- Schantz, Hans G.
A Rambling Wreck.
Huntsville, AL: ÆtherCzar, 2017.
ISBN 978-1-5482-0142-5.
-
This the second novel in the author's Hidden
Truth series. In the first book (December 2017) we
met high schoolers and best friends Pete Burdell and Amit Patel
who found, in dusty library books, knowledge apparently
discovered by the pioneers of classical electromagnetism (many
of whom died young), but which does not figure in modern works,
even purported republications of the original sources they had
consulted. As they try to sort through the discrepancies, make
sense of what they've found, and scour sources looking for other
apparently suppressed information, they become aware that dark
and powerful forces seem bent on keeping this seemingly obscure
information hidden. People who dig too deeply have a tendency to
turn up dead in suspicious “accidents”, and Amit
coins the monicker “EVIL”: the Electromagnetic
Villains International League, for their adversaries. Events
turn personal and tragic, and Amit and Pete learn tradecraft,
how to deal with cops (real and fake), and navigate the legal
system with the aid of mentors worthy of a Heinlein story.
This novel finds the pair entering the freshman class at Georgia
Tech—they're on their way to becoming “rambling
wrecks”. Unable to pay their way with their own resources,
Pete and Amit compete for and win full-ride scholarships
funded by the Civic Circle, an organisation they suspect may be
in cahoots in some way with EVIL. As a condition of their
scholarship, they must take a course, “Introduction to Social
Justice Studies” (the “Studies” should be tip-off
enough) to become “social justice ambassadors” to
the knuckle-walking Tech community.
Pete's Uncle Ron feared this might be a mistake, but Amit and
Pete saw it as a way to burrow from within, starting their
own “long march through the institutions”, and,
incidentally, having a great deal of fun and, especially
for Amit, an aspiring master of Game, meet radical chicks.
Once at Tech, it becomes clear that the first battles they
must fight relate not to 19th century electrodynamics but
the 21st century social justice wars.
Pete's family name resonates with history and tradition at
Tech. In the 1920s, with a duplicate enrollment form in hand,
enterprising undergraduates signed up the fictitious
“George
P. Burdell” for a full course load, submitted his
homework, took his exams, and saw him graduate in 1930. Burdell
went on to serve in World War II, and was listed on the Board of
Directors of Mad magazine. Whenever Georgia Tech
alumni gather, it is not uncommon to hear George P. Burdell
being paged. Amit and Pete decide the time has come to
enlist the school's most famous alumnus in the battle for its soul,
and before long the merry pranksters of FOG—Friends of
George—were mocking and disrupting the earnest schemes
of the social justice warriors.
Meanwhile, Pete has taken a job as a laboratory assistant
and, examining data that shouldn't be interesting, discovers
a new phenomenon which might just tie in with his and Amit's
earlier discoveries. These investigations, as his professor
warns, can also be perilous, and before long he and Amit find
themselves dealing with three separate secret
conspiracies vying for control over the hidden knowledge,
which may be much greater and rooted deeper in history than
they had imagined. Another enigmatic document by an obscure
missionary named Angus MacGuffin (!), who came to a
mysterious and violent end in 1940, suggests a unification of
the enigmas. And one of the greatest mysteries of twentieth
century physics, involving one of its most brilliant
figures, may be involved.
This series is a bit of Golden Age science fiction which somehow
dropped into the early 21st century. It is a story of mystery,
adventure, heroes, and villains, with interesting ideas and
technical details which are plausible. The characters are
interesting and grow as they are tested and learn from their
experiences. And the story is related with a light touch,
with plenty of smiles and laughs at the expense of those
who richly deserve mockery and scorn. This book is
superbly done and a worthy sequel to the first. I
eagerly await the next, The Brave and the Bold.
I was delighted to see that Pete made the same discovery about
triangles in physics and engineering problems that I made in
my first year of engineering school. One of the first things
any engineer should learn is to see if there's an easier way
to get the answer out.
I'll be adding “proglodytes”—progressive
troglodytes—to my vocabulary.
For a self-published work, there are only a very few copy editing
errors.
The Kindle edition is free for Kindle
Unlimited subscribers.
In an “About the Author” section at the end, the author
notes:
There's a growing fraternity of independent, self-published authors
busy changing the culture one story at a time with their tales
of adventure and heroism. Here are a few of my more recent discoveries.
With the social justice crowd doing their worst to wreck science
fiction, the works of any of these authors are a great way to remember
why you started reading science fiction in the first place.
May 2018 