The Phoenix Exultant
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UNMOIQHOTEP QUATRO NEOMORPH of the Cthonnic school, of the Nevernext movement, whom Helion calls the “Cacophiles.”
Alternate Organization neuroform, commonly called
Warlocks:
AO AOEN, the Master-Dreamer, a Peer.
AO VARMATYR, one of the Lords-Paramount of the Silence, commonly called Swans.
NEO-ORPHEUS the Apostate, protonothary and chair of the COLLEGE of HORTATORS.
ORPHEUS MYRIAD AVERNUS, founder of the Second Immortality, a Peer.
Cortial-Thalamically Integrated neuroform, commonly called
Invariants:
KES SENNEC the Logician, a Peer.
Cerebelline neuroform:
WHEEL-OF-LIFE, an Ecological Mathematician, a Peer.
GREEN-MOTHER, the artiste who organizes the ecological performance at Destiny Lake.
OLD-WOMAN-OF-THE-SEA, of the Oceanic Environmental Protectorate.
DAUGHTER-OF-THE-SEA, a terraformer of Early Venus.
Mass-Mind Compositions:
The ELEEMOSYNARY COMPOSITION, a Peer.
The HARMONIOUS COMPOSITION, of the College of Hortators.
The BELLIPOTENT COMPOSITION (disbanded).
Nonstandard neuroforms:
VAFNIR of MERCURY EQUILATERAL STATION, a Peer.
XENOPHON of FARAWAY, Tritonic Neuroform Composure School, called the Neptunians.
XINGIS of NEREID, also called DIOMEDES, Silver-Gray School.
NEOPTOLEMUS, a combination of Diomedes and Xenophon.
Mortals:
VULPINE FIRST IRONJOY HULLSMITH, an Afloat.
OSHENKYO, an Afloat.
LESTER NOUGHT HAAKEN, an Afloat.
DRUSILLET ZERO SELF-SOUL, an Afloat.
SEMRIS of IO, an Ashore.
ANTISEMRIS, an Ashore.
NOTOR-KOTOK UNIQUE AMALGAMATED, an
Ashore.
An OLD MAN, gardener of a grove of Saturn trees, who claims to be of the Antiamaranthine Purist school, not otherwise identified.
Electrophotonic Self-Aware Entities:
Sophotechs:
RHADAMANTHUS, a manor-house of the SILVER-GREY school, million-cycle capacity.
EVENINGSTAR, a manor-house of the RED school, million-cycle capacity.
NEBUCHEDNEZZAR, advisor to the College of Hortators, ten-million-cycle capacity.
HARRIER, consulting detective, one-hundred-thousand-cycle capacity.
MONOMARCHOS, a barrister, one-hundred-thousand-cycle capacity.
AURELIAN, host of the Celebration, fifty-thousand-million-cycle capacity.
The ENNEAD consists of nine Sophotech groups, each of over a billion-cycle capacity, including WARMIND,
WESTMIND, ORIENT, AUSTRAL, BOREAL, NORTHWEST, SOUTHEAST, and others.
EARTHMIND, the unified consciousness in which all terrestrial machines, and machines in Near-Earth-Orbit, from time to time participate: trillion-cycle capacity.
Simulacra, Fictional Persons, Constructs:
COMUS, an avatar of AURELIAN.
SOCRATES and EMPHYRIO, constructs of NEBUCHEDNEZZAR.
The Justices of the CURIA.
SCARAMOUCHE, an extract of Xenophon the Neptunian.
The Envoy of DIOMEDES of NEREID.
MINOR CHARACTERS, INCLUDING HISTORICAL OR FICTIONAL PERSONS MENTIONED IN THE TALE:
AO ANDAPHANTIE, Daphne’s name when she was a warlockess.
AYESHA, a cottage-mind used by Daphne, ten-thousand-cycle capacity.
CURTIS MAESTRICT, the Parliamentary Protonothary, and a friend and client of Daphne’s.
JASON SVENTEN SHOPWORTHY, whose odd behavior has piqued the curiosity of the Sophotechs.
KSAHTRIMANYU HAN, the First Speaker of the Parliament.
UTE NONE STARK, Daphne’s mother.
YEWEN NONE STARK, Daphne’s father.
HISTORICAL AND FICTIONAL PERSONS:
Ao Enwir the Delusionist, famous for his treatise, “On the Sovereignty of Machines.”
Ao Ormgorgon Darkwormhole Noreturn of the Black Swan Coven, captain-monarch of the multigeneration starship Naglfar, and culture hero who founded the Silent Oecumene at Cygnus X-1.
Ao Solomon Oversoul, marshal of the jihad in service to the Witch-King of Corea, credited with orchestrating the defeat of the Bellipotent Composition during the Era of the Fifth Mental Structure.
Buckland-Boyd Cyrano-D’Atano, the first man to survive a Mars landing.
Chan Noonyan Sfih of Io, explorer who accidentally set fire to Pluto.
Demontdelune, an unfortunate who came to grief on the dark side of the moon.
Enghathrathrion, a celebrated poet of the late-period Fourth Mental Structure.
Hamlet, a character from a linear-experience simulacrum, William Shakespeare, Era of the Second Mental Structure.
Hanno, of Carthage, sailed down the coast of Africa. The first explorer whose name is recorded by history.
Harlequin, a clown from the French comic operetta, Era of the Second Mental Structure.
Jason, master of the Argo, who sailed to Golden Cheronese and returned with the Fleece.
Mancuriosco the Neuropathist.
Mother-of-Numbers, a Cerebelline mathematician, whose disquisition on Noetic Mathematics formed a foundation for Noumenal technology.
Neil Armstrong, first man to set foot on Luna.
Oe Sephr al-Midr the Descender-into-Clouds, early Jupiter explorer.
Scaramouche, a clown from the French comic operetta, Era of the Second Mental Structure.
Sir Francis Drake, Master of the Golden Hind, discovered the Northwest Passage.
Sloppy Rufus, the first dog to survive a Mars landing (Bucky-Boy Cyrano’s dog).
The Porphyrogen Composition, a noted sect of astronomers.
Ulysses, King of Ithaca, who sailed far to know the minds of men and their ways, returning from the underworld.
Vandonnar, according to pre-Ignition Jovian poetry, a cloud-diver so entirely lost in the storms surrounding the Great Red Spot, that even death found him unable to locate the course to the afterlife, and therefore Vandonnar circles eternally in the storm, forever seeking, forever lost.
Vanguard Single Exharmony, survived the first manned mission into the Solar Photosphere.
A Tom Doherty Associates Book New York
Books by John C. Wright
The Golden Age
The Phoenix Exultant
The Golden Transcendence (forthcoming)
This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this
novel are either fictitious or are used fictitiously.
THE PHOENIX EXULTANT; OR, DISPOSSESSED IN UTOPIA
Copyright © 2003 by John C. Wright
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or
portions thereof, in any form.
Edited by David G. Hartwell
A Tor Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010
www.tor-forge.com
Tor® is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.
eISBN 9781429915588
First eBook Edition : May 2012
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wright, John C. (John Charles), 1961 –
The Phoenix Exultant; or, Dispossessed in Utopia / John C. Wright.—1st ed.
p. cm.—(The golden age ; bk. 2)
“A Tom Doherty Associates Book.”
ISBN 0-765-30432-5 (alk. paper)
1. Life on other planets—Fiction. I. Title: Phoenix Exultant.
II. Title: Dispossessed in Utopia. III. Title.
PS3623.R54 P48 2003
813’.6—dc21
2002073280
First Edition: May 2003
e.