The Rise of Endymion, Dan Simmons (Headline, £9.99 in UK)
The fourth episode in Simmons's Hyperion series, this is a wonderful book. It's a moving love story, an epic tale of adventure and a thought-provoking meditation on the future evolution of mankind. Writing with astonishing energy and imagination, Simmons brings his colourful Hyperion characters on the next and possibly final stage of their odyssey through time and space. It's now the 31st century and, in a galaxy controlled by the warlike born-again Catholics of the ironically-named Pax system, our hero Raul Endymion and his messianic beloved Aenea try to save the world from enslavement by the Church and its sinister artificially intelligent allies, the technocore. (These latter nasties have evolved from the buzzing hive mind of today's Internet, so beware.) In a book full of rich description, two highlights are Simmons's detailed and contrasting depictions of a formal, ceremonial and stuffy new Vatican City and an airy Buddhist mountain-top retreat above the clouds. The respective philosophies of life are in opposition also, Simmons unashamedly favouring the gentle Zen approach of the mountain people. Simmons treats us to memorable characters and complex philosophical discussions as well as humour and even a poetic slice of John Keats's Endymion. It's a convoluted story as there are so many outstanding mysteries to resolve from the earlier books; the best thing to do is read all four.
Destiny's Road, by Larry Niven (Orbit, £16.99 in UK)
Niven, author of the famous Ringworld, deals in his latest story with the colonisation of Destiny, a far-off planet. The colonists from Earth landed in 2493AD and, 250 years later, their abandoned descendants are eking out a living in a world of subsistence farming and inhospitable native life-forms. Enter our hero, Jemmy, who embarks on an arduous journey down Destiny's mysterious road, in search of knowledge. He joins a caravan of travelling merchants who are responsible, amongst other services, for ensuring a good mix in Destiny's gene-pool. Jemmy is enthusiastic in his contribution and, in local parlance, "rubs up against" many a willing wench on his travels. If Jemmy's adventures recall those of Fielding's Tom Jones, Niven's writing style is ultra-modern: short, staccato sentences like a long series of telegrams. It demands concentration by the reader but it succeeds and creates a lasting impression of the strange half-primitive, half-modern world of Destiny. Unfortunately, the effort was occasionally too much for Niven's editor, resulting in some egregious misprints.
Running with the Demon, by Terry Brooks (Orbit, £16.99 in UK)
Terry Brooks moves his fantasy to a contemporary setting in his latest opus, the first of a projected trilogy. The convincing all-American setting of Hopewell, Illinois, hosts a major showdown between good and evil. In the good corner are a 14-year-old girl, Nest Freemark, who can work magic, and John Ross, a Knight of the Word with a gammy leg, dedicated (the Knight) to fighting evil. The main baddy is a demon, no less, in human form, who turns out to be poor Nest's father. Brooks writes clearly and simply, creating a vivid picture of an everyday American town surrounded, if it only knew, by unseen magic and strange creatures. As the author confirmed to The Irish Times recently, the book is intended for children as well as adults; indeed, Brooks sees his work as in the tradition of European adventure stories such as Ivanhoe or The Prisoner of Zenda, but in a fantastical rather than historical setting. Even in such a well-planned and smoothly-executed book, however, there is an occasional solecism, as when the demon tries to avoid his well-deserved come-uppance "with a superhuman effort". You wouldn't be up to demons.
Trader, by Charles De Lint (Macmillan, £16.99 in UK)
"If dreams can be portents of what is to come, then I had my fair share of forewarning before my life was stolen away." In the book's first sentence, Max Trader has a rude awakening to match that of Kafka's Gregor Samsa in Meta- morphosis; Trader awakes in another man's skin, having swapped bodies overnight. De Lint's opening chapter captures his hero's terror and despair brilliantly; Trader is a maker of guitars and fears he will never again experience the wonder of working with his beloved wood - "butternut, lacewood and mahogany. Bird's-eye maple, red birch and hickory". Sadly, the pace of this urban fantasy slows and tension evaporates quickly. A host of irritating female characters is introduced, mostly waitresses. The final section deteriorates into farce: an Indian mystic called Joseph Crazy Dog, a real deus ex machina, whisks the main protagonists into the spirit world with the aid of his smoking smudgestick. The disappointed reader leaves them to it.
Making History, by Stephen Fry (Arrow, £5.99 in UK)
Now out in paperback, Making History is Stephen Fry's preposterous account of a gormless history student who teams up with an obsessed physicist in order to remove Adolf Hitler from the pages of history. They achieve this, using (yes) a time-machine to return and sterilise Hitler's dad. Unfortunately, an alternative Nazi dictator emerges to fill the vacuum and things are worse than ever for humanity. The first-person narrative fairly zips along; the humour is very English - droll and self-deprecating. Hitler is by no means the funniest of topics; Fry gets away with it by sheer brio and goodheartedness. There's a leavening of real feeling too, as the narrator, hen-pecked to a fault by his starchy girlfriend, discovers his true leanings and teams up, once Hitler is sorted out, with a gentle gay student from Princeton.
Tom Moriarty is an Irish Times staff journalist