Dark River (Fourth Realm Trilogy)

This is the second book in the fourth realm trilogy. I stated of the first book, The Traveler, that it was "the best fiction book I had read in a decade!" This book is a very close second. John Twelve Hawks weaves an unforgettable tale of suspense and drama that will draw you in and captivate you in a way that few other authors achieve. Hawks helps us to look at our world in a whole new light, and gives an entirely new meaning to the term 'Big Brother is Watching'.

This book continues a year after The Traveler finished, and once the action starts, it does not end. The action races at breakneck speed and reads like 'a post 9/11 conspiracy theory meets 1984'. Hawks shows a world where people are collectively selling their freedoms for a perceived peace or security. With a story as unique as the Matrix, and the captivating writing unlike anybody else, Hawks serves up a masterpiece.

There are four main categories of people in these books: Civilians, who go about their daily lives, Travelers who can send their life force from their body to alternate realms, The Harlequins who are trained warriors dedicated to protecting the Travelers, and finally The Brethren, as they call themselves, who wish to create a system of control over the whole world, a virtual Panopticon. This group is called, 'The Tabula', by their enemies.

The Tabula are trying to achieve their Panopticon through computer surveillance - RFID chips in what we buy and in our ID and credit cards. Their only goal is to make the human race homogeneous and dominated by the belief that they must behave a certain way because they are always being watched. For the first time in history, a Traveler, Michael Corrigan, is working with the Brethren and trying to conquer the only other surviving travelers -his brother Gabriel, and his father Matthew, who has been missing for 15 years since the Tabula attacked the family home.

Both of the brothers are searching for their long-lost father, both are trying to figure out how to use their ability as travelers, and both believe they are on the right side. Only by reading will you find out what will happen in this battle of wills and battle between light and darkness.

This is a book masterfully written that will draw in readers from all walks of life and of all ages. Read it and see if you cannot hardly wait for your friends to read it, so that you can discuss it and debate it. It will also have you looking very differently at all the cameras that capture our images hundreds of times a day.

Hawks has written another bestseller that will surprise you, stun you and amaze you, both with the story and the way it is told.

(First published in Imprint 2007-07-17 in the book review column.)

Also Really, Really Bad (0/3 people found this helpful)

Well, John Twelve Hawks, or J12H to his mates, has done it again... Another load of worthless drivel. What can I say apart from that?

As with the first episode, this is written more like a screen play than a book. Obviously J12H is desperate for a movie deal, and missing out effort of writing a book, and then having to write the screen also.But if they made Brown's Code into a film, which was much worse, then why not?

Even less character and plot development than the first book, presumably because there is no more plot to be had, and the characters have all been introduced. And with the bigger budget, after the first blockbuster movie, J12H is really splashing out on SFX.

And in case you have very short term memory, the plot is explained at the start of every chapter, and whenever any of the main characters are mentioned. And sometimes just for the hell of it.

The difficult second act (0/0 people found this helpful)

'The Traveller' promised much, and set the scene for a compelling modern thriller/fantasy series. This second volume spends a while finding itself, though, and I don't think it ever really does.

The errors Americans often make when writing about Britain are all here, which makes it a little waring to try and suspend disbelief sufficiently to enjoy the book. But a more serious criticism is that this second act does little to actually push the story forward, until perhaps the final fifty pages which set up the cliffhanger. By this point, however, it's hard to care about how it will turn out.

Not so good (0/2 people found this helpful)

I really enjoyed the first book, and didn't thinking the writing was too bad. This on the other hand, is just abysmal. Sub-Dan Brown doesn't even begin to describe it. I'd give it zero stars if i could, and that would be over-rating it.

I think the term is 'written for 12 year olds, by an 11 year old'.

Could do better. (0/1 people found this helpful)

This one stutters a lot. I found the recap at the beginning handy to remind me of the characters and situations we left in The Traveller. Then it's back to running away from the Machine and keeping a low profile, something they really don't appear to be good at. The author assures us that some of the places mentioned are real, but they don't really feel real, there's no palpable difference between Ireland, England, US or Germany, sometimes the only real clue is placenames and currency. There's not that much action in the other realm and I was pretty uncertain about the motives of many of the characters, I expected that some of the secondary characters would become more fleshed out, but all I got was a little more cardboard, not quite becoming 3D more like thicker 2D.

It's not a bad story, the two brothers are hunting their father, one for the Travellers and one for the Brethern, meanwhile trying to save the world from becoming part of the Machine. It's almost as if John Twelve Hawks is running out of steam here, hopefully the third installment will be better. Much of the flaws of the first novel are accentuated in this sequel.

Dark River (Fourth Realm Trilogy)

John Twelve Hawks

Reader Reviews:

Excellent Sequel (0/0 people found this helpful)

Also Really, Really Bad (0/3 people found this helpful)

The difficult second act (0/0 people found this helpful)

Not so good (0/2 people found this helpful)

Could do better. (0/1 people found this helpful)

Similar Products

Categories