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Diving Universe #4.5
The Application of Hope
Captain Tory Sabin knows all too well the dangers of the anacapa drive, and that sometimes ships enter foldspace never to return. The ships simply disappear, taking their crews with them.
Responding to a distress call from Captain Jonathan “Coop” Cooper, Sabin knows she must race against time to find him and his ship. Because although the Ivoire becomes the latest ship to enter foldspace and not return, she refuses to give up hope. She resolves to find the Ivoire. But her search for answers will lead to truths that will change her life forever.
Winner of the Asimov’s Readers Choice Award for best novella, The Application of Hope adds a rich layer to the complex story about foldspace and the anacapa technology that drives the Fleet.
Responding to a distress call from Captain Jonathan “Coop” Cooper, Sabin knows she must race against time to find him and his ship. Because although the Ivoire becomes the latest ship to enter foldspace and not return, she refuses to give up hope. She resolves to find the Ivoire. But her search for answers will lead to truths that will change her life forever.
Winner of the Asimov’s Readers Choice Award for best novella, The Application of Hope adds a rich layer to the complex story about foldspace and the anacapa technology that drives the Fleet.
83 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 19, 2014
32 people are currently reading
111 people want to read
About the author
Kristine Kathryn Rusch
1,365 books721 followersKristine Kathryn Rusch is an award-winning mystery, romance, science fiction, and fantasy writer. She has written many novels under various names, including Kristine Grayson for romance, and Kris Nelscott for mystery. Her novels have made the bestseller lists –even in London– and have been published in 14 countries and 13 different languages.
Her awards range from the Ellery Queen Readers Choice Award to the John W. Campbell Award. In the past year, she has been nominated for the Hugo, the Shamus, and the Anthony Award. She is the only person in the history of the science fiction field to have won a Hugo award for editing and a Hugo award for fiction.
In addition, she's written a number of nonfiction articles over the years, with her latest being the book "A Freelancer's Survival Guide".
She has also published as:
Sandy Schofield (collaborations with husband Dean Wesley Smith)
Kristine Grayson - romances
Kathryn Wesley (collaborations with husband Dean Wesley Smith)
Kris Nelscott - mysteries
Kris Rusch - historical fiction
Kris DeLake - romances
Her awards range from the Ellery Queen Readers Choice Award to the John W. Campbell Award. In the past year, she has been nominated for the Hugo, the Shamus, and the Anthony Award. She is the only person in the history of the science fiction field to have won a Hugo award for editing and a Hugo award for fiction.
In addition, she's written a number of nonfiction articles over the years, with her latest being the book "A Freelancer's Survival Guide".
She has also published as:
Sandy Schofield (collaborations with husband Dean Wesley Smith)
Kristine Grayson - romances
Kathryn Wesley (collaborations with husband Dean Wesley Smith)
Kris Nelscott - mysteries
Kris Rusch - historical fiction
Kris DeLake - romances
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
April 26, 2020
This is a solid side-story centered around a female captain who is smarter and less-liked than most. She has shaped her entire career on finding a lost ship, and this puts her in a position to find Cooper's ship (see the Diving series). Along the way she overcomes serious obstacles and finds redemption of a sort. Really enjoyable storyline.
April 19, 2021
This story explains what happens after Coop's ship goes into foldspace from the other end and how it is dealt with. I liked the story a lot. A lot of introspective but in my opinion just the right amount. 4 stars.
September 21, 2018
I’ve seen two major complaints regarding this book. One is that it’s too short, and it is a novella, so be sure whatever price you’re paying is what you think that’s worth. The other is that the book doesn’t contribute to the ongoing storyline of the series. Which, seeing as it stands so well alone, might be true. But I understand this story provides some background on other character(s), and as a reader I often appreciate that. So go into it with the right expectations and I think you’ll enjoy it.
The characterizations are well-drawn. Coop has been questioning the mission of the Fleet, wondering if they’re really doing good by interfering with all of the civilizations they come across. Sabin has always been too focused on her career and her missing father to think about things like that. Sabin’s history–her missing father, her exploration into both engineering and command–make for a compelling backstory. Even General Zeller, who is something of a bad guy, displays a more complex side to his personality.
