his is the first book in The Nulapeiron Sequence. The second, Context, has already appeared in Meaney's native United Kingdom.
On an alien world in the 35th century, we find the underground civilization of Nulapeiron. While the inhospitable surface of the planet is being terraformed—a long process—humanity has filled up many strata below the soil with a strange society. The topmost levels of the underground civilization are dominated by Lord and Ladies, who enjoy ease, elegance, intellectual and hedonistic pursuits. Their elite lives are balanced on the backs of the hoi polloi who live below them, but also on the functioning of 5,000 Oracles, altered beings who can foresee their future in "truecasts." The power of prophecy permits perfect control.
Down on one of the lowest levels we encounter our hero, a youth named Tom Corcorigan. The son of a simple merchant, Tom lives a constrained life, against the frustrating borders of which his native intelligence continually pushes. When he is given a mysterious data-crystal by an exotic individual known as a Pilot, his life is primed for massive changes. For one thing, the crystal contains the lifestory of one of the first Pilots from 1,500 years ago, a narrative that plays out in parallel with Tom's life.
At first, the changes the crystal seems to bring are all bad. Tom's mother is kidnapped by an Oracle, and his father dies. Orphaned, Tom is sent by a family friend to the Ragged School, several levels below. There his hard-knock education begins in earnest. One day Tom is framed for a crime. He loses an arm as punishment, but is taken as a servant into the household of Lady Darinia, ruler of the entire demesne, or country. (Nulapeiron is divided into various territorial volumes.) At first a mere kitchen servant in a living Palace, Tom begins by native wit and the patronage of sympathetic nobles to work his way up the social ladder. After many years full of adventure and trials, he finds himself at the ultimate rung: entry into the nobility. Now Tom can use his new status to exact his long-delayed revenge against the Oracle who ruined his mother.
But what he does not count on is that his newfound method of killing an omniscient being will appeal to other rebels, who want to start a revolution to bring Nulapeiron crashing down in chaos.
A planetside "space opera"
John Meaney's rich, complex, baroque novel (his second, after his debut with To Hold Infinity [1998]) is recognizable from the outset as a unique milestone in the SF field, at least that corner of the genre that concerns Vancian societies embedded in a larger interstellar context. Yet this book is so cleverly and knowingly respectful of its predecessors, and so resonant with past masterpieces, that veteran readers will find themselves nodding sagely at various points, saying, "Yes, yes, I can see his inspiration here, or the source of that homage. ... "
In its biography of the orphaned youth who rises from the gutter to the Palace, it brings to mind Heinlein's A Citizen of the Galaxy (1957) or Keith Laumer and Rosel George Brown's Earthblood (1966).
In its examination of the limitations and powers of a precog caste and an elite corps of extrahuman Pilots, it reminds us of Herbert's Dune (1965).
In its conjuring of new scientific paradigms and philosophies, it harks back to two Delany classics—Babel-17 (1966) and Nova (1968)—as well as to recent novels by Damien Broderick.
In its portrayal of new modalities of learning and of organizing society, it reminds us of newer work by John C. Wright.
In its use of the revenge plot, we find traces of Bester's driving motivation from The Stars My Destination (1956), which in turn of course is derived from Dumas.
Finally, in its outre exoticism and offhand references to half-explained concepts, it summons up comparisons to the comics work of Alejandro Jodorowsky.
But Meaney's sizable talents are a melting pot in which all these various influences boil down to their constitutent story elements and are reforged into a coherent vision. The result? A landmark work.
The fate of Tom is always both emotionally involving and intellectually stimulating. The issues of social justice raised are dealt with intelligently and vitally. And the amount of genuine SF speculation, incorporating up-to-date science, is impressive.
This book illustrates how powerful the SF mode remains, after a century of use, as an instrument of adventure narrative, philosophical discourse and cognitive estrangement.
