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The Traveler (Fourth Realm #1)

3.8 of 5 stars 3.80 · rating details · 5,917 ratings · 750 reviews

In London, Maya, a young woman trained to fight by her powerful father, uses the latest technology to elude detection when walking past the thousands of surveillance cameras that watch the city. In New York, a secret shadow organization uses a victim’s own GPS to hunt him down and kill him. In Los Angeles, Gabriel, a motorcycle messenger with a haunted past, takes pains to...more

Paperback, 464 pages

Published July 18th 2006 by Vintage (first published January 1st 2005)

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Aug 04, 2007 Jason Pettus rated it 1 of 5 stars

(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com].)

(Longtime followers of my creative projects know that in general I don't like publishing bad reviews; that for the most part I see it as a waste of both my time and yours, in that I could be spending that time instead pointing out great artists you may have never heard of. However, since one of the things this website is dedicated to is honest artistic criticism, I also feel it's important to acknowledge books t...more

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Jul 28, 2011 Louize rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: dystopian readers

Book blurb:

“In London, a young woman uses cutting-edge technology to elude detection by the thousands of surveillance cameras that watch the city. In New York, a secret shadow organization uses a victim’s own GPS to hunt him down and kill him. In Los Angeles, a motorcycle messenger with a haunted past takes pains to live “off the Grid” – free of credit cards and government IDs. Welcome to the world of The Traveler – a world frighteningly like our own.”

My initial interest in this book was tweake...more Book blurb:

“In London, a young woman uses cutting-edge technology to elude detection by the thousands of surveillance cameras that watch the city. In New York, a secret shadow organization uses a victim’s own GPS to hunt him down and kill him. In Los Angeles, a motorcycle messenger with a haunted past takes pains to live “off the Grid” – free of credit cards and government IDs. Welcome to the world of The Traveler – a world frighteningly like our own.”

My initial interest in this book was tweaked by my fascination with its writer. On the Random House website, his biography reads: “John Twelve Hawks lives off the grid.” Nothing else was said about him even if you try and google him. His name is but a pseudonym. His publisher and editor have never met him; and he communicates using only a satellite phone with a voice scrambler. Intriguing!

"True freedom is tolerant. It gives people the right to live and think in new ways."

The book, The Traveler is no less interesting. Travelers are people born gifted with the ability to travel into different dimensions by means of their light source (or soul). Science can’t rightly identify how and when they do it, although it was proven to be genetics. People like them, like Gabriel and Michael Corrigan, exercise freedom beyond the limits of norm. Their mere existence spreads awareness to the people. For centuries, the Tabula have worked hard to eliminate their kind.

"Walking is easy ... but it requires faith to find the right path."

Sworn to protect the travelers are the Harlequins. There’s nothing funny about them. They are trained warriors, cunning and unblinking killers. Like her father before her, Maya was trained since she was but a child in the art of death. Her fate is intertwined with the Corrigan brothers. She must do everything she can to keep them off the grid.

"All the doubts and hesitation she felt in London had vanished. Maya knew who she was: a Harlequin. Yes, it would be difficult, but she would stay with Gabriel."

John Twelve Hawks, whoever he is, is a genius. The Traveler is a fast-moving, high-tech, spiritually-complex thriller.

"In the near future, we will simply become another object that can be monitored, tracked and controlled within a vast machine."

(less)

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Sep 16, 2010 Alex Telander rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-read-in-2005

THE TRAVELER BY JOHN TWELVE HAWKS: This book actually generated quite a bit of buzz before it was released last June and I had it recommended to me by a few people saying that it was in the vein of Stephen King, and since I'm a fan I would probably enjoy this. I managed to get an ARC through the bookstore I used to work at and then it sat on my shelf for about six months until I picked it up and decided to start reading it last week. I finished it about four days later after pretty much eating i...more THE TRAVELER BY JOHN TWELVE HAWKS: This book actually generated quite a bit of buzz before it was released last June and I had it recommended to me by a few people saying that it was in the vein of Stephen King, and since I'm a fan I would probably enjoy this. I managed to get an ARC through the bookstore I used to work at and then it sat on my shelf for about six months until I picked it up and decided to start reading it last week. I finished it about four days later after pretty much eating it up. I would describe it as very akin to a Michael Crichton techno-thriller with some plenty of sci-fi mixed in. After getting about a hundred pages into it I was even wondering if Crichton much just be working on this same book currently because of its similarities with his story lines, the main difference being that this was a little slower and the characters had more depth to them. After finished this book I realize that this has certain elements that Crichton would never put in his book make this an enjoyable original piece of fiction. If the Matrix trilogy had originally been made into a book trilogy and done by a good writer, it would've been something like The Traveler.

