Endymion (Simmons)

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The anthology Endymion consists of the two novels Endymion - Pforten der Zeit (English original title: Endymion ; 1995) and Endymion - Die Auferstehung (English original title: The Rise of Endymion ; 1997) by Dan Simmons . They are the continuation of the Hyperion chants . In science fiction literature, Endymion is assigned to the genre of space opera . The German first publication in individual volumes appeared in 1997 and 1999 by Goldmann Verlag . The two novels first appeared as an anthology in 2003 by Blanvalet and as a new edition in 2014 by Heyne .

subjects

On its 1327 pages, Endymion mainly deals with the difficult relationship between institutionalized religion , political power and personal belief. In a society in which all living conditions are permeated by a religiosity based on the irresistible temptation to make a true promise of immortality, personal freedom is not only threatened, it actually does not exist. Morals and convictions of the "resurrection Christians", which can be replaced by any religious concept, dominate the ways of thinking and acting in society as well as those of the individual. In addition, topics such as architecture , ethics , morals , artificial intelligence and ecology are discussed.

Analogous to the Christian Son of God sacrifice in the New Testament , the sacrifice of a daughter - possibly of a divine nature - forms the peak of tension in the Endymion cycle. Not quite as prominent as the life of the English poet John Keats in Hyperion, Endymion honors the life and work of the architect Frank Lloyd Wright .

action

Endymion plays a good quarter of a millennium after "The Fall", which destroyed the hegemony that prevailed at the time and switched off the all-connecting techno core - at least that's what people believe. Meanwhile there is again interstellar trade between many hundreds of worlds, which are controlled by the so-called resurrection Christians and their military arm, the Pax . Their rule is less of a military than of a physiological nature. The offer of exchange - actual resurrection of the body for absolute obedience to the new Catholic Church - hardly anyone can resist. The only serious opposition is still the Ousters , who are on the defensive because of brutal extermination campaigns and move outside the Pax area. This theocracy is ruled by the New Vatican , which resides on the planet Pacem . Lenar Hoyt alias Pope Julius has been at the forefront of this power construct for 250 years. Hoyt was the first to wear the new, modified cruciform - the AI ​​parasite that enables full resurrection.

Both Endymion volumes are told from the perspective of Raul Endymion , who writes them down as memories while he awaits his execution in a high-tech execution prison. Gates of Time , the first volume, tells the story of the twelve year old girl Aenea and her search for Frank Lloyd Wright , the architect with whom she would like to study.

Endymion - Gates of Time - 264 years ago, Aenea , the daughter of Brawne Lamia and Johnny , the AI ​​reconstruction of the poet John Keats , disappeared in the Sphinx time graveon Hyperion. Now she should return and this return is an existential event for various interest groups. The Pax wants to get hold of them just as much as Martin Silenus , the now very aged poet from Hyperion . The Pax sends 30,000 soldiers, including 5,000 Swiss Guards, to the graves, the poet the tourist guide Raul Endymion . The return of the girl turns into a military disaster for the Pax. The Shrike , a time-manipulating war machine from the future, accompanies Aenea and murders the troops after their arrival. Meanwhile, Raul , the poet's envoy,fleeswith Aenea to the worlds of the former hegemony. She is ableto use the farcasterswho have beendeactivatedsince the fall . On a self-built raft, the refugees follow the course of the Thetys , a river that once connected hundreds of worlds. New challenges await them in every world they reach. Meanwhile, your pursuers have to fly to every world and look for traces of the target persons. Thereis a showdown on Gods Grove . Radamanth Nemes , a modernized version of the Shrike created by the Techno-Core, hasbeen smuggledinto the chase group of Father Captain de Soya . If de Soya's order was still to get the girl to the Vatican, Nemes shouldsimply kill her as quickly as possible. Although the Shrike Aenea comes to the rescue, the Nemes creature almost manages to carry out its mission. Father Captain de Soya, who had distrusted Nemes from the start, eventually saves Aenea and stops Nemes. The refugees can flee through the last Farcaster arch and land on Old Earth .

