Book received: John Meaney

Next week I'm hoping to complete three long book reviews for Prometheus, the newsletter that I edit. Lo and behold, Pyr books drops a large, heavy volume at my doorstep, which I look forward to reading but will have to wait until those prior obligations are finished. John Meaney's Context looks quite interesting. In interview at SF Site from 2002, conducted by Lou Anders, British sf writer Meaney talks about his novel.

There's a dark force rising throughout Nulapeiron, known as the Blight, or the Dark Fire. It subsumes human beings, makes them insignificant components of a vast whole: an entity which bears the same relationship to a single human being as a person does to a bacterium. From small beginnings, realms undergo strange societal changes, until they become part of the Blight-occupied territories.

The US publication date is 2005. It's book two of a series, but the author promises each will work as a stand-alone book. Fantastic over painting by Jim Burns. More to follow...