The book is set near to the present day or perhaps twenty or thirty years into the future. The world is pretty much like it is now, except for being a little more high-tech and with better gadgets. There is a group of people known as Travelers who have the unique ability of being able to leave their bodies and travel to other worlds or realms. They have existed for many thousands of years, Jesus and Mohammed are though to have been travelers. There is a group of people known as the Tabula whose job it is to eradicate these travelers by whatever means necessary. They have also been in existence for a long time. Then there is a group called the Harlequins whose job it is to project the Travelers by whatever means necessary; again they have been around for a very long time.

In the present it is thought that no travelers are in existence anymore, having been wiped out by the Tabula, while the Harlequins have been reduced to very small numbers. Our main character is the daughter of a Harlequin whose father is soon killed in the book and while she had renounced her duty as a Harlequin, due to the lack of these people remaining, she has been summoned to become a Harlequin once more, because two offspring of a traveler have been found alive in California. The traveler's gift is usually passed down through genes, though this is not certain. It is her job to find those two brothers and keep them safe. The Tabula also know of the existence of these two brothers, but their modus operandi has changed dramatically. They no longer wish to kill the Travelers, but to harness their powers. The reason being that using past Travelers they have been in contact with another race living in one of the other realms that the Travelers go to, and this race is vastly superior and more intelligent and has been sending them new inventions and technology such as creating quantum computers that can measure how Travelers pass into these other realms as well as being able to send additional matter into these realms. So they want to use the Travelers as guinea pigs to work with this new race.

This the setting of the book with a lot more details than I have given and features great chase scenes and amazing fights. The Harlequins are taught from when they are children how to fight with different weapons. At the same time the Tabula basically have the Internet, all technology, the government, police, etc. under their control.

If you liked this review, and would like to read more, go to BookBanter.(less)

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Sep 04, 2007 Amy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

This book was not at all what I expected...but I loved it. I am not generally a big sci-fi/alternate reality fan but loved this read.

The author raised tons of important points regarding "big brother" and how easily our every move can be monitored by the "vast machine." I am not an alarmist but it is a little scary how easily our movements could be traced through seemingly little things such as grocery store discount cards and security cameras in ATM's.

I loved Maya's character the female harlequ...more

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Sep 09, 2010 Michael rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: obscure-references-book-group, read-in-2010

When the most intriguing question about a book is the real identity of the author, you know something isn't working.

John Twelve Hawks lives "off the grid" and his novel, "The Traveler" is a warning to the rest of us consider doing the same. We may not know it, but our world is just one of many realms, though only a special few people can break the barriers from one realm to another. These people are called Travelers and they've apparently been at war with a group called the Tabula for years. The...more When the most intriguing question about a book is the real identity of the author, you know something isn't working.

John Twelve Hawks lives "off the grid" and his novel, "The Traveler" is a warning to the rest of us consider doing the same. We may not know it, but our world is just one of many realms, though only a special few people can break the barriers from one realm to another. These people are called Travelers and they've apparently been at war with a group called the Tabula for years. The Travelers are protected by the Harlequins, who consider it a duty and honor to protect them and possibly lay down their lives for them.

Apparently, the Tabula are winning the war, using the horrors of modern technology to track down and destroy all the Travelers and Harlequins. Except for two brothers, both of whom are Travelers. The book becomes a race against time for several players on both sides to try and get to the two brothers. One of them, Michael, is kidnapped and brainwashed by the Tabula. The other, Gabriel is saved and goes to an Indian reservation to begin his Traveler training.

