{"product_id":"exultant-9780345457882","title":"Exultant","description":"\u003cp\u003eWhen it comes to cutting-edge science fiction  Stephen Baxter is in a league of his own. His mastery of hard science  his fearlessly speculative imagination  and his ability to combine grand philosophical questions with tales of rousing adventure make him essential reading for anyone concerned with the future of humankind. Now  in Exultant  Baxter takes us to a distant future of dazzling promise and deadly threat  in which a far-flung humanity battles for survival against an implacable alien foe.  Destinys Children EXULTANT  For more than twenty thousand years  humans have been at war with the alien race of Xeelee. It is a war fought with armaments so advanced as to be godlike  a war in which time itself has become an ever-shifting battleground. At the cost of billions of lives  and with ruthless and relentless efficiency  the ruling Coalition has pushed the Xeelee back to the galactic core  where the supermassive black hole known as Chandra serves the Xeelee as both fortress and power source.  There  along a front millions of light-years long  a grisly stalemate reigns  until a young pilot  Pirius  faced with certain death  disobeys orders and employs an innovative time-travel maneuver that  for the first time in the history of the war  results in the capture of a Xeelee fighter. But far from being hailed as a hero when he returns to base with his prize  Pirius is court-martialed  disgraced  and sentenced to penal servitude on a bleak asteroid.  It is not only Pirius who pays the price. In flying into the future and back again  Pirius returned to a time before hed left  a time inhabited by his younger self. And that younger self  by the pitiless logic of Coalition justice  shares the older Pirius guilt and must be punished. Not everyone in the Coalition agrees. Commissary Nilis believes that the elder Pirius  whom he dubs Pirius Blue  may have found a way to defeat the Xeelee. But Nilis can do nothing for Pirius Blue. Instead  he takes charge of the younger Pirius (Pirius Red)  and brings him back to Earth  the capital of a vast empire seething with intrigue.  There Pirius Red will discover truths that will shatter his preconceived notions of all that he is fighting for  even of what it means to be human. Pirius Blue  meanwhile  will learn truths harsher and more discomfiting still. Yet the most shocking revelation of all is still to come  waiting for them at a place called Chandra. . . .\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45647909126197,"sku":"ByrdShop_0345457889","price":26.71,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780345457882.jpg?v=1781699861","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/exultant-9780345457882","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}