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Probability Trilogy #3
Probability Space
As Probability Space opens, the future looks grim, though humanity has spread across the stars. Humans have gained control of a moon-sized, immensely powerful super-weapon abandoned by a long-gone alien race--an artifact that should protect humanity from its implacable enemy, the Fallers, a ruthlessly xenophobic alien race. Unfortunately, the Fallers have found another of these abandoned super-weapons, and if both are discharged at the highest setting at the same time, then the very fabric of space-time will be shredded, destroying not only all life in the universe, but the universe itself. But for the Fallers, victory may be more important than survival. And a violent military coup has put an insanely ambitious general in command of human space....
A novel of literary hard SF, Probability Space concludes the trilogy that begins with Probability Moon and includes Probability Sun. Author Nancy Kress has received the Hugo Award, the Sturgeon Award, and three Nebula Awards. --Cynthia Ward
368 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2002
20 people are currently reading
396 people want to read
About the author
Nancy Kress
453 books901 followersNancy Kress is an American science fiction writer. She began writing in 1976 but has achieved her greatest notice since the publication of her Hugo and Nebula-winning 1991 novella
Beggars in Spain
which was later expanded into a novel with the same title. In addition to her novels, Kress has written numerous short stories and is a regular columnist for Writer's Digest. She is a regular at Clarion writing workshops and at The Writers Center in Bethesda, Maryland. During the Winter of 2008/09, Nancy Kress is the Picador Guest Professor for Literature at the University of Leipzig's Institute for American Studies in Leipzig, Germany.
Excerpted from Wikipedia.
Excerpted from Wikipedia.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews
November 19, 2016
After reading the Probability series, I have come to the conclusion that Nancy Kress' greatest strength is getting the reader to turn the page. This is an important skill, because without it no one will read your books, but it doesn't necessarily make your books good. And Kress' Probability books have some major holes.
The biggest hole is character. Kress seems to feel the need to include an extremely annoying character in each book. Some people are annoying, and it stands to reason that some characters will be annoying as well, but if that character makes the reader want to put the book down, the author is doing something wrong. Character inconsistency is another problem, especially in Space, where Kaufman, previously my favorite, acts completely out of character and becomes a real ass. But the coupe de grace is that the big finale--the destruction of space-time as we know it--depends on two completely unbelievable characters: Admiral Pierce and the Fallers. One, supposedly intelligent enough to gain control of the entire empire, is too stupid to believe in science; the others are so spiteful they would rather destroy space-time than see one of their systems in control of the enemy, despite the fact that they were previously so desperate to preserve space-time that they handed over important military secrets.
Perhaps the unbelievability of the Fallers should fall under the heading of anthropology, which is Kress' other major hole. Humans know an unusually large amount about Faller psychology, despite the fact that they've never (!) intercepted a single Faller transmission and, prior to Sun never had any kind of meaningful interaction with them. But the issue of the Fallers pales in comparison to the issue of World and the creators of the artifacts.
Most of Moon is taken up by interactions with Worlders, as is much of Sun, yet in Space they are almost a no-show. Considering how much ink was dedicated to them in the first two books, the reader might assume that they are actually important to the plot. Not so. In fact, World is only important because it contains the two artifacts; if you strip away all the interactions with the natives (which are now revealed to be superfluous), you could probably fit the entire trilogy into a single book. Why include so much of World, including a very major POV character, when the people of World really don't matter? It will remain a mystery--along with the creation of the artifacts that are the driving force behind the trilogy.
The two artifacts found on World, as well as the space tunnels, were created by a mysterious and long-gone race. The constructions are absolutely key to the books; without them, there would be no story. Yet almost nothing is told about the people who made them. In Moon the reader learns there is some rudimentary knowledge of their language, apparently gleaned from the space tunnels alone. There are apparently no other relics of these people, no archaeological sites, and no theories about what happened to them. Worst of all, no one seems to be at all curious about them. Throughout the entire trilogy, people use the space tunnels and examine the artifacts without sparing a second thought to the race that built them. Apparently, in Kress' universe, humans have evolved past curiosity, which perhaps explains why no one would bother to wonder why a planet like World, which rates only a single space tunnel, had two enormously powerful artifacts that no one had ever seen the likes of before.
The Probability series is interesting. It keeps the pages turning. It is not life-changing, but it passes the time. But by the end, the holes have become so large they begin to interfere with the suspension of disbelief, which is a dealbreaker in sci-fi or fantasy book. I would not dissuade someone from reading this trilogy, but if someone asked for my opinion the best I could say would be "It's OK."
