Endymion (Hyperion Cantos)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Endymion | |
 |
|
| Author | Dan Simmons |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Hyperion Cantos |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction novel |
| Publisher | Headline Book Publishing |
| Publication date | February 1996 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 441 pp (first edition, hardback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-7472-0525-6 (first edition, hardback) |
| Preceded by | The Fall of Hyperion |
| Followed by | The Rise of Endymion |
Endymion is the third science fiction novel by Dan Simmons in his Hyperion Cantos fictional universe. Centered around the new characters Aenea and Endymion, it has been as well received as Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion - within a year of its release, the paperback edition had gone through five reprints [1]. The novel was nominated for the 1996 British Fantasy Award [2].
Contents |
[edit] Plot summary
[edit] Background
The story opens 274 years after the Fall of Hyperion. Meina Gladstone, the Hegemony CEO, knew that the real menace for mankind were not the Ousters, but the TechnoCore. She also knew that the TechnoCore was hidden in the singularities between the farcasters. Gladstone ordered the destruction of all the farcasters, and tried to detonate a "deathwand device" within the fabric of the farcaster network in hopes of destroying the Core. In so doing, she destroyed the WorldWeb and all of the previous interstellar institutions of humankind.
Brawne Lamia, Martin Silenus and the Consul were the only surviving Pilgrims that stayed at Hyperion at that moment. The Consul left shortly and joined the Ousters and learned from them. It is uncertain what was his fate. Brawne Lamia, pregnant from the first John Keats technological reincarnation, gave birth shortly after to a daughter called Aenea. Lamia died when Aenea was still a girl, and Silenus took care of the child. When Aenea was twelve years old, she entered the "Time Tomb" and disappeared.
Father Paul Duré was the only pilgrim not in Hyperion. Before the fall, he had farcasted to Pacem, the dying Catholic Church's planet, and had been elected as the new Pope, under the name of Teilhard (a reference to Teilhard de Chardin). His papacy was determinant to rejuvenate the Church. When he died unexpectedly, he was reincarnated as Lenar Hoyt, due to the remaining unremoved cruciform that he had in his body.
With Lenar Hoyt as the new Pope, with the help of Cardinal Lourdusamy, the Church took a new direction. Two new Sacraments were introduced, the Acceptance of the Cruciform and the Resurrection. The Church had developed a new technology that improved the results of the Resurrection, so the believers who had accepted the cruciform were virtually immortal. Assisted by the immortality, the Church grew steadily, and under the name of Pax, filled the void left by the Hegemony after the Fall, as the government of all the galaxy's mankind. When Hoyt died, he was resurrected again and again, and Father Duré never again appeared to the public eye. Under the various Hoyt's papacies, Father Duré was considered as an Antipope that nearly killed the Church.
[edit] Aenea's rescue
274 years after the Fall, Raul Endymion is a hunting guide in Hyperion who kills a hunter in a dispute. Even though the feud was the hunter's fault and the hunter himself resurrects because of his cruciform, Endymion is sentenced to death. He refuses the cruciform and is executed. Rather than dying, he awakens, to his surprise, in the house of an old man named Martin Silenus. The old man tells him that he has been saved, because he wants him to go on a mission: to rescue his "niece" Aenea who is about to return at the Time Tomb, to find the old Earth (because he was, indeed, born on Earth), and destroy the TechnoCore and Pax. Endymion, even though he thinks that is a crazy idea, accepts the mission. He will be helped by Silenus' servant, android A. Bettik and by the old Consul's starship.
Meanwhile, the Pax also knows that Aenea is about to arrive. They consider her an abomination and want her captured. The mission is assigned to Father-Captain Federico de Soya, who prepares an army of elite troops on Hyperion's surface and in surrounding space to trap Aenea.
Endymion and Silenus's plan consists of arriving at the Time Tombs, flying on the Consul's flying carpet. When the Tomb opens, Aenea appears as predicted. However, she is not alone. The Shrike appears and begins a massacre of the Swiss Guard and conventional Pax military units - on Hyperion and in local space - deployed to detain her. In the confusion, Endymion meets Aenea and takes her to the starship, where Bettik is waiting. The Pax, fighting with the Shrike, cannot stop the ship before it translates to hyperspace.
[edit] Travelling through Hyperspace
The ship's first destination from Hyperion is Parvati, a six and a half days travel and a time debt of three months. The trip starts the friendship between Aenea and Endymion. He realizes that his young friend is far more precocious than a twelve year old should be, and he feels a hint of the mystique that she will have in the future.
Meanwhile, Father de Soya, badly injured by the Shrike, is determined to not let Aenea escape again. He takes possession of an Archangel Torchship, the Raphael, that allows him and three of his elite soldiers, (Sargent Gregorius, Corporal Kee and Lancer Rettig, from the Swiss Guard) to fly to Parvati faster than hyperspace. The price of this speed is a painful death and resurrection of the ship's passengers.
