Review: Scott McEwen’s ‘The Trigger Mechanism’

Scott McEwen’s The Trigger Mechanism is an open-door, compelling, and action-filled look at what can happen in the world when technology, particularly artificial intelligence (AI), is hijacked by forces of evil.

To begin with, McEwen brings a glaring bona fide to the table–he also wrote American Sniper. A box office movie later and his writing is already proven.

The subject matter of The Trigger Mechanism marks a different, topic-wise, in that it occurs in the heartland USA, rather than a battlefield countries away. It deals with threats posed by evil forces using technology to decimate and terrify civilians in Austin, Texas, New York City, and other locales.

It highlights the devastation that can be wrought from the dark side as technology progresses more and more and we become more reliant on those changes. Those in whom the intent to do evil is met with the capacity to usurp control of technology pose a threat to humanity that is nearly beyond imagination.

McEwen’s description of flocks of drones being flown into passenger jet engines as airliners came in for landing at LaGuardia paints the devastating picture:

The captain was hand-flying the aircraft toward LGA’s runway some twelve hundred feet below when he saw something in the distance.

“Oh my god….birds,” he said, pulling the yoke to rise above what looked like a perfect V of geese.

“What’s going on?” the copilot asked, but then saw what the captain was talking about–the birds, also course-correcting, at least a dozen of them buzzing close and closer to the jet’s twin engines.

“They’re not birds,” the captain responded with cool horror. “They’re drones.”

And in that instant, the hunks of carbon fiber began thudding into the fuselage.

The drones took out one engine then a entirely new flock of drones appeared to take out the next. The culprit behind the attack was a cyber terrorist who had already struck in Austin, Texas, by seizing control of an AI-driven bus and weaponized it into a ramrod, which was remotely driven over people and through structures.

America’s hope during this time of technical terror rests with a group of young operators a Camp Valor. Through the pages of The Trigger Mechanism, we see them prepare to track the source of the terror and ultimately take him out.

It is classic tale of good versus evil, a tale triumph against demonstrably high odds.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and he has a PhD in Military History from Texas Tech University. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.