Short Book Reviews: Encountering Warped Probabilities

Rosebud, by Paul Cornell (Tordotcom)

“The crew of the Rosebud are, currently, and by forceof law, a balloon, a goth with a swagger stick, some sort of science aristocratpossibly, a ball of hands, and a swarm of insects.” Although they’re not human,at least not in their current form, they’re most definitely people. And they’refanatically devoted to The Company, which for 300 years has placed them out inthe back acres of space. When they come upon a mysterious black sphere, theyarrive at a plan, after much squabbling: to capture the object for the Company,thereby earning lots of praise.

But the object is not what anyone might expect; it has theability manipulate probability and time-lines, thereby controlling the crew ofthe Rosebud by selecting the futures with the most benign outcomes. Asthe crew attempts to understand what’s happening to them, their own pasts arerevealed, as well as the less-than-benign nature of the Company.

I loved how the crew figures out that their memories areunreliable and what the object doing. In the end, however, I found the “universe-changing”revelations opaque. I wanted to like and understand the story, but ended upjust not getting it, which is never a good feeling to leave a reader with.