The biggest hole is character. Kress seems to feel the need to include an extremely annoying character in each book. Some people are annoying, and it stands to reason that some characters will be annoying as well, but if that character makes the reader want to put the book down, the author is doing something wrong. Character inconsistency is another problem, especially in Space, where Kaufman, previously my favorite, acts completely out of character and becomes a real ass. But the coupe de grace is that the big finale--the destruction of space-time as we know it--depends on two completely unbelievable characters: Admiral Pierce and the Fallers. One, supposedly intelligent enough to gain control of the entire empire, is too stupid to believe in science; the others are so spiteful they would rather destroy space-time than see one of their systems in control of the enemy, despite the fact that they were previously so desperate to preserve space-time that they handed over important military secrets.
Perhaps the unbelievability of the Fallers should fall under the heading of anthropology, which is Kress' other major hole. Humans know an unusually large amount about Faller psychology, despite the fact that they've never (!) intercepted a single Faller transmission and, prior to Sun never had any kind of meaningful interaction with them. But the issue of the Fallers pales in comparison to the issue of World and the creators of the artifacts.
Most of Moon is taken up by interactions with Worlders, as is much of Sun, yet in Space they are almost a no-show. Considering how much ink was dedicated to them in the first two books, the reader might assume that they are actually important to the plot. Not so. In fact, World is only important because it contains the two artifacts; if you strip away all the interactions with the natives (which are now revealed to be superfluous), you could probably fit the entire trilogy into a single book. Why include so much of World, including a very major POV character, when the people of World really don't matter? It will remain a mystery--along with the creation of the artifacts that are the driving force behind the trilogy.
The two artifacts found on World, as well as the space tunnels, were created by a mysterious and long-gone race. The constructions are absolutely key to the books; without them, there would be no story. Yet almost nothing is told about the people who made them. In Moon the reader learns there is some rudimentary knowledge of their language, apparently gleaned from the space tunnels alone. There are apparently no other relics of these people, no archaeological sites, and no theories about what happened to them. Worst of all, no one seems to be at all curious about them. Throughout the entire trilogy, people use the space tunnels and examine the artifacts without sparing a second thought to the race that built them. Apparently, in Kress' universe, humans have evolved past curiosity, which perhaps explains why no one would bother to wonder why a planet like World, which rates only a single space tunnel, had two enormously powerful artifacts that no one had ever seen the likes of before.
The Probability series is interesting. It keeps the pages turning. It is not life-changing, but it passes the time. But by the end, the holes have become so large they begin to interfere with the suspension of disbelief, which is a dealbreaker in sci-fi or fantasy book. I would not dissuade someone from reading this trilogy, but if someone asked for my opinion the best I could say would be "It's OK."
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 23, 2021
I read all three books in this series in the span of a couple weeks. There are so many "men writing women" moments around self-image and beauty that were not applied to the male characters that I find it incredible that they were written by a woman.
Many of the characters are fairly flat and simply act as foils for plot points. There's also a lot of sci-fi speak that I glossed over as "ridiculous."
The overall concepts are fun but not original: space tunnels and artifacts of great and mysterious power left by some ancient, superior species.
Read, enjoy, don't take it too seriously.
Many of the characters are fairly flat and simply act as foils for plot points. There's also a lot of sci-fi speak that I glossed over as "ridiculous."
The overall concepts are fun but not original: space tunnels and artifacts of great and mysterious power left by some ancient, superior species.
Read, enjoy, don't take it too seriously.
March 7, 2018
This book finishes up the series, and I can't quite say whether it's with a bang or a whimper, but the ending is unexpected and satisfying. There's plenty of action. We get a brief return to World, and see how it's faring without shared reality (fairly well, considering). And that's it for World; as this is the last book, we'll never know how things turn out. We have our solar system's political intrigues and upheaval. And it's all moved along by the war with the hostile aliens who won't talk to humans, and of course the probability artifacts, including the tunnels that let humanity go to the far reaches of the galaxy, from some long-gone civilization.
As in the other books, the characters were a bit flat. There's the ex-military man, Lyle Kaufman (yay for a Jewish last name; we don't see them enough in books) and the genemod Sensitive woman (all I could think of was Deanna Troi). They're the best-drawn characters, but they don't totally jell for me. We have the physicist, kidnapped and still trying to work out the physics behind the artifacts. And, separately, his fourteen-year-old daughter, searching for him. She is written in a way that kept making me cringe; sometimes she sounds more like an eight-year-old. And the rich Greek boy she meets, whose poor English was even more cringeworthy. Then there's Magdalena, highly sexualized (and aging) power player, who seemed not like a real person, but written in because the plot needed someone to do some things.
