Customer Reviews

The Probability Broach

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

It has been a long time since I read a book that was both fun to read as well as made me think. I haven't figured out all of Mr. Smith's underlying philosophy since I have only read one book by him (The Probability Broach). His idea of stopping air piracy (everyone carries a gun on the aircraft: the airline just checks to make sure that the bullet will not disable the plane) is great. The notion of personal responsibility is great in these days when most people think that the government is supposed to take care of them (womb to the tomb). I liked his book enough that I am going to buy some more novels by him.

Probability Broach is Smith's first novel. It is the story of a Denver Police Lieutenant Edward William Bear, called Win, who somehow find himself in a different continuum. This novel is followed by a direct sequel, The American Zone, which has some of the flavor but less of the excitement of this novel.

Win is on lunch break when he is called to the scene of a homicide. The victim, Vaughn L. Meiss, has been shot multiple times by a machine pistol, yet got off four shots with his own weapon, apparently to good effect. Meiss is a professor of Physics at Colorado State University and is also a card-carrying Propertarian. Since Meiss was killed in the vicinity of the Propertarian state headquarters, Win checks with the staff there and learns that Meiss was expected for an executive committee meeting. After interviewing the State Director, Jenny Noble, and other directors at the meeting, he finds that Meiss had been very excited by something and that the weapon that Meiss was carrying had been provided by the government to protect state secrets.

Win also interviews Dr. Otis Bealle, chairman of the CSU Physics department, and gets to see Meiss' office and laboratory. While he is in the lab, several men try to kill him with a machine pistol and other weapons. He accidentally hits the power switch on the gadget in the lab and then dives through an emergency exit, which happens to be an intercontinual portal. Shot, dazed and not very coherent, he stumbles out of the hole on the other side and is then blown through the air by an explosion. Looking for help, he finds a telecom booth containing a screen and a keyboard, where he enters "O" for operator, but the animated drawing that appears cannot find a listing for the Denver Police anywhere in the known solar system. He tries for Bealls' number, but finds no "Otis" listed. However, he sees an adjacent listing for Edward W. Bear, Consulting Detective.

The phone is busy, but the location is nearby, so he decides to walk -- make that stagger -- to the address. On the way, he refreshes himself, and his clothes, at a corner pit stop, later is pursued and shot by unknown persons in a long black hovercraft, and then lands face down in front of the other Bear's garage door. When he awakens, he is being treated by a medico with a beautiful voice and a mean electronarcosis gun. When he wakes up again, he discovers that the voice belongs to a gorgeous blonde named Clarissa Olson. He also meets the other Bear, called Ed, as well as Lucille Gallegos Kropotkin, a 136 year old war veteran, judge, and congressperson. Lucy is Ed's next door neighbor and totes two 50 caliber Gabbet Fairfax pistols when she is going on a raid; otherwise, she only carries one during normal everyday activities.

Win is now a resident of the North American Confederation governed under Propertarian principles as expounded by Albert Gallatin. The novel is full of political philosophy in between shootouts and chase scenes. The politics is interesting and even intriguing, but well integrated into the action.

This is a different kind of novel than most, much like Starship Troopers in its union of thought and action. It makes a good case for universal arming of the population and an even better case against governments of every kind. After 9/11, the idea of arming airline passengers doesn't seem so silly, does it?

Recommended for anyone who has seriously considered the nature of governments and individual freedom, but wants his polemic with some excitement.

...and ends up liking them. L. Neil Smith's authoritative book, now unexpurgated, points out that not all Science Fiction has to revolve around militaristic governments where the rights of the individual exist only when they serve the state.

Detective Win Bear is pulled from a pre-apocolyptic society to a strange new place where the virtue of selfishness is readily apparent. It is so different that Det. Bear resists the idea. However, his philosophical journey is complicated by his investigation, and subsequent hijinks, so the story is less of a lecture and more of an adventure with political undertones.

The point of the book, however, is that there is always another way, especially in science fiction. When you suspend your disbelief that such a society could never form because of a subtle difference in history, then you can objectively examine the system and see if it could work. L. Neil Smith's scenarios make it work.

