Rating: 
Summary: A Missed Opportunity
Review: Ms. Kress has created a unique alien culture, which shares a unanimous moral sense of right, wrong, and reality. Any divergent thoughts are punished by a blinding headpain, and individuals who act contrary to the "shared reality" are ostracized. Ms. Kress chose to juxtapose this storyline with a parallel plot about a mysterious artifact from another alien species, and throw in a third alien enemy to boot. The elements of these two story lines just don't work together. Dr. Bazargan is the most interesting and realistic character in the human anthropological team. David Allen is repugnant, and meant to be, but his one-sidedness makes him merely a plot device. The totally unlikely presence of two human infants on the team provides the occasion for a monstrous cruelty, and as such, is a cheap shot at our emotions. I wish Ms. Kress had thrown out this plot outline and explored her idea in a different way.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting, some good ideas, not quite successful
Review: Nancy Kress' new novel is _Probability Moon_. It's set in the same milieu as her award winning story "The Flowers of Aulit Prison": a planet, called World, with humanoid inhabitants. These people differ from Earth humans in one very important way: they experience something called "shared reality". If their fellows do not perceive the truth of something the same as they do, they feel intense physical pain, "headpain". This results in great cultural homogeneity, and a certain apparently lessening of ingenuity, but also in apparently greater empathy, and in a lack of war. However, those who fail to show this empathy are called unreal. If they are children, they are put to death. If they have already been proven "real" and attain adulthood, then commit an "unreal" act, they might get a chance to atone over a period of time, and be declared real again, but while they are unreal, they are generally shunned.A quasi-military expedition has been sent to World to investigate a strange artifact, the Moon of the title. As cover, a group of 4 anthropologists, plus, rather unbelievably, two very young twin children, has been sent to the planet, and will be living among the people of World, investigating them, while the people of World try to reach a "shared reality" consensus as to the reality of humans. The lead native character is Enli Pek Brimmidin, who is unreal as a result of a crime she shared with her beloved brother. As part of her atonement, she is given a job as a spy on the Earth people. There are four Earth scientists, of whom the leader, Dr. Bazargan, an aging Iranian, and the youngest, David Allen, who is clinically insane, are viewpoint characters. In addition, an old space Colonel, Syree Johnson, is the POV character for the artifact investigation scenes in orbit. So the narrative proceeds in parallel, as Enli learns what Earth people are like, while the Earth scientists learn more about the nature of shared reality, before being forced to flee to the forbidden, radioactive, mountains; and while in space, as some of the artifact's secrets are discovered, a ship of the malevolent alien Fallers appears, prompting a desperate race to escape. The action is pretty involving, and there are some neat concepts, both big, like the nature of "shared reality" and of the alien artifact, and small, like the Earth people taking a mix of brain-affecting drugs everyday to maintain "balance". Some mysteries are solved, and fairly satisfactorily, but others, too many, I thought, remain open. As there will be a sequel, that's no surprise, I guess. Still, I felt a bit cheated or let down in the context of this book. The aliens are well-depicted but there are a few holes in their culture. More damningly, the humans are less believable, particularly David Allen, who is very unpleasant and, as I said, insane. The plot is weakened because it is to some extent driven by the actions of an insane person. I had a hard time believing a couple of the setup conditions: Allen's presence, for one, and that of the twins (without parents!) for two. (Reasons are given for both situations, but not sufficient, I thought.) It's in the end, I think, interesting but unsuccessful. I am interested in the sequel, though.
Rating: 
Summary: Not your average predictable SF novel
Review: Not sure why some reviewers wrote so negatively, I think this is a very good book. It has a good and well developed story line that doesn't follow the Science Fiction receipe for the puny hero who defeats the omnipotent/all powerful villian by the virtue of his/her humanity and a lot of luck. Instead, there are a handful of everyday Joes, each with different strengths and weaknesses, that are basically in over their heads and the ultimate result is... well... failure, but not defeat! That is what is so great about the story! We can't win all the battles, but we never give up the fight! Maybe not the most romantic storyline, but Kress makes it work. I am alway looking for a good SF story that breaks the mold and Kress delivered.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting alien culture + some annoying characters
Review: Probability Moon initially seemed something like an old style Ursula LeGuin novel, studying an intriguing (and technologically somewhat primitive) semi-alien culture within a larger context (in this case, a major interstellar war). And that's pretty much what it was, except the larger context got somewhat short changed, two of the four point of view characters were unlikeable and some of the ideas and logic struck me as pretty fuzzy. The anthropology and details of the alien culture are the strongest elements of the book (or so it seemed to a non-expert); some of the other scientific/logic issues aren't handled as well. The plot has some interesting ironies and unexpected outcomes. There aren't any out and out villains or heroes in the book, everything tends toward shades of gray. I did find the chief anthropologist pretty admirable throughout, though not always effective, and his Iranian background gave him some interesting/useful insights in a couple of areas. Recommended if you like books about alien cultures.
