Probability Angels [Paperback]

Joseph Devon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 7, 2009

Matthew knows that he died twenty years ago. He has, after all, been bouncing around New York city ever since, causing mischief and having fun as a supernatural being. But recently some problems have been cropping up: not only is he hallucinating things in garbage cans, but his mentor doesn't think he's working up to his full potential, his best friend can't offer any solace but drunken confusion, and his wife is dying in Central Park. 

See, the past twenty years haven't meant a thing because now it's time for Matthew to make his second choice and become a tester of humanity. 

And that's all before the zombies show up. 

Come explore the world of Matthew and Epp and see what a samurai from Feudal Japan has to do with the course of modern physics, what a two-thousand year old Roman slave has to do with the summit of Mount Everest, and what a dead man from Brooklyn has to do with the fate of the world.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Devon's world-building is exemplary, and he explores every aspect of the testers with unmatched attention to detail, even addressing the manner in which they tangentially interact with the land of the living." -Kirkus Reviews

"Read Probability Angels. Read it for the action. Read it for the heroes. Read it to learn something about life. But read it." --Albert Berg's Unsanity Files

"It's a novel that I believe rises easily to the level of some of the best classics of literature ever written." - Bestsellersworld.com

About the Author

Joseph Devon was born in New Jersey and has been a pioneer in the field of self-publishing since his first book, The Letter. He is known for his world-building literary style, instantly accessible characters and poetic dialogue as well as the "26 Stories in 52 Weeks" writing project from his website at josephdevon.com.

Product Details

• Paperback: 282 pages
• Publisher: CreateSpace (January 7, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1441403868
• ISBN-13: 978-1441403865
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,565,188 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I've been working on this "About Me" page for about 30 years now. And it's still not done. For some reason writing about myself is horribly difficult. I can write you a 10,000 word long lie without really breaking a sweat, but ask me for 400 words about myself and I hide under my bed. It's dusty under there.

Anyway, here goes.

I was born, so I'm told, in northern New Jersey. Growing up I was inundated with metal. This was brought about by the fact that my family owned a scrap yard in the Ironbound section of lovely Newark, New Jersey. Through basic osmosis I came to understand how tin is made, what rerolling rail is, and the price of bare-bright copper by the time I was eight. Other kids grew up playing with Tonka trucks; I grew up with the real thing.

In high school I gravitated towards Earth. I wound up taking Latin as a foreign language due to a coin toss on my first day of school. I didn't realize it at the time, but this choice would lead me deeper and deeper into the language and culture of ancient Rome. (That really sounded a lot cooler in my head.)

Their stories, legends, myths and tall tales stick with me to this day. All of this learning of a dead language culminated in my reading most of the Aeneid in its original Latin. Then, it was torture. Now it seems a blessing. I couldn't tell you the third person plural verb form of my left foot at the moment, but to this day I can still recite the opening lines of the Aeneid. (Ladies, start your swooning!). Something about scrutinizing literature that closely while translating and paying incredible attention to the detail of every word made that story, and the art behind it, come alive to me in a way no other book had. English class became much more interesting after that.

In college I majored in English with a concentration in Creative Writing. I was the only sophomore accepted for an Advanced Creative Writing class. School and I had some issues, though, and a lot of my class time was spent staring out of, or climbing out of, windows. I began writing my first book during these years about a road trip across the US I made with some friends, and I made a deal with myself to have it finished before graduation. Both finishing the book and graduating came right down to the wire. Nobody should have to take Anthropology twice. Nobody.

After college I moved to New York and self published my first book. For a while nothing happened. My book wasn't selling, I had no money and wasn't doing such a great job of finding work.