Both of the stories I’ve read by Rusch have featured the odd anacapa drive and the fact that no one fully understands how it works. All of Sabin’s life has been about finding her father in foldspace, and now she gets to put that experience to use finding Coop. I find the situation fascinating and well worth the read.
I think the only real problem I had with the story is that the thread of identifying the bad guys gets dropped like a hot potato. As soon as they fly away they vanish from the story, and that left the tale with an unfinished feeling.
Original review posted on my blog: http://www.errantdreams.com/2018/09/r...
The characterizations are well-drawn. Coop has been questioning the mission of the Fleet, wondering if they’re really doing good by interfering with all of the civilizations they come across. Sabin has always been too focused on her career and her missing father to think about things like that. Sabin’s history–her missing father, her exploration into both engineering and command–make for a compelling backstory. Even General Zeller, who is something of a bad guy, displays a more complex side to his personality.
Both of the stories I’ve read by Rusch have featured the odd anacapa drive and the fact that no one fully understands how it works. All of Sabin’s life has been about finding her father in foldspace, and now she gets to put that experience to use finding Coop. I find the situation fascinating and well worth the read.
I think the only real problem I had with the story is that the thread of identifying the bad guys gets dropped like a hot potato. As soon as they fly away they vanish from the story, and that left the tale with an unfinished feeling.
Original review posted on my blog: http://www.errantdreams.com/2018/09/r...
March 1, 2025
Kristine Kathryn Rusch likes to write stories relatively frequently that involve rehabbing houses - or else a space opera version of this that involves some kind of engineer or researcher solving a technical challenge while undergoing emotional growth. The Renegat and partially Squishy's Teams are examples of this. The Application of Hope falls into this category, even though the main character is a ship captain at the time of the story. She is a friend of Coop's (and an occasional no-strings-attached bedpartner) and becomes part of the effort to find Coop's ship, the Ivoire, after it vanishes in foldspace. Meanwhile, she deals with the impact of having lost her father to a similar foldspace disappearance. It is a story about a lot of middles of various journeys, set around a middle-aged side character, taking place in between one part of Coop's life and the next, and it probably shouldn't be satisfying, but it is.
February 15, 2022
The Diving Universe Reviewed.
I am not doing separate reviews, just some general remarks--this review will appear on all the Diving books starting with Stealth. I read from Stealth forward in the series through Squishy's Teams--still waiting for (and looking forward to) Chase.
So, these are very pleasant engaging reads. The Diving universe is coherent, well-imagined, and intriguing. For serious fans (what I used to call 'fan-boys', but that's too gendered) of Rusch, I recommend reading them all. For less committed readers, it is probably enough to just read the full-length novels and skip the novellas. There is some overlap between the novels and the novellas, but it is often fascinating, as when one gets to see the same incident from two different directions. But the novellas are often short and padded out to printable (sellable) length with previews or other stuff. The novels carry the whole narrative and major characters forward on their own. The novellas can be outtakes of the novels, or fun original stuff.
This is not my usual space opera. The orbital mechanics sometimes don't make sense and so on, but the writing and editing are very good.
Enjoy!
I am not doing separate reviews, just some general remarks--this review will appear on all the Diving books starting with Stealth. I read from Stealth forward in the series through Squishy's Teams--still waiting for (and looking forward to) Chase.
So, these are very pleasant engaging reads. The Diving universe is coherent, well-imagined, and intriguing. For serious fans (what I used to call 'fan-boys', but that's too gendered) of Rusch, I recommend reading them all. For less committed readers, it is probably enough to just read the full-length novels and skip the novellas. There is some overlap between the novels and the novellas, but it is often fascinating, as when one gets to see the same incident from two different directions. But the novellas are often short and padded out to printable (sellable) length with previews or other stuff. The novels carry the whole narrative and major characters forward on their own. The novellas can be outtakes of the novels, or fun original stuff.
This is not my usual space opera. The orbital mechanics sometimes don't make sense and so on, but the writing and editing are very good.
Enjoy!
November 27, 2017
A novella in the Diving universe sci-fi series. Set before the series started.
