The Probability Pad: The Greenwich Village Trilogy Book Three

Greenwich Village Trilogy #3

by T.A. Waters

After a trip to San Francisco that led to an odyssey in search of a lost unicorn, time-traveling hippie heroes Chester, Michael, and T.A. return to New York City where they're confronted with duplicates of themselves — and everyone else! To once again save the planet from an evil scheme by invaders from space, they'll have to take on the Hallucitron, a mind-blowing invention that produces illusions more powerful than those created by any drug.
Originally published in 1970 as “a freaked-out science-fiction fantasy — blasting the outer limits of your mind!” The Probability Pad is the third book in the Greenwich Village Trilogy, a shared-world scenario written by three different authors, all of whom appear in the books as characters. Dover Publications returns this psychedelic adventure to print for the first time in nearly 40 years, along with its predecessors, The Butterfly Kid and The Unicorn Girl. This edition features a new Foreword by Barbara Hambly, former president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.

Genres: Science Fiction

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1970

Reviews

[andreas Luneborg · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's cheesy - and i love cheese.

[Jonathan Palfrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an amiable little tale, the plot moves briskly along and keeps you turning the pages. The writing style and the characters are unremarkable but adequate. It’s the final part of a trilogy, each part of which was written by a different person, but they all have the same trio of main characters and all fit together so well that they could plausibly have had the same author.

My main complaint about this one is that Waters has studied the preceding volumes (by his friends Anderson and Kurland) too well. Yes, the details have changed, but the outline of Book 3 is basically that of Book 1, with a dash of Book 2 in the middle.

Chester Anderson set up the trilogy with The Butterfly Kid: an alien invasion of Earth is thwarted by himself and his friends from their base in Greenwich Village in the late 1960s. Nominally it’s set in the future, but it’s a future that tastes very much like the late 1960s. Michael Kurland retained this general idea in The Unicorn Girl, but introduced some creative innovations, and had more fun with the characters and the dialogue. T. A. Waters recycled their ideas competently enough, but without adding anything basically new.

I first read The Unicorn Girl some 10 years ago, and I still think it’s the best of them. But at least I’m pleased that Books 1 and 3 are pleasantly readable and not complete duds.

[Orinoco Womble (tidy bag and all) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have a habit of reading two or three books concurrently, and I kept putting this one down and reading other things. Considering how many years I searched for this final volume of the Greenwich Village Trilogy, that's low praise indeed.
I still can't decide if the whole trilogy was written by one person under three names or not. The styles and storylines are so similar, it makes me wonder. I did an online search and apparently three men with those names existed, but that doesn't mean they each wrote a part of this trilogy.
The story is basically a reboot of The Unicorn Girl, with the time-place slips of The Butterfly Kid thrown in. There isn't a terrible lot of plot, and if you've read the other two you've pretty much read this one. The dialogue and narration doesn't sparkle very brightly. It was okay, but it took me far too long to finish such a light, short book.

[Sarah Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sequel to Chester Anderson’s “The Butterfly Kid” and Michael Kurland’s “The Unicorn Girl.” Like those books uses the plot device of including Anderson and Kurland as characters, and also borrows (or continues) a few other plot devices, although not to the extent of being predictable. The book is reasonably hard to find. Kurland went on to become a successful establishment science fiction writer, so you can find him in the library, while Anderson opted for anti establishment self-publishing still much coveted by UC Berkeley’s Bancroft Library.
If you are an enthusiast of the trilogy, just message me and I'll send it to you for free.
sarahmpackard@gmail.com

[Annarella · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the less interesting in this trilogy but it's always a small 60s psychedelic sci-fi classic.
As usual plenty of humour and the depiction of en era.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the weakest of the trilogy set in the 60s, but still good. It includes humor, hallucinations. and an amazing eclectic cast! Good, not great.

I really appreciate the copy for review!

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Strange.

[Joanne Mezzatesta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Village Trilogy wins still.

If you are old enough to be puzzled by your memory of the 1960's you will probably love rereading the trilogy even for the first time.