If it sounds like a lot of popular movies you've seen in the last twenty years or so, it's probably because "The Traveler" has borrowed a lot from the best of them. The story wants to have the same sense of pervasive paranoia that is a highlight of the stories and novels of Philip K. Dick, but it comes up woefully short. Passages about how Maya, one of the last Harlequins, must change her physical features to avoid the vast machine seem to be ripped right out of the page of any good spy thriller of the past twenty years or the Bourne movies.

The story is full of mystic mumbo-jumbo, little of it delved into at any great depth or even explained. Basically, we're supposed to fear the machines and the only way to live is without the intrusion of machines into our every day life. Well, except for the occasional quick jaunt around the Internet to find information...but only as long as you don't leave a footprint, of course.

The novel plunges forward from one absurd moment to the next without any logic or reason, before coming to a close with a cliffhanger. It's one that you'll see coming, if only because looking at the number of pages left will clue you in that Twelve Hawks won't have time to wrap it all up in the time he has left.

If the story were a bit more compelling, a bit less cliched and the characters anything more than archetypes, I might be a bit more inclined to wonder more about the identity of John Twelve Hawks. Given how pedestrian and cliched the novel is, I find myself wondering if the author is more or less hiding behind the identity of Twelve Hawks not so that he or she won't be discovered by the vast machine, but so his or her name won't be associated with this lackluster novel. (less)

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Apr 25, 2009 Sandi rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, cross-genre, 2009

I read "The Traveler" a couple of years ago and I still think about it occasionally. The whole concept of what a Traveler can do was kind of New-Agey, but I thought the idea of people trying to live off the grid (without anything connecting up to computers) was very unique. If you read the blurb, you'd think this was a science fiction novel. I suppose it can be argued that it is a science fiction novel. However, in retrospect, I consider it to be a fantasy novel that uses a lot of modern technol...more

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Jun 27, 2008 Chris rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: abandoned

6/26/08
I'm still deciding if I can finish this book. Its pure summer fluff, but it is sooo bad I almost can keep reading . . .

6/27/08
I can't take it any more -- there are so many other good books, sci-fi or not, that I could be reading. I just can't waste my time on this crap. It's a bit of the Matrix, a bit of Highlander, with a lot of John Woo thrown in for good measure. This book has every cliche known to man (or rahter, known to 12 year old fan-boys) tossed together into one badly written me...more 6/26/08
I'm still deciding if I can finish this book. Its pure summer fluff, but it is sooo bad I almost can keep reading . . .

6/27/08
I can't take it any more -- there are so many other good books, sci-fi or not, that I could be reading. I just can't waste my time on this crap. It's a bit of the Matrix, a bit of Highlander, with a lot of John Woo thrown in for good measure. This book has every cliche known to man (or rahter, known to 12 year old fan-boys) tossed together into one badly written mess -- the reluctant warrior who tried to walk away, drawn back in by destiny and the death of her father; the paranoid drop-out from society, who rides fast motorcycles and has the feeling that some "vast machine" is out to get him; hardened agents of said "vast machine," who have military cropped hair and narrow black ties. There's the aloof british character, the honor-bound japanese character, the money-seeking American character. There's a former general, a brilliant scientist who doens't know he is being manipulated by an Illuminati like organization, and a dying mother's death-bed confession.

Everyone who keeps talking about how "cool" the premise is must have never read a single paranoid-dystopian novel before. There's some vast, logical-yet-evil organizaiton seeking to make the world "perfect" by controling everyone's lives, watching us at all times, and destroying the forces of chaos that seek to oppose it. Hello 1984/Matrix/every Philip K. Dick novel ever written.

Insult to injury is the fact that the writing is, at best servicable, at worst wooden and just as cliched as the concept behind it. Far too much time is spent on descriptions of weapons, black-leather clothing and vehicles, all of which sound like they were copied word-for-word from some Shadowrunner source-book. This is basically an above average work of fan-fic or a decent RPG campaign bound in novel form and hyped up by the laughable gimic of an "unknown author" who has never been photographed and only communicates with Random House via untracable satalite phone. Apparently, Dick Cheney has spent his time in that undisclosed location writing a bad sci-fi novel.

