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Chaos #2
The Chaos Weapon
PROBABILITY ZERO--OR LESS A man--or a civilization--can live with good luck and bad...it somehow evens out in the long run. But when the laws of chance are suspended and the breaks are all bad, that's the time to find out what's going on--and to stop it--before its too late! ChaosCenter sent Space Marshal Jym Wildheit-- teamed with a half-grown but lethal woman Sensitive, and an invisible god perched on his shoulder--on a seek-and-destroy mission aimed at the strange device that was distorting probability and threatening the entire galaxy. But the Chaos Weapon was nowhere in the Universe--at least not in this Universe. And that was only one of Wildheit's problems...
- GenresScience FictionFiction
201 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published August 1, 1977
9 people are currently reading
66 people want to read
About the author
Colin Kapp
68 books7 followersColin Derek Ivor Kapp was a popular UK science fiction author, but one who never became a success in the USA. He was active, though not prolific, as an author in the 1960s through to the 1980s.
He is best known for his "Unorthodox Engineers" stories, which recount an eccentric group of engineers, who accomplish impossible feats of engineering against all odds.
Pen names: Colin Papp, Colin Capp.
He is best known for his "Unorthodox Engineers" stories, which recount an eccentric group of engineers, who accomplish impossible feats of engineering against all odds.
Pen names: Colin Papp, Colin Capp.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
October 14, 2009
The Chaos Weapon is an excellent example of science fiction looking forward into what could become reality, or extrapolating from existing theories. Predicting the future using scientific methods is not a new theme in Science Fiction. The spin taken in The Chaos Weapon is unique in that instead of predicting the future, the protagonists and antagonists are using science and technology (never defined so it is a MacGruffin) to see where something ends. So instead of predicting and influencing the future, which are themes discussed in Arthur C Clarkes Foundation Series and Gordon Dickson’s Dorsai Novels, they use it to aid in destroying one and another. By manipulating the decision points, turning left instead of right, by manipulating chance and the tendency for entropy in all living systems, by manipulating probability, the antagonists in the book use their Chaos Weapon to effect changes, such as causing a space shuttle vehicle to have mechanical difficulties on a reentry, causing a crash in an attempt to perform an assassination. That is one example from the book.
The Chaos Weapon concerns the efforts of Space Marshall Jym Wildheit to find and destroy what is causing improbable deaths and destruction in the Galactic Federation. The great minds in the Federation are dying off at a statistically improbable rate, and Wildheit is assigned to find what is causing these occurrences and to eliminate the threat to humanity.
Along the way he is assigned a young girl called Roamer, to aid him in his quest. She comes from a planet called Maya (reminiscent of the Vedic Goddess Maya Mistress of Illusions) where a sect of people calling themselves Sensitives went to conduct self-breeding studies and work to enhance and foster paranormal seeming talents and skills.
Once partnered up the betrayals and deceits in the book start to come into play. Attacks from alleged allies, encounters with Space Gypsies (which fares poorly for the Gypsies), and finally gaining some answers and unwilling allies along the way.
The books is light on the science, the Marshall’s weapons are Shock Pellets and High Velocity Cannons, with no armor to speak of. In addition to these weapons The Space Marshalls have a symbiotic relationship with an extra dimensional entity which is a god of sorts. It has a limited control over the passage of time from a subjective and objective perspective. Where the god, Cuol in the case of Jym Wildheit, comes from is never discussed in the book at all. Other aspects such as travelling between planets are handled in a simple driving a car feeling. The overall sense is the technology is there because it is in the future.
The strength in the book comes from the elements dealing with causality and predictive sciences. This is where it shines, and carries all the other elements along and overshadows the faults in the fairly one dimensional characters and essentially bland generic Galactic Federation setting. Coming in at 201 pages it is a short read with some excellent SF concepts in it, making it worthwhile to pick up a used copy to enjoy. The reviewer has owned several copies since it came out in print.
The Chaos Weapon concerns the efforts of Space Marshall Jym Wildheit to find and destroy what is causing improbable deaths and destruction in the Galactic Federation. The great minds in the Federation are dying off at a statistically improbable rate, and Wildheit is assigned to find what is causing these occurrences and to eliminate the threat to humanity.
