Endymion

Nearly three centuries after the Hegemony fell, the Catholic Church rules the galaxy through the Pax and resurrects believers with the cruciform. Raul Endymion, a former hunting guide on Hyperion, gets a mission from the old poet Martin Silenus: protect Aenea, daughter of Lamia and the Keats cybrid, when she steps out of the Time Tombs. With the android A. Bettik and the Consul's ship, Raul gets the girl off Hyperion. Father-Captain De Soya chases them. The three follow the River Tethys from planet to planet. Nemes, a Pax agent, turns out to be a TechnoCore machine and sets an ambush, but the Shrike and De Soya stop her. In the end, the group reaches Old Earth, where Aenea will study with a cybrid of Frank Lloyd Wright.

1. Behind the scenes274 years later

   Endymion opens 274 years after The Fall of Hyperion. Almost everyone from the first two books is long gone, and the galaxy has a new master.

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2. ReferenceAnother Keats poem

   The title comes from Keats's 1818 poem Endymion, the one that opens with "A thing of beauty is a joy for ever."

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3. Behind the scenesA paperback hit

   The paperback went through five printings within a year. The book was a finalist for the 1997 Locus Award.

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4. SetupWhere Raul is writing from

   Raul tells the story in first person, locked in a strange place. Note where he is at the very start: the explanation comes later.

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