The Rise of Endymion is the fourth installment in the series that began with Hyperion. Continuing the narrative arc that began in Endymion, it brings the story to a conclusion.

The story is set in the complex future that emerged in the aftermath of the Hegemony of Man, a future dominated both by the Catholic Church and by the artificially intelligent entities of the TechnoCore. The narrative follows the intertwined stories of Raul Endymion and Aenea, a young woman born from the union of a human mother—Hyperion’s Brawne Lamia—and the cybrid-based reincarnation of John Keats. Aenea is a point of contact between disparate forms of existence. She has been charged with a destiny: to redirect the evolution of the human species. The Rise of Endymion concludes the account of Aenea’s attempts to achieve that destiny.

The novel presents a vision of a universe that is itself a “minded thing,” a sentient arena defined at its most fundamental level by the qualities of Empathy and Love. The novel—and the series as a whole—presents a view of human existence and argues for the value of endless diversity and constant change.