Science Fiction Writer
ROBERT J. SAWYER
Hugo and Nebula Winner

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Many reading groups and book clubs have enjoyed novels by Robert J. Sawyer. The following questions may help stimulate an interesting discussion about Triggers. (These questions might also suggest essay topics for students studying the book.)

Email Rob with a list of the first names of the members of your book club, the title of the book by him your club is reading, and one postal address, and Rob will send you personally autographed bookplates for every member of your group. (Bookplates are self-adhesive labels you can put inside your own copy of a book — they're free and they're fun!)

Note that these questions reveal much of the novel's plot; to preserve your reading pleasure, please don't look at these questions until after you've finished reading the book.

1. How does the assassination attempt on President Jerrison echo the assassination of JFK? Or the attempted assassinations of Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan? How do you defend against a conspiracy? How do you defend against a psychopath? How do you defend against people who are there to protect you?

2. Do you think it's possible for a known atheist to be elected president? Would you vote for an atheist?

3. If you could access the memories of one other person, who would you want it to be? Who would you not want it to be?

4. If your thoughts were being read by another person, who would you want it to be? Who would you not want it to be?

5. When Kadeem Adams forced President Jerrison to have a flashback to Iraq, did you think that was fair?

6. Should Bessie Stilwell be judged on her private thoughts?

7. Sawyer gets you to like the hospital administrator, Dr. Mark Griffin, then reveals that Griffin deliberately defrauded Medicare. In real life, does everyone have a dark secret? Or is it just in fiction?

8. Do you think the cities that were attacked in Triggers: San Francisco, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Washington, are all likely targets for terrorists? Do you live in one of these cities? Are you afraid of an attack?

9. Did you think that Operation Counterpunch was a good idea? Can its comparison to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki be justified? Is there a difference between a country declaring war on your country and a country harboring terrorists who have declared war on your country?

10. Much is made of President Jerrison being a Republican. How Republican is he, really? Is Operation Counterpunch a Republican idea? Harry S. Truman, the president who ordered the bombing of Japan, was a Democrat.

11. Dora Henessay's mother had left her father when she was a small child. If she left because he had abused Dora, should she have eventually told Dora? Or should she have kept it secret?

12. Janis Falconi's husband was able to abuse and control her because only he knew she was a drug addict. Sawyer suggests that if we are all connected in a hive mind, where everyone knows everyone else's secrets, then all abuse will stop. Do you agree with that?

13. What did you think of Janis Falconi's gaming friends? How about the description of Professor Singh's kirpan, or Dr. Eric Redecop's Bose noise-canceling headphones, or the Beast? How do all these bits and pieces work together to create a believable story?

14. Did you watch Aaron Sorkin's series The West Wing? Would you watch the fictional TV show Inside the Beltway? Does politics make good drama?

15. Did you watch the ABC TV series FlashForward — based on Sawyer's novel of the same name? If so, did you notice references to the series in Triggers? Did they add something special to the book, or is FlashForward just another pop-culture reference?

16. Did Triggers challenge your thoughts on "eye-witness" testimony or "mind" reading? Now that you know how memory works, do you look at your own memories more critically?

17. Did Sawyer convince you, by the end, that a hive mind is a solution to terrorism? Is it a necessary step in our evolution? Do you want to take that step?

More Good Reading

Download this Book Club Guide in Adobe Acrobat Format
More about Triggers

Book Club Guide Index
Book Club Guide for The Oppenheimer Alternative
Book Club Guide for Quantum Night
Book Club Guide for Wake
Book Club Guide for Rollback
Book Club Guide for Mindscan
Book Club Guide for Hominids
Book Club Guide for Calculating God
Book Club Guide for FlashForward
Book Club Guide for Factoring Humanity
Book Club Guide for Frameshift
Book Club Guide for Illegal Alien
Book Club Guide for The Terminal Experiment
Book Club Guide for End of an Era
Book Club Guide for Golden Fleece

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