The Rise of Endymion

The Rise of Endymion is a 1997 science fiction novel by Dan Simmons. It is the fourth and final novel in his Hyperion Cantos fictional universe. The novel won the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, and was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1998.^[1]

Plot

The Rise of Endymion begins after the end of Endymion on the planet Pacem, in Vatican City, with the announcement of the death of the pope, Lenar Hoyt. Hoyt is then reborn, and when elected Pope again, takes a new Papal name: in this case, Urban XVI. Urban announces a new Crusade upon his conception as Pope, and with the development of the new "Archangel"-class starships, sends his fleets out to make war on the Ousters, still hiding along the edges of human-populated space. The focus then shifts to Raul Endymion and Aenea, still living on Earth (at Taliesin West) and learning architecture from the "Old Architect" (a cybrid Frank Lloyd Wright). Aenea reveals to Raul that he has to leave and travel via Farcaster portal along the River Tethys, but she will meet him at the end of his journey. Upon reaching the end of his perilous trip, Raul finds the starship they had abandoned in the previous book. The ship informs Raul that Aenea had programmed it to take him to T'ien Shan, a planet that Raul knows nothing about. He finds out that the time it will take to get there will create a 5-year time debt, and when he arrives, Aenea will be 21. During their time on T'ien Shan, Raul and Aenea's relationship shifts from protector and friend to lover and teacher, as Raul becomes a prominent member of Aenea's "congregation." Aenea takes on a nearly messianic persona at this point, preaching to her followers gathered on T'ien Shan about "the Void which Binds" and "the music of the spheres", the secrets of which are revealed later in the story. Unfortunately, the Pax discovers them, and Raul and Aenea, along with their close friends are forced to flee, taking refuge with the Ousters on the edge of civilized space. There, Raul learns just what secret it is that Aenea carries that makes the Pax so afraid of her, and their journey comes to a dramatic climax in the Vatican, where they confront the Pope, and seemingly meet their respective destinies.

Background

The Rise of Endymion, like the preceding novel Endymion, is set more than 275 years after the fall of the Hegemony of Man, an interstellar participatory democracy that relied on interplanetary connections, called farcaster portals. These portals secretly contained the artificial intelligences of the TechnoCore, which, after failing in their attempt to attack the Hegemony, were forced into apparent seclusion. At the time of this novel, the Roman Catholic Church has formed the Pax, an administrative entity that formalizes the Church's control and implements a kind of theocracy.

The Church and the Pax have secretly been collaborating with representatives of the TechnoCore, who provide Pax-administered society with the cruciform, a parasite that causes a human to be resurrected three days after the body's death. However, the TechnoCore fears that a type of virus can weaken their unseen hold on 31st-century civilization, and is aware that the virus can be spread by Aenea, daughter of a human being and a TechnoCore intelligence residing in a human body.

The world Hyperion, central in the first three novels of the series, is by this point entirely assimilated into the Pax. However, other worlds resist Pax control, with independence movements using various tactics to achieve their goal of eventual independence. This type of resistance takes place on worlds such as Mars and Vitus-Gray-Balianus B, home to a rebellious, Druze-like society known as the Amoite Spectrum Helix.

Characters

• Aenea – Aenea, often described as a messiah, is a young female who is the daughter of a human, Brawne Lamia, and an artificial intelligence combined with a human body (cybrid). As a child she travels two hundred years through time by entering the Time Tomb called the Sphinx, becoming a teacher (the one who teaches) and a semi-religious figure. She becomes a Martyr and catalyst for the destruction of the current form of Catholicism and the widespread rebellion again the parasite cruciform.

• Raul Endymion – Previously a nomadic shepherd on Hyperion, Endymion was wrongly sentenced to death by Pax authorities for killing a wealthy Catholic tourist who had attempted to murder him. He was not executed due to the intervention of Martin Silenus, who enlisted him into Aenea's service as a bodyguard and protector. By the time of the novel, Endymion has become Aenea's romantic interest, and eventually becomes her lover. They have a child. His story completes the Silenus Cantos.

• Father Captain Federico de Soya – Born on the desert planet of MadredeDios, de Soya is a Pax Fleet officer and a Catholic priest who had tracked Aenea and attempted to capture her in the novel Endymion. After saving her life, de Soya was exiled to MadredeDios and stripped of his command, but is called back into service at the beginning of this novel. He mutinies again after witnessing atrocities committed by Pax Fleet units, and renounces the cruciform, becoming an Aenean.

• A. Bettik – A. Bettik is an android. Born several hundred years before the Fall of the Farcasters in the 29th century, Bettik was a laborer on Hyperion and an employee of the Shrike Cult for centuries before the arrival of the last Hyperion pilgrims, and worked for Martin Silenus in the years between that pilgrimage and Aenea's arrival. Befriended by Raul, he has accompanied Aenea on their journey. At the conclusion he is revealed to be an observer from an otherwise undescribed advanced alien race which also utilizes the void which binds.

Church and Pax figures

• Cardinal Simon Augustino Lourdusamy – Lourdusamy, a prominent prelate and the Vatican's Secretary of State, is the effective head of the Catholic Church and the dominant force behind Pope Urban XVI. Lourdusamy masterminds the search for Aenea and plans the crusade against the Ousters with Urban's approval.

• Father Lenar Hoyt – A central character in Hyperion, Hoyt was one of the last pilgrims to Hyperion and wears both his cruciform and that of Father Paul Dure. Hoyt has served as Pope multiple times after the Fall of the Farcasters, and reigns as Urban XVI at the time of the novel. He is controlled by Cardinal Lourdusamy.

• Cardinal John Domenico Mustafa – The Grand Inquisitor of the Holy Office, Mustafa is among the most powerful Cardinals and is not a close ally of Lourdusamy's faction. He personally investigates the Shrike's massacres on Mars toward the beginning of the novel, and is also the Church's direct representative throughout the search for Aenea on Tien' Shan. He confronts TechnoCore forces twice during the novel, and is fatally wounded by Nemes the first time and murdered by Albedo the next.

• Kenzo Isozaki – Isozaki is the respected CEO of the Pax Mercantilus, a Church-recognized super-corporation, and considered to be almost as powerful as Cardinal Lourdusamy. He schemes against the Church leadership throughout the novel and is subsequently relegated to the titular command of an anti-Ouster crusade. At the end of the novel, Isozaki takes control of Pacem, driving out TechnoCore forces, and establishes a provisional democracy on the planet.

• Admiral Marget Wu – The temporary commander of Pax Fleet, Wu plays a supporting role in the novel and is murdered by the Nemes clones on Tien' Shan.

• Rhadamanth Nemes – The core created super-robot who acts as a guard for the Vatican and who hunts Aenea. She has three siblings Scylla, Gyges, and Briareus.

References

External references

• The Rise of Endymion at Worlds Without End