From: "Keith F. Lynch" <kfl at KeithLynch.net>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Another story about Future Washington.
Date: Thu,  9 May 2013 20:54:17 -0400 (EDT)
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

In a joke article in the April 2004 WSFA Journal
<http://wsfa.org/journal/j05/4/>, I wrote about a submission to the
_Future Washington_ anthology by Canadian author Robert J. Sawyer:

  Robert Sawyer's story was rejected due to too many errors.  DC
  doesn't have a CN tower or a parliament.  And we're certainly not
  going to print his story twice, once in English once in French.

Well, he's written a novel set in DC.  And there's no CN tower or
parliament.

_Triggers_, Robert J. Sawyer's latest novel, is a real page turner,
as much a thriller as an SF novel.  It's just come out in mass market
paperback, but I got it in hardback at a used book sale.

It's set in the near future, almost entirely in Washington, DC.  About
half of it is set in GWU Hospital, though in the novel the hospital is
called Luther Terry Memorial Hospital, after the surgeon general who
first had warnings put on cigarette packs.

Terrorism has become an even bigger problem.  A new kind of bomb
has been invented, very powerful, easy to make, easy to hide, and
difficult to detect.  A briefcase-sized bomb can destroy a large
building.  It's not nuclear, and there's no radioactivity, but there
is a strong EMP effect which can scramble electronics all over the
city.  Such bombs have destroyed landmark buildings in several major
US cities.

The president is giving an anti-terrorism speech on the steps of the
Lincoln Memorial when he's shot by a sniper.  As he's rushed to the
hospital, the Secret Service realize he was shot from inside the
Memorial and that the shooter went down the elevator to the mini-
museum.  (The author clearly did impressive on-site research.)  The
shooter, a Secret Service agent, does not survive to be questioned.
There's evidence that other Secret Service agents may be involved in
the assassination plot.

Meanwhile, in the hospital, a doctor is using an experimental device
in an attempt to erase traumatic memories from a veteran.  Suddenly
the lights go out.  The White House has been destroyed by a terrorist
bomb, and the resulting EMP, it's soon realized, has done something
utterly bizarre to everyone who was within a few meters of the
experimental memory-altering device.  Each of them have access, not
just to their own memories, but to the memories of one other person in
that group.  No two people are "reading" or "read by" the same person
-- it's a closed chain, with person A having access to person B's
memories (as well as his own), person B having access to person C's
memories, etc.  (While reading this book, you may want to make a chart
of who is reading whom.)  It's not quite mind-reading.  They have
to be reminded of a thing before they have recollection of it.  For
instance a patient looks at her hands, and remembers having just
performed surgery with them.  Except that she had certainly never
performed surgery.  (Later, she goes on to use her instant medical
education to save a life in a car accident.)

That's a good choice of location for such an event, not just because
a hospital is where such a machine is likely to be used, but because
nowhere else would there be such a wide variety of people, rich and
poor, black and white, doctors and patients, old and young (including
a fetus), union and management, a self-important lawyer, Secret
Service agents, a child molester, the molester's former victim (who
doesn't consciously remember the abuse, but the person "reading" her
does), and the President of the United States.  About 20 people in
total.

The Secret Service attempts to figure out who is sharing the
president's memories, especially since there's a major anti-terrorist
operation coming up in a few days, and it would be a disaster if news
of that very controversial plan got out.  The president also has some
personal secrets.

Unlike most fictional presidents, his party is specified.  He's a
Republican.

And all of the above happens, or is told, by page 40.  And there are
another 300 pages after that.  All I'll say about the rest of the book
is that when one of the people in the chain of memories dies, the
rules for how this effect works start changing, and things get very
weird.  I'll also mention that the book is complete, and appears to
not be the start of a series.

Sawyer, a Canadian, is notorious for introducing Canadian content
wherever possible.  In this novel he's really toned it down.  Canada
isn't even mentioned until page 42, and then it's just where someone
happens to be from.

He does have a character mention having enjoyed a particular TV
show.  The show isn't named, but from context it's obviously his
own FlashForward.  Sigh.

The title refers both to memory triggers and gun triggers.

There's a good Wikipedia article on this novel.  Unlike most Wikipedia
articles on novels, stories, or movies, there are no spoilers in it.
(Of course that could change, so if you want to avoid spoilers, check
whether that article has been edited since I posted this, and if so,
don't read it.)