Another reviewer mentioned "a sexist current that surfaces occasionally," which she found jarring, and I saw and felt that too - disappointing in a book by a female writer.
All that aside, this is Nancy Kress, after all. Not her best, but still good reading I plowed right through the three books and found myself staying up too late reading, engrossed.
As in the other books, the characters were a bit flat. There's the ex-military man, Lyle Kaufman (yay for a Jewish last name; we don't see them enough in books) and the genemod Sensitive woman (all I could think of was Deanna Troi). They're the best-drawn characters, but they don't totally jell for me. We have the physicist, kidnapped and still trying to work out the physics behind the artifacts. And, separately, his fourteen-year-old daughter, searching for him. She is written in a way that kept making me cringe; sometimes she sounds more like an eight-year-old. And the rich Greek boy she meets, whose poor English was even more cringeworthy. Then there's Magdalena, highly sexualized (and aging) power player, who seemed not like a real person, but written in because the plot needed someone to do some things.
Another reviewer mentioned "a sexist current that surfaces occasionally," which she found jarring, and I saw and felt that too - disappointing in a book by a female writer.
All that aside, this is Nancy Kress, after all. Not her best, but still good reading I plowed right through the three books and found myself staying up too late reading, engrossed.
June 12, 2012
I didn't realize until I was far into Probability Space that this is the third book of a trilogy. I suppose that's a good sign -- I was able to understand everything perfectly well without the earlier two books. Perhaps, though, I would have liked more of the characters and been more interested in the worldbuilding if I had already been accustomed to them when starting this story.
Of the main characters mentioned on the back cover --
In the sections focused on Kaufman and Grant, the perspective is usually limited to Kaufman's. Kress says some interesting things about how different Kaufman's military way of thinking is from Grant's (a Sensitive is someone who's genetically engineered to be able to read even the slightest social cues), but in most of the situations they're in here, Kaufman seems like a jerk and Grant seems impractical. If one of the earlier books in the trilogy focuses on Grant's perspective as she works as a Sensitive -- for instance, to communicate for the first time with an alien being -- maybe with Kaufman as contrast and companion, I'd like to read that instead.
Magdalena is an interesting character who's ruined mostly by being described from other people's perspective. She's an extremely powerful woman who originally rose to power by using her physical beauty. She copes with her secret traumatic past by seizing more and more power. I liked most of the narration from Magdalena's point of view, but all of the other characters who dealt with her fixated on her sexuality. Kaufman lusted after her and felt ashamed about it (apparently mostly because Magdalena was older than him, but also because Grant could tell), and Grant couldn't stop calling her a slut, basically. (This made me like Grant a lot less.) Kress also decided that Magdalena's plot-driving point of weakness would be her pathetic playboy son -- I didn't like this at all.
Then, there's Amanda! I loved reading about Amanda. Kress does a really good job (according to my memory of being a teenager) of showing how Amanda is just beginning to be able to focus on bigger things than her immediate world. At the very beginning of the book she's thrust (or actually, she thrusts herself, in response to witnessing her father being kidnapped) on a dangerous world containing many powerful factions that all want to use her as a pawn. Her responses to the people who threaten, rescue, patronize, coerce, woo, and proselytize to her are a lovely mixture of naivete, common sense, and bravery.
Reading about Amanda was all that kept me going through the Kaufman-and-Grant sections of the first three-quarters of Probability Space. But when I got to the final quarter, the novel finally took off for me: the adult protagonists end up in an obstacle race of physics, game theory, and politics, against human and alien foes. The system of space tunnels and the uses of the Protector Artifact (which previously had just irritated me whenever it was explained -- why do you need to say "setting prime three," "setting prime eleven," etc., that's redundant) suddenly became the parameters of a very exciting conclusion.
On page 279, I wasn't even considering reading Probability Moon or Probability Sun, because Amanda wouldn't be old enough to be a protagonist in those books. Now I do want to try them.
Of the main characters mentioned on the back cover --
an unlikely group: Major Lyle Kaufman, retired warrior; Marbet Grant, the Sensitive who's involved with Kaufman; Amanda, a very confused fourteen-year-old; and Magdalena, one of the biggest power-brokers in all of human space--I only really enjoyed reading about Amanda. "An unlikely group" is misleading; Kaufman and Grant don't join forces with Magdalena until more than halfway through, and Amanda's story is (apparently) separate -- she's only connected to the others because she's out in search of her kidnapped physicist father, and their adventures are related to him too.
