_new_sun/). Nemes's
use of monofilament wire to slice the raft in half is a direct reference to a
trap used in [Brunner](/books/authors/john_brunner/)'s [_Stand on Zanzibar_](/books/stand_on_zanzibar/), and later reused
in Liu's [_The Three-Body Problem_](/books/the_three_body_problem/). Nemes herself is also clearly modeled
on the T-1000 from _Terminator 2: Judgment Day_: a chrome, shapeshifting, time-traveling
assassin sent by a machine intelligence to kill a messianic child, and
defeated only after being sunk into molten rock when the previous
assassin-turned-bodyguard, the Shrike, fails to stop her in single combat.

Beyond those major influences, there are also smaller moments that reminded me
of other works I've read. The Pax is similar to Gilead from Atwood's _The Handmaid's Tale_. Its ban on AI is like the Butlerian
Jihad from Herbert's _Dune_. The Swiss Guard in power armor
acts like the Mobile Infantry in [Heinlein](/books/authors/robert_a_heinlein/)'s _Starship Troopers_. The Schrödinger's Cat Box execution method reminded me of the unorthodox
execution used on Horza in [Banks](/books/authors/iain_m_banks/)'s [_Consider Phlebas_](/books/consider_phlebas/). I
loved that androids have "Asimotivation", modeled after Asimov's
Three Laws from _I, Robot_. The river journey felt like Ozzy's trip with
the Silfen in [_Pandora's Star_](/books/pandoras_star/) and [_Judas Unchained_](/books/judas_unchained/). The A. and M.
honorifics to indicate species were similar to the hand gestures used to
indicate pronouns in [Alex](/books/authors/a_n_alex/)'s [_A Mote in Shadow_](/books/a_mote_in_shadow/). Being trapped in the ice
cave reminded me of being trapped in the nautilus in Langton's
_The Diamond in the Window_. The time-travel-based love story is similar to [El-Mohtar](/books/authors/amal_el-mohtar/) and [Gladstone](/books/authors/max_gladstone/)'s [_This Is How You Lose the Time War_](/books/this_is_how_you_lose_the_time_war/).

I was tempted to take a break before tackling [_The Rise of Endymion_](/books/the_rise_of_endymion/), which is
even longer than this book, but instead I decided to pick it up immediately
after finishing. I'm a few chapters into it as I write this review, and I can
already tell it's going to be a struggle. Wish me luck!

## Reviews that mention _Endymion_
- [_The Fall of Hyperion_](/books/the_fall_of_hyperion/)
- [_Hyperion_](/books/hyperion/)
- [_Monday Begins on Saturday_](/books/monday_begins_on_saturday/)†
- [_The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress_](/books/the_moon_is_a_harsh_mistress/)†
- [_The Rise of Endymion_](/books/the_rise_of_endymion/)
- [_Sunstone Imperative_](/books/sunstone_imperative/)
- [_This Is How You Lose the Time War_](/books/this_is_how_you_lose_the_time_war/)

† _Mentioned via a link to the series._

## Related Books
- [_Hyperion_](/books/hyperion/) by [Dan Simmons](/books/authors/dan_simmons/) --- ★★★★★: Hyperion is Dan Simmons’s masterpiece. It is the first book in his Hyperion Cantos. It follows seven pilgrims as they travel to the Time Tombs on Hyperion to petition the Shrike. Along the way, each tells their own story, weaving together history, myth, and prophecy to tell of the impending downfall of man.
- [_The Fall of Hyperion_](/books/the_fall_of_hyperion/) by [Dan Simmons](/books/authors/dan_simmons/) --- ★★★★★: The Fall of Hyperion, by Dan Simmons, is the second book in the Hyperion Cantos, but really it’s the second half of Hyperion. It brings the seven pilgrims’ story to an end and depicts the war between the TechnoCore, the Ousters, and the Hegemony.
- [_The Rise of Endymion_](/books/the_rise_of_endymion/) by [Dan Simmons](/books/authors/dan_simmons/) --- ★★★☆☆: The Rise of Endymion, by Dan Simmons, is the fourth and final book in the Hyperion Cantos. It concludes the journey of Aenea and Raul as they race to unlock the secret of the Void Which Binds before the Pax can silence them. It resolves the mysteries of the Shrike and the TechnoCore while arguing that the Church’s immortality is a trap: to truly live, humanity must be willing to die.