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Type of bind: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN num: 9780765343543
ISBN number: 0765343541
Label: Tor Books
Manufacturer: Tor Books
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 320
Printing Date: October 19, 2003
Publishing house: Tor Books
Sale Popularity Level: 207575
Studio: Tor Books
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
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 very 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 fly her to the stars.
The Phoenix Exultantis an astounding story of super science, a thrilling wonder story that recaptures the verve of SF's golden age writers It 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. He concludes the Golden Age trilogy in The Golden Transcendence.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
-
First off, if you haven't read Wright's The Golden Age, just buy it. You could read Phoenix Exultant without having read it, but you would just be cutting yourself short on one of the most creative, visionary, and exciting science fiction trilogies.
Phoenix starts out right exactly where Golden Age stops. And pretty much just keeps plowing ahead. That may have sounded a little monotonous, but let me assure you Wright's epic is anything but. The most amazing aspect of Wright's writing, in my mind, is how he can cultivate a conflict and conspiracy, an enemy and allies that continue to evolve throughout this book and into the subsequent one.
This book, to me, was one adventure right after the subsequent with hardly any downtime in between. It's pretty much nonstop from start to finish. Mixing the movement of the plot with the action, you also have the zany but strangely familiar world Wright has created.What is so beautiful about this book, about the entire trilogy, is that the true conflict of the story lies in the impact of the technology of this future on mankind. That is the essential nature of science fiction.
So do I recommend it? Absolutely, especially if you like science fiction - but I highly recommend reading Golden Age first, and I'd even recommend trying to have Golden Transcendence on hand as well. That way you don't have to wait at all to continue the story.
Rated by buyers 
-
This is a direct contination of the story begun in the very first book, The
Golden Age. Our hero is now an outcast, as those in charge do not want
him around, and work out how to get rid of him. He now must make his
way among an outcast society, with no resources or assistance.
However, he does manager to garner allies, and meet some notable
characters, such as the last soldier in existence, who are able to give
him some clues.
Rated by buyers 
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You just know going into it that nothing much is going to happen in this second volume of The Golden Age trilogy, that author John C Wright is simply setting the stage for the last chapter. You know this not only because that's the way most trilogies are structured, but also because you've read that the publisher broke off this section of what was planned as a two-part work to make a financially rewarding third installment.
The Phoenix Exultant opens with our hero Phaethon beginning his exile on the Sri Lankan island of Talaimannar, a community of temporary and permanent exiles, a motley collection of the degenerate, the slothful and the drug and simulation addicted. True to his character, Phaethon upsets the established order by usurping what passes for the community's work boss and drug/sim supplier and launching small work projects to help his fellow exiles gain some degree of financial independence, projects from which Phaethon skims his share in order to buy communication time with the Neptunians, with whom he seals a contract to pilot his ship, the Phoenix Exultant. While amongst the lost, Phaethon meets up with another incarnation of Daphne, sent to help him escape his exile but who in the end seems to play no more significant role than comedic sidekick. Also on hand is Atkins, Earth's last soldier, an immortal military cliché who because of his existence outside the main computer net is able to help clarify bits of the plot.
By the time you open the very first chapter of The Golden Transcendence, the concluding volume of this trilogy, which begins like the first, with Phaeton having lost his memory, you realize you were right, that you could have perhaps read the last chapter or two of The Phoenix Exultant and not really missed anything of any great significance to the overall story. You would have also sparred yourself a pious exposition on poverty, "strength-of-the-will" bromides that when alluded to amongst Phaethon's social and economic peers were unremarkable, but when doled out barefaced to the dispossessed tend to stick in the craw.
Even so, Wright has done such a spectacular job imagining his world and his characters that it's easy to overlook these flaws and simply enjoy spending a few hours in The Golden Age.
Rated by buyers -
The second installment of the Golden Age trilogy is every bit as enjoyable as the first. The book should not be read on it's own because it is a direct continuation of the very first book, The Golden Age. The Golden Age saga is one long story, divided into three parts only because you couldn't contain the entire thing between two covers. After thousands of years, humans have evolved to a point that would be incomprehensible to our ancestors, integrating advanced technology into our biology, resulting in what appears to be a near utopian existence. Philosophical issues involving self determination and artificial intelligence, among others, are explored throughout the story making for a very thought provoking experience. I highly recommend this far future epic to all science fiction lovers as well as those interested in philosophical discussion.
Rated by buyers -
Rating System:
1 star = abysmal; some books deserve to be forgotten
2 star = poor; a total waste of time
3 star = good; worth the effort
4 star = very good; what writing should be
5 star = fantastic; must own it and share it with others
THE STORY:
Continuing right where Book1: The Golden Age left off, we find Phaethon exiled from society as he knows it. This story is of his endeavor to rise to power in a society where it is a crime to associate with Phaethon, as he works to regain control of his ship, The Phoenix Exultant, and still live out his dream of reaching the stars.
THE BOOK:
In this second of a trilogy the author looses much of the ethical debates of the very first book for one more physical in action. There still exists debates to boot, but the majority of the book is our protagonist and his allies working their way through the murk of deception and technology in order to identify who Phaethon's true enemy is and how a broke exile could leverage the system to gain him control of his ship again.
The setting, though away from the Peers and the rest of the Transcendence, remains vivid and colorful. Even in the areas of exiles and rejects, technology still is an overpowering force that governs the actions of men and Phaethon utilizes this to his advantage wherever possible.
The allies that emerge leave the reader glad for Phaethon and cheering...expectant of what is to come. Phaethon continues to show his intelligence as a protagonist which allows him to overcome obstacles that most of us would have shyed away from.
The story ends where one must again keep reading into the subsequent book, but that isn't a bad thing. That just means a great story continues.
OVERALL:
If you've read the very first book and enjoyed it you must keep reading. Once you read this book you'll feel compelled to keep reading more, as I am. So off I go to start the finale to this epic space saga. Don't miss out, get it and read it!
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