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Triggernometry: a British Fantasy Award finalist Kindle Edition

by Stark Holborn (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.2 out of 5 stars 81 ratings
British Fantasy Award Finalist for Best Novella. Triggernometry is a fast-faced fantasy western, mixing the grit of the west with a cast of mathematicians from across history to create a truly unique and unforgettable adventure. “I hereby arrest the fugitive “Mad” Malago Browne for murder, arson, robbery and acts of pernicious arithmetic against the Capitol States. Also the fugitive Pierre “Polecat” de Fermat, for sundry of the same.” In the Western States, it doesn’t pay to count your blessings. Professor Malago Browne, once the most notorious mathematician in the west, has been trying to leave her outlaw past behind and lead a quiet life. But all of that changes when her former partner – the deadly and capricious Pierre de Fermat – shows up with a proposition of a lifetime. One last job, one last ride: a heist big enough to escape the tyranny of the Capitol forever. With a misfit crew of renegade topologists and rebel statisticians, Browne and Fermat prepare to commit the crime of the century. Little do they know the odds are stacked against them… “A wild, rollicking and endlessly-surprising tale of low lives and higher mathematics. I loved it!” – Lavie Tidhar, award-winning author of By Force Alone, Unholy Land and Central Station "Totally unique and a veritable jolt to the sheer perversity of the imagination… It’s like Sergio Leone and William Gibson rewriting the Old West with a quantum calculator" – Maxim Jakubowski "A wonderful, fresh concept, brilliantly done” – Joanne Harris, author of The Testament of Loki, The Strawberry Thief, Chocolat & many more.
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  1. Book 1 of 3
    Triggernometry
  2. Print length
    79 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publication date
    April 8, 2020
  5. File size
    2.0 MB
  6. Page Flip
    Enabled
  7. Word Wise
    Enabled
  8. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
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Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B086JXRSZK
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Rattleback Books
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ April 8, 2020
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 2.0 MB
  • Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 79 pages
  • Page Flip ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Book 1 of 3 ‏ : ‎ Triggernometry
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 out of 5 stars 81 ratings

About the author

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Stark Holborn

Stark Holborn

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Stark Holborn is a novelist, movie reviewer, games writer and is the author of Nunslinger, the British Fantasy Award-nominated Triggernometry series, and the Factus series. Stark is currently lead writer on the award-winning detective sim Shadows of Doubt and a contributing writer on Nivalis. Stark lives in Bristol, UK.

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
81 global ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

  • Lori Alden Holuta
    5.0 out of 5 stars Weird West - This one really adds up
    Reviewed in the United States on July 29, 2022
    Verified Purchase
    The clever title word caught my attention, and the teaser blurb had me lunging for the 'buy' button. But as a lifelong Mathophobe, I wondered if I'd be able to really get into the concept. One page in, I knew I had no reason to worry. I paused a moment to buy Advanced Triggernometry, then returned to reading this book.

    I'm such a nut for a well-played absurd concept. For such a thing to work, the characters need to be fully invested in the legitimacy of the absurdity. The movies Airplane, Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles, and Top Secret took this route, and are all brilliant films (as far as I'm concerned, anyway). I've had less luck finding such conceptual quality in books, but Stark Holborn nails it. I finished Triggernometry in one gulp, decided to also order the Nunslinger omnibus, and will be reading Advanced Triggernometry this evening.
    3 people found this helpful
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  • emilia agrafojo and eric jackson
    4.0 out of 5 stars Absolute value!
    Reviewed in the United States on August 5, 2020
    Verified Purchase
    Great fun , though I felt my lack of math history. Enjoy the algebraic romp around an old west that never was calculated.
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  • Wolffox
    3.0 out of 5 stars Good Concept Wanted a Little More
    Reviewed in the United States on August 28, 2020
    Verified Purchase
    I chose 3 stars because I enjoyed the story and the concept of a world where math was illegal. I just didn’t feel like it was surprising in any way. The writing was good and I connected with the characters quickly.
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  • R. King
    5.0 out of 5 stars Mathematics outlawed
    Reviewed in the United States on July 3, 2021
    Verified Purchase
    These twin novellas are creative ventures through a dystopian Old West where mathematics is outlawed—the use of slide rules, protractors, geometry, and physics said to determine ricochet angles and blast radius to maximize damage per bullet or bomb. Practitioners were jailed, hiding as disrespected bookkeepers, or scattered to desert or mountain hideouts, emerging when called, guerilla-like with minimal but effective weaponry.
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  • Justin Gross
    4.0 out of 5 stars Gunslinging Mathematicians FTW!
    Reviewed in the United States on April 13, 2021
    Gun-slinging mathematicians in an alternate history Wild West shouldn’t work, right? Right? Well, I am here to tell you that it, in fact, does because that’s exactly what we have in Stark Holborn’s two Triggernometry novellas and somehow she manages to make math look cool.

    "Mathmo, he had daubed across my house. But it might as well have been Monster."

    Like I mentioned before, the Triggernometry novellas are set in an alternate history Wild West where mathematics have been outlawed and the former professors and students of it have turned to a new field, triggernometry. All of the Mathmos, as they’re colloquially known, have either been rounded up and imprisoned, forced to work for the government, or they have become outlaws. Since math has been declared illegal, money is no longer commonly used, with people bartering in handfuls of beans or other sundries. It’s a bleak world and one that oddly parallels some of today’s ignorance surrounding the validity of science.