While I cut my teeth on Smith's The Nagasaki Vector and Tom Paine Maru, the Probability Broach remains one of my favorites

As a 20+ year collector of SF, I feel that this is a refreshing original. Having read it for the first time in 1983, I found that it is still as unique now as it was then. Mr. Smith creates a setting in which his detective gumshoe hero CAN be a hero and get the girl without the emotional baggage of a 'blade-runner'. The context of the story is that a run-of-the-mill cap in the process of solving a political murder stumbles into an alternate probability (similar to H. Beam Piper's Paratime series) that was created when a different word was used in the declaration of independence. What follows is a delightful action packed adventure that is full of understated witticisms and an occasional jab at the status quo. If you are a political partisan of a liberal or socialist bent, you will absolutely despise this book and throw it down in disgust; if you are an adult or are apolitical and don't take it as a gospel view of libertarianism but rather as what it is -- a good fiction tale that is meant to be entertaining -- you'll love it. On a scale from 1-10 I give it an 8.5

This is precisely one of the best books that ever existed, but it is especially important for our time period. Helping remind us of the power we have for individual responsibility.

I belive the better term would be instead of Anarchy, would be Total Self Responsibility..

This book is so awesome. It hits all the right spots, it tells us what liberty is really about, and how easy it is taken away. How Free and American are we really these days?

Viva American Revolution!

Long Live American Freedom!

Lieutenant Edward W. Bear, of Denver lives in a world where energy reserves are 'dwindling', unlicensed air conditioning could get you in more trouble than hoarding silver and businesses seem to be closing left and right. But while investigating a murder he gets blasted into another world, where people seem happy, are rich and WELL armed. Even the GORILLAS!
A libertarian setting which takes all the theory and tries to make it work. If you liked Heinlein you should love L. Neil Smith. Sometimes a tad unrealistic, but so what?

THE PROBABILITY BROACH is as close to a libertarian utopia as any realistic anarchist dares get. It's also a very detailed alternate history. Most writers of alternate history are content to detail when that history deviates from ours or set their stories in the resulting world with brief references to how things change. Smith gives us a detailed timeline of how things change when one extra word is added to the Declaration of Independence and George Washington is shot in the Whiskey Rebellion.

However, Smith unsuccessfully tries for a Heinlein style. His slang is awkward. The hero's romance reeks of bad Chandler imitations, and there is a little bit too much gun stuff even for me, a lifetime NRA member.

This book was originally published in 1980, and there are jarring elements of the seventies here which don't quite work like a tyrannical America justified by an energy crisis or the talking chimps and dolphins much loved in seventies' sf.

In Denver homicide detective Win Bear begins to feel his age after years on the force dealing with all kinds of vermin. His latest case is the usual chasing a murderer in a country that is totally controlled by the government with killers seemingly the only individualists left. The economy is in the tank and the only thing rising is pollution. Individual freedoms are nearing "zero".

Win stumbles on the PROBABILITY BROACH. He enters a different United States where individual freedom means everything and with limited government, technology has thrived within the blue skies. A different history has occurred with the major divergence beginning in 1794 with Gallatin joining the revolting Pennsylvania farmers, which results in the execution of Washington. The rest is history.

This is a reprint of a 1980s tale comparing two worlds, ours and an idyll realm based on L Neil Smith's contention that we lost freedoms during the Federalist period that also cost progress. Readers do not have to be libertarians to enjoy a well-written science fiction that dramatically portrays government excess using an alternate historical base for comparison. The story line engages the audience while making the readers think especially with today's debate over military tribunals for alleged terrorists or even the Steele case under Starr. Though avoiding the issue of the private sector stealing our civil liberties that also permeates American history, Mr. Smith's novel remains fresh today as the air in his alternate history is so that the reader gains a fabulous thought provoking novel that also entertains its audience.

Harriet Klausner

Fascinating look into an alternitive reality, one that is totally antithema to todays "big-government, it takes a village air-head liberal" Great fantasy read that takes your mind off of todays depressing state-of-the-state. It read well in 1980, and it reads well today! Hummm maybe it should be required reading for liberals as well. Detective Bear is gritty, and beliveable. The Chandler overtones only add to a gutsy style that pulls no punches, and puts you right into the book with the charecters. Everytime I read this book it turns into a nonstop readathon. Read it on a weekend, because you will miss work because its impossible to put down.

I first heard of this book after reading a short story sequel called "Spirit of Exmas Sideways" also by L. Neil Smith. "The Probability Broach" is one of my favorite books. The United States that Win Bear starts in was not as dreary as described in 1980 but it is getting there. I'm sure I could have a more intelligent conversation with a dolphin than with some people I have met. I highly recomend this book to fill out any science fiction library. Frank J. Curran 3rd