Tory Sabin is the captain of the anacapa space ship Geneva. She’s extremely capable and she knows the dangers of the anacapa drive personally: when she was young, her father disappeared into the fold space with his ship.
When Sabin hears the distress call from captain Jonathan “Coop” Cooper from the Ivoire, she knows that he’s in real trouble. Coop is very reluctant to ask for help. She whips the other captains into helping Coop but they arrive just in time to see strange smaller ships firing on the Ivoire which then slips into the fold space. And doesn’t return.
Sabin is a driven character. For many years, she was focused on finding her father and became a fold space specialist because of it. Now, she’s a captain and extremely good with that.
This was a great novella, set among the Fleet. We get to know more about the Fleet itself and about Coop’s background. It’s very short and focused on Sabin’s story.
Tory Sabin is the captain of the anacapa space ship Geneva. She’s extremely capable and she knows the dangers of the anacapa drive personally: when she was young, her father disappeared into the fold space with his ship.
When Sabin hears the distress call from captain Jonathan “Coop” Cooper from the Ivoire, she knows that he’s in real trouble. Coop is very reluctant to ask for help. She whips the other captains into helping Coop but they arrive just in time to see strange smaller ships firing on the Ivoire which then slips into the fold space. And doesn’t return.
Sabin is a driven character. For many years, she was focused on finding her father and became a fold space specialist because of it. Now, she’s a captain and extremely good with that.
This was a great novella, set among the Fleet. We get to know more about the Fleet itself and about Coop’s background. It’s very short and focused on Sabin’s story.
September 2, 2018
I'd already read this story, when I ran across it in a story bundle collection, though it took me a while to figure out where. I checked my Asimov collection, and found 2013 is a year I didn't have a subscription due to fictionwise bailing out on me, so I kept looking. Turns out, I had it in the Rusch sampler you get when you sign up for her newsletter. I'm generally not a fan of newsletters, because it's a way for authors to keep in touch with their readers, yes, but it's also a way to inflate their reader numbers, and I'm no fan of that, plus, I get enough email already, I don't need more, so joining email lists generally isn't my M.O., but in this case, I made an exception, since scifi is my all time favorite genre, and Krystine Kathryn Rusch is one of my favorite authors, so I joined, and got her sampler as a result. It has this story in it (among others), and it's an excellent story no matter where I read it, so if you're a fan, go get it, and read it, you won't regret it.
June 12, 2020
Re-read (read first in Asimov's years ago) while catching up on the series. Good background on the Fleet. It shows the Fleet's view of the disappearance of the Ivoire. The main character is Tory Sabin, captain of a Fleet ship and Coop's colleague and friend with benefits. When the Iviore and crew disappear into foldspace (to eventually get rescued by Boss and crew, but just plain gone to their contemporaries), Sabin searches for it, not totally in vain, as she discovers a piece of her past.
March 4, 2022
I have just read the Diving Series back to back (the 16 books that exist thus far, including novels and novellas) and have to say that I absolutely love this series.
The Application of Hope is another novella that gives us a side story, rather than another core part of the main stories. It doesn't introduces much new scope to the wider story, but definitely gives additional background to some of our other (main) characters.
The Application of Hope is another novella that gives us a side story, rather than another core part of the main stories. It doesn't introduces much new scope to the wider story, but definitely gives additional background to some of our other (main) characters.
December 27, 2018
This is one series I haven't gotten tired of, as it keeps doing new things - well.
This is a novella taking place in the Diving Universe back in the way past of the other novels (way future of us). The ships that the other books "dived" were still around, and the protagonist is trying to find out why ships like Coop's and her fathers disappear.
This is a novella taking place in the Diving Universe back in the way past of the other novels (way future of us). The ships that the other books "dived" were still around, and the protagonist is trying to find out why ships like Coop's and her fathers disappear.
April 23, 2020
7/10: Good solid read, something to get your teeth into.
No quotes for this one, but well worth the read. Great background info and, as I've gotten to the point in the series where I will willing devour anything to do with the Fleet, this fed the beast nicely.
Especially as it was a bit of background info on Coop (my fave character from the series).
No quotes for this one, but well worth the read. Great background info and, as I've gotten to the point in the series where I will willing devour anything to do with the Fleet, this fed the beast nicely.