In the sections focused on Kaufman and Grant, the perspective is usually limited to Kaufman's. Kress says some interesting things about how different Kaufman's military way of thinking is from Grant's (a Sensitive is someone who's genetically engineered to be able to read even the slightest social cues), but in most of the situations they're in here, Kaufman seems like a jerk and Grant seems impractical. If one of the earlier books in the trilogy focuses on Grant's perspective as she works as a Sensitive -- for instance, to communicate for the first time with an alien being -- maybe with Kaufman as contrast and companion, I'd like to read that instead.
Magdalena is an interesting character who's ruined mostly by being described from other people's perspective. She's an extremely powerful woman who originally rose to power by using her physical beauty. She copes with her secret traumatic past by seizing more and more power. I liked most of the narration from Magdalena's point of view, but all of the other characters who dealt with her fixated on her sexuality. Kaufman lusted after her and felt ashamed about it (apparently mostly because Magdalena was older than him, but also because Grant could tell), and Grant couldn't stop calling her a slut, basically. (This made me like Grant a lot less.) Kress also decided that Magdalena's plot-driving point of weakness would be her pathetic playboy son -- I didn't like this at all.
Then, there's Amanda! I loved reading about Amanda. Kress does a really good job (according to my memory of being a teenager) of showing how Amanda is just beginning to be able to focus on bigger things than her immediate world. At the very beginning of the book she's thrust (or actually, she thrusts herself, in response to witnessing her father being kidnapped) on a dangerous world containing many powerful factions that all want to use her as a pawn. Her responses to the people who threaten, rescue, patronize, coerce, woo, and proselytize to her are a lovely mixture of naivete, common sense, and bravery.
Reading about Amanda was all that kept me going through the Kaufman-and-Grant sections of the first three-quarters of Probability Space. But when I got to the final quarter, the novel finally took off for me: the adult protagonists end up in an obstacle race of physics, game theory, and politics, against human and alien foes. The system of space tunnels and the uses of the Protector Artifact (which previously had just irritated me whenever it was explained -- why do you need to say "setting prime three," "setting prime eleven," etc., that's redundant) suddenly became the parameters of a very exciting conclusion.
On page 279, I wasn't even considering reading Probability Moon or Probability Sun, because Amanda wouldn't be old enough to be a protagonist in those books. Now I do want to try them.
February 19, 2008
I'm a fan of Nancy Kress' novels. I enjoyed the first book in this series quite a bit and enjoyed the second book, though not as much. This one, however, fell flat for me.
The people of World that made the first two books so interesting are only a footnote in this story. This is almost entirely concerned with human politics and maneuverings and it just never worked for me as that sort of story.
That isn't to say I hated the story. I didn't, but I didn't really like it either. If it weren't the (apparent) end of the series, I'd be inclined to stop reading any more after this one.
The people of World that made the first two books so interesting are only a footnote in this story. This is almost entirely concerned with human politics and maneuverings and it just never worked for me as that sort of story.
That isn't to say I hated the story. I didn't, but I didn't really like it either. If it weren't the (apparent) end of the series, I'd be inclined to stop reading any more after this one.
April 15, 2017
I'm rounding up a bit, but I'm very pleased with this series conclusion (or what appears to be a conclusion, at least for now).
Kress continues, in this book, to explore the physics she established in the earlier books. She makes excellent use of the characters, human and other, and in particular the one truly alien species in the series (the Fallers). The plot resolution is unexpected, yet appropriate -- though how satisfying the reader finds it will vary with the reader.
Kress continues, in this book, to explore the physics she established in the earlier books. She makes excellent use of the characters, human and other, and in particular the one truly alien species in the series (the Fallers). The plot resolution is unexpected, yet appropriate -- though how satisfying the reader finds it will vary with the reader.
March 3, 2022
MARTE, IULIE 2168
Bellington Wace Arnold, proprietarul firmei Arnold Interplanetary, Inc., sosi cu întârziere în biroul său opulent de la ultimul etaj. Dincolo de fereastră şi de domul piezoelectric ce adăpostea oraşul Lowell se putea zări soarele, ridicat deja binişor deasupra orizontului marţian. Se anunţa o zi cu puţin praf; cerul era doar vag rozaliu, iar Arnold putea ajunge cu privirea până la zona aglomerată a spaţioportului.
— Porneşte sistemul! Mesaje?
— Da, domnule Arnold. Cinci mesaje.
Asta însemna cinci transmisii menite lui, personal şi confidenţial; de toate celelalte se ocupau angajaţii. Ecranul de perete se lumină pentru a-i prezenta vizual mesajele. Ascultându-le, Arnold se aşeză comod pe fotoliul de la birou şi frunzări printurile considerate de secretară suficient de importante încât să le citească el personal. Fotoliul, cu o mărime adaptată la statura lui impresionantă, era confecţionat din piele importată de pe Pământ, obţinută de la viţei special modificaţi genetic, a căror piele avea nuanţa lui favorită de albastru-cenuşiu.
