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I really wanted to enjoy these books, because "Beggars in Spain" is one of the finest novellas I've ever read. I'm re-reading it again now, as a matter of fact, as a reminder of how superb it is.
Unfortunately, I couldn't bring myself to get invested in the worldbuilding hook (either my math and physics aren't capable of appreciating it, or they're good enough to erect an impenetrable bullshit defense field; whichever it was, my disbelief was vigorously un-suspended and tended towards actively hostile towards it), and found most of the characters either bland or unlikable (which is a problem when the unlikable character is ostensibly the hero, as is the case in the second book). When the most interesting and sympathetic character is an alien who suffers frequent headaches, I'm not sure things are being done right.
Kress' work (at least that which I've read) often touches on the establishment and ruination of pseudo-utopian social constructs, but, at the climax of Probability Sun, this was applied with a comically large mallet, and the earnestness of the xeno-sociologist's observations of it, rather than tempering the event and lending it some intended gravitas, instead sounded nearly hysterical and hyperbolic (which is doubly unfortunate, as that character was the only woman in both books, and had an unfortunate tendency for stridency out of proportion to the situation at hand, though it was consistent and well-motivated; she just didn't seem very well-suited for her job, which seems fairly inexcusable in the context of the importance of the events to the human forces in the books' universe).
There were good and clever bits, but it was like getting bubble tea made with milk that had gone over - too much suffering for too little enjoyment.
Unfortunately, I couldn't bring myself to get invested in the worldbuilding hook (either my math and physics aren't capable of appreciating it, or they're good enough to erect an impenetrable bullshit defense field; whichever it was, my disbelief was vigorously un-suspended and tended towards actively hostile towards it), and found most of the characters either bland or unlikable (which is a problem when the unlikable character is ostensibly the hero, as is the case in the second book). When the most interesting and sympathetic character is an alien who suffers frequent headaches, I'm not sure things are being done right.
Kress' work (at least that which I've read) often touches on the establishment and ruination of pseudo-utopian social constructs, but, at the climax of Probability Sun, this was applied with a comically large mallet, and the earnestness of the xeno-sociologist's observations of it, rather than tempering the event and lending it some intended gravitas, instead sounded nearly hysterical and hyperbolic (which is doubly unfortunate, as that character was the only woman in both books, and had an unfortunate tendency for stridency out of proportion to the situation at hand, though it was consistent and well-motivated; she just didn't seem very well-suited for her job, which seems fairly inexcusable in the context of the importance of the events to the human forces in the books' universe).
There were good and clever bits, but it was like getting bubble tea made with milk that had gone over - too much suffering for too little enjoyment.
