7.2 /10 1 Votes
Language English Pages 342 pp Originally published 2012 Publisher Viking Press OCLC 767940725 | 3.6/5 Goodreads Publication date 2012 ISBN 978-0-670-06576-9 Cover artist Stephan Martinière Genres Novel, Science Fiction | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Media type Print (Hardcover & Paperback) Similar Robert J Sawyer books, Other books | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Triggers is a science fiction novel by Canadian writer Robert J. Sawyer. It was originally serialized in Analog. Sawyer has been commissioned to adapt Triggers for the screen.
Contents
Plot summary
In the near future, a war veteran named Kadeem Adams, is about to undergo a highly experimental memory editing treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder at Luther Terry hospital in Washington DC. Seth Jerrison, the President of the United States, is rushed to the same hospital after being shot. The treatment goes awry due to the electromagnetic pulse from an atomic bomb planted by terrorists, which has just blown up the White House. It becomes clear that terrorists have infiltrated the Secret Service.
When president Jerrison recovers consciousness, he can remember Kadeem Adams' life as well as his own. Kadeem Adams finds himself able to remember the life of someone else who was nearby in the hospital. This raises the possibility that someone in the vicinity has access to president Jerrison's memories, some of which are extremely secret; these include plans for a major, and morally more than questionable, antiterrorist action.
In large part, the book has a thriller type plot. Learning how the memories of many of the characters were intertwined is a key to such things as finding who has the president's memories and who the terrorists are. However, much of the book is about the characters and interactions of the people whose minds have been subjected to what is suggested to be quantum entanglement. Not all of them are good people. After one of them dies, the quantum entanglement gets stronger rather than weaker.
Critical reaction
Critical reaction varied, especially regarding the book's ending. Writing in the Globe and Mail, Michael Matheson simultaneously criticized the ending as utopian and described it as "chilling". Leo Graziani considered it optimistic. Alex Good called it "cybertopian" In the Toronto Star.