Exultant

October 25, 2004
Military SF fans will relish the second entry in Baxter's Destiny's Children trilogy, set long after the events recounted in 2003's Coalescent
. When navy pilot Pirius and his crew violate protocol during a skirmish with the alien Xeelee and end up capturing a ship from "mankind's most ancient and most powerful foe," instead of accolades, two versions of Pirius—Pirius Red and Pirius Blue, from different time lanes—receive punishment. Pirius Red accompanies the eccentric Nilis (we know he's odd because he never wears shoes) to the Earth system to research the captured ship and concoct a way to end the war, while Pirius Blue is sent in disgrace to the Xeelee front for army combat training. As Pirius Red explores the solar system, picking up clues to create a strategy to defeat the Xeelee by striking at their home system, Pirius Blue narrowly escapes death in combat and grows into a leader. Both come to question the doctrines that guide their lives as they realize the extent of their military conditioning. Weak characterization mars an otherwise well-told story as fast-paced action sequences flip to long, dry discussions about physics. Not content with one drop-dead hard-science idea, Baxter concatenates them, one building on the other; even his aliens represent ideas. Female readers may wish the author would take some lessons on portraying romance from Sharon Shinn. Agent, Ralph Vicinanza.

March 1, 2005
Adult/High School -In humankind's Third Expansion, the species has spread throughout the galaxy and assimilated all challengers but the mysterious Xeelee; in a 20,000-year stalemate, humans have kept them at bay in the galaxy's center. Time travel (used by both sides to gather intelligence) creates numerous "drafts" of time lines, but apart from this uncertainty the endless war has brought about a strangely static human society. Soldiers and pilots are bred in vats near the Front and taught only war; few survive past their teens. When Prius, a young pilot, captures a Xeelee ship and takes it to the recent past for study, an innovative program is begun to develop new weapons technology. While Prius Blue (the pilot from the future time line, now stuck in this one) is sent to the Front, the younger Prius Red (from this time line) must travel throughout the solar system with an eccentric but brilliant scientist in a quest for knowledge needed for the anti-Xeelee weapon. Working with widely differing elements of society, Red learns many secrets he'd rather not know, adjusts to new knowledge, and grows into a leadership role: he heads up Exultant, the elite squadron tasked with deploying the new weapon. Even in a genre characterized by unfettered imagination, Baxter's future universe is extraordinary in its depth, breadth, and richness of invention. Cutting-edge physics, subtle humor, time-travel paradoxes, and loopy twists combine to give readers a wonderfully original sci-fi experience. It can be read independently of "Coalescent" (Ballantine, 2004), which is set in the same universe but mostly in the present age." -Christine C. Menefee, Fairfax County Public Library, VA"

Copyright 2005 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 15, 2004
In the sequel to " Coalescent" [BKL N 15 03], humanity has been at war with the Xeelee for thousands of years. Pirius becomes one of the war's temporal paradoxes by escaping a battle by means of another pilot's use of time travel. Xeelee ship in tow, he and crew return to base two years before they left. Rather than hailed as heroes, they're sent down to the infantry. Pirius Red, Pirius' two-years-younger self, and squeeze Torec go to Earth in the care of Commission for Historical Truth member Nilis, who sees opportunity to end the war in Pirius' successful maneuver in defeating the Xeelee. But the Xeelee also use time-travel paradoxes, so hiding what the good guys are doing is as essential as striking the base of Xeelee operations, the galaxy's central black hole, Chandra. Interwoven with Nilis, Pirius, and company's efforts is the story of strange ancient civilizations, a story that leads eventually to Nilis realizing Chandra's true significance. Baxter is in top form in this combination of hard science and grand adventure.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2004, American Library Association.)