I might, just possibly, have laughed my way through it had not I then realized it was part one of a TRILLOGY. 463 pages of crap is one thing, but 1200 some? Moving on . . .(less)

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Mar 02, 2008 Erica rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: nobody

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. What it is: In the not too distant future, a vaguely dystopic America has only one chance to be saved from the peril of implanted microchips and spliced rat/dog mutants--the Traveler, a man capable of traveling through the fabric of alternate realities and bringing back capital-T Truths to set the world free. Gabriel, this generation's Traveler (previous Travelers have included Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha... you get the pat drift), is not so much a reluctant hero as a poseable doll. Protected by his...more

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Mar 30, 2011 Laura E. Hall rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: audio-books

I think I'd actually give this a 2.75 out of 5 if I could, but 3 is fine because a lot of the flaws of the book don't matter when you're consuming it in audiobook form, as I did. (The audiobook reader does a wide range of accents and voices for every character, which makes it very enjoyable.)

Those flaws: the plot is extremely straightforward, the characters aren't much developed, and anyone who's not a "citizen" or a "drone" in this CCTV-happy, consumerism-driven society will greet you by asking...more

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Mar 04, 2012 Dee Dee Walker rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy-science-fiction

Overall this was a decent book. Not great but not that bad either. This is not the genre that I usually read so I enjoyed the novelty. I noticed that many other readers complained of it being too cliche. This might be true. I suspect it is.

As I see it, the major flaw in this book is the underdevelopment of the characters. They were flat and one-dementional. Towards the end of the book I just wanted it to get through it so I could start a new novel. I just didn't care anymore.

The other problem...more

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Mar 31, 2008 Jim O'Donnell rated it 1 of 5 stars

Pretty tiresome tripe. While the subject matter is very interesting, the book becomes a slog. It is weighed down by its own cliches and overly worn themes.

Essentially, there exists a group of people with special powers to cross over to other dimensions. Then there are a group of people who are sworn to protect them. Then there are a group of people working to hunt them down. All this takes place in a very near future dystopian surveillence society (future as in....like a month from now). Its ba...more

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Jun 20, 2007 Steve Coughlan rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Conspiracy Theorists

Shelves: urban-fantasy

Nice. The first in a series, but neatly tied up at the end, so it can stand alone. Classic plot with an interesting take on history, religion, and modern society... gee, if I wanted to believe it was all true, I could... there are no obvious contradictions between the fiction and perceived reality. Which makes it a very nice read, and I look forward to picking up the sequel when it comes out, which should be real soon now.

Oh, yes, the plot: Maya should be a Harlequin. Harlequins protect Travelle...more

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Oct 14, 2010 Monk rated it 5 of 5 stars

Probably my favorite book of the last couple of years. The Traveler and its follow-up are a very cool blend of techno-thriller and fantasy, and they move along at an incredible pace. I live a very busy life and usually can read books only in 15-page bites before I pass out at night, but these books are load-up-on-Pepsi-Max-'cause-you-ain't-going-to-bed-brother kind of books. The story arc deals with two brothers and their inherited ability to travel between dimensions, but much of this first boo...more

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Dec 01, 2008 Stephanie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Riveting! Highly recommended. Science fiction meets homeland security run amok meets the next prophet. Featuring a bad-ass woman as the ultimate fighting machine. I'm torn between wanting to see it made into a movie and leaving it alone as a great book. Listened to it as an audio-book, and the reader was fantastic. He did all the accents wonderfully and really added a lot to it.

1 like · like · see review

Feb 23, 2010 Kev rated it 4 of 5 stars

John Twelve Hawks's true identity is unknown, even to his publisher. He communicates by satellite phone and is essentially off grid. And that's the author in real life!
In the book people with spiritual and psychic abilities are hunted down whilst the Harlequins who are off gridders are in place to protect them.
The first part of the Fourth Realm trilogy is an exciting and paranoid novel with a taste of Enemy of the State that takes the reader on a Pullman style ride through various realities and...more

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May 02, 2011 La Stamberga dei Lettori added it · review of another edition

Shelves: tancredi

Ho comprato questo libro per caso: girando per la libreria l'occhio mi è caduto sulla copertina, ho letto sommariamente la quarta di copertina, e l'ho preso. Un anno dopo è saltato fuori dalla marea di libri ancora non letti. Ed è stato un piacere.