Primele patru mesaje nu-i solicitară întreaga atenţie, chiar dacă două dintre ele vizau tranzacţii valorând miliarde de credite. Pe timp de război puteai face o grămadă de bani, dacă ştiai cum. Cu cât se prelungea mai mult războiul cu fallerii, cu atât mai bine pentru Arnold Interplanetary.
A cincea transmisie îl făcu să ridice privirea. Dar nu era nimic de văzut, fiind un mesaj audio.
„Înregistrare din carlingă, zburător personal cu numărul de înregistrare 14387, data transmisiei 3 iulie 2168.” Cu o zi înainte.
Apoi vocea lui Laslo Damroscher, fiul lui:
— Assta nu trrebuia s’fie acolo!
Se ridică încet, fără un scop anume, din fotoliul luxos. Fiecare fibră a corpului său masiv se încordă.
Bellington Wace Arnold, proprietarul firmei Arnold Interplanetary, Inc., sosi cu întârziere în biroul său opulent de la ultimul etaj. Dincolo de fereastră şi de domul piezoelectric ce adăpostea oraşul Lowell se putea zări soarele, ridicat deja binişor deasupra orizontului marţian. Se anunţa o zi cu puţin praf; cerul era doar vag rozaliu, iar Arnold putea ajunge cu privirea până la zona aglomerată a spaţioportului.
— Porneşte sistemul! Mesaje?
— Da, domnule Arnold. Cinci mesaje.
Asta însemna cinci transmisii menite lui, personal şi confidenţial; de toate celelalte se ocupau angajaţii. Ecranul de perete se lumină pentru a-i prezenta vizual mesajele. Ascultându-le, Arnold se aşeză comod pe fotoliul de la birou şi frunzări printurile considerate de secretară suficient de importante încât să le citească el personal. Fotoliul, cu o mărime adaptată la statura lui impresionantă, era confecţionat din piele importată de pe Pământ, obţinută de la viţei special modificaţi genetic, a căror piele avea nuanţa lui favorită de albastru-cenuşiu.
Primele patru mesaje nu-i solicitară întreaga atenţie, chiar dacă două dintre ele vizau tranzacţii valorând miliarde de credite. Pe timp de război puteai face o grămadă de bani, dacă ştiai cum. Cu cât se prelungea mai mult războiul cu fallerii, cu atât mai bine pentru Arnold Interplanetary.
A cincea transmisie îl făcu să ridice privirea. Dar nu era nimic de văzut, fiind un mesaj audio.
„Înregistrare din carlingă, zburător personal cu numărul de înregistrare 14387, data transmisiei 3 iulie 2168.” Cu o zi înainte.
Apoi vocea lui Laslo Damroscher, fiul lui:
— Assta nu trrebuia s’fie acolo!
Se ridică încet, fără un scop anume, din fotoliul luxos. Fiecare fibră a corpului său masiv se încordă.
August 27, 2022
I love the first two instalments of this trilogy, but this last one is such a regrettably hot mess. This book differs so much from the other two because half of it is set with a 14-year-old protagonist, which gives it YA flavour, but then it's WAY more violent than the first two. There's blood, death, decapitation, and grisly rape???? And don't get me started about Magdalena. This book seems to really hate sex workers?? Magdalena just has no redeeming qualities and is treated so weirdly and her death doesn't impact the reader in any way, shape, or form. She had a hard childhood and lost her son and we feel nothing when she is killed, I simply don't get it. Amanda is also so sexualized! Why did this book just let her have an 18 year old boyfriend when she's 14?? Why is Kaufman saying she has great legs and an incredible figure but then the book is saying that girls need to stick together to say no to sex when boys ask. It's so confusing and I hate it.
Also, I wish we had learned something, anything about the Fallers. You're gonna make me read three books about these aliens and really give me no details??
Also I hate Kaufman. Why does he never realize his actions are impacting Worlders? Why does he keep forgetting Essa? Why does Marbet stay with him in the end???? Nancy, I know it's been 20 years but please consider writing a new third instalment to this trilogy lol
Also, I wish we had learned something, anything about the Fallers. You're gonna make me read three books about these aliens and really give me no details??
Also I hate Kaufman. Why does he never realize his actions are impacting Worlders? Why does he keep forgetting Essa? Why does Marbet stay with him in the end???? Nancy, I know it's been 20 years but please consider writing a new third instalment to this trilogy lol
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 9, 2025
Humanity is divided over how the artefact should be used. Some believe it should be used to protect our solar system from Faller attack while others believe we should use it to destroy the Faller home system.
