Raul Endymion is about to die - again. Sealed in an orbiting box, waiting for the quantum flicker that will kill him, he’s passing the time by telling us his story. It’s a tale of messiahs, of endless chases, of fallen worlds and a river that snakes across the stars. It’s also Simmons’ long awaited sequel to the award winning Hyperion Cantos (a single novel published in two separate volumes: Hyperion and Fall Of Hyperion).

 One of the defining SF novels of the late 80s, the Hyperion Cantos built itself on the foundations of Keats’ epic poetry, combining it with a twist of The Canterbury Tales and a leavening of space opera. A motley crew of pilgrims braved the barely tamed world of Hyperion, hoping to face the fabled Shrike, only to discover the AI-planned end of all things. Its two volumes ended with the fall of a star spanning civilisation - and the salvation of the human race. Five years later Simmons is ready to reveal what happened next.

 It’s nearly three hundred years later, and it’s time for Raul’s first (unjust) execution. Saved at the last minute, he finds himself in turn about to save the messiah. But the messiah is an eleven year old girl, who’s not yet ready for the task, and the armies of a repressive neo-Catholic theocracy are waiting to manipulate her. Raul must help Aenea flee across the stars, and seek lost Old Earth along the star-hopping river Tethys. As they cross ocean, desert, forest and sea, they are pursued by a duty-bound soldier-priest trying hard not to doubt the necessity of his mission, yet ready to risk repeated deaths for his masters’ cause. Each new world brings Raul and Aenea closer to the truth behind the theocratic Pax, and Father-Captain De Soya closer to scepticism.

 There’s an epic quality to Simmons’ prose that adds to Endymion’s simple chase plot. As we follow Aenea across the worlds, hints and clues help us realise that this is the stuff of myth and legend, where mortals are caught up in struggles between capricious gods. But this time the gods are of our own making, and Raul and Aenea might just be able to make a difference.

 Endymion is full of enduring images: burning orbital forests, urbane starships, death on a duck hunt, a dying poet living out his last days in the ruins of his youthful dreams. Simmons’ evocative descriptions catch all the nuances of his chosen tomorrow. Like Kim Stanley Robinson, Simmons’ writes paragraphs that force you to re-read them again and again, until you’ve overdosed on some of the best writing in modern SF - this is a book to prove to the sceptic that the best science fiction is as good as the best mainstream works.

 Like its predecessors Endymion is only part of a larger work. Four hundred pages of running away leave us on the threshold of discovery. We’re almost ready to tie the threads together, when we run out of book. Even so, the ending is right. Our heroes are safe, and Simmons is somewhere out there grinning, promising us more story, hinting at new adventures just round the corner. Like addicts we’ll be waiting for him to deliver. As long as it isn’t another 5 years…

Originally published in SFX