Triggers

This a fun book that has some interesting concepts and is well written. The narrator was pleasant to listen to and I found myself listening to the whole book in one sitting.

This is an intellectually weak, self-indulgent book.

In his boyish Audible introduction, Sawyer tells us this is his first venture into the thriller since TV poured money into his garage for "Flash Forward".I

He treats the thriller reader with disdain, twisting and turning the workings of the United States government. We expect character compression--a single FBI agent, not three or four, but we do not expect a single Secret Service Agent to stand in for almost the entire Justice Department and Homeland Security. After the destruction of Independence Hall, the Golden Gate Bridge and the Sears Tower, the President and the Secretary of Defense decide to (and this is the MacGuffin) murder 107 million Pakistanis to defeat Islamo-Fascism*, and the Congress and military leaders are never mentioned. The head of the Secret Service and two of his minions convert to Islam for money and Heaven and conspire to assassinate the President, presumably finally swayed through Imam Voldemort's Imperio curse. 

Sawyer ignores democratic safeguards to make his point: we could achieve peace if we just understood each other.  While I do not expect a wonkish recapitulation of "The West Wing", I do expect, given his needless diversion to LA to give a cameo to an actor friend on the set of his fictional White House drama "Inside the Beltway", some recognition that we do not make decisions in a vacuum. (Many Presidential Libraries have an Oval Office; all are closer than LA.)

But for this book to tell its simplistic tale, Sawyer needs the contrast of every-man-is-an-island to the tapioca utopia of his group mind. He cannot show successful cooperative systems or else risk undercutting a variant on The Shared Moment from Dan Simmon's Hyperion Cantos. And if you do not know those works, you should. They are the books you should give those who hate science fiction. Simmon's books lightly twine Keats, Chaucer and Mark Twain in one of the greatest science fiction epics. Stop. Find Dan Simmons now.

But back to this thing.

Sawyer simplifies interactions and erases milennia of social contract--even in its admitedly flawed American model--to make his slushy ill-thought naive conclusion: if we knew each other as we know ourselves, everything would be fine.

Sawyer wants us to surrender ourselves to a group mind and the tyranny of the majority. He ends in the Galapagos and quotes Darwin but ignores the implications of redundancy, of evil, of madness, of faith, hoping that a compassionate Intelligent Evolution will mitigate the brutality of natural selection. 

Sawyer is a Canadian, and in a slurry of factoids chooses to tell us that the man who created Superman is Canadian but not that among the treasures lost in the White House immolation is Teddy Roosevelt's Nobel Peace Prize or the desk where Lincoln wrote the Emancipation Proclamation. America is a flawed and riven country, dating to the Articles of Confedration, always trying to be better, but Sawyer ignores this. Americans must be monochromatic for this story to work. There is not a single difficult decision in this book, and that makes it anti-American.

Nor is the book well-written. We open with a presidential speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial rallying the American people after attacks across the country. It is a bold move, and demands crisp rhetoric, but it fails in mushy simple phrases that echo a high school commencement speech. He evokes Gettysburg but Sawyer's cadences stumble, and the metaphors are weak. 

I first heard Jeff Woodman in "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close". He does well here, particularly in the role of a Sikh doctor. It is a voice that could easily slide into parody. Other voices echo Sarah Palin, a female Forest Gump and the Kennedy quaver. Here he is equal to the material.

* The Secretary of Defense convinces the President to murder millions by using the bizarre analogy that the United States used the atomic bombs to retaliate for a few thousand dead at Pearl Harbor. No. Dropping the Bomb was a complex and much debated decision and even now is a Rorschach test in American policy. But making it a complex nuanced decision erodes Sawyer's argument for the shared mind utopia.

If you like fairy tails, go for it.

Probably not. The guy has talent, but the story got lost in the end.

Actually there wasn't anything bad about the performance, he is just guilt by association.

The second book! Throw it out and re-write. New story line, complete the plots. More conflict.

Get a better editor or better friends to steer you.

I loved the action in this book There was a feeling of 24 in the beginning of this book.
i loved the idea of being connected to someone's knowledge and thoughts.

I have read several of Robert J. Sawyer's books, and what i can say that all his books have an ending that shows how the world is changed in a lot of ways.

highly recommended

Someone else called this book a "spiritual thriller" and I would agree, as that phrase put me in mind of Dean Koontz' Odd Thomas books, and this has some similarities in terms of "feel". I liked the premise of the book; I thought it was well written and read with care. There are some unbelievable parts, but that's what it is to read this kind of book--of course, everything in it couldn't really happen. That's what some kinds of fiction are like. I would recommend this wholeheartedly.

In the forward to Triggers, Robert Sawyer comments that because of the interest shown in his books since the airing of Flash Forward, he decided to put more action scenes in his next book. He definitely did that and he did it quite well. I wouldn't say I preferred this style which sometimes seemed to read more like a script than a novel, but it was entertaining and easy to listen to. Like all of his novels, it provided plenty of food for thought and inspired lots of "what if...?" conversations. The plot was tight and held together well until the last 10% when, in my opinion, it began to unravel a bit. For me, the ending did not seem to be the most logical progression and it felt a bit rushed. The rest of the book, however, was gripping.

Sawyer can write amazing stuff (Calculating God, WWW Trilogy, Starplex) but he is just as able to write average stuff like this one.

Reasonably interesting but disappointing really. Not as deep a story as the author @RobertJSawyer can write. I'd guess it's watered down because it's written so it can be turned into a movie.

Wonderfully read by Jeff Woodman.

I have read/listened to everything Sawyer has written, most of his novels several times. Triggers is reminiscent of Flashforward and Rollback. I am only 1/2 way thru part one...but I am hooked. If you enjoyed the aforementioned books you will enjoy this book. Jeff Woodman is a wonderful choice for Narrator. I was highly anticipating the release of Triggers and I am not dissappointed. Highly recommended

The story didn't get my heart racing, but it was a fun, easy read. It was about memories put in someone else's head and the trouble it caused and how the different personalities dealt with the problem. Not a 5 star for me because to get 5 it has to be one that I cannot put down, I'm 100% IN the story, and I make sure I haven't jacked-up the speed to pass over the slow parts, and I'm sad as I get closer to the end.

As Robert J Sawyer indicates in his brief introduction, it is written in a higher (more screen play type) speed. (he refers to Flashback, which I can also recommend).
The narration is absolutely great. When you hear the characters one can visualize them.
The story realy captures you and the end is rather unexpected, but actually very logical. The story in general also should trigger your thoughts about what is happening in our world today.
All together a great book and wonderfull to listen too.