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Phoenix Exultant (Volume 2 of The Golden Age) by John C. Wright check out website: www.tor.com
In the far future, technology has made humans immortal and AI 'Sophotechs' super-intelligent. In doing so, the society has become stagnant and afraid of death. Phaethon, the lead character, is thwarted at every turn from his plans by the richest Peers, who feel his changes as dangerous to a stable and so-called perfect society.
There are a large number of nice plot twists in here that future readers
would not forgive me for revealing, so I'll stay brief on that side of things.
Suffice to say that as Phaethon becomes more alienated from the majority of his
society, things get more exciting, more interesting and more enjoyable to read. The encounters with a group of exiled men stripped of their immortality
and Sophotech enhancements is the finest part of it, probably because in the complexities
of the super-intelligent politics it still gets occasionally confusing. The majority
of issues I had in the initial pages of the first book are not to be found here
though and, for the most part, I read through this sequel easily and with great
enjoyment. John C. Wright has improved incredibly even during these two books and his sheer invention and imagination holds great promise of his future work. His vast, transcendent characters of engineered personality types,
calculating but whimsical Sophotechs and assorted other weird creatures become
easily identifiable despite their extreme nature and the setting created is intricately
detailed. Many more books could be written in this universe but the true test
will come when another needs to be created. The plot gets stronger
and stronger as the reader gets further embroiled in the complex politics ten
thousand years into the future. Twists and turns in the plotline are often unexpected
and always intriguing. The ideas of a stagnant utopia are explored with a deft
touch and at no point does Wright fall into a clichéd piece of Space Opera.
This is originality to match the best. Banks, Clarke, Vance...it's not quite at
the level of those classics but it's well on the way. It took me a
while to be convinced of the first book. The second book passed with ease. I now
move onto the third book with relish. Tomas L. Martin
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OTHER REVIEWS - August 2004
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It took me a long time to get into the first book of John
C. Wright's 'Golden Age' trilogy. The writing was tough and impenetrable but steadily
improved as the book went on. Thankfully, the next book in the series, 'The Phoenix
Exultant' continues the improvement and proves to be a very good read.
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