Along the way he is assigned a young girl called Roamer, to aid him in his quest. She comes from a planet called Maya (reminiscent of the Vedic Goddess Maya Mistress of Illusions) where a sect of people calling themselves Sensitives went to conduct self-breeding studies and work to enhance and foster paranormal seeming talents and skills.
Once partnered up the betrayals and deceits in the book start to come into play. Attacks from alleged allies, encounters with Space Gypsies (which fares poorly for the Gypsies), and finally gaining some answers and unwilling allies along the way.
The books is light on the science, the Marshall’s weapons are Shock Pellets and High Velocity Cannons, with no armor to speak of. In addition to these weapons The Space Marshalls have a symbiotic relationship with an extra dimensional entity which is a god of sorts. It has a limited control over the passage of time from a subjective and objective perspective. Where the god, Cuol in the case of Jym Wildheit, comes from is never discussed in the book at all. Other aspects such as travelling between planets are handled in a simple driving a car feeling. The overall sense is the technology is there because it is in the future.
The strength in the book comes from the elements dealing with causality and predictive sciences. This is where it shines, and carries all the other elements along and overshadows the faults in the fairly one dimensional characters and essentially bland generic Galactic Federation setting. Coming in at 201 pages it is a short read with some excellent SF concepts in it, making it worthwhile to pick up a used copy to enjoy. The reviewer has owned several copies since it came out in print.
July 30, 2023
An excellent and underappreciated bit of sci-fi! I picked up my copy for $2 at a cool-as-heck used bookstore in my area, and once I started reading it, I couldn't put it down.
As the summary makes clear, an unknown enemy has figured out how to wield chaos as a weapon, affecting the probability of events to give the Federation (a human-created multi-planet organization that spans the galaxy) a highly improbable streak of bad luck. The action spans multiple universes, including one where the laws of physics are totally unlike our own, yet told with clarity and insight. Some sci-fi stories are about really big events and immense amounts of power, and this is one of the biggest I've encountered in a long time!
It makes me a bit sad that there are so many good writers out there, and so many excellent stories, and not only will I never get a chance to read even a fraction of them, but so many will simply get lost and be forgotten. All I can do is try to call attention to the ones that moved me.
In closing, I'd like to share a wonderful line from near the beginning of chapter 14. "Every culture has a secret affection for its own devils, because individuals can never succeed in matching up to their own saints."
As the summary makes clear, an unknown enemy has figured out how to wield chaos as a weapon, affecting the probability of events to give the Federation (a human-created multi-planet organization that spans the galaxy) a highly improbable streak of bad luck. The action spans multiple universes, including one where the laws of physics are totally unlike our own, yet told with clarity and insight. Some sci-fi stories are about really big events and immense amounts of power, and this is one of the biggest I've encountered in a long time!
It makes me a bit sad that there are so many good writers out there, and so many excellent stories, and not only will I never get a chance to read even a fraction of them, but so many will simply get lost and be forgotten. All I can do is try to call attention to the ones that moved me.
In closing, I'd like to share a wonderful line from near the beginning of chapter 14. "Every culture has a secret affection for its own devils, because individuals can never succeed in matching up to their own saints."
December 12, 2025
You have to approach everything as a product of its time, sure. But also you have to decide whether the book's positive qualities outweigh the millstone that is its rampant sexism, imperialism and (weirdly) anti-Roma racism. In my case, by the second time the wispy girl with secret sexy superpowers (hi, Joss!) was dismissed during an all-hands meeting on the bridge as "chicken" I noped out and threw it across the room.
July 18, 2017
A decent science fiction story with a premise more interesting than the characters.
October 3, 2010
Look, i give alot of books one star, but some books really deserve it. (this book also may deserve being thrown into a wood chipper, but moving on). Look at that cover, its so unassuming. Youd think youd get a pulp action-er with a bit of bad science, charecters with funny hats and lots of kill-torps. Its so much, so so much, worse than all that.
Ok, the bad science: Its probability/cause effect wank. Which always hurts me; they are treating cause and effect, probability, etc, as a fundamental structure of the physics of the universe. And not on like a quantum mechanics or where is that electron type of probability, but like a super-macro probability of that avalanche happening now and killing you way. And not even in a jurrasic park sort of way, oh no.