Especially as it was a bit of background info on Coop (my fave character from the series).
September 10, 2020
The fourth novella I have read in the Diving Universe series and excellent just like the others.
The first two deal with Boss and her diving activities far in our future, the third was in that future but dealt with Coop and his time-lost Fleet ship while this one is in the past (albeit our future) and deals with the search for Coop and his ship.
The first two deal with Boss and her diving activities far in our future, the third was in that future but dealt with Coop and his time-lost Fleet ship while this one is in the past (albeit our future) and deals with the search for Coop and his ship.
May 5, 2019
Nice backstory
Great to see a story from the Fleet’s side of things when Coop and hid ship disappeared. If you’ve read anything else from The Diving Universe, you know how the main story places out. But that doesn’t matter.
Great to see a story from the Fleet’s side of things when Coop and hid ship disappeared. If you’ve read anything else from The Diving Universe, you know how the main story places out. But that doesn’t matter.
December 10, 2022
A heartfelt story
Interesting book about foldspace and the anacapa drive, and about loss, as seen through the eyes of one captain. I enjoyed getting to know this captain and her perspective. And getting another look at how the fleet functions.
Interesting book about foldspace and the anacapa drive, and about loss, as seen through the eyes of one captain. I enjoyed getting to know this captain and her perspective. And getting another look at how the fleet functions.
July 26, 2018
A good story of what was going on elsewhere in the universe regarding Coop's disappearance.
May 12, 2024
Another gripping and enthralling story in an increasingly gripping series, Straight on to The Boneyards now.
July 23, 2020
I absolutely love the Diving series because it's space history that makes sense. The Fleet left Earth thousands of years ago to travel among the planets using their faster than the speed of light technology. Planets that are full of people. So these are probably colonies that left thousands of years before that to become fully established on other planets who have mostly forgotten their Earth origins. The Fleet itself only vaguely knows its roots. And that is the point where Coop's ship disappears from.
This is the kind of layering of time passing that you see in fantasy, but not really in science fiction. The authors go out into space but they don't wander out too far into the future. They don't account for people losing technology and having to regain it. They don't add in a whole lot of culture shift amongst people. The wrecks and other civilizations are usually aliens. So Rusch does all of this with her world and then writes a killer story (with hyper-competent characters). Just...always so good. I devoured the new details about what is happening in this world and have lots of speculations on where she's going next.
Also: am I the only one who really wish's Todd J. McCaffrey would write about the rest of humanity catching up to Pern or vice versa? I've stopped reading books about Pern because it always seems to churn around in the same place since it never took that step.
This is the kind of layering of time passing that you see in fantasy, but not really in science fiction. The authors go out into space but they don't wander out too far into the future. They don't account for people losing technology and having to regain it. They don't add in a whole lot of culture shift amongst people. The wrecks and other civilizations are usually aliens. So Rusch does all of this with her world and then writes a killer story (with hyper-competent characters). Just...always so good. I devoured the new details about what is happening in this world and have lots of speculations on where she's going next.
Also: am I the only one who really wish's Todd J. McCaffrey would write about the rest of humanity catching up to Pern or vice versa? I've stopped reading books about Pern because it always seems to churn around in the same place since it never took that step.
June 17, 2024
This look into the workings of the Fleet was a pleasant change to the workings of the Lost Souls Company—the Fleet is by far more interesting to me as an organization and we get to see much less of it. Getting to see some captains other than Jon Coop in action was quite nice, especially as some of them turned out to be more interesting characters than could have been thought based on the way Tory Sabin introduced them.
This review was originally posted on my blog.
This review was originally posted on my blog.
July 15, 2014
This was a good fix while waiting for the next book in the series. This short story did a better job of sticking with the Diving Universe story than the other short stories did.
The short story narrator...Plum, I think her name is, still isn't my favorite narrator, but she isn't terrible.
The short story narrator...Plum, I think her name is, still isn't my favorite narrator, but she isn't terrible.
June 25, 2016
The Application of Hope is a further expansion of the Diving universe and I really enjoyed learning more about the Fleet. This series, in my opinion, keeps improving.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews