Triggernometry Finals by Stark Holborn
I would like to thank the author for an advance copy of this novella in exchange for a fair and honest review
Published - 4/2
Price - £2.99 ebook
"A little knowledge can be dangerous, but a lot of it can be deadly. We learned that the hard way."
Professor “Mad” Malago Browne – thief, killer, and one of the most wanted outlaws in the Western States – is trying to forget her bloody past and fight back against the tyranny of the Capitol, one maths lesson at a time.
The only problem? Gold talks and mathmos everywhere are listening, selling their skills – and each other – to the enemy for the price of freedom. There’s only one person with the power to stop them: Browne’s old mentor, Carl “the Cannon” Gauss.
But when tragedy strikes, it’s up to Browne and a rag tag faculty of numerates and renegades to do the impossible: unite the mathmos and bring the fight to the Capitol’s door, one last time.
Little do they know the eleventh hour might arrive sooner than they think…
Warning this novella covers equally excellent Triggernometry and Advanced Triggernometry by Stark Holborn.
I suspect the writer Anton Chekov never saw a western but he knew that if guns are shown eventually they’re going off and Westerns have adhered to that for a long time. Two opposing forces are going to fight be that at the corral, the bar or the Main Street at high noon. In Stark Holborn’s impressive alternate western Triggernometry Finals we return to a world where knowledge is viewed with suspicion. Mathematicians and scientists are the outlaws and this time they may have to fight their own in order to settle things once and for all whatever the cost.
Outlaw and Mathematician Professor ‘Mad Malago Browne has in recent adventures rediscovered her desire to fight the power of the Capitol, reforged friendships with old allies and made new ones after a daring robbery her reputation is once again as one of the most wanted Mathmos in the Wild West. But when she gets a meeting with her old mentor Carl ‘The Cannon’ Gauss a much bigger opportunity awaits to strike back at the heart of the Capitol. In their way though is mathmo turned traitor and scoundrel William Playfair who has assembled his own mathmo outfit. A daring heist is planned but this time the odds may not be in their favour.
Holborn’s surreal western series feels once again apt for the current times. It imagines a world where populists have made people feel those with expertise and knowledge are the ones responsible for all things and having specialist skills a sign you should be distrusted. In this new instalment we also get such experts deciding to ally with these forces for their own financial gain. Prescient, timely and downright on the nose. Holborn imagines in the alternate west many years where those with skills are cast out, reputations shattered and now eke out a living as card sharks, hired guns or even circus acts. The points made are as sharp as a protracted and yet the world’s reality hangs together both as a western and an allegory. But this time a final fight back awaits.
Finals is an incredibly lean instalment and shows the advantage of a novella is an author can shape a story to be fast paced, swift on its feat and heads us into trouble. It is a great example of no filler all killer! After a swift re-introduction to our narrator Malago we meet Gauss the classic experienced powerful gunfighter leader and he offers something this series is often focused on - hope things could get better. A well planed heist, a fiendish opponent and gunfighters what could go wrong.
Safe to say a lot and avoiding spoilers the storyline puts the emphasis on Malago to finalise the plan. We meet new allies, all dangerous and based on real life mathematicians and scientists, we have fighting, betrayals and set piece battles. Holborn knows when to let loose with action and makes you feel the characters putting everything on the line. Even if you don’t know the real life histories you care about the ones we meet and their fates hit hard. There is a sense of a final angle throughout and that means as it’s a western there are causalities and we sense anyone is dispensable.
Finals is also funny, there was a Dark Tower joke that it’s hard not to laugh out loud at and maths turned into gunfighting art can be amusing but swiftly turn bloody. The whole story is a big entertainment and yet is making its point about our own world and possible future subtly but firmly. If this is the final ever time we go to this world it ends on a huge high.
I strongly recommend for fans of the series to pick this up and it is an equal match for its predecessors. If you’re a new reader then why not get your self three stories that remind us it’s useful to have a fight back against the forces of ignorance and have fun in the process. I tip my hat to Holborn for yet another great story. Run and get it partner!
