Endymion [Paperback]

Dan Simmons (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Bantam (1995)
• ASIN: B000N5YWWY
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (134 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,633,785 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dan Simmons was born in Peoria, Illinois, in 1948, and grew up in various cities and small towns in the Midwest, including Brimfield, Illinois, which was the source of his fictional "Elm Haven" in 1991's SUMMER OF NIGHT and 2002's A WINTER HAUNTING. Dan received a B.A. in English from Wabash College in 1970, winning a national Phi Beta Kappa Award during his senior year for excellence in fiction, journalism and art.
Dan received his Masters in Education from Washington University in St. Louis in 1971. He then worked in elementary education for 18 years -- 2 years in Missouri, 2 years in Buffalo, New York -- one year as a specially trained BOCES "resource teacher" and another as a sixth-grade teacher -- and 14 years in Colorado.

His last four years in teaching were spent creating, coordinating, and teaching in APEX, an extensive gifted/talented program serving 19 elementary schools and some 15,000 potential students. During his years of teaching, he won awards from the Colorado Education Association and was a finalist for the Colorado Teacher of the Year. He also worked as a national language-arts consultant, sharing his own "Writing Well" curriculum which he had created for his own classroom. Eleven and twelve-year-old students in Simmons' regular 6th-grade class averaged junior-year in high school writing ability according to annual standardized and holistic writing assessments. Whenever someone says "writing can't be taught," Dan begs to differ and has the track record to prove it. Since becoming a full-time writer, Dan likes to visit college writing classes, has taught in New Hampshire's Odyssey writing program for adults, and is considering hosting his own Windwalker Writers' Workshop.
Dan's first published story appeared on Feb. 15, 1982, the day his daughter, Jane Kathryn, was born. He's always attributed that coincidence to "helping in keeping things in perspective when it comes to the relative importance of writing and life."
Dan has been a full-time writer since 1987 and lives along the Front Range of Colorado -- in the same town where he taught for 14 years -- with his wife, Karen. He sometimes writes at Windwalker -- their mountain property and cabin at 8,400 feet of altitude at the base of the Continental Divide, just south of Rocky Mountain National Park. An 8-ft.-tall sculpture of the Shrike -- a thorned and frightening character from the four Hyperion/Endymion novels -- was sculpted by an ex-student and friend, Clee Richeson, and the sculpture now stands guard near the isolated cabin.
Dan is one of the few novelists whose work spans the genres of fantasy, science fiction, horror, suspense, historical fiction, noir crime fiction, and mainstream literary fiction . His books are published in 27 foreign counties as well as the U.S. and Canada.
Many of Dan's books and stories have been optioned for film, including SONG OF KALI, DROOD, THE CROOK FACTORY, and others. Some, such as the four HYPERION novels and single Hyperion-universe novella "Orphans of the Helix", and CARRION COMFORT have been purchased (the Hyperion books by Warner Brothers and Graham King Films, CARRION COMFORT by European filmmaker Casta Gavras's company) and are in pre-production. Director Scott Derrickson ("The Day the Earth Stood Stood Still") has been announced as the director for the Hyperion movie and Casta Gavras's son has been put at the helm of the French production of Carrion Comfort. Current discussions for other possible options include THE TERROR. Dan's hardboiled Joe Kurtz novels are currently being looked as the basis for a possible cable TV series.
In 1995, Dan's alma mater, Wabash College, awarded him an honorary doctorate for his contributions in education and writing.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

100 of 104 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exceptional meld of sci-fi and literary elements, July 15, 1999

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[e-mail] (Vancouver, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Endymion (Hyperion Cantos, Bk. 3) (Mass Market Paperback)

I'm somewhat surprised by some of the reviews for the Hyperion series, especially the latter two, Endymion and Rise of Endymion. I agree that Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion are the /slightly/ stronger of the four, but again they are the foundational works which support the rest of the series, which branches off into a more ornate, but steadfast, structure. Looking at the structure of the Hyperion saga as a whole, both as science fiction and as literary fiction, few stories come close to matching the width and depth of Simmon's conceptualization of the future.

Sci-fi ornamentation aside, much of the saga's strength lies in it's most literary qualities. The plot is epic and the characters are depthful and realistic, but Simmons raises the bar a notch above the average space opera's best, weaving a rich tapestry of allusion and parallelism that would challenge literary fiction's finest offerings.

Hyperion itself, as many have surmised, takes on the patterns of Canterbury Tales as its own, with its tales spanning the genres from mystery and suspense to classic military sf. This multi-genre approach is an unusual vehicle for introducing an entire science-fiction universe, and duly appreciated by those sick of tired and stilted exposition.

