The novel “Triggers” by Robert J. Sawyer was published for the first time in 2012.
US President Seth Jerrison is the victim of an assassination attempt while is giving a speech in Washington DC. He’s immediately taken to a hospital, where he undergoes a delicate surgery. During the operation, a new attack causes the destruction of the White House and the electromagnetic pulse caused by the bomb also affects the power grid.
In the same hospital, Professor Ranjip Singh is conducting an experiment on memory. It aims to help soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder by eliminating their most traumatic memories. The electromagnetic pulse caused by the attack heavily influences the equipment, creating a link between the memories of various people in the hospital. Having access to the memories of another person can create complications, especially since there is a person who has access to the memories of the president, including the top secret ones.
“Triggers” begins as a political science fiction in a near future where terrorist attacks against the USA have increased. Despite the triillions spent in wars and in various systems that are supposed to ensure the safety of Americans, the situation is worsening.
Nevertheless, the US president Seth Jerrison intends to give an optimistic speech but is interrupted when someone shoots him. It’s only one phase of a broader attack that shortly after leads ti the destruction of the White House. So far the future described in “Triggers” is a possible projection of the present but the other key element of the novel is soon introduced.
Robert J. Sawyer is an author who writes novels in which he takes a couple of ideas and explores their possible developments and possible consequences. In “Triggers” one of the ideas is a device able to modify people’s memories whose function is altered by an electromagnetic pulse.
The consequence is that somehow the equipment creates links among the memories of the people who were close to it. Each of them can access the memories of another person and that is a big problem because there is a person who has access to the president’s memories, with all the problems related to national security that could result.
Robert J. Sawyer explores the possible consequences of this mnemonic link. The people involved react in different ways to the phenomenon, especially at first, when they can’t understand what’s happening. The connections have different consequences because some people have traumatic memories while in other cases the result is a deeper relationship between the two people connected.
The intriguing theme of the shared memories is developed in parallel with the political science fiction. The American secret services have to find all the people responsible for the attack to Washington and at the same time understand how the mnemonic connection works to assess its consequences.
Given the kind of story, inevitably in “Triggers” there are several characters. Robert J. Sawyer is good at giving everyone a certain development, also taking advantage of their mnemonic connections. They allow to discover the secrets of a character through the one connected to him.
In “Triggers” there’s a scientific element about the shared memories but this can’t be considered a hard science fiction novel. Especially in the beginning many things happen, so much that they describe the events of about a day. The consequence is that the pace tends to be very fast with a lot of action and plot twists.
Robert J. Sawyer is an author who tends to optimism, even in a novel with a such a dramatic beginning. The ending of “Triggers” is also supposed to be optimistic but, without adding spoilers, In my opinion it can only partially solve consistently the plot.
Despite some doubts about the ending, I found that “Triggers” is overall a good novel that examines in an interesting way the near future and a possible technological development. For these reasons, I recommend reading it.