When Aenea and Endymion arrive to Parvati space, de Soya is waiting to stop them. Aenea threatens to blow the old Consul's ship and die. Since de Soya's orders are to catch her alive, he has to let her go.
The next destination is Renaissance Vector. De Soya's team, after dying and resurrecting again, are ready to stop her even if she tries to blow the ship. Aenea manages anyway to take the ship to the planet's atmosphere, and before de Soya can react, she sends the ship through one of the Web's farcasters, located at old River Tethys, which were supposed to be inactive since the Fall. De Soya reacts at the last moment, and shoots Aenea's ship, but too late to prevent it from farcasting.
[edit] Traveling through the River Tethys
The ship has arrived to an unknown sylvatic planet through the farcaster. The passengers are all unharmed, but the ship is badly damaged. Its AI states that it can be auto-repaired, but it will take about five standard months. Since Aenea cannot wait, Raul constructs a raft to follow the River Tethys. Raul, Aenea and Bettik depart and leave the Ship on the unknown planet.
De Soya, unable to determine to which of the hundreds of planets crossed by River Tethys Aenea has fled, begins an odyssey of continuous deaths and resurrections through all known planet systems in order to find her.
The raft arrives at the next inactive farcaster, but again, it works and translate to another planet, Mare Infinitus. As they travel across the aquatic planet, looking for next farcaster, they encounter a sea platform occupied by Pax guards. Since they cannot avoid it, Raul boards the flying carpet and goes alone to the platform, taking some explosives in order to create a distraction. He succeeds, but only after fighting with Pax soldiers, losing the carpet, falling into the water, fighting some sharks, and eventually being rescued by Aenea and Bettik.
They find the next farcaster and translate to Hebron. Strangely, they find the planet absolutely uninhabited. Aenea and Bettik find a hospital with automated medical kits, which cure Endymion, who is still injured from the Mare Infinitus adventure.
Meanwhile, De Soya's search brings him to Mare Infinitus, where he finds evidence that Aenea and Endymion have been there, namely the flying carpet. De Soya concludes that Aenea's final destination might be Ouster territory. Hoping to intercept her, De Soya and his men translate there, but there is an accident: resurrection fails, and consequently their ship is automatically rerouted to Pacem.
De Soya is resurrected there, but one of his men, Rettig has died the "True Death". The Pax government, in spite of De Soya's consistent failures to capture Aenea, decide to keep de Soya on the mission, and assign a new officer to his guard, Rhadamanth Nemes, a member of a "new race of soldiers, prepared to fight the ousters".
[edit] At Sol Draconi Septem
Aenea, Raul and Bettik continue to travel through the farcasters. Their next destination is Sol Draconi Septem, a barely terraformed, frozen, high gravity planet. There, they meet and befriend the Chitchatuk, a human race, that are adapted to Sol Draconi Septem's terrible conditions. The Chitchatuk take Aenea and her companions to meet Father Glaucus a blind catholic priest, estranged from Pax, who lives in a subterranean skyscraper. At Glaucus' home, Aenea, Bettik and Raul rest and enjoy the priest's friendship.
They depart again and farcast to Qom Riyadh, which they find also strangely uninhabited, and then to God's Grove.
Meanwhile, de Soya has received information that it has been "revealed" to the Pope that Aenea is in Sol Draconi Septem. De Soya and his guards fly there in his Archangel Torchship, but something is wrong: Nemes is not dead. In fact, she wakes up when the rest of crew has yet to resurrect, and takes a dropship to the planet. She has inhuman strength and skills and is ruthless. She kills the Chitchatuk and Father Glaucus. But in exploring the farcaster she learns that Aenea has gone to Qom Riyadh and God's Grove. When de Soya resurrects, she informs him of the new information, but de Soya is suspicious. They farcast to God's Grove, where Nemes plans to catch and kill Aenea, but before dying, de Soya gives the ship instructions to resurrect him one day earlier than expected or advisable.
[edit] Encounter at God's Grove
Nemes prepares a trap for Aenea and friends, including cutting "monofilaments", land mines and a trap designed to beat the Shrike, if it shows.
When the raft transporting the heroes arrives, they fall into the trap. A. Bettik has one arm cut off by the monofilaments. The Shrike appears and fights Nemes. Her inhuman skills are a tough match for the Shrike, which finally falls into Nemes' trap. The Shrike is transported 5 minutes into the future, more than enough for Nemes to kill Aenea. When Raul is the only obstacle for Nemes, Father de Soya, barely resurrected and piloting the Raphael, shoots Nemes from outer space. Nemes disappears in a lake of molten rock.
De Soya meets Aenea, and helps her and her friends, especially A. Bettik with his wounded arm. Blessing her, de Soya provides a shuttle for Aenea and lets her go. The heroes pass through a farcaster to reach their end destination: Old Earth. But Earth, which is supposed to be destroyed, is no longer in the Milky Way, but in the Magellanic Cloud.
Aenea guides the ship to Fallingwater, Pennsylvania, where she will study with an architect (the Frank Lloyd Wright cybrid) until she is ready to fulfill her mission.