Rating:
Summary: A Shared Reality
Review: Probability Moon introduces a neat idea: along with the standard forces of gravity, strong and weak nuclear forces, and electromagnetism, there is a fifth force, probability, which can be controlled (in this case, via a left-over artifact of a long vanished civilization). The major effect: the ability to make almost any element radioactive (after all, the fission of an atom, proton, meson, etc, is all described as a probability of decay in a given time period). At a different 'power' setting, it can used to affect how the human brain works, by changing the probability of which (and how) neurons fire. It's this latter item that forms the basis for this novel: an entire world, under the artifact's influence for several thousand years, has developed a society that has 'shared reality', where quite literally people can feel another's pain, where there is only one view of the world, and new and different ideas can cause serious 'head pain'. As such, it paints a picture of a type of utopia, with never the less some warts, some people who don't quite fit, or who have performed some action beyond the pale that gets them labeled 'unreal' (and therefore not just stigmatized but almost literally unseeable). Into this world come the Terrans, at war with a truly alien species, and most anxious to grab and understand the ancient's artifacts, which includes not only the 'small' device affecting the world, but the entire moon of the planet. The good things about this book are decent hard science concepts and competent characterization. What drags it down is an almost stereotypical plot in terms of both the Terran war and the changes caused in the society by Terran interference. I felt that her depicted society could have used a lot more exposition; in too many places how it really works is only briefly sketched. And the near mindless depiction of the Terran military is poor, a prop used to bring 'action' to the plot. But her prose is very readable, and the story flow is smooth, with a net result of a quick read with some excitation of the reader's 'sense of wonder', a prime ingredient in a 'hard' SF work. This is my first introduction to Kress at novel length - she has been a rapidly rising star at shorter lengths as evidenced by her Hugo and Nebula awards. From the evidence here, she will be a fine addition to the limited stable of 'hard' SF writers as her story telling ability at longer lengths improves.
Rating:
Summary: Probable... DISAPPOINTMENT
Review: This book was a disappointment. I guess I had high expectations, with the setup: 'ancient alien race leaves mind-boggling and useful technology, humans find it as their quick ticket to the stars, and they run into enemy aliens and weirds, too. On finding one planet of weirds, they discover a strange "artifact" that may be a weapon of immense power.' Here's the problem: Though it has the "mind-boggling technology," this book is unlike Sagan's Contact, which teaches us something about personal relationships and faith. Though it has a strange "artifact-weapon," it's unlike Total Recall in that it has implausible action and the result of the "weapon" is ... not that important in the long run. And although it offers many, many questions about the universe, aliens, "shared reality" and its explanation in the context of society, it offers few satisfying answers--and the ones that are given are so pat they could've come from a Star Trek episode. (I'm not picking on Star Trek, but if you're gonna write hard sf, you can't solve EVERY problem there is by "reconfiguring the main deflector dish.") In short, Probability Moon had some really good concepts. A few were developed quite well. Ms. Kress has a pretty good handle on psychology, from what I can tell, and comes up with some neat ideas. But if you read this book, be aware that it promises more than it delivers. If you keep you expectations down, it's a pleasant read.
Rating:
Summary: A pastiche of SF cliches
Review: This is a sorry comedown from the quality of Kress's first work, although if you think of it as aimed at adolescents who are new to SF, it might be reasonable for them. It has one good idea; after that it's full of cliches. Here's a partial list:
o A simple, agrarian, quasi-human race who are unsophisticated, but morally far superior to the humans.
o Deep dark secrets of same simple agrarian race.
o Ancient mysterious object which turns out to be - oh horror! - a super-weapon from a destroyed civilization.
o Mysterious xenophobic race which attacks humans on sight.
o Team of anthropologist Earthlings.
o Spoiled Rich Boy (SRB) on his first anthro field trip.
o SRB falls in love with Simple Agrarian Female (SAF). Humans cannot interbreed with SAFs, but....
o SRB decides there is a conspiracy he alone can overcome.
o Anthro team is headed by philosophical old man (POM). POM has a deep secret which almost destroys him in a crisis. And so forth. If you've never read these before, perhaps this would be a good book for you, but each cliche has been done better elsewhere (and been imitated enough to become a cliche). This is Science Fiction, not fantasy, but the "science" is pulled from nowhere, and violates current theories. Perhaps if I read the 2 sequels, I would understand it better - but I'm going to save my money.
Rating:
Summary: loose ends
Review: this is no _beggar's trilogy_, that's for sure. the novel seemed hurried near the end-as if she had some deadline. my main criticism is that there's no point to giving all the detail about the alien-enemy subplot. kress tells us a fair amount of "mysterious" stuff about the hostile aliens that we never see-but never clears anything up about them. i also agree that having the two children involved seemed to be pointless and an emotional cheapshot. all in all-this was not finely crafted like some of her other works. the plot devices were pretty obvious and the characterizations were not richly textured.
Rating:
Summary: loose ends
Review: this is no _beggar's trilogy_, that's for sure. the novel seemed hurried near the end-as if she had some deadline. my main criticism is that there's no point to giving all the detail about the alien-enemy subplot. kress tells us a fair amount of "mysterious" stuff about the hostile aliens that we never see-but never clears anything up about them. i also agree that having the two children involved seemed to be pointless and an emotional cheapshot. all in all-this was not finely crafted like some of her other works. the plot devices were pretty obvious and the characterizations were not richly textured.
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