Mathematical Fahrenheit 951 in a Wild Wild West

Sometimes you know that a book is written just for the intersection of some of your weird interest areas. Triggernometry falls in that intersection of Mathematics, the Wild West, and Alternate History. I never even imagined that I could write these words out together and Stark Holborn has essentially crafted out a trilogy of novellas (each no more than 60 pages) building on this entire concept (I would even say conceit) which is in equal parts thrilling, precise and fun. I am thankful to the author for a review copy of the same

“What’s it called when you know something is true” I met her eyes “In mathematics, it’s called law”

Triggernometry follows the journey of “Mad” Malago Browne, once a mathematics professor, now branded as a Math (Maths Monster) in an America that has banned mathematics (don’t ask me how that works, that’s the conceit of the book). Malaga Browne is hiding her math skills and eking out a living following harrowing events of protest and rebellion from her past when her rather inconvenient past drags her back to the fray again. What starts off as a mission of no-choice (a heist) escalates into paradigm-changing events through the course of each novella (viva la Revolution!!!!)

“A little knowledge can be dangerous. But a lot of it can be deadly”

It sounds rather basic and silly but what Stark Holborn manages to achieve in such a short page count is something deeply substantial and inventive. The usage of maths and mathematical devices as instruments of violent mayhem is rather impressive while it is kind of weird to image a world without maths – you can easily see that without any measure or method of quantifying value, economics and the day-to-day running of businesses and life becomes rather hand-wavy and whimsical. In a way, the commentary is pertinent to the current state of the world that we live in – just that the method of discrimination is maths in this case. The series is also a reflection of the post-truth post-shame world that we currently live in – and what is maths, if not an immutable fact

“The essence of mathematics lies in its freedom”

Lending further whimsy to the proceedings, Holborn peppers Malago Browne’s supporting cast with real-life mathematicians with their idiosyncrasies, and its fun to follow that as well. The names that one usually associates with advanced maths (and one particularly from ancient maths) take their bow through the course of the book. The structure of the book is also rather precise, there are elaborate plans made which are almost immediately dashed – only for our protagonist to inveigle newer solutions when the asymptote meets the axis.

This is a rather nifty trilogy that does do a lot of heavy lifting despite its lean run time. It is to an extent silly but the silliness is suborned in the deftness of execution. Obviously, your enjoyment of the series depends on how much you buy into the central conceit – I love maths and for me, this was an absolute no-brainer and a gem of a satirical alt-history math western series (never thought I would type these together)

Rating – 4 QEDs on 5