# The Rise of Endymion

![Book cover of The Rise of Endymion](/books/covers/the_rise_of_endymion.jpg)

by [Dan Simmons](/books/authors/dan_simmons/)
Book 4 of [Hyperion Cantos](/books/series/hyperion_cantos/)
Awards: [Locus](/books/by-award/#locus-award)
★★★☆☆

## Review

_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.

### Themes

_The Rise of Endymion_ breaks from the past three books in the the [_Hyperion Cantos_](/books/series/hyperion_cantos/) in
that it is not named and themed after one of Keats's
works. Instead, it mirrors Keats's life. Aenea is a Keats stand-in who, like the poet, knows her time is short and
rushes to complete her life's work of helping people understand the world and
become empathetic. Her philosophy and interaction with the Void Which Binds
embody his concept of the _Chameleon Poet_, allowing everyone to feel what
others feel.

Aenea is _also_ a Christ-like figure, a point Simmons
drives home when he has her explain that Christ was the first human able to
touch the Void. Like the Christian Eucharist, Aenea's disciples drink her
blood to achieve communion. But Simmons makes the
theological subtext text: the blood contains viral RNA that rewrites their
DNA, granting them the ability to touch the Void and literally share the
perspective of others.

This messianic arc is reminiscent of Severian in [Wolfe](/books/authors/gene_wolfe/)'s [_The Book of the New Sun_](/books/series/the_book_of_the_new_sun/) and especially [_The Urth of the New Sun_](/books/the_urth_of_the_new_sun/), another torture-linked
savior who must bring destruction to save the world. And it is the inverse of
[Miller](/books/authors/walter_m_miller_jr/)'s [_A Canticle for Leibowitz_](/books/a_canticle_for_leibowitz/); instead of the church
being the ark of humanity to protect it from the deluge, the Pax is the
stagnation the must be wiped out by the flood.

### Story

I liked this book about the same as [_Endymion_](/books/endymion/), but the pacing was worse.
The first third jumps back and forth from cliffhanger to cliffhanger, while
the middle third on T'ien Shan drags as it spends 300 pages in one place,
following Aenea as she preaches to her disciples. The book is saved by a
climax that wraps up the series and explains more mysteries from the first
three books, just as [_The Fall of Hyperion_](/books/the_fall_of_hyperion/) does for [_Hyperion_](/books/hyperion/).

I still didn't like Raul or Aenea, although their relationship was a little
better this time around. But the supporting characters---A. Bettik, Federico
de Soya, Kassad---are great, even if Bettik gets sidelined for most of the
book only to show up at the end as the observer for the other powers of the
Void.

### Literary References

As in his previous works, Simmons fills _The Rise of Endymion_
with references to science fiction and popular culture. He directly compares
Aenea and Raul to Scout and Boo Radley from Lee's _To Kill a Mockingbird_. One of the crops of Mars is "Bradberries" in honor
of Bradbury and his _The Martian Chronicles_. The triune
marriages of the Amoiete Spectrum Helix are like the non-traditional marriages
from [Heinlein](/books/authors/robert_a_heinlein/)'s [_The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress_](/books/the_moon_is_a_harsh_mistress/); their
windwagons remind me of the wind-powered cable cars in [Banks](/books/authors/iain_m_banks/)'s
[_Look to Windward_](/books/look_to_windward/). The linear city is like the girdle city in [_The Hydrogen Sonata_](/books/the_hydrogen_sonata/). When Raul kayaked through the canals of Lusus
surrounded by massive hive buildings, it reminded me of [Williams](/books/authors/walter_jon_williams/)'s [_City on Fire_](/books/city_on_fire/). Exploring the next step in human evolution is similar
to [Clarke](/books/authors/arthur_c_clarke/)'s [_Childhood's End_](/books/childhoods_end/). The need to splinter humanity
and scatter them across the universe to prevent stagnation is like the Golden
Path from Herbert's _Dune_, _Dune Messiah_, and _Children of Dune_, with Aenea playing the role of Leto II. The Void, as an
alternate dimension that allows instant travel and reflects the minds of
people in the universe, is similar to Unspace in [Tchaikovsky](/books/authors/adrian_tchaikovsky/)'s
[_The Final Architecture_](/books/series/the_final_architecture/). The biological Ousters fighting the
technology-centric Core is like the conflict in [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/).

### The Author

Dan Simmons has been a mystery to me while reading the [_Hyperion Cantos_](/books/series/hyperion_cantos/). I
know he's now known for his far-right views, and so I've looked for the seeds
of them in his work.

At first glance, they are hard to find. The books feature a multicultural
cast, there are gay characters in the background, and the thesis of _The Rise of Endymion_ is that diversity is our strength. Fedmahn Kassad, a Palestinian,
is a hero in the series.

But on closer inspection, the seeds are there. There's an uncomfortable
obsession with the sexuality of young girls. There's his throwaway comment
about "Welfare Queens" in this book. And even with Kassad, there is a hint
that he has distinguished himself as a "good Muslim" by accepting the
civilizing influence of the Hegemony and replacing his religion with the
secular New Bushido code, in contrast to the Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims of
Qom-Riyadh who go back to slaughtering each other as soon as the empire is
distracted.

I don't think I will read any more of Simmons's
work. I hear _Ilium_ and _Olympos_ take the anti-Muslim stance to
another level, and that _Flashback_ is a right-wing screed against a
barely disguised Obama. In some ways it is easier to support an artist who is
a horrible person---like Asimov or [Clarke](/books/authors/arthur_c_clarke/)---after they're dead. I won't read J. K. Rowling because supporting her
gives her more money and power to attack my trans friends, and I feel the same
about Simmons.

## Reviews that mention _The Rise of Endymion_
- [_Endymion_](/books/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/)†
- [_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.
- [_Endymion_](/books/endymion/) by [Dan Simmons](/books/authors/dan_simmons/) --- ★★★☆☆: 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.