"Il viaggiatore" è un ottimo romanzo di nuova fantascienza, che rielabora temi canonici in un prodotto altamente originale, e che si presta a diversi livelli di lettura. Uno è senza dubbio metaforico: la sfida dei Viaggiatori, individui che riescono a...more

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Feb 05, 2009 Bookmarks Magazine added it · review of another edition

First in a projected trilogy called The Fourth Realm, The Traveler impressed all critics. Twelve Hawks presents big ideas about free will and determinism, good versus evil, social control, and alternate dimensions, all while impressing with knowledge ranging from the New Testament to string theory. Although reviewers compared the novel to the films Kill Bill, Star Wars, and The Matrix__with echoes of authors Dan Brown, Stephen King, George Orwell, and Michael Crichton thrown in__they called it w

...more

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Dec 22, 2008 RF rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I started out really enjoying this book. It really was 1984 in a modern setting and for what that's worth I loved it. I also enjoyed the notion of Harlequins, especially the sort of training they receive, the weapons they use, and the beliefs they hold. The notion of Travelers was pretty cool too... at first. But then... somehow they just never lived up to my expectations. If one is trying to base one's story in Physics, then why would the barriers between realms be these mysterious lands of air...more

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May 17, 2013 Peyton rated it 4 of 5 stars

First impressions of this book - The first time I sat down to read this book I breezed through 100 pgs. I'll be honest, I have been totally amped up to read Traveler so forgive my enthusiasm.

Maya seems to be at first blush a cross between Sonya Blue and Anita Blake. Anyone who reads the female horror writer genre will know what I mean. She is a reluctant hero who dutifully follows in Dad's footsteps as she endeavors to protect the last two known Travelers. So far I love the storyline and the tri...more

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May 01, 2013 Biju Bhaskar rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy

The Traveller is a story about the struggle between two groups of people 'Travellers' and 'The Brethren'. The travellers are mystics who possess the power to project their soul outside their physical body and crossover to other realms. The Brethren are aligned to the ruling superstructure and view the travellers as dangerous meddlers who keep disturbing the status quo of existing social structure. Hence the brethren actively hunt and destroy the travellers.

Due to this persecution, over the centu...more

1 like · like · see review

Apr 22, 2013 Tiffany rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, metaphysical

This is the most excitingly 21st century book I've read in years. In the vein of the modern techno-thriller it far surpasses The Da Vinci Code in writing and inventiveness. Plus, it is a smorgasboard of thrills: martial arts, road trips, snakes, identity chips, prophets, buddhism, free-runners, astral projection, sex, rebellion, utilitarianism, the panopticon, privacy issues ... the list of what it has is endless. What it doesn't have is a coherent story-line. Never fear, that doesn't cut down o...more

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Apr 13, 2013 Nikki rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, speculative-fiction, dystopia

I've played this game, it's called Assassin's Creed.

Okay, I think this novel came out before Assassin's Creed, and there are some obvious differences, not to mention plenty of other examples in all sorts of media that did this story already, but it was really all I could think while reading the opening chapters. I did a little more research and decided not to continue reading this, since I wasn't that impressed with it. It's a library copy and someone else reserved it, so I'll return it ASAP so...more

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Nov 24, 2012 Boris Limpopo rated it 3 of 5 stars

Twelve Hawks , John (2005). The Traveller. London: Corgi Books. 2006. ISBN 9781407071886. Pagine 498. 12,86 $

Twelve Hawks , John (2007). The Dark River. London: Corgi Books. 2008. ISBN 9781407038032. Pagine 515. 11,55 $

Twelve Hawks , John (2009). The Golden City. London: Transworld. 2010. ISBN 9781407056746. Pagine 370. 17,69 $

The Fourth Realm Trilogy

Un’altra recensione tardiva. Sono 3 libri che ho letto nell’estate del 2010, dopo essermi imbattuto nel primo della serie perché incuriosito da una...more

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Nov 18, 2012 Onefinemess rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Wow, 2 books in one month? Crazy you say? Yes, yes it is. I picked this one up in a fit of desperation because it sounded moderately interesting. Evidently it was super hyped when it came out, but I got to miss all that drama because I tend to avoid hype-interfaces. Awesome!

