Resolution (Book III of the Nulapeiron Sequence) [Paperback]

John Meaney (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2008

The war against The Blight is over, and the subterranean realms of Nulapeiron have a chance for peace. But Tom Corcorigan, revolutionary and war hero, newly married and longing for the quiet life, knows that a greater force threatens his world: the planet-consuming Anomaly, which has absorbed billions of humans and alien beings into itself. Tom's association with the disembodied Eemur's Head, the flensed and bloody remains of a powerful Seer, changes him into something more than a poverty-stricken Lord. The spacetime-warping science of Seers and Oracles penetrates the heart of reality, bringing new enemies and allies into Tom's life. And his story crystal, gift from a mysterious mu-space Pilot, reveals more of the Pilots' history and true nature, and the existence of their home in a universe no ordinary human being can experience: the strange, shifting, living fractal city that is Labyrinth. Soon the Anomaly, an evil far more powerful than its offspring Blight, rips into the world, decimating the human realms. Among the free humans who survive in the floating terraformer spheres of Nulapeiron's skies, only the forces commanded by Tom Corcorigan have the smallest of chances against this omnipotent invader. For only a Warlord who is no longer human, who is willing to sacrifice everything, can deliver humanity from darkness. RESOLUTION concludes the trilogy of Nulapeiron tales featuring Tom Corcorigan, bringing the story to a triumphant climax and revealing the devastating secret of the Oracles' creation

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

British author Meaney brings his ambitious saga exploring the nature of space and time to a triumphant conclusion. Tom Corcorigan, the logosopher and one-armed warrior who almost singlehandedly defeated the alien force Dark Fire in the previous book in the trilogy, Context (2005), must cultivate the worst excesses of Nulapeiron's aristocratic system to save the world as it faces complete assimilation into Dark Fire's alien Anomaly. On his honeymoon with his new bride, Elva Strelsthorm, Tom receives a "story crystal" that relates tales of Earth's next evolutionary descendants, the Pilots, who have the ability to navigate "mu-space" and time. Using logosophical concepts and the Pilots' knowledge of mu-space, Tom envisions a daring plan—to build a shield around his world that will keep it safe from the Anomaly. Fascinating and highly detailed, this third volume of Meaney's SF epic pulls all the various characters and their time lines together for an emotionally and intellectually satisfying finale. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

"Few characters in hard SF are more impressive...a fitting end to an intelligent and literate SF sequence." -- Jon Courtenay Grimwood author of Stamping Butterfies

"Immensely satisfying...a genuinely impressive trilogy, which also shows how an already impressive author can grow his work." -- Starburst

"The first important new SF writer of the 21st century." --The Times

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 495 pages
• Publisher: Prometheus Books (January 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1591026008
• ISBN-13: 978-1591026006
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.8 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,886,724 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I'm John Meaney (aka Thomas Blackthorne), writer of hard SF, gothic SF/dark fantasy, and near-future thrillers. Having studied physics and computer science, I've been an IT consultant and taught software engineering on three continents. Nowadays, I hide in a Welsh valley and write full-time.

I've trained in martial arts since I was a kid, primarily shotokan karate. I'm a trained hypnotist, so don't look into my eyes... And I adore cats.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A disappointing ending to a frustrating series, March 1, 2006

By 

Peter M Clark (Ann Arbor, Michigan) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Resolution (Nulapeiron Sequence) (Book III) (Hardcover)

OK. I confess. I liked this series enough to order the last book from Amazon in the UK, just so I wouldn't have to wait for it. (I also saved myself a couple bucks because it was available in paperback there). That having been said, I found this book at times wonderful and at others god-awful, just like the other two books in the series.

If you haven't read the first two books, then you need to know that this series involves a one-armed genius who is a combination fightin' and rock climbin' machine and also the liberator of his world. The inhabitants of the world (Nulapeiron) live in an extensive series of caves that honeycomb the entire planet.

The first book covers the protagonist's rise from rags to riches (and back down to rags again) as he battles the ingrained caste system of his world. The second book covers the fight against an energy creature called "The Blight" which is gradually taking over the world. The last book involves the battle against the Blight's Daddy, the Anomaly.

One of the saving graces of this book is the story-within-the-story, which consists of a series of vignettes which take place about 200 years from our own time, and which cover the creation of a race of uber-mensch called The Pilots. The Pilots have the ability to throw lightning bolts from their eyes and can exist in the sub-basement of the universe called "Mu-Space". You spend all three books trying to figure out how this story is going to move the main plot-line along.

One of the reasons I bought this book is because Charlie Stross (whose fiction I adore) recommended it as great "hard Science Fiction". It is not. If that is what you are looking for, don't shop here. It is techno-gibberish through and through. If you want great hard Science Fiction, stick with Charlie.

This book is much more a science fantasy, a space opera, with futeristic deus ex machina geegaws. About the time that you start reading about people with the ability to warp space and time, and who use "femtatech" (one million times smaller than nano - COOL!) you know that you need to let out the clutch on your suspension of disbelief and let it ride.

What to say about this book? It's like Bill Baldwin's Helmsman series, but without the well-rounded characters and scientific grounding (that's sarcasm, if you're not familiar with the series). Hey, don't get me wrong - I LIKE space opera. I own ever Helmsman and "Sten" book made, and eagerly await more. However, good space opera this is not. If you want THAT, try Julian May's Many Colored Land series.

In summary - this book has lots of mediocrity interspersed with enough periods of brilliance to make you grind you teeth and cry out for a better editor. It IS a page turner, though. Wait for it to come out in paperback, read it with your bedroom door closed and don't admit you ever read it.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Brings the story threads together to a good conclusion, April 15, 2005

By 

K. Maxwell "katmax1" (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Resolution (Paperback)

This is the final installment in the Nulaperion trilogy and the story of Tom Corcorigan. The revolution and the invasion of the Blight has come and gone and Tom is now together again with Elva. He is also the sole recepient of the wisdom in the severed head of the seerer Eemur. The head is severed, but still strangely alive and able to see the present with a searing clarity which she passes onto Tom.

However, there is a new threat on the horizion that will make the revolution/invasion in book 2 look like a child's play-pen, and Tom is proably the only person who can pull all of Nulapeiron together to fight it before they loose their world to a galaxy spanning engulfing darkness.

This was a satisfying conclusion to this series. It ties together the threads in books 1 & 2 and we finally get to see why the pilots story is so important to both Tom and his world and those fighting The Anomaly. All 3 books are told on a mythic scale of story-telling, but they do tend to fall into a bit of a noticable plot pattern at times. However, despite that I was egar to finish this series and was glad I read it. A keeper to be re-read at another time in the future, and a sci-fi series that successfully combines myth with science.

1.0 out of 5 stars Shouldn't have been a trilogy, December 21, 2008

By 

Christopher J. Phoenix (Menlo Park, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Resolution (Book III of the Nulapeiron Sequence) (Paperback)

Paradox, the first book in this series, was chock-full of ideas and story. There was some violence, but it advanced the story. Context, the second book, had fewer ideas and more violence. Resolution is chock-full of blood and gore, and very little story.

It does explain how the world got the way it was, but the explanation feels pro forma. The main character becomes more and more cardboard - painted in lurid colors. The action is also lurid, and the reader's emotions are force-fed.

I'm sorry I read it. Read Paradox - it's really quite good. Maybe read Context. But if you like Context less well than Paradox, don't read Resolution at all - just go online and find a plot summary with spoilers.