Tom Capelo is kidnapped and his oldest daughter Amanda witnesses the act and flees, not knowing who to trust.
Lyle Kaufmann and Marbet Grant want to travel back to World to see if they can help what is expected to be a civilisation in ruin.
As I began reading this book, I was feeling that it was going to be the weakest of the trilogy, but as the story progressed any doubts I held were soon gone. A bit of time was spent on mankind’s political instability, but once the focus shifts to Amanda’s perils which combine with Lyle and Marbet’s journey, the story barrels to a very satisfying conclusion.
Tom Capelo is kidnapped and his oldest daughter Amanda witnesses the act and flees, not knowing who to trust.
Lyle Kaufmann and Marbet Grant want to travel back to World to see if they can help what is expected to be a civilisation in ruin.
As I began reading this book, I was feeling that it was going to be the weakest of the trilogy, but as the story progressed any doubts I held were soon gone. A bit of time was spent on mankind’s political instability, but once the focus shifts to Amanda’s perils which combine with Lyle and Marbet’s journey, the story barrels to a very satisfying conclusion.
March 5, 2019
Just as suddenly as this series becomes Weber-esque military SF, it then becomes the Expanse before the Expanse was written. It really did remind me both of Caliban's War and Blue Remembered Earth. I'll even say I liked it better than an Expanse book because the author knows how to end a series, and this series has nicely run its course. There's a well crafted rebellion, some good drama with the running away sequence, and a mystery to solve. All very well done.
April 14, 2021
Kress's novel is fast-paced and well-conceived in many ways, but it does suffer from some, shall we say, improbabilities. Its physicist-hero apparently doesn't do very good physics, given that the deus ex machina that saves the universe in the end is an effect of an alien device whose operation he discovered. There's a "sensitive"--someone who can read the subtle shifts in body and expression--whose abilities don't really figure in the plot; she could just have been a regular person. The 14-year-old hero, though, is nicely imagined; she acts just like a real-life early teen.
But "Probability Space" offers a good quick read with lots of action and little distraction.
But "Probability Space" offers a good quick read with lots of action and little distraction.
May 2, 2020
I finished the Probability trilogy. Nancy Kress is becoming one of my favorite authors. I started with the Beggars in Spain novella some years ago then read the Sleepless trilogy and enjoyed them all. Some of the explanations of the science made up for the story were a bit long but actually sounded like it might work.
May 12, 2020
Great conclusion of the probability universe
Well written with some really brilliant science fiction ideas in it. Believable characters and world building. I really like Nancy Kress's brain. Bravo!
Well written with some really brilliant science fiction ideas in it. Believable characters and world building. I really like Nancy Kress's brain. Bravo!
May 13, 2020
Not impressed by the story focusing so much on one character without much importance. Also the end was anticlimactic even though it seemed to be building up to something quite interesting. You can definitely skip this book.
December 29, 2025
A very good conclusion to Kress' Probability series. This title is set forward a few years detailing what happens to the world artifacts and the ramifications of their operation to space-time and with politics.
June 27, 2019
This last book was the best. Lots of action and suspans. I really enjoyed this trilogy. Thank you!
July 4, 2020
Slow at start, but a pretty good final chapter to the trilogy.
I recommend!
I recommend!
May 25, 2023
Can't wait to read her other books.
February 6, 2024
great story
An excellent finish to an engaging series. I enjoyed the characters, as well as the storyline. I look forward to reading more of the author’s works.
An excellent finish to an engaging series. I enjoyed the characters, as well as the storyline. I look forward to reading more of the author’s works.
February 27, 2017
J'ai un peu décroché dans la première moitié de ce troisième volume de la trilogie : conflits dans l'Alliance solaire, aventures d'Amanda 14 ans, et enlèvement de Tom, le physicien atrabilaire (j'ai un petit faible pour ce personnage) qui disparaît du récit. Heureusement, dans la seconde moitié, Tom est retrouvé par Lyle (le soldat) et Marbet (la sensitive) avec l'aide de la dérangée et dangereuse aventurière Magdalena qui a ses propres motivations (j'ai aussi un petit faible pour elle) et ce groupe essaie d'éviter la catastrophe d'une déchirure spatio temporelle. Les faucheurs sont impliqués. Et la fin est à mon avis très bien amenée et satisfaisante.
February 20, 2017
This is a 3 1/2. It's a page turner and kept me interested the entire time. On its own it's a 4 star book. Not earth shattering, but a highly enjoyable, well written adventure that doesn't beggar belief too much.