Comparisons abound to Dan Brown’s books and to them I say “WTF are you smoking? You are literate, right?” The only thing they have in common, outside of the fact that they are both books, and thus both inherently have things...more

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May 30, 2012 Nikki rated it 4 of 5 stars

The Traveler reads like an action flick. I'm not really a big fan of action flicks, but I like them from time to time, and I really enjoyed this one. Sure there were plenty of cliches, but there's nothing wrong with reading something that is fluffy and fun from time to time. I liked that the big brother aspect didn't seem so far fetched--it was pretty timely in that regard.

One thing I didn't like was how Lawrence was handled. In the end, he made every mistake he could make, even though he knew...more

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May 14, 2012 Sara rated it 3 of 5 stars

MY TAKE:
Very interesting – simply written, but it draws you right in. This novel is described as a dystopian novel – the opposite of utopia, in which the conditions of life are miserable, characterized by human misery, poverty, oppression, violence, disease and/or pollution. It was reminiscent of Big Brother – George Orwell, 1984 – and seemed like a strong warning (albeit a bit preachy at times) of self-sufficiency, our reliance on technology, and the fear of giving the government the power to m...more

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Apr 28, 2012 Scribal rated it 1 of 5 stars

I'm embarrassed that I actually finished this book. I thought it was so bad that I morally couldn't trade it in at the local used bookstore (the one that has the biggest sci-fi section and enough actual patrons to keep it changing--and they sell new books too). I considered burning it but then I lost interest until I started re-reading some Foucault, and it brought the Panopticon to mind and then this book, which I now have to say: This is the Worst Book I ever finished reading.

To cut to the ch...more

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Jan 05, 2012 Ricky Ganci rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It was much, much better the second time; I absolutely ripped through this book. I don’t know why I wasn’t interested in finishing the last 50+ pages back in November, but man oh man is this book exciting—it’s one of the more cinematic books I’ve read since Morgan’s Kovacs books. I love Maya; her character is very cool with the internal conflict, her beauty, her black hair (a rarity among women), and her viciousness. Her combat sequences were so easy to picture, and the way that 12H writes, I ca...more

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Oct 14, 2011 Felix Zilich rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: paranoid-food

Несколько лет назад редактор Джейсон Кауфман показал, что способен сделать из дерьма конфетку, превратив роман Дэна Брауна “Код Да Винчи” в “самую читаемую книгу всех времен и народов”. Теперь у Кауфмана новые игрушки. Например, такие как “Последний Странник” – свежий коммерческий проект, вполне способный по мнению пиарщиков затмить всех своих предшественников. “Последний Странник” – по сути обычная городская фэнтези, написанная довольно простым и неказистым языком, но на данный момент она уже п...more Несколько лет назад редактор Джейсон Кауфман показал, что способен сделать из дерьма конфетку, превратив роман Дэна Брауна “Код Да Винчи” в “самую читаемую книгу всех времен и народов”. Теперь у Кауфмана новые игрушки. Например, такие как “Последний Странник” – свежий коммерческий проект, вполне способный по мнению пиарщиков затмить всех своих предшественников. “Последний Странник” – по сути обычная городская фэнтези, написанная довольно простым и неказистым языком, но на данный момент она уже переведена на 15 языков, а права на её экранизацию давно куплены студией “Warner”.

