- Schantz, Hans G.
The Brave and the Bold.
Huntsville, AL: ÆtherCzar, 2018.
ISBN 978-1-7287-2274-0.
-
This the third 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. In the second, A Rambling
Wreck (May 2018), Pete and Amit, now freshmen
at Georgia Tech, delve deeper into the suppressed mysteries of
electromagnetism and the secrets of the shadowy group Amit dubbed
the Electromagnetic Villains International League (EVIL), while
simultaneously infiltrating and disrupting forces trying to
implant the social justice agenda in one of the last bastions of
rationality in academia.
The present volume begins in the summer after the pair's
freshman year. Both Pete and Amit are planning, along different
paths, to infiltrate back-to-back meetings of the Civic Circle's
Social Justice Leadership Forum on Jekyll Island, Georgia (the
scene of notable
conspiratorial
skullduggery in the early 20th century) and
the G-8 summit of world leaders on nearby Sea Island. Master of
Game
Amit has maneuvered himself into an internship with the Civic Circle
and an invitation to the Forum as a promising candidate for the
cause. Pete wasn't so fortunate (or persuasive), and used
family connections to land a job with a company contracted to
install computer infrastructure for the Civic Circle
conference. The latest apparent “social justice”
goal was to involve the developed world in a costly and useless
war in Iraq, and Pete and Amit hoped to do what they could to
derail those plans while collecting information on the plotters
from inside.
Working in a loose and uneasy alliance with others they've
encountered in the earlier books, they uncover information which
suggests a bold strike at the very heart of the conspiracy might
be possible, and they set their plans in motion. They learn
that the Civic Circle is even more ancient, pervasive in its
malign influence, and formidable than they had imagined.
This is one of the most intricately crafted conspiracy tales
I've read since the
Illuminatus!
trilogy, yet entirely grounded in real events or plausible ones
in its story line, as opposed to Robert Shea and Robert Anton
Wilson's zany tale. The alternative universe in which it is set
is artfully grounded in our own, and readers will delight in how
events they recall and those with which they may not be familiar
are woven into the story. There is delightful skewering of the
social justice agenda and those who espouse its absurd but
destructive nostrums. The forbidden science aspect of the story
is advanced as well, imaginatively stirring the
de
Broglie-Bohm “pilot wave” interpretation of
quantum mechanics and the history of FM broadcasting into the
mix.
The story builds to a conclusion which is both shocking and
satisfying and confronts the pair with an even greater challenge
for their next adventure. This book continues the Hidden
Truth saga in the best tradition of Golden Age science
fiction and, like the work of the grandmasters of yore, both
entertains and leaves the reader eager to find out what happens
next. You should read the books in order; if you jump in the
middle, you'll miss a great deal of back story and character
development essential to enjoying the adventure.
The Kindle edition is free for Kindle
Unlimited subscribers.
October 2018 