However, as a sequel to the first two books, it falls short. It has almost nothing to do with the major characters and events on World. I would have enjoyed reading the conclusion of what happens to the Worlders, which is not what this book is. The problem is the other two books are not human centric, but this book doesn't care about anything except humans and sometimes Fallers. All the other alien races that supposedly exist do not appear here. To the point at which the one major non-human, Essa, is an afterthought (to bother Kauffman and Kress.)
That being said, if you like exciting, page turner sci-fi, this is a solid book and a solid series.
However, as a sequel to the first two books, it falls short. It has almost nothing to do with the major characters and events on World. I would have enjoyed reading the conclusion of what happens to the Worlders, which is not what this book is. The problem is the other two books are not human centric, but this book doesn't care about anything except humans and sometimes Fallers. All the other alien races that supposedly exist do not appear here. To the point at which the one major non-human, Essa, is an afterthought (to bother Kauffman and Kress.)
That being said, if you like exciting, page turner sci-fi, this is a solid book and a solid series.
July 8, 2009
I liked the first two in this series, but this was barely ok. The best bits were the carry-overs from the previous books, and the world that its set in; the story itself is mostly a dead loss. Its pretty much a long rambling narrative where things happen to people beyond their control; noone really seems to _do_ anything. One of the two main narrative focus characters is a fairly shallow teenager whos not terribly interesting to watch be acted upon. And the main premise / twist - the space gates left by an ancient lost civilization (wow, hadn't seen _that_ one before) - are inadequately and yet over-complicatedly explained, don't make sense where they are explained, and suddenly act as a deus ex machina to ring the plot artificially crashing to a halt at the end. And the moral of the story ends up being "we're not ready for the stars, so powerful (dead) beings will protect us from ourselves and put us back in our cribs." Combined with the straw man argument against atheism message earlier in the book (where the daft ignorant 14-year-old presents the case for atheism vs the wise old self-sacrificing priests... until the boy she has a crush on asks her to go to church at which point she crumbles immediately), this is a little heavy-handed.
The book is also badly edited; there are sections where a characters description of what just happened flatly contradicts what we just read... and theres no evidence that the character was actually lying for any particular reason, nor does anyone notice. This happened at least twice that I noticed.
In the first book we see a fascinating alien culture that results from an artificially shared worldview across an entire planet. In the second book we see what happens to their culture when that sharing is taken away. In the third book the sharing is brought back... and no mention is made of the consequences to their culture at all. And barely any mention is made of the effects of a similarly wide-reaching change to the basis of human culture; instead we watch teenage mating rituals. Yay.
The book is also badly edited; there are sections where a characters description of what just happened flatly contradicts what we just read... and theres no evidence that the character was actually lying for any particular reason, nor does anyone notice. This happened at least twice that I noticed.
In the first book we see a fascinating alien culture that results from an artificially shared worldview across an entire planet. In the second book we see what happens to their culture when that sharing is taken away. In the third book the sharing is brought back... and no mention is made of the consequences to their culture at all. And barely any mention is made of the effects of a similarly wide-reaching change to the basis of human culture; instead we watch teenage mating rituals. Yay.
March 17, 2015
Probability Space is the final book in Nancy Kress' "probability trilogy," with the action taking place a couple of years after the previous book in the series, Probability Sun. Here, we follow retired Major Kaufman and his partner, a Sensitive named Marbet, as they travel back to World to rescue the humans who remained behind at the end of the last book; there, they encounter Magdalena, a major power-broker in the human universe and a force unto herself. Meanwhile, physicist Tom Capelo has been kidnapped and his 14-year-old daughter Amanda is on the run, hoping to find out what happened to him. These four are all pursuing their own agendas in the context of the interstellar war with the Fallers, a race that shows inexplicable, genocidal hostility toward humans, and that war is not going so well.... As the final book in the trilogy, this both satisfies and does not; Kress keeps the plot racing along (indeed, it's quite action-packed in a way I've not seen with her work before) and we do reach a conclusion to the larger situation that is both interesting and unexpected. But she has her characters leaving World again early on, and we never return there; I would have liked to have had a scene visiting that planet one last time because it was such an interesting place. So, I'm a bit disappointed, although I still recommend the book, and the entire trilogy.
January 8, 2017
This is the concluding volume in the Probability trilogy and it was the most entertaining. It includes a nice mix of familiar and memorable new characters and is the strongest story of the three. In an effort to make this work as a stand-alone novel, Kress repeats numerous passages from the first two books in the series - sometimes verbatim - which became old quickly. The last several hundred pages were the only time in the trilogy where I felt a sense of momentum and that the plot was consequential. This focuses almost entirely on the war with the "Fallers" and the implications (via a game theory analysis) of whether and where to trigger the artifact weapon. Just like the previous entry in the series, there was minimal discussion of the boring flower ceremonies on World. The series is concluded nicely in the final chapters. Although I would categorize this in the "hard sci-fi" genre, it is relatively slight entertainment and not among my recent favorites.
