Title: Triggers
Author: Robert J. Sawyer
Publisher: Analog : science fiction and fact
Edition: Serialized in four parts in Analog
Pages: The hardcover edition is 352 pages
Originally published: 2012
Genre: Science fiction / Thriller
The dice landed on: 3
Did I finish?: Yes
Do I like the cover: It’s ok.
On the eve of a secret military operation, an assassin’s bullet strikes President Seth Jerrison. He is rushed to the hospital, where surgeons struggle to save his life.
At the same hospital, researcher Dr. Ranjip Singh is experimenting with a device that can erase traumatic memories.
Then a terrorist bomb detonates. In the operating room, the president suffers cardiac arrest. He has a near-death experience-but the memories that flash through Jerrison’s mind are not his memories.
It quickly becomes clear that the electromagnetic pulse generated by the bomb amplified and scrambled Dr. Singh’s equipment, allowing a random group of people to access one another’s minds.
And now one of those people has access to the president’s memories- including classified information regarding the upcoming military mission, which, if revealed, could cost countless lives. But the task of determining who has switched memories with whom is a daunting one- particularly when some of the people involved have reason to lie…
This was a fast paced read. The whole concept of people getting each others memories is very interesting, and a bit scary.
I quite like a lot of this book. I liked the fast pace and the concept of memory sharing. But, I didn’t find some of the people’s reactions very believeable, personally I would have been a lot more freaked out about this than most of these people were. Then as I got closer to the end I got less and less happy with the way the story evolved, and totally disbelieveing as we got to the end.
Still, I liked quite a lot of the book well enough, the writing isn’t bad, and other people will probably be a lot more into the ending than I was.
Sounds like a good idea not completely explored. I’m not a huge fan of thrillers as they do tend to skip over things to get to the action.
This one felt a little too much like a script for an action movie..
Sawyer is one of my favorite SciFi Authors. And the story sounds like something I’d like.
I hope you will like it