Set hundreds of years after the events recounted in The Fall of Hyperion, Endymion explores the themes of The Hyperion Cantos and carries the story forward into the future.

Endymion takes its title from John Keats’s poem about the love of a mortal man for an immortal goddess. By the time the novel begins, the Hegemony of Man has come to an end, the still dominant TechnoCore has disappeared from public view, and the once moribund Catholic Church has become the principle political power in the now scattered web of inhabited worlds. Against this backdrop, Raul Endymion, convicted murderer and native of the planet Hyperion, and a twelve-year-old girl named Aenea, who is about to step through the Time Tombs and embark on a messianic destiny. Raul’s role is to protect her from the forces massed against her and to shepherd her toward her ultimate moment of apotheosis.

Endymion, together with its sequel, The Rise of Endymion, offers a revisionist view of earlier events. Familiar characters—Father Lenar Hoyt, the poet Martin Silenus, and the Shrike—appear in new roles. Together with a host of supporting characters and a vast array of settings, they help set the stage for the conclusion, while casting a new light on all that has gone before.