The Phoenix Exultant: or, Dispossessed in Utopia (Hardcover)

by John C. Wright (Author) "He opened the door onto a crowded boulevard of matter-shops, drama-spaces, reliquaries, shared-form communion theaters, colloquy-salons, and flower parks..." (more)
Key Phrases: noetic reader, immortality circuit, base neuroform, Golden Oecumene, Phoenix Exultant, Silent Ones (more...)

Editorial Reviews

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
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Description
Continuing the story begun in The Golden Age, The Phoenix Exultant is a grand space opera in the tradition of Jack Vance and Roger Zelazny (with a touch of Cordwainer Smith). It is an astounding story of super science, a thrilling wonder story that recaptures the verve of SF's golden age writers. At the conclusion of the first book, Phaethon of Rada-manthus House was left an exile from his life of power and privilege. Now he embarks upon a quest across a transformed solar system-Jupiter is a second sun, Mars and Venus terraformed, hu-manity immortal. Phaethon journeys among humans, intelligent machines, and bizarre life forms, striving to recover his memory, to regain his place in society, and to move that society away from stagnation and toward the stars. 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.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; 1st edition (May 16, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765304325
• ISBN-13: 978-0765304322
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,135,405 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Extraordinary bridge for an extraordinary trilogy., August 9, 2004

By	Christian Hunter "Christian hunter" (Austin, TX and Santa Barbara, CA,) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Phoenix Exultant: The Golden Age, Volume 2 (Mass Market Paperback)

I abstained from writing reviews on any volumes of this trilogy until and unless I finished them all. I just recently completed the final volume of The Golden Age Trilogy, and am happy to report that each book is a wonderful read in its own right.

For me, the first was a mind-bending introduction into a world so strange, so fascinating, it took an entire volume to get me comfortable with the basic attributes of the environment. This book, the second volume in the trilogy was a real treat to read. I was already comfortable with the "user interface" of GA, and the plot unfolded with less strain. The third book, Golden Transcendence is the most remarkable of them all.

But back to Phoenix Exultant. I won't spoil any of the developments this book offers (warning: some reviews below do), and it's difficult (having read all 3) to parse out what is now a blended understanding, but some general impressions:

This was a much more exciting read than the first book. Phaethons transition from immortal to mortal, his struggle for survival, and the effects such turmoil had on his basic belief system was at times mindblowing. The effects environment has in changing or reinforcing a mans basic virtue is always interesting, but when that man is thousands of years old, well, infinitely more so.

It was also intriguing to explore the basic history, tendencies, and roles each major character (and neuroform) play in this colorful and highly detailed future. In particular, the relationship between Daphne (Phaethons wife), their present, and VERY interesting past.

If you're like me, you'll sail through this book and enjoy every minute of it. Trust that as good as the first two volumes are, John Wright saved the best for last.

Enjoy

Christian Hunter
Santa Barbara, California

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An elaborate bridge between start and finish, June 17, 2004

By	M. S. Hillis (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

John C. Wright has done it again with a fantastic follow-up to "The Golden Age", which set the stage for a sweeping space opera pitting an adventerous soul against a complacent and stagnating society.

"The Phoenix Exultant" begins with our hero, Phaethon, in exile. He finds relative safety in a Seussian town peopled by the dregs and outcasts of the Golden Oecumene. Phaethon is trying to reclaim his ship, from which the book takes its title, but to do so he must first overcome the vice and lethargy of those around him, skirt the terms of his exile, and battle agents of his unknown enemy.

One of Mr. Wright's strengths is his ability to craft an amazing array of fascinating characters, and he certainly delivers again in this book. We learn quite a bit more about Phaethon's wife, Daphne. Or rather, it is a close copy of Daphne, which sets the stage for interesting complications in the love story. Some reviewers found the Daphne subplot too corny, but I felt it charming. Other interesting characters include, but are not limited to, Old-Woman-Of-The-Sea, the Bellipotent Composition, and the soldier Atkins, who sees a little action. There are many more characters, and Mr. Wright helpfully includes a lengthy list of "dramatis personae" at the beginning of the tale to help readers keep track.

The book also continues the philosophic and moral themes begun in the first volume. Phaethon, a man of ability, intelligence and ambition opposed in the first book by society's elite for threatening the peaceful order of civilization, is challenged in this story by the lowest rung of humanity, people who prefer to lose themselves to drugs or computer stimulation rather than to engage in productive and satisfying work. Phaethon also grapples with fundamental questions when he realizes whom he is fighting and comes to understand that they stand for everything anathema to his understanding of a rational and sane universe. Those looking for something meaty in their space opera will find plenty to gnaw on here.

As in the first book, there is plenty of imaginative technology kicking about Mr. Wright's future. He avoids the temptation to flaunt fundamental physics like the Second Law of Thermodynamics and the Special Theory of Relativity, but delights in speculating about the far-out possibilities offered by quantum weirdness and computing on a planetary scale. Practically each page has something weird and wonderful that would be worthy of a short story in its own right.

Finally, the writing is simply great. These novels have more in common with classic literature and plays than with the gritty, journalistic/pulp style that marks much science fiction today. It has been a long time since I've had the pleasure of simply savoring dialogue and turns of phrase in a science fiction book.

If there's anything negative to say about "The Phoenix Exultant" it is that it is wedged between two stronger tales (the sequel is "The Golden Trascendence", which I read before writing this review). The first book concluded by saying Phaethon's tale would be wrapped up in "The Phoenix Exultant", so it appears Mr. Wright may have had too much material for one sequel. This proved to be a good thing since the trilogy definitely stands as is, but the second volume perhaps suffered slightly by being made into a bridge between the firmer shores of the first and third books.

Nonetheless, I wholeheartedly recommend this book for those who liked the first one.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Imaginative but stiff, March 25, 2004

By	Unumunum "careful shopper" (TX United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Phoenix Exultant: The Golden Age, Volume 2 (Mass Market Paperback)

I did enjoy the wonderful flights of imagination in this and the previous book of the trilogy (I'll read the third when it comes out in paperback). It was pleasant to think about what life would be like in a future where every desire could be immediately satisfied, every thought brought to physical reality, and you are immortal. In the course of the story Wright does a fine job of making us aware of the kinds of problems such immense power would create, and the various constraints and adaptations the society employs (modes of consensual reality, "schools" of behavior) in order to keep things from becoming completely chaotic are entertaining.

I do have some criticisms. The story itself is pretty thin, certainly not worth three volumes. The entire narrative is a simple third-person description of what the protagonist says and does and thinks (well, there are some brief sequences about the father and the wife). A more skillful writer might have added dimensionality by weaving together various threads of the tale from multiple viewpoints and perspectives. The fact that literally anything can happen in a future where everybody is an immortal superman makes for some awfully convenient plot devices. The hero is stuck in a cliffhanger? No problem, his magic armor will save him at the last minute. Or the omniscient robot superintelligences will step in and fix things up. Or it was all a dream, etc. The relationships between the characters are wooden and superficial, the prose is packed with words having excessively many syllables, peoples names are a paragraph long.

But then many works of science fiction are like this. The authors are big on imagination and somewhat shorter on basic storytelling skills. I guess it sounds like I didn't like this book but not so. If you like hard science fiction then I recommend it.