    Both novellas follow ‘Mad’ Malago Browne, a former geometry professor turned mathmo turned station clerk. Browne has somewhat of a legendary reputation, having been an outlaw since the laws banning mathematics were put in place, and it’s really fun to see how others react to her upon learning who she is. At the beginning of Triggernometry, Browne has left the life of a Mathmo behind and settled down to a quiet life. All of that is shattered, however, when an old acquaintance shows up and forces Browne to come back for one more job. The character interactions are all richly written and the tension between Browne and Fermat, her old accomplice, are expertly handled. The plot could be pulled straight out of the best spaghetti westerns. Well, except that you’d need to season them with a dash of math. Advanced Triggernometry sees Browne back in the proverbial saddle yet again. Most of the supporting cast are made up of famous mathematicians from all throughout history, from Pierre de Fermat, a French mathematician credited with creating the basis for calculus, and Emmy Noether, a German algebraist, to Charles Reason, the first black college professor in the US, and Wang Zhenyi, a Qing Dynasty Chinese astronomer and mathematician. It was exciting for me to look up these characters and see all of the accomplishments of their real world inspirations.

    "I took out the protractor. ‘Let X be a random variable with a finite number of finite outcomes,’ I murmured, and looked up. ‘Let them try to stop us.’"

    There’s something so absurdly cool about protector-wielding mathematician working out the appropriate angle at which to fire her gun in order to take out a room full of enemies with a single shot. The novellas take their namesake from the in-world martial art of triggernometry. Basically, think of gun fu taken to the extreme, where split second mathematical calculations tell the practitioner the exact angles at which to fire based on any number of factors (gun caliber, bullet velocity, weather conditions, etc.) Add to this all of the other ‘tools’ Mathmos use, such as the sword-like sharpened rulers, and you have some very over the top, yet still very exciting, action.

    My only complaint is the lack of real character development and worldbuilding. Sure, we know that math is illegal and all, but it’s never expounded upon past that point. I want to know more! I want to know what happened and how we got where we are at this point in the story. I don’t know if this is the fault of the format or just the relentlessly fast pace that the books kept up, but there were several times where I was so frustrated because it seemed as if some substantial character development/worldbuilding was about to happen only for something to get in the way. The story is never given the opportunity to breathe, with one event happening on the heels of the one before it. I think that given the space she could craft a hell of tale because she was able to do so much here with so little (both novellas combined are only a hair over 100 pages).

    "‘What’s it called,’ she murmured, ‘when you know something is true?’
    I met her eyes. ‘In mathematics, it’s called law.’"

    Overall, I really enjoyed my time with Triggernometry and its sequel Advanced Triggernometry. While I was ultimately a bit frustrated with the lack of character development and worldbuilding, I think Holborn has managed to pack quite a lot into these two little novellas. The setting is unique and the action is ridiculously cool. I would be hard pressed to find a better way to spend an afternoon and I look forward to reading more of Holborn’s work in the future.
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  • alamode
    4.0 out of 5 stars Insert cheesy math pun.
    Reviewed in the United States on September 16, 2020
    It’s all you could ever want in a math-based western.
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Top reviews from other countries

  • Rob Boffard
    5.0 out of 5 stars Utterly mad and brilliant
    Reviewed in Canada on April 11, 2020
    Verified Purchase
    Completely insane. I loved it. Glad Stark is back in the saddle.
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  • Anne
    5.0 out of 5 stars Fast moving, funny wildwest spoof fantasitc fun to cheer a dowckdown day!
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 13, 2020
    Verified Purchase
    Another great read from Stark Holborn. A fast a furious pace takes us through the mad world of anti knowledge where a protractor and a probability calculation can still out slug the dimmest gun toting red neck. Highly innovative with laugh out loud moments and the usual set of feisty female heroes we can come to expect from Stark.
    Don't leave it too long before your next book Stark, we miss you!
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  • T. P. Cross
    4.0 out of 5 stars Fun with Guns and Maths
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 31, 2021
    Verified Purchase
    Short and sweet this novella runs to 56 pages but does enough to lay out the basics of a setting, without spelling everything out, and introduce you to some key characters.

    It is the American west but mathematics is forbidden. Its adherents are hunted down by bounty hunters and the men who run the Capitol. Our hero is Professor Malago Browne aka 'Mad' Malago Browne, an outlaw mathematician hiding from the forces of law and order. But, like in all good Westerns, she is dragged into a last big job by her friend Fermat.

    Of course, things don't quite pan out as you expect.

    Yes, the plot is packed full of western tropes but the way they're used and the mathematical spin gives them a freshness and entertainment value that sweeps you along. I'm not sure I understood all the mathematical references so I can't even tell you if it is gobbledygook or accurate mathematics.

    As this is a short book there's no explanation for why American society is like this, although with modern anti-science and anti-education being what it is in certain political parties a Capitol style government wouldn't be such a surprise. You've also no idea what the rest of the world is like. I mean there are issues with how this world would actually work. I mean it might not be set in the 19th century, despite the technology. I'm sure Stark will develop this in the future and sometimes an idea can be enjoyed just for the fun of it without thinking about it too hard.

    Anyway, it is well-paced and fun. The main characters are all interesting, including the bad guys. Somewhere there's a weirdly interesting television series to be had from this. A sort of mix of West World and Numbers (Google it).
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  • 3rd spearman
    4.0 out of 5 stars Fastest protractor in the west
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 24, 2020
    Verified Purchase
    Entertaining and quick read set in a universe where mathematicians are dangerous and Malago Browne has a complicated past. When an old friend approaches her for 'one last job' this prompts a fun fast heist adventure. Great stuff
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  • Kindle Customer
    5.0 out of 5 stars Clever and entertaining.
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 23, 2021
    Verified Purchase
    Fast paced, entertaining novella set in a world where maths is outlawed. Can't wait to read the rest in what I guess will be a series?
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