The Fall of Hyperion rightly gathers source from Keats' unfinished epic and the greatest tragedies of our time. By the close of this installment, Simmons' Mythos of the Hegemony, the Shrike, and the Hyperion pilgrims stands on its own in the form of Martin Silenus' Cantos, an accomplishment that, some say, Simmons should have stopped at. Yet mysteries and holes have been purposefully left unanswered and unfilled. Good marketing, certainly, but one must appreciate the difficulty of keeping this sort of complexity tight and controlled.

Endymion is the perfect example of this. Simmons balances the story's elements to near perfection by developing and adding onto the Hyperion Mythos while answering some mysteries and making others more mysterious. Plot-wise, Endymion's fast-paced chase is a timeless theme (all Scharzenegger jokes aside), and Simmons does not waste it by relying wholly on the cliches that have led highbrows to dismiss action-based stories as inferior. Rather, the chase becomes a framework for Simmons to explore the mysteries and difficulties of faith and reason that he first introduced in Hyperion with the priest's tale.

The Rise of Endymion is an exceptional way to cap off this saga (and unsurprisingly, there is always room for a sequel). This final installment shares many thematic elements with Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land (and who can't resist imagining Martin Silenus as a caustic Jubal Harshaw?) The questions of religion, faith, and messiah-hood are presented fairly and with an objectivity that is refreshing in an industry and a culture where it is popular to portray such topics with a negative, mocking slant. (Honestly, name an Arthur C. Clarke novel where faith and religion are /not/ quickly dismissed as irrelevant to an imagined future culture.)

Stylistically, Simmons writes with detailed clarity and a dry sense of humor that underpins every book in this series. While the story may bog at times during the particular verbose descriptions of the latter stories, the pacing is never derailed. Necessarily with any work of fiction, there are miniscule lapses of continuity and logicality. (What /did/ happen to Leigh Hunt?) But I would argue that these nits are so glaring only because the whole of the series is so well-implemented. To remain quotable, the saga is a spectacular tour-de-force, breathtaking in scope with heart-touching characters. Please read these books.

30 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Same Universe, different story., July 9, 2004

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Maximiliano F Yofre "Maxi" (Buenos Aires, Argentina) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

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This review is from: Endymion (Hyperion Cantos, Bk. 3) (Mass Market Paperback)

"Hyperion" cycle is a quartet divided in two halves that shares the same universe. "Endymion" starts the second part. Three hundred years had elapsed since the end of "The Fall of Hyperion" and new forces are playing the game. Some characters of the first half, as A. Bettik, Martin Silenus and The Shrike reappear here. The Catholic Church with her new resurrection "sacrament" is expanding everywhere. The "farcasters" are not working and space travel takes a toll in the form of time debt.

Simmons gives a new turn of the screw to his story: the new main character is an anti-hero. He is not very brave or smart; he is loyal and devoted to Aenea. Usually M. Endymion just goes ahead pressed by the events that pop up and strives to stay alive and protect Aenea. He is just an ordinary man subjected to extraordinary events. The Pax forces leaded by Father Captain de Soya launch an all-out persecution thru the universe and this is its chronicle.

Simmons uses a subtle humor and winks the reader to enter the game. At the same time, in another level of the story, more complex issues are touched as predestination versus free will; religion and faith; ethical and unethical choices.

Before reading this book is advisable to read "Hyperion" and "The Fall of Hyperion", to fully understand what's going on. But you will not regret doing so, you'll get in touch with one of the best sci-fi sagas written in the `90s.
Reviewed by Max Yofre.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ...a master storyteller..., February 28, 2001

By 

"wavefunction" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Endymion (Hyperion Cantos, Bk. 3) (Mass Market Paperback)

Wow! This is one of the most engaging novels I've ever read. Simmons is a master storyteller. Endymion is one of those rare books, which manage to create a truly believable futuristic world, regardless of how "alien" the technology and setting might appear. It's a world you have to tear yourself away from. If you enjoyed the Hyperion books, then I really think you will like this. Simmons weaves another complex and highly original plot involving the three travelers, the Pax Church, the TechnoCore and the mysterious entities inhabiting the outer reaches of the megasphere. He reveals information slowly throughout the book and by the end you really have more questions than answers, so if you're anything like me you'll definitely want to read the final part (Rise of Endymion) of this wonderful saga as soon as possible to find out what's going on. By the way, some people find this book less action-filled than the two first, which is partly true. The novel is slightly slower than its predecessors, but in my opinion there is more than enough going on, and, as stated above, the story is a real page-turner.