Exultant (Destiny's Children Series #2)

Baxter's 'Exultant' continues fascinating story of mankind's struggle against the Xeelee

Like me, I hope you have discovered a long time ago that when it comes to hard sci-fi and speculative fiction, Stephen Baxter ranks among the best. His previous novels dealing with the omnipresent, utterly alien Xeelee were fantastic glimpses into a far future where mankind battles for it's very survival. Baxter's writing style and characters, as well as his imaginative scientific concepts and ideas, make for thoroughly enjoyable reading and 'Exultant' is no exception. As the 2nd book in the 'Destiny's Children' series, Exultant tells the story of a distant future where humanity's war with the dreaded Xeelee, lasting thousands of years, has resulted in a stalemate at the center of the galaxy. The book also tells the story of a pilot named Pirius, who, by disobeying orders and initiating time travel during a battle, not only captures a Xeelee 'nightfighter' space craft but also creates another Pirius by arriving in a not too disatnt past shared by his younger self. With the help of a kind and visionary bureaucrat from Earth, Commissary Nilis, a bold plan is hatched with Pirius Red (younger version) and Pirius Blue (older version)to finally defeat the Xeelee with new technological advances and a handpicked group of brave pilots known as Exultant Squadron. Exultant is a fast paced, exciting novel about space warfare on a grand scale. As with Baxter's related novella ' Riding the Rock', the action sequences in Exultant describe a futuristic battlefront that is literally mind-blowing in it's vastness and scope along with the energies involved and the unbelieveable cost in human lives and resources. Yet again mankind is locked in a death struggle with the Xeelee, alien masters of time and space that utilize technologies barely understood by the finest minds in a military effort that encompasses the entire human race. Baxter lets the readers' imagination run wild regarding the enigmatic Xeelee as he has yet to describe their physical appearance in any of his works. 'Exultant' lets the reader share in the astonishment of Nilis and Pirius Red as they explore and test the capabilities of the Xeelee nightfighter and the realization that perhaps this piece of captured technology may be used against the Xeelee themselves. Indeed, throughout all his 'Xeelee Sequence' novels Baxter has painted a picture of a race so mysterious that the reader is left wondering...Are the Xeelee actually their machines? Another concept that is touched upon in Exultant and was the basis for 'Coalescent', the first novel in the Destiny's Children series, was the idea of a human hive. Baxter chillingly describes the process by which dense populations of humans, living undergound and in close promimity to one another will eventually evolve into a hive society not unlike that of insects. In Exultant, two separate incursions by normal humans into 'coalescents' or human hives make for fascinating and possibly disturbing reading. All in all, as with his other books, Stephen Baxter's 'Exultant' is science fiction at it's very best. The fun part of reading Baxter's novels and immersing yourself in his universe it that there are common threads that he deftly weaves throughout his stories that one recognizes. These inter-relationships allow the reader to share in his unique vision and finally come to a sobering conclusion...In the Xeelee universe, there is another force at work that even the Xeelee are powerless against.

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History of the Cosmos..well, it could be

Set in the distant future when all of mankind is geared towards fighting a galactic war with the incomprehensibly advanced Xelee. This war has lasted for over 3000 years and mankind, following the strictures of Hama Druz, has become a military machine, with children occupying the frontline in a war of attrition that is slowly being lost. Pirius is a young pilot whose career appears blighted with the appearance of his future self from a discontinued timeline. His future self has escaped from a future battle by disobeying the rules and the present Pirius must share his punishment. Using a neat pun on the Doppler Effect, the future Pirius becomes Pirius Blue and the present Pirius, a resentful Pirius Red. Pirius Blue brings with him knowledge that could allow mankind to defeat the Xelee. The story follows three threads, one from the birth of the universe describes the background of the Xelee and their predecessors. The other two follow the fortunes of Pirius Red going back to Earth and delving into the past and Pirius Blue fighting with a punishment battalion on an asteroid. The three threads combine to form a rousing conclusion in a climactic battle. This book combines the best of 'hard' science with sympathetic characters and a touch of Space Opera to present what I expect from Stephen Baxter; an excellent piece of Science Fiction!

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Fascinating

Humanity has been at war with the Xeelee for three thousand years. Thanks to FTL spaceships that enables movement through time the aliens know what humans are going to do before they do it. Although the future is always in a state of flux and mankind has one great advantage over the Xeelees in that the human population is so much greater than the Xeelees, which enables them to confine the enemy to the center of the galaxy.................... Humanity has not been able to penetrate the alien base operations at Chandra the black hole although millions have died trying. While trying to evade a Xeelee ship, pilot Pirius ignores his orders by fighting the enemy; he manages to catch the alien spaceship, something never done before. He brings it back into human space two years in the past where he meets his seventeen-year old self. Both are put on trial for disobeying orders. The older Pirius is transferred to a penal asteroid while the younger version is taken under the wing of Commissary Nilis who believes the young man will be a great help to finally resolving the Xeelee problem...................... Although there are two Pirius in this story about, the future history of mankind depends on the younger version who has not been battle scarred and believes in the mission the Commissary is pursuing. Stephen Baxter¿s; second installment of ¿Destiny¿s Children¿ is nothing short of brilliant as it shows a future in which mankind is brought up to fight a war and die young, not leaving a trace of their passing. EXULTANT is an exciting look at a seemingly bleak future that one hopes never happens............................ Harriet Klausner

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