August 19, 2012
The third book of Nancy Kress’s series about a new fundamental particle and the ancient artifact that uses it, it ratchets up the tension while introducing a new menace that could end space as we know it. Throw in a coupe in the solar system, and a new commander who wants to end the war with a victory at all costs, a child trying to find her kidnapped physicist father who holds the key to understanding the alien tech, and a rescue mission to World, which is learning to adjust to new cultural imperatives without share reality, and you have another winner. The only real problem I had with the book was the military tech, ie, if a small ship could destroy a battleship with one blast, why not only build small ships. However, that is just my take as a writer of military science fiction, and in no way detracted from the overall story. Highly recommended.
March 27, 2013
The beginning chapters bode poorly...several focus on Amanda Capelo, who was unimportant before and remains uninteresting now. The absence of World characters early on is surprisingly noticeable.
Halfway point:
Amanda Capelo is a boring and useless character - I'm sure that plot will go somewhere eventually but it sure hasn't yet.
Midway plot twist: brilliant. The setup is slightly clunky in terms of strange character behavior. It's marred by a huge and unnecessary factual inconsistency with book 2.
Ending: the ending is energetic, but fairly nonsensical. It gets heavily political. There is an action that introduces drama between two characters that's treated, literally, as "irreversible"...except it's an easily correctable problem.
The "space tunnels" never do make sense logistically in terms of where they lead.
Halfway point:
Amanda Capelo is a boring and useless character - I'm sure that plot will go somewhere eventually but it sure hasn't yet.
Midway plot twist: brilliant. The setup is slightly clunky in terms of strange character behavior. It's marred by a huge and unnecessary factual inconsistency with book 2.
Ending: the ending is energetic, but fairly nonsensical. It gets heavily political. There is an action that introduces drama between two characters that's treated, literally, as "irreversible"...except it's an easily correctable problem.
The "space tunnels" never do make sense logistically in terms of where they lead.
September 12, 2015
Read the summaries that are on the page for this book on Amazon. I can add little other than that, unlike some, who find some of the characters and situations improbable, I found this to be the best book of the three and an excellent wrap-up of the trilogy. Suspension of disbelief is required of readers in this genre and I did not find mine tested at all. The characters are wonderful, fascinating, confused, irritating, frightening and everything in between. I admit that the warrior for hope who lives within me was thrilled that Kress developed characters who saw that peace won out. She is one of our living Masters and this is another masterpiece to stand beside the "Beggars in Spain" trilogy.
Excellent read, highest recommendation, so long as you read the first two books; if you don't, you'll be hopelessly lost as to the significance of the actions of various characters.
Excellent read, highest recommendation, so long as you read the first two books; if you don't, you'll be hopelessly lost as to the significance of the actions of various characters.
October 16, 2015
Yes I'm giving this two stars. I wish I liked it more but I was annoyed that Amanda was one of the main characters and I don't much feel any kind of empathy for any of the others. I liked the action on World in the first two books, but other than a brief glimpse into the Fallers ship here, this third book didn't keep me interested. I didn't connect with anything that was happening and the weird coincidence of Amanda meeting her Greek boyfriend was a little too convenient for me. I liked the culture on World but this book dealt more with the 'space travel' aspect and war and military strategy. Kind of disappointed, I was hoping for a bit more explanation about some things.
December 13, 2022
The last book in Nancy Kress' "Probability" trilogy barely contained any time spent on the alien "Worlder" race and characters, focusing instead on a military coup, a runaway teen, and a retired officer and his partner, ending with a _deus ex machina_ in the final act. This did not elevate the trilogy in my mind, and even manage to drag my opinion from "okay" to "slightly disappointing" for the series. An interesting read (including all three books in the trilogy in that assessment), but not one to which I'll return.
February 14, 2010
Didn't realize this was book 3 of a trilogy when I picked it up at the library, but I read it anyway. I didn't feel out of touch with the world, but I didn't enjoy it that much either. (Other reviewers seem to indicate this is the weakest book in the series)
I had little interest in the teenage character (the smart but slave-to-her-hormones daughter of a brilliant missing physicist) which drove most of the story.
I had little interest in the teenage character (the smart but slave-to-her-hormones daughter of a brilliant missing physicist) which drove most of the story.
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