From Booklist
This is the story of Phaethon, exiled from a life of privilege and questing to reclaim his spacecraft, the Phoenix Exultant. He seeks the city of Talaimannar, impeded greatly by the fact that those who would help him risk exile themselves. Still, the strangest persons, those with no fear of exile, do help. The Old-Woman-of-the-Sea--a mind spread across all life in the sea, and the last remnant of the massmind of the Bellipotent Composition--helps him; and she and other helpers strive to ruffle the smooth waters of the peaceful, stagnating Golden Oecumene. Now, Phaethon believes that beings from another star are set on destroying him the moment he logs onto the Mentality, but the truth is even more sinister. This is the middle of a trilogy, and newcomers may find it hard to get into at first, despite action that starts and stays fast. But take the time, and maybe back up and read The Golden Age [BKL Mr 15 02], for when it grabs, it holds. Regina Schroeder
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Book Description
And now The Phoenix Exultant, a second epic novel of an heroic quest in a far future world of super-science from an important new talent.
The Phoenix Exultant is a continuation of the story begun in The Golden Age and, like it, a grand space opera in the tradition of Jack Vance and Roger Zelazny (with a touch of Cordwainer Smith-style invention).
At the conclusion of the first book, Phaethon of Radamanthus House, was left an exile from his life of power and privilege. Now he embarks upon a quest across the transformed solar system--Jupiter is a second sun, Mars and Venus terraformed, humanity immortal--among humans, intelligent machines, and bizarre life-forms, to recover his memory, to regain his place in society and to move that society away from stagnation and toward the stars. And most of all Phaethon's quest is to regain ownership of the magnificent starship, the Phoenix Exultant, the most wonderful ship ever built, and to fly her to the stars.
It is an astounding story of super-science, a thrilling wonder story that recaptures the verve of SF's Golden Age writers The Phoenix Exultant is a suitably grand and stirring fulfillment of the promise shown in The Golden Age and confirms John C. Wright as a major new talent in the field.
About the Author
John C. Wright, a journalist and a lawyer turned SF and fantasy writer, lives with his wife and son in Centreville, Virginia.
The Phoenix Exultant FROM THE PUBLISHER
"The Phoenix Exultant is a continuation of the story begun in The Golden Age and, like it, a grand space opera in the tradition of Jack Vance and Roger Zelazny (with a touch of Cordwainer Smith-style invention)." At the conclusion of the first book, Phaethon of Radamanthus House was left an exile from his life of power and privilege. Now he embarks upon a quest across the transformed solar system - Jupiter is a second sun, Mars and Venus terraformed, humanity immortal - among humans, intelligent machines, and bizarre life-forms, to recover his memory, to regain his place in society, and to move that society away from stagnation. Most of all, Phaethon's quest is to regain ownership of the magnificent starship, the Phoenix Exultant, the most wonderful ship ever built, and to fly her to the stars.
FROM THE CRITICS
The New York Times
In fact, like its predecessor, The Phoenix Exultant is a philosophical novel in high-tech dress. The action sequences, for all their verve, seem like mere interludes between the ethical and epistemological debates. For every sentence like ''the main energy cell in his breastplate opened into a single, all-consuming beam of atomic flame,'' there are many sentences like ''chaos theory produces sufficient variation in events, that no one stratagem maximizes win-loss ratios,'' and ''within the useful energy-life of the macrocosmic universe, there is at least one maximum state of efficient operations or entities that could be created, able to manipulate all meaningful objects of thoughts and perception within the limits of efficient cost-benefit expenditures.'' — Gerald Jonas
Kirkus Reviews
Wright's extraordinary far-future space opera continues (The Golden Age, 2002). Once powerful, privileged, wealthy, and immortal, Phaethon of Rhadamanthus House defied the ruling Hortators. Now he's penniless, mortal, and isolated from the data banks, tools, and Sophotects (artificial intelligences) he once took for granted; anyone who speaks with him must share his exile. Even his memories are suspect. Phaethon claims he was attacked by Nothing Sophotect, a representative of the Silent Ones who derive from a colony established at Cygnus X1 to exploit the energy available from its black hole. However, according to the Hortators, the colonists went insane, destroyed everything, and dived into the black hole—therefore Phaethon must have been the victim of a cruel prank. Phaethon's sole remaining asset is his fabulous suit of impervious space armor and its sophisticated nanotechnology. His beautiful spaceship, the Phoenix Exultant, the fastest and most powerful ever built, is now owned by impoverished Neptunians and in danger of being sold for scrap. And Daphne, his beloved wife, has retreated into endless computer-generated dreams. A copy of Daphne, secretly advised by Rhadamanthus Sophotect that Phaethon is neither criminal nor insane, wants to help Phaethon and willingly joins him in exile. Phaethon gratefully accepts her help, but she's still a copy, and he can't allow himself to love her as if she were his real wife. And in less than a month, Transcendence will occur, setting the direction and structure of society for a thousand years to come. Witty, inventive, labyrinthine, with a life-sized cast, Wright's creation—something like Alexander Jablokov meets Charles Sheffield,with a dash of Gene Wolfe—grows steadily more addictive.
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