The time of reckoning has arrived. As a final genocidal Crusade threatens to ensalve 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, onetime sheperd 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 descover the underlying meaning of the universe itself. They have been followed on their journey ny 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.
