I wasn't particularly looking forward to Trigger based on the preview pages.  Broadly speaking, they indicated a story set in a near-enough future where everything (or at least, everything in America - nobody makes any mention of the rest of the planet) is censored by the corporate moral watchdogs Ethicorp.

Not that this is a fundamentally bad idea - on the contrary, the inroads on civil liberties in the name of preserving some vague and notional concept of "freedom" are certainly a worrying trend and well worth writing about.  The problem is that it looked awfully obvious and tubthumping in the way it connected itself to the present day.  When everything is traced back to the True Patriot Act, you get the feeling you're being led by the nose.

However, the actual book is rather better than I expected.  Not because of the Ethicorp stuff as such, but the rest of the story is very well handled indeed.  It's billed as a futuristic thriller, and the basic concept is that Ethicorp has quietly introduced a group of assassins, the Triggers, who are wiping out unsavoury elements.  To be fair, their choices of targets don't seem entirely unreasonable, but they're still obviously dodgy.  Our hero, one of those stock characters in dystopian sci-fi who likes to read old books and angst about where it all went wrong, sees the Triggers in action and wonders whether he should tell the remnants of the free press.  All of which is being handled nicely in its own right, and is only helped when writer Jason Hall pulls out a nice little stunt in the closing pages.

It's stylishly done.  John Watkiss' art is strong and dynamic, and the opening pages are a gloriously pointless set-piece as an incomprehensible fight scene slowly resolves itself into a daydream involving a typewriter.  Beautifully paced, it's a much stronger introduction to the story than the exposition-heavy material that was used for previews.  There's a lot to enjoy here.

But I'm still not convinced about the central premise of Ethicorp themselves.  Their status in society is left rather vague - do you sign up for their censoring services?  Are they forced on you?  If so, how?  Their powers suggest a de facto government agency, and it's not clear what's actually corporate about them.  What's the business model here?  This may seem like nitpicking, but if writers are going to go the "evil corporation" route, there at least ought to be some sort of recognisable business going on.  Moreover, Ethicorp's activities are so obviously dodgy that it's difficult to believe that they would go quite as unchallenged as they have been.  It strains credibility that Carter, our hero, would be in such a minority for worrying about them.

So I'm not sold on the book.  Still, there are interesting ideas in here, and the visual style makes it worth a look.  The big question is whether the creators can bridge the credibility gap with their central concept, before goodwill runs out and the book falls in.

Rating: B+

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