Subject: Review of Exordium 1: The Phoenix in Flight

From: Jennifer Busick <[email-masked]>
Date: 27 Apr 1998 11:44:08 -0400

Exordium 1:  The Phoenix in Flight by Sherwood Smith and Dave Trowbridge
	Review Copyright 1998 Jennifer Busick

Jerrode Eusabian of Dol'jhar has waited twenty years to complete his
vengeance against Gelasaar hai-Arkad, Panarch of the Thousand Suns.
Eusabian's plans go awry when Gelasaar's wastrel third son, Brandon,
commits the unthinkable, unforgivable sin of refusing to show up for his
own coming-of-age ceremony, where Eusabian planned to have him killed.
With both of his brothers dead and Gelasaar captured, Brandon -- a drunken
womanizer and naval academy washout -- becomes the Panarchy's last hope.

Thus begins a vast and wonderful original space opera.  Smith and
Trowbridge have gone beyond the usual thinly created, loosely imagined
trappings of an interstellar society to create a fully realized political,
social, economic, military, and religious system.  It takes a little time
to get into this novel because of the complexity of the setting, but
readers will be richly rewarded for their effort.  The characters are
delightfully complex, from the implacable villain Eusabian and the
enigmatic Prince Brandon to the cold, inscrutable Rifter captain Vi'ya.
The space battles are the best I have ever read, making great use of
relativistic possibilities.  The alien species of the triune Kelly, the
telepathic Eya'a, and the ancient Ur are more than humans-in-costume or
afterthought set decoration, which was a pleasant surprise to this jaded
graduate of too many Star Trek novels.  The action is gripping,
hair-raising, edge-of-your-seat as Brandon beards the devil Eusabian in
his den and then escapes, an unlikely hero in improbable company.  More,
the book is laugh-aloud funny in places.  Kudos to Smith and Trowbridge.
This is how space opera should be done.

%A Sherwood Smith
%A Dave Trowbridge
%T The Phoenix in Flight
%I Tor
%C New York
%D February 1993
%G ISBN 0-812-52024-6
%O US$4.99 mass market paperback
%S Volume 1 of Exordium