Правильность коммерческого подхода к этой книге видна уже в личности ее писателя. Все уверены, что Джон Твелв Хоукс (Джон Двенадцать Ястребов) - персона мифическая и на самом деле не существующая. Если верить Кауфману (если вы готовы ему верить) никто никогда не видел этого человека. Свои новые работы он присылает каждый раз по Интернету через ящики, которые невозможно отследить. Редкие телефонные разговоры ведутся писателем через спутниковый телефон, местоположение которого невозможно идентифицировать, и с применением хитроумного войс-чэнджера. Одним словом, никто на свете не знает как выглядит Мистер Двенадцать, сколько ему лет, какого он вероисповедания и какие пристрастия у него в этнической кухне. Почему? Потому что это обязательно условие для человека, написавшего такую книгу как “Последний Странник”.

Концепция этого романа довольно проста. В нашем мире существует Система – сообщество людей, которые на протяжении многих веков пытаются победить Хаос и создать идеальное тоталитарное государство, в котором бы не оставалось больше места для такой вещи как privacy. Но в нашем мире также есть такие существа как Странники – люди, способные выходить из собственного тела и отправляться в путешествия по другим измерениям. Эти люди знают порочность Системы, поэтому и пытаются донести людям слова Истины и научить их жить, согласно их собственной воле. Чтобы уничтожить Странников, мешающих борьбе с Хаосом, Система создала Братство – тайную организацию, занятую истреблением людей с аномальными способностями. И это безжалостное Братство давно бы уже этих Странников истребило, если бы в мире не существовали Арлекины – мрачные люди с острыми катанами, чей самурайский кодекс делает смыслом их жизни обеспечение безопасности каждого Странника.

На данный момент исторического процесса Система и Братство истребили практически всех Странников с Арлекинами и теперь готовятся к следующему этапу собственной эволюции. Созданию ультимативного Паноптикума и приглашению в него Великого Стража из-за Грани Миров. Но чтобы призвать Стража в наш мир, Системе нужен последний из выживших Странников, который смог бы пройти инициацию и открыть дорогу на ту сторону. Этим Странником должен стать один из братьев Корриганов – Майкл или Гэбриел, защиту которых и берет на себя последний британский Арлекин по имени Майя. Она никогда не хотела подобной судьбы, но это задание становится для нее единственным шансом для того, чтобы отомстить убийцам ее отца.

Если из пересказанного сюжета у вас еще не родилось впечатления, что вам пытаются впарить какую-то хрень, то это может значить только одно из двух. Или у вас очень невзыскательный литературный вкус, или же железные яйца, которые изо дня в день помогают вам правильно отбирать зерна от плевел даже в третьесортном чтиве. По большому счету “Последний Странник” – это вольная компиляция “Матрицы” и “Горца”, написанная языком Дина Кунца (це-це-це), но при этом человеком, который считает себе, как минимум, вторым Карлушей Кастанедой. Вот эта “карлушечность” и портит все произведение. Автор на каждой странице пытается протолкнуть нам довольно простую и избитую мысль о необходимости сопротивления Системе. Без этого прессинга книга могла бы еще стать нормальным боевиком, но этого не случилось.

В принципе, та же самая проблема была и в “Коде Да Винчи”, где навязчивый образ Большой Масонской Пизды убивал в романе последние ошметки жанрового произведения. (2006.11.14)
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Apr 20, 2011 Steve R rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Paranoids and privacy buffs

I tend to agree with the other reviews here, both the good and the bad. Yes, the writing is cliche'd, heavy-handed and wooden. And yes the story elements have all been seen before recently.

But by framing it as "this is really happening, it's not just a story", John Twelve Hawks makes me look around and wonder just how far-fetched this stuff is. The vast conspiracy network is totally unnecessary for the rest of the dystopian Panopticon stuff to happen. None of the technology mentioned is beyond...more

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About John Twelve Hawks

John Twelve Hawks aka J12H/JXIIH.

His real identity is unknown. He communicates using the internet and an untraceable phone and has never met his editor.

Several guesses have been made regarding his identity: that he was Thomas Pynchon, Dan Brown, or Steve Hawking among others...

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“Every new experience is unusual. The rest of life is just sleep and committee meetings.” — 18 people liked it

“Life is dangerous. That's what makes it interesting.” — 18 people liked it

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