The Phoenix Exultant: The Golden Age, Volume 2

By John C. Wright

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.



At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Publishers
• Release date: Apr 1, 2007
• ISBN: 9781429915588

John C. Wright

JOHN C. WRIGHT is an attorney turned SF and fantasy writer. He has published short fiction in Asimov’s SF and elsewhere, and wrote the Chronicles of Chaos, The Golden Age, and The War of Dreaming series. His novel Orphans of Chaos was a finalist for the Nebula Award in 2005.

Reviews for The Phoenix Exultant

[dulac3_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

2.5 - 3

Wow, I was really disappointed with this one, especially considering how much I had enjoyed its predecessor. In many ways this just did not feel like a true continuation of the first book in the series. One of the major stumbling blocks for me was that I just couldn't believe the way Wright handled the voices he used for the characters in this volume. Considering his mannered and baroque set up in the previous volume I found the dialogue to be way too colloquial (and 20th cent. colloquial at that). Now maybe he was trying to show Phaeton 'stepping down' a level, both
socially due to his exile and intellectually due to his loss of certain artificial brain upgrades, but it really grated on me. Atkins and Daphne were also throwing around way too much colloquial verbiage in my humble opinion.

I also think Wright relied far too much on exposition for character actions and motives...he told us way more than he showed us, as if he felt he had to explain all of the details to us because we'd never figure it out for ourselves.

I understand that these characters are posthumans who are able to modify themselves in various ways, but it seemed like the character of Daphne became a completely differtent person. She goes from victim to hero in one mighty leap that has no explanation...I guess she must have downloaded the Nancy Drew persona since the last volume.

Ultimately, in looking back after I finished it, it seemed that not very much really *happened* in the course of the novel. Phaeton just acts more or less clueless and like a pompous ass and eventually finds the loopholes (and hidden allies) he needs thanks to the plot master (don't look behind the curtain!).

Certainly it wasn't all bad, but the sensawunda and deeper level of thought and execution of the first volume were missing for the most part.