The multiple-award-winning science fiction master returns to the universe that is his greatest triumph--the world of "Hyperion" and "The Fall ofHyperion" --with a novel even more magnificent than its predecessors. Dan Simmons's "Hyperion" was an immediate sensation on its first publication in 1989. This staggering multifaceted tale of the far future heralded the conquest of the science fiction field by a man who had already won the World Fantasy Award for his first novel ("Song of Kali") and had also published one of the most well-received horror novels in the field, "Carrion Comfort." "Hyperion" went on to win the Hugo Award as Best Novel, and it and its companion volume, "The Fall of Hyperion," took their rightful places in the science fiction pantheon of new classics. Now, six years later, Simmons returns to this richly imagined world of technological achievement, excitement, wonder and fear. "Endymion" is a story about love and memory, triumph and terror--an instant candidate for the field's highest honors.

The magnificent conclusion to one of the greatest science fiction sagas of our time The time of reckoning has arrived. As a final genocidal Crusade threatens to enslave humanity forever, a new messiah has come of age. She is Aenea and she has undergone a strange apprenticeship to those known as the Others. Now her protector, Raul Endymion, one-time shepherd and convicted murderer, must help her deliver her startling message to her growing army of disciples. But first they must embark on a final spectacular mission to discover the underlying meaning of the universe itself. They have been followed on their journey by the mysterious Shrike--monster, angel, killing machine--who is about to reveal the long-held secret of its origin and purpose. And on the planet of Hyperion, where the story first began, the final revelation will be delivered--an apocalyptic message that unlocks the secrets of existence and the fate of humankind in the galaxy.

In the stunning continuation of the epic adventure begun in "Hyperion,"Simmons returns us to a far future resplendent with drama and invention. Onthe world of Hyperion, the mysterious Time Tombs are opening. And the secretsthey contain mean that nothing--nothing anywhere in the universe--will ever bethe same.