Then came the terrorist attacks of September 11th. After the towers fell I, like everyone I knew, desperately wanted to do something, anything, to help out or pitch in. Since I had a background in scrap I made contact with one of the subcontractors at Ground Zero to see if there was any need for an extra pair of hands that could wield a cutting torch. I found myself working as a Truck Checker on the twelve hour night shift at one of two offloading sites just north of Ground Zero. Then, through a strange array of circumstances, I wound up as the Swing Shift Supervisor for both offloading sites. Basically this meant that I would bounce back and forth between the day shift and the night shift from one site to the other; when I was on duty the permanent Supervisor would have the day off. It was weird. For any number of reasons. I was a twenty-three year old English Major supervising a twelve hour night shift of Dock Builders, Operating Engineers and Oilers offloading steel and debris from the World Trade Towers into barges floating on the Hudson. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention two things here.

First, the notion of Ground Zero extended well beyond what most people got to see. The cutters and firemen working right next to the pit were obviously a huge part of it, but the project was a massive undertaking that included everything from the tugboat captains piloting four barges at a time through the river currents, to the laborers guiding truck traffic around the sites to the scrap yards that reprocessed the steel over in Jersey. There was basically an entire town's worth of people at work down there most of whom never showed up in any way in the public eye. Obviously the guy sitting four blocks away processing trucker's forms isn't as exciting as someone cutting steel right at Ground Zero, but I always feel compelled to point out that it was, in fact, a massive group effort.

Second, while my title of "Pier 25 Swing Supervisor" sounds imposing, I was really just a warm body put in place while the regular Supervisor had the night or day off. I'm not saying this to belittle myself, more to point out that I was able to make it through this ordeal because the crews I had under me, the Project Supervisors I had watching over me and the regular Supervisors I was replacing were astoundingly good at what they did. Because they had everything running so smoothly it made my job survivable.

When enough progress was made cleaning up Ground Zero and my shift was no longer necessary, I was let go and I began writing my second book. When that was finished I began looking for a publisher, freelancing and writing my third book. Then my money ran out. Then I started mooching off my parents. These weren't good times.

Then my niece was born and good times started again. Through yet another strange array of circumstances I found myself employed as the Secondary Care Provider for a little baby girl. Yeah. I'm a nanny. Like most of this tale this is something that either makes sense to you or it doesn't. Basically though, I'm good with kids, the pay is just fine and I have a decent amount of time to dedicate to my writing. Some weeks it's less time than others but since there are now two little girls to be taken care of and I seem to be pulling this website off okay, I'd say I have just the right amount of time.

Where was I? So, I was a nanny for one girl, then another niece was born and I became a nanny for two girls. Somewhere in here I got a couple of short stories published and became somewhat disenchanted with most of the traditional paths open to authors. So I thought I'd try something different and started up this current writing project. Really it's more of an experiment to see what sort of impact providing a large amount of free content can have on a writing career. Also I needed a kick in the pants because I hadn't written anything in awhile. And here we are.

But that's my background, and this page promised to provide some details about
me. So I'll go on.

There aren't many things about myself I take seriously. My writing is one of them.

If there's a better fruit than the mango, I don't want to hear about it.

If there's a better story than the events surrounding, leading up to, and following the Trojan War, I don't want to hear about it.

If there's a better way to express fondness for something through hyperbole than the phrase, "I don't want to hear about it," I don't want to hear about it.

I'm a romantic by nature, a literalist through my upbringing, and a cynic by choice.

I can't hear the song, "Born to Run" without pumping my fist into the air. (What do you want? I'm from New Jersey)

I believe artists should make choices, not mistakes.

I can cook anything expertly as long as it's pasta sauce or deep-fried.

I know who committed the murders in the Rue Morgue.

I could do away with every book in my life except for "Catcher in the Rye" and still be happy.

I'm not sure how Bryant Adams found his way into my music collection, but sometimes I'm awfully glad he's there.

My vices of choice are Scotch and Craps.

Sometimes I find it hard to tell where my sense of humor stops and "The Simpsons" begins.

One of these days I'll make it through "War and Peace."

I'm naive enough to believe in happy endings, but know enough to realize that happiness is subjective.

