Publications: Reviews

EXULTANT by Stephen Baxter
Gollancz 2004 490pp £12.99 (trade paperback)

Exultant is the second book in Stephen Baxter’s new series Destiny’s Children. The focus expands wildly in this new volume. The first book (Coalescent) was almost entirely earth-bound -- but with tantalising hints of a distant star-faring future to whet the appetite. Baxter linked our past and present, and concentrated on a few individuals whose real significance was out of all proportion to what it seemed. Now Baxter has clearly linked the story of Destiny’s Children into his gigantic Xeelee future history series. The foundations he laid in Coalescent are well and truly built on and developed. And still the end isn’t in sight. Baxter keeps on turning up the volume.

Some twenty thousand years on, humanity has spread out into the Galaxy, and swept away all other races and cultures – except for the ancient, mysterious, and incredibly powerful Xeelee. They are now confined to the central part of the Galactic core, where a sort of trench warfare in space has ground to a precarious and bloody stalemate. Human culture is almost entirely geared to Total War, and the eventual final offensive to defeat the Xeelee. And as in the original “war to end all wars” most of the actual fighting is done by the young – by child soldiers.

Exultant is the story of two young men called Pirius (you will have to read the novel for an explanation of that!) and how they turn the war decisively in humanity’s favour – at least for now. Exultant is no simple military sf novel, going through the motions with plenty of gung-ho violence, and with the good guys winning out. The militarism of the future human society is all-pervasive, with Total War as its aim. But Baxter, as usual, draws all his main characters and their situations in varying shades. This gives the sense that no-one, human or alien, enjoying any absolute moral superiority. There are no goodies and baddies as such.

This is entirely appropriate. Baxter operates on Stapledonian perspectives. Set against everything is the Galaxy – no mere backdrop for action, but almost a character in its own right. Vast, implacable, and simply there – against the universe, the entire human race and its seemingly endless war against the Xeelee, is as nothing by comparison. The well-rounded characters and their desperate fights for survival are still totally insignificant in the long run. And with Children of Destiny we are in for the long run.  

Copyright (c) 2004 John Howard