Endymion

From LeoWiki

Score	Title	Author	Genre
8.2	Endymion	Dan Simmons	Space Opera

Technophilia	7
Secularity	9
Quality	9
Xenophilia	9
Personal Tilt	7

The supremacy of Christianity has been assured with a cross-shaped parasite that resusrects its host as soon as possible after the host's death. The Church keeps its secret resurrection rites to itself; on automatic, the crucifix resurrects its host sexless and dumb. One has to choose between immortality and non-Christianity.

A village oaf by the name of Raul Endymion is recruited from death row as a bodyguard for Aenea, a twelve-year-old messiah, from the moment her time journey ends and she steps into the brave new future.

In this task, they are hounded by Father-Captain de Soto in whom is vested the full authority of Pope Julius XIV and the Pax galactic government. The Core AI collective, the deadly Shrike creature, and the Ouster settlers from between the stars act as wildcards.

Unlike the two Hyperion books, Endymion does not seek to imitate the Canterbury Tales. This is a mixed blessing -- both of the two intertwined stories are actually interesting and relevant, but a cool stylistic element is missing.

Endymion's weakness lies in its action scenes. On a scale of 0 to 10, 0 being a Star Wars novel and 10 being Mieville's The Scar, I give Endymion a 3.

The encounter between the Swiss Guard and the Shrike is fairly decent. Simmons first builds up the greatness of the Guard and then has the Shrike go totally Neo on them. Heh. None of the others are particularly plausible. I didn't like the bluff or the naval escapades or the ice world stuff or the Terminator 3 finale.

Part of the problem is that Raul Endymion isn't remarkable in any way I could discern. He's not particularly skilled or talented. There is no reason for Fortuna to smile on him other than his relationship with the messiah. Meh.

I enjoyed Endymion and plan on getting the sequel.

See Also

• Hyperion
• Fall of Hyperion
• Endymion
• Rise of Endymion