Endymion by Dan Simmons (3.5 stars)

Book three in the Hyperion Cantos, set 274 years after The Fall. Fans of Simmons waited 7 years from the publication of Fall of Hyperion before starting on this one. I waited 5 minutes, which made me hate the nauseating recaps at the start of the novel.

In the 274 years you missed, the Pax (the catholic church, with the offer of immortality in the form of the cruciform) has expanded its power. But really the most important thing is that Aenea is about to step out of the time tombs. Some people seemed to be disappointed that the novels weren't continuous in time, but to me this seemed the perfectly logical progression within the time concepts of the novel.

Silenius is his usual self and kicks off the quest for Raul:

...A youth, by heavenly power loved and led,
Shall stand before him, whom he shall direct
How to consummate all. The youth elect
Must do the thing, or both will be destroyed."
"What?" I said. "I don't ..."
"Fuck it," rasped the poet. "Just get Aenea, take her to the Ousters, and get her back alive. It's not too complicated. Even a shepherd should be able to do it."

Unfortunately Raul sucks. He just never gains any depth. He charges around with little to no clue, never questioning Aenea, never questioning why he's risking his own life, and is generally just an empty bodyguard character. He also makes a foreshadowed and super-creepy father-figure-to-lover transition with Aenea.

Aenea herself never steps out of the shadows, she's completely mysterious, never gives a straight answer, and is putting out sentences like this at age 12:

Did you know, Raul, that Pan was the allegorical precursor to Christ?

I guess she is the messiah...but in any case she just seemed like a really important object to be carried around. Simmons might as well have made her a cup or a sword to be delivered to a place at the right time to fulfill a prophesy.

So with characters like these we basically end up with a thinking man's action novel. The plot is a cross between Sliders and Terminator 2. The Core's comically powerful soldiers pursue Aenea through a series of portals to different worlds where they are confronted with various difficult scenarios: trapped in ice caves, whole worlds that look as if they have been completely deserted just hours before, etc. Whenever the Core (Nemes and friends) catches up, the Shrike, deus ex machina extraordinaire, is there to save the day. Raul even acknowledges this at one stage:

"Well," I said, "It provided a pretty convenient deus ex machina for us on Hyperion, so I just thought that if it could ..."

Having said that, Sliders and T2 are awesome, I enjoyed the ride :)

I'll leave you with a quirk and a criticism. As soon as I read the following passage, I knew Simmons was describing Falling Water:

The most noticeable features of the house were the thin roofs and rectangular terraces that seemed to hang out over the stream and waterfall as if defying gravity.

I guess Simmons is a massive FLW fan, but unlike the Keats references which seem pervasive and integral to the novel, this reference seems like a shout-out dumped in as an afterthought. We'll see how it plays out in the next book I guess.

One last thing Mr. Simmons, just because you do the research doesn't mean you need to put it in the novel. The descriptions of the art and rooms of the Vatican were deadly boring:

Room V explores the lives of the saints through fresco and statuary, yet has a stylized, inhuman feel to it, which de Soya associates with old pictures he has seen of Old Earth Egyptian art. Room VI, the Pope's dining room...

3.5 stars