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.
Jeffrey Horton of Terabyte Laboratories is the brilliant, driven and idealistic scientist responsible for the discovery of the Trigger. It was an accidental discovery. When Horton fired up his prototype analogue of a laser it 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. The Trigger might even mean an end to war.
Patriotism dictates that Terabyte hands over the science to the Pentagon. Idealism demands the invention be given to the whole world, regardless of politics.
But in a world where violence has reached epidemic proportions, too many people have a stake in the business of violence to give peace a chance. Clarke and McDowell offer a startling vision of the future in which the fate of humankind depends on who controls THE TRIGGER.
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On the surface this is a most unusual book for Arthur C. Clarke. There is none of the interplanetary questing of 2001: A Space Odyssey, or Rendezvous With Rama, and while in the past Clarke's books have been almost totally devoid of violence, here is a direct confrontation with the subject. As such The Trigger reads less like Clarke's previous fiction than a liberal answer to the blockbusting adventure novels of Tom Clancy. Likewise, the flashes of humour, the sharp dialogue and the political intrigue will be more familiar to readers of Michael Kube-McDowell's Alternities and the Trigon Disunity. However, the result of this collaboration is an epic thriller, as well as a surprising change of direction for Arthur C. Clarke, undoubtedly the most famous science fiction writer in the world. --Gary S. Dalkin
‘Arthur Clarke is one of the true geniuses of our time’
Ray Bradbury
‘Arthur C. Clarke is the prophet of the space age’
The Times
‘A one-man literary Big Bang, Clarke has originated his own vast and teeming futurist universe’
Sunday Times
‘Kube-McDowell is reminiscent of Arthur C. Clarke at his best’
Newsday
‘Kube-McDowell is an author to be reckoned with’
Greg Bear
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Book Description Soft cover. Condition: New. No Jacket. Paperback. The Trigger. Seller Inventory # 006783