Exultant (Destiny's Children)

this book sort of seems like the odd one out when compared to the other novels in the destiny's children series (coalescent and transcendent are more like each other), but i really do like this one the most. although it is part of a series, i would say it is a stand-alone novel. it is more in continuation of the xeelee sequence than the others (even resplendent only contributes a little). jeez it just makes more sense and doesn't seem like a random story from the past as coalescent and transcendent do. regardless of all that: this book has fantastic characters and writing and if you like hard scifi, you will like this book.

This is one author I look forward to reading, particularly because of the science suffusing his works. I'm not a big fan of astro-physics per se. Call me crass, but pulsars and their ilk just don't excite me. Nevertheless, the scientific ideas presented and speculated on in this book are truly profound. I also like the character development and the storyline. Against a backdrop of gigantic scale this book engenders deep thought about what it means to be human. Bottom line, it's an A+.

If you like science fiction you will like this book. It is imaginative, has some original ideas, and you care about the characters. While it would be good to read the first book in this series (coalescent), it isn't absolutely necessary. This second book in the series is set around 25,000 years to the future of the first book. It is a galaxy perpetually at total war. Humans have exterminated every alien species they meet, and now have a group of the last remaining aliens fighting a hugh several thousand-year-old battle at the very center of the galaxy, at a black hole named Chandra. Billions of soldiers are bred, conditioned, and die before their 20th birthdays, as they are basically hurled at the enemy, to keep the aliens from ultimately attacking earth. The story begins with one young pilot actually capturing an alien ship. This has never happened before. When he brings it back to base, he is punished for his initiative. The fear is that anything that disturbs the equilibrium of perpetual battle may ultimately tip things in a bad direciton for us. What happens subsequently is the subject of the novel. And a very good one it is.

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