Endymion - the resurrection tells, further from Raul's perspective, the story of Aenea's training with the architect Frank Lloyd Wright . The first volume ended in Wright's famous mountain bungalow " Fallingwaters ", in which Aenea realizes that she has reached the goal of her search. Over the next four years, under Lloyd Wright's more or less brusque guidance, Aenea developed into an architect to be taken seriously. Then the old teacher's cybrid reconstruction dies and the study group dissolves.

Aenea sends Raul back alone on the Thetys River to look for the consul's now repaired spaceship. She herself is the last to leave the earth and realizes different construction contracts as an architect in different worlds. Moreover, she is now doing what the Curia feared her for, she is the one who teaches, and her teaching is completely contrary to the intentions of the Church. Above all, the resurrection by the cruciform parasite is fundamentally rejected by her. At the end of their teachings, which never take on the character of church services, follows a shocking act that seems like a parody of the Christian mass ; - she shares her blood with those who are willing.

This symbolic self-sacrifice is always connected with the warning that whoever follows it on this path can never wear the cruciform again and should he already wear it, he would lose it. Thousands are taking this step and everyone who has taken it can in the future share his own blood and redeem others from the cruciform. It is slowly becoming clear why the Church fears Aenea .

While Aenea is building and teaching, Raul searches the Thetys River for the ship in a single kayak. He has to go through extraordinary experiences. From surviving a serious illness to falling into the atmosphere of a gas giant, the search is not made easy for him. When he finally discovers the ship, or rather the ship him, he has several broken limbs and is closer to death than life. Fortunately, the Autodoc works on board. The meeting point given by Aenea is the planet T'ien Shan , translated "mountains of heaven". The flight there costs Raul a five-year debt. When he arrives, Aenea is 21 years old and meets him as a young woman. The two begin a romantic love affair.

But first they have to get away from the papal persecutors. Nemes , the non-human creature of the Techno-Core from the first volume, was not killed by the attack by Father Captain de Soya , but locked in a lava prison. Four years later their "siblings" free Nemes and now the trio is following Aeneas' heels . The final encounter takes place on T'ien Shan . Aeneas ' new ability to cast without farcaster portals enables the ship to escape the trap that the Pax fleet has set on T'ien Shan . Aenea , Raul , A. Bettik and several others flee to a gigantic, tree-lined Dyson sphere of the Ousters . In order to prevent the Pax's attack on this construct, Aenea announces her personal visit to Pacem to the Pope . She speculates that the Pax will then move its entire fleet to the Pacem system, and she is right. Regardless of the dangerous opponents, Raul and Aenea come to the surface of Pacem . They even manage to get into the Vatican and meet the Pope. Eventually, however, they are overwhelmed and captured. Aenea dies a sacrificial death during torture by the Inquisition , but not without first revealing where the Techno-Core is now physically hidden. Raul is locked in the Schrödinger prison, in orbit around the planet Armaghast . He is writing the two Endymion books .

The end of Aeneas , but above all her revelations about the techno core, led to the collapse of the papal theocracy . When Raul finally frees himself from prison, nothing is left of the Church of the Resurrection. After completing Martin Silenus' last assignment (returning the earth to its original location and burying the old poet there), Raul devotes the rest of his life to raising their child.

characters

The main characters are the teacher, her two companions and her main persecutor.

  • Aenea , the daughter of private detective Brawne Lamia and the cybrid Johnny , an AI personality reconstruction of the poet John Keats .
  • Raul Endymion , according to self-description: shepherd, landscape artist apprentice, bartender and duck hunter
  • A. Bettik , an android, for years the servant of Martin Silenus and the camouflaged emissary of powerful, extraterrestrial intelligences.
  • Father Captain de Soya , officer of the Pax

Other important figures:

  • Martin Silenus , poet and now really very old.
  • Lenar Hoyt , under changing names, Pope of the Church of the Resurrection Christians for 250 years.
  • The Shrike , the Lord of Pain , a time-manipulating combat intelligence from the future.
  • The Ousters , space-adapted, planet-independent humans, the last serious opponents of the Pax in this galaxy.
  • Nemes , a modernized version of the Shrike created by the techno core.

Prices

The novel Endymion won the following awards:

literature

expenditure
Secondary literature

An audio book version of the Hyperion and Endymion cycle, spoken by Detlef Bierstedt , was published exclusively by Audible in 2008 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Audible.de: Hyperion & Endymion - audio book