Hans G. Schantz is the author of the \u201cThe Hidden Truth\u201d series and based on the bio at the end of the book some sort of a genius.\u00a0 He\u2019s a PhD in theoretical physics and a high-tech inventor of radio frequency gadgets (e.g., near field electromagnetic ranging). \u00a0\u00a0Suffice it to say he doesn\u2019t need to use a macguffin in any of his stories to fake a scientific plot line.\u00a0 So, it\u2019s kind of ironic that the first chapter is named \u201cWhatever Happened to Angus MacGuffin.\u201d<\/p>\n
I picked up this second volume of the series without having read the first because the premise caught my fancy.\u00a0 The protagonist, Peter is a college freshman at Georgia Tech who is digging up information on a shadowy organization called the Civic Circle which seems like some kind of combination of the Illuminati and villains from a Bond movie.\u00a0 They murdered his parents for getting in the way of an operation being carried out to hide the Civic Circle\u2019s involvement in an assassination campaign.\u00a0 This campaign was meant to prevent the leading minds in electromagnetic field theory from discovering a secret that would give its wielder enormous power.<\/p>\n
Now imagine that plot line embedded in a story that includes a freshman pick-up artist, social justice warriors on campus, a Chinese demigod, a 17th<\/sup> century nuclear energy program and a freshman trying to keep his grade point average high enough to keep his scholarship money intact.<\/p>\n It\u2019s sort of like what might happen if one of Heinlein\u2019s juvenile heroes (say Kip from Have Spacesuit Will Travel) was thrust into the modern era and was forced to use \u201cSJWs Always Lie\u201d as his freshman orientation guide while battling the Black Hats.<\/p>\n The book combines an elaborate puzzle involving an ancient Chinese philosophical text that seems also to be a clue to the secret knowledge that the Civic Circle is protecting.\u00a0 There\u2019s a rationale involving historical figures from the early days of electromagnetic field theory to explain how this secret hasn\u2019t been discovered by the physicists of today.\u00a0 There are all kinds of geeky fun throughout the plot.<\/p>\n One other interesting note.\u00a0 This is an alternate history world where President Gore was killed in the 9-11-2001 terror attacks.\u00a0 So, they must have completely missed out on the joys of climate change.<\/p>\n The action moves along and the various plot elements reach their crescendo in a nicely coordinated climax.\u00a0 Secrets are revealed.\u00a0 The damsel in distress is saved and the hero moves up the ladder of experience and prepares for his next foray against the powers of darkness.<\/p>\n I thought the book was good.\u00a0 I should probably go back now and read the first volume (but once you cheat it\u2019s always tough to do that).\u00a0 But I look forward to next installment.\u00a0 Hopefully in it Donald Trump will be given super powers and a license to kill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hans G. Schantz is the author of the \u201cThe Hidden Truth\u201d series and based on the bio at the end of the book some sort<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[241,237,242],"tags":[92,265,107,350],"class_list":["post-1449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews","category-reviews","category-sff-book-reviews","tag-heinlein","tag-science-fiction","tag-sjws","tag-sjws-always-lie"],"yoast_head":"\n