See, there are two universes, cause ours isn't infinite enough for a 200 page book, except the other is contracting. And the race of humanoids over there called the Ra, (and each universe largely has just humans.) are worried about the implosion of their universe in the far future, so they try to colonize the other universe, by interbreeding with neandrathals to make humans like them (!) but unfortunately those humans became advanced, and are poised to take over all the living space in the entire effing universe, so they make the titular "chaos" weapon, to wank probability of chain of events, to assassinate all of the human geniuses before they invade. And the chaos science makes no sense, its full of 'entropic waves' and 'omega point' psuedo-techno babble that sounds like its from far crazy new age tract. Its a giant pineapple upside down cake of stupid.
But the cake of stupid has a frosting of dumb. Our hero, with the personality of a 2x4, is a space marshal, named Jim. Space marshals are superheros in charge of protecting the galaxy and its totally cardboard 'federation'. Mister Jim, has a invisible symbiotic god attached to his shoulder who prevents him from being killed. He teams up with a annoying 'chaos seer' called "roamer" (notice how uncreative the names are?) from the planet mayonaisse, who can instantly see down any future chain of events, and always instantly pick the best course of action. woot.
So we have two invincible characters with absolutely no personality, plodding through an episodic plot of space gypsies, inter universal travel, renegade Ra socialogists, an entire universe that implodes in 25 minutes, and blah blah blah, and a completely unneeded last 40 pages, which seemed like a (thankfully) canceled sequel told in summary without any enthusiasm. Ugh.
Ok, the bad science: Its probability/cause effect wank. Which always hurts me; they are treating cause and effect, probability, etc, as a fundamental structure of the physics of the universe. And not on like a quantum mechanics or where is that electron type of probability, but like a super-macro probability of that avalanche happening now and killing you way. And not even in a jurrasic park sort of way, oh no.
See, there are two universes, cause ours isn't infinite enough for a 200 page book, except the other is contracting. And the race of humanoids over there called the Ra, (and each universe largely has just humans.) are worried about the implosion of their universe in the far future, so they try to colonize the other universe, by interbreeding with neandrathals to make humans like them (!) but unfortunately those humans became advanced, and are poised to take over all the living space in the entire effing universe, so they make the titular "chaos" weapon, to wank probability of chain of events, to assassinate all of the human geniuses before they invade. And the chaos science makes no sense, its full of 'entropic waves' and 'omega point' psuedo-techno babble that sounds like its from far crazy new age tract. Its a giant pineapple upside down cake of stupid.
But the cake of stupid has a frosting of dumb. Our hero, with the personality of a 2x4, is a space marshal, named Jim. Space marshals are superheros in charge of protecting the galaxy and its totally cardboard 'federation'. Mister Jim, has a invisible symbiotic god attached to his shoulder who prevents him from being killed. He teams up with a annoying 'chaos seer' called "roamer" (notice how uncreative the names are?) from the planet mayonaisse, who can instantly see down any future chain of events, and always instantly pick the best course of action. woot.
So we have two invincible characters with absolutely no personality, plodding through an episodic plot of space gypsies, inter universal travel, renegade Ra socialogists, an entire universe that implodes in 25 minutes, and blah blah blah, and a completely unneeded last 40 pages, which seemed like a (thankfully) canceled sequel told in summary without any enthusiasm. Ugh.
May 22, 2016
Read this book as a teenager many, many years ago. I was riveted. All the different places and universes and dimensions it exhibited. It was like a flower unfolding and giving me thoughts of different worlds and places. I loved it. It somehow got lost 30 years or so ago and could never remember the exact title; now I've found it again and am gonna send a copy to the "Wank Boy" to re-read again with an open mind.
October 21, 2011
One of my first s-f books. Read many, many years ago :) When I was young and beauty. Now, I'm only "I" :) But this book strongly affect on my reading tastes.
I read this one second time now, and of course this is not so fascinating lide on the first time, but it's still ok.
I read this one second time now, and of course this is not so fascinating lide on the first time, but it's still ok.
February 13, 2013
This novel suffered from being too busy
There are a lot of good ideas in this novel, too many in fact. This book is only 200 pages.
The characters feel two dimensional also.
There are a lot of good ideas in this novel, too many in fact. This book is only 200 pages.
The characters feel two dimensional also.
May 22, 2015
I read this book long before I understood anything about Chaos Theory.
May 17, 2016
Less dark than the previous "Patterns of Chaos" and might also be more accessible.
Very good read :)
Very good read :)
December 2, 2014
1978 or 1998 grade B
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews