Just finished Exultant by Stephen Baxter. This is the 2nd book in the Destiny’s Children series, and is nominally a sequel to Coalescent. As outlined in the comments to the previous post about the 1st book Exultant isn’t really a direct sequel. It has none of the characters from the first book in it, and it is set 25,000 years in the future. However it is a sequel in the sense that the ideas in the book about humanity and their relationships are core. Exultant outlines a story against a backdrop and history that has seen humanity near extinction after Earth was occupied by aliens; the overthrow of the occupation; and then the expansion of humans throughout the Galaxy over many millennia with wars against other aliens on the way. One war against the Xeelee aliens has been going on so long that it has become the norm and has been a stalemate at a front near the centre of the Galaxy for 3,000 years. Exultant tells the story of the humans engaged in the war on the front (and the appalling attrition they endure – 10 billion killed every year). There is a focus on a few individuals to carry the story forward. It also intertwines their story with the efforts of one of the ruling class from Earth to find a way to end the 3,000 year stalemate and find a way to end (win!!) the war. I really liked it. It’s a good hard sci-fi story that spans the galaxy, whilst at the same time getting down and dirty with the combat troops and spacecraft pilots engaged in battle.
Some of the themes that are developed in Coalescent are also in this book. Such as the way human communities can develop a goal orientated existence or as hive-like structures over time to help ensure the survival of the species as a whole. This is evident to a minor extent in the way the soldiers who are bred, born and die for the war deep in the heart of the Galaxy bond together in their fight for humanity (even though they have never, and will never visit Earth), and in a major way in the eusocial colonies that are glimpsed in the book (the archive on Mars).