I have no idea how to end this.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Fascinating World, April 3, 2009

By 

Timothy Haugh (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Probability Angels (Paperback)

I feel fortunate that I am in a position to occasionally read self-published books. Not all of them are worth taking the time to write about; however, this one certainly is. Though it has its weaknesses, Probability Angels has enough going for it to make it worth reading.

The strongest part of the book is the first half, when the reader gets a chance to explore this clever world and learn about its people. Or, rather, its "probability angels"--people who have died after making certain choices, which leave them spirits roaming the earth, "pushing" human beings towards different paths, both good and bad. But in doing so these "angels" experience pain and huge transfers of energy.

It is a real pleasure to learn about the powers of this alternate world and, in particular, to meet its characters. Matthew, the newbie, is in some sense the eyes through which we see this world. Yet it's Epp, the ancient one, and Kyo, the strange one, who are ultimately much more interesting as we slowly learn their history. They are also the driving forces that move the plot forward.

There were a few small problems with the book from the beginning, however. Mainly, a tendency to disguise exposition as dialogue. Still, as I moved through the first half of the book, I thought it might be a real surprise, a genuine triumph. Unfortunately, when the climax of the plot starts to develop in the second half, it doesn't quite live up to the nice groundwork that's been laid.

The second half squanders the ambiguity of the first half by laying out a basic good vs. evil battle between various kinds of spirits. And a lot of the questions that the reader expects to be answered in these pages are left unknowns. In some cases, the characters themselves ask the same questions the reader has and are greeted with another character's "I don't know." I guess it's okay that things are unknown at certain stages for the characters, but the reader--at least this reader--wants a little more fulfillment.

Still, in the end, I have to commend Mr. Devon for coming up with a very clever premise and creating a very interesting world. If I hoped he did a little more with the plot to exploit his premise; well, others may see it differently. But that doesn't change the fact that Probability Angels is a good read.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wild ride, February 17, 2009

By 

Frank J. Konopka (Shamokin, PA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Probability Angels (Paperback)

I'm not quite sure what the title of this book means, but that didn't interfere with my enjoyment of it. To begin, I didn't quite understand how folks who are dead could materialize at will, and eat and drink (also drink while not material), and how they could feel pain, etc.. I've always said that I accept the world that the author presents to us, so I just went along for the ride, and what a wild ride it was! There seems to be something happening on every page, and you keep turning pages to find out how everything is going to end.

The idea that dead folks "push" the living into doing things that ultimately help either themselves or mankind as a whole is unique, as far as I know. Of course, there must be tension to keep the plot moving, and the fight between the "live" spirits and the "dead" spirits (I know that sounds strange, but read the book and you'll understand) keeps the reader riveted. The characters are quite well drawn and you want to really get to know them as you go along.

This is not a book for everyone's tastes, but there aren't many like that anyway. If you can keep and open and inquisitive mind, you'll enjoy this book as much as I did.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Enter a plane between heaven and earth with Devon's non-angelic beings in this unique tale., May 23, 2011

By 

Autumn Blues Reviews (Pa.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Probability Angels (Paperback)

Probability of Angels is not what I expected however I did enjoy the book. Although at times I found it somewhat confusing, it was mostly due to not knowing where Matthew really was or what was going on. I did find the characters interesting and they all have a little gift like the Fantastic 4 comic series. Epp reminds me of Samuel L. Jackson he is calm and cool even while things are crazy around him. Devon did good placing as much emphasis as he did on Epp and Matthew. You tend to look forward to their characters throughout the book and when Epp is in danger you really feel badly for him. Are their really angels in this adventure? Just as the title suggests it is a probability since the location seems to be some sort of level or plane and not heaven itself. I believe Devon could go far with this series if he adds a little more paranormal or afterlife juice to the mix. Since the 2nd book of the series is due to be released soon I am curious to see if he has picked it up a notch. The narrative of Probability of Angels itself is unique and I like the writing style of Devon. If you like your fiction with a mix of the unknown then you can truly enjoy this book and this series.