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Meaney is regular Interzone contributor. Volume 2 of Nulapeiron, an epic British SF space opera trilogy sets Tom Corcoran against the Anomaly, a mysterious new foe.
Context is the middle volume in John Meaney’s Epic Nulapeiron Space Opera trilogy. John Meaney’s first short story appeared in Interzone , alongside Greg Egan, amongst others, though it needed later, better stories, such as the wonderful British Science Fiction Award short-listed ‘Sharp Tang’ to bring Meaney to prominence. Then he seemed to fade away. Meaney switched to writing novels, and much of the last decade has been spent on one enormous trilogy. This year he finally finished off – after six years and fifteen hundred pages – his colossal Nulapeiron Sequence comprising Paradox, Context and Resolution. With two distinct story-lines running in tandem for almost the entire trilogy, the books are both prequels and sequels to Meaney’s first novel, To Hold Infinity, and include a 1994 short story, ‘Parallax Transform’, as well as sharing a fictional universe with a novella, ‘The Whisper of Disks.’ Paradox is reviewed elsewhere, as is Resolution. Context cleverly opens with a supplementary crisis; with Tom almost at death’s door from delayed reaction to the injuries that he suffered at the end of Paradox. Tom’s injuries gradually heal, but while he is convalescing, he encounters a Seer, who has many of the same powers as the Oracles. Tom realizes that he is in love with Elva, one of his staff, who has until now been one of a huge cast of characters, but who in dying in mysterious circumstances, assumes almost mythic status in Toms’ mind. His discovery that she may live provides one of the major narrative thrusts of Context. The other is provided by The Blight, a mysterious power that enslaves the areas that it infests, and turns them into hapless drones, which now threatens the whole of Nulapeiron. Context is clearly the middle book of the trilogy, filled with brief little infodumps to give the reader a sense of what has gone before, without slowing the story down. It was during reading Context that the jump-cuts that permeate both novels become tiresome: One of the staples of SF since the 1940’s Astounding is the stylistic trick of throwing the reader into a scene or setting – the more alien the better -- and gradually explaining. It’s a staple because SF readers love this puzzle, but after a thousand pages of each new chapter opening elsewhere and Meaney backfilling, the technique begins to pall. One of the difficulties Nulapeiron shares with Lord of The Rings, A Fire Upon the Deep and other big-sellers where a plucky David is faced with an all-consuming Goliath is how to characterize rampant evil. To be honest, Meaney doesn’t even try. The Blight is big, nasty, and its going to eat them. That’s all the characterization the reader needs. Meaney does many things well. Corcoran is an effective lead in the Paul Atreides role, and if the reader likes their space opera big and fast and laced with a genuine whiff of the future, then they could do worse than give Paradox, Context and Resolution a try. Things seem to be finally coming together for Meaney’s career, with the completion of the Nulapeiron Sequence, the re-issue of To Hold Infinity by Pyr, and the new novel Bone Song published in March 2007. Not before time.
The copyright of the article Context by John Meaney in Space Opera is owned by Colin Harvey. Permission to republish Context by John Meaney in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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