John Twelve Hawks The Dark River

The Dark River is the follow up to The Traveller and is the second in his Forth Realm trilogy of books about the continuing battle between The Harlequins and The Brethren. I really enjoyed The Traveller and had high hopes that this book would be more of the same paranoid fantasy Sci fi. Some of the scenes are well thought out and gave more depth about Maya and Gabriel. The imagary of London was well scripted and really bought it alive in my imagination. There are some very sad moments but I felt they were slightly rushed and glossed over by the end. The cliff hanger at the end feels slightly confused but I'm hoping that everything will be tidied up in the final instalment. Looking forward to reading that.

The Dark River

Jordon Twelve Hawks

Doubleday, July 2007, $24.95, 400 pp.

ISBN: 0385514298

Both Michael and Gabriel Corrigan are Travelers able to send their consciousness into other realms and when they returned from their journey, they had visions and information to change the world. Throughout time they were opposed by the Brethren who systemically hunted down in order to maintain the status quo. The Brethren are an uber-Big Brother who want to establish an invisible prison where all are spied upon, their every moment known. Various computerized information systems flow from the Vast Machine.

The Brethren are going to implement the next advanced monitoring program in Berlin and they know when it proves successful it will spread to all Germany and the rest of Europe. Michael has allied himself with the Brethren wanting the power they possess while Gabriel is on a collision cause with him because he his mission is to stop the Brethren from making the world an invisible prison with no freedom or human rights. Travelers always are by the ultimate fighting machine the Harlequin and Gabriel is guarded by Maya. Both brothers discover their father a powerful Traveler is alive and both get to find him. Gabriel become lost in one of the realms called Hell and Maya must risk everything in the hopes she can find and bring him home knowing she might be stranded in a word without hope or love.

Sometime in the future, computer technology will be so advanced that spying and monitoring everyone in the whole world will be commonplace. Those that persist against the technological imprisonment like, Gabriel, the Harlequins and the people that they persuade to go into battle with them are heroes as they are a very tiny minority willing to enter hell for their heavenly cause. Most people rather have their freedom curtailed to remain safe from terrorism. Michael isn't the typical villain because he has some redeeming qualities and it wouldn't surprise readers to feel he is more like us than his brother. This Orwellian tale is plausible and frightening built off of today's anti terrorism practices in environs in which current technology has continued its rapid evolution.

Harriet Klausner