THE TRIGGER - Softcover

Arthur C. Clarke; Michael P. Kube-McDowell

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0002247127 ISBN 13: 9780002247122

Publisher: Voyager, 2000

Synopsis

Without war, we'd hardly have any history. Without murder, we'd hardly have any fiction. Then along came the Trigger ...the only true promise of peace that technology has ever devised. From the legendary Arthur C. Clarke, in collaboration with Michael Kube-McDowell of Star Wars fame, comes a chilling day-after-tomorrow thriller of huge vision and startling menace. Jeffrey Horton of Terabyte Laboratories is the brilliant, driven and idealistic scientist responsible for the discovery of the Trigger. It was an accidental discovery: Horton was hoping to build the analogue of a laser for gravity. Instead, his experiment, when fired up for the first time, triggered all nearby explosive material. In that moment, an end to the power of the gun became feasible. In future, a firearm - or a bomb - could be made powerless to harm the innocent. Karl Brohier, Horton's boss and a Nobel Prive winner, has to decide what to do with the Trigger. Patriotism dictates he and Horton hand over the science to the Pentagon. Idealism demands the invention be given to the whole world, regardless of politics. But what haunts Brohier is the fear that with one wrong word to the wrong person, a convoy of black vans filled with Special Operations troops will swoop down on the Terabyte campus and cart away everything, including himself and Horton. So Brohier takes news of the Trigger direct to the White House. President Mark Breland, former star pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies, has a record of integrity and liberalism. He would rather be wrong in a hurry than agonize his way to a state of ambivalence, and he promises Horton and Brohier that the Trigger will be made available to the world. The Pentagon regards Breland's promise as wrong to the point of being treasonous. It involves disarming the military! In a world where violence has reached epidemic proportions, no one can be trusted. Too many people have a stake in the business of violence to give peace a chance.

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Review:

The early 21st century ushers in a revolution in unified field theory, and free-thinking physicist Jeffrey Horton and his team are pushing the cutting edge. Sequestered on a maximum-security research campus, the scientists are testing "Baby," a device they hope will create "a laser for gravity," a tractor beam. But during an early run, every gun in the area (and even a secret stash of fireworks) simultaneously explodes. Follow-up tests soon prove their device was responsible--that it can in fact neutralize every conventional gun, bomb, and explosive--and that's when Baby becomes the "Trigger."

This speculative novel by sci-fi legend Arthur C. Clarke and genre workman Michael Kube-McDowell follows the vast sea changes such an invention would bring, reading as part thriller, part social tract. Horton and his Trigger follow a course not unlike that of Einstein and the A-bomb, but ratcheted up by an order of magnitude--idealistic scientists, overwhelmed politicians, rabid lobbyists, and entrenched generals must deal with the device's deployment and consequences, both political and social, in a gun-rich, gun-dependent culture. A well-researched, plausible plot line keeps The Trigger not just readable but downright engrossing, despite its sometimes distracting lack of subtlety. All in all, a worthwhile, entertaining meditation on how technological progress always proves as unpredictable as it is inevitable. --Paul Hughes

From the Inside Flap:

What would happen if someone invented a device that could render guns and bombs virtually harmless? What would be the effect on crime, on terrorism, on international relations? Would it mean the end of war--or a whole new kind of war?

Here is a breathtaking new novel by the legendary Arthur C. Clarke, bestselling author of 2001: A Space Odyssey and creator of the Rama series, that is equal parts real-life scientific speculation and edge-of-your-seat thriller. In collaboration with Michael Kube-McDowell, Clarke tells a riveting, heart-stopping tale in which the fate of humankind depends on whose finger is on...The Trigger.

They dubbed it the Trigger, and in a world where violence had reached epidemic proportions it offered the one true promise for a civilized peace. For the first time it would be possible to take the guns out of the hands of armies, dictators, and thugs. Yet, like those who once believed that nuclear weapons would be the ultimate deterrent to war, could the scientists who invented the Trigger also be mistaken? Would this new technology bring peace, or chaos?

It was a question that haunted Dr. Jeffrey Horton, the brilliant young physicist responsible for the Trigger's development. His was a discovery with the potential to transform the world, but the road to a better future was anything but clear. Who should control this technology? How could its potential be realized? Horton and his team understood the danger of letting the American government know about the Trigger--as well as the danger of trying to keep it from them.

But not even Horton could foresee the fierce struggle that would erupt among Washington's power elite both to possess and to destroy the Trigger. Before long it becomes clear that science is being held hostage to politics and that no one can be trusted--not even Horton's own dedicated colleagues nor his long-time hero and mentor, the brilliant Nobel Prize-winning physicist Dr. Karl Brohier. Someone has already betrayed the project. Others will do anything to stop it--or co-opt it for their own ends. Too many people have a stake in the business of violence to give peace a chance. And the greatest enemy of all may be those with the best intentions.

About this edition

• Publisher: Voyager
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0002247127
• ISBN 13: 9780002247122
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 560