Nocturnal Book Reviews: Review: The Traveler by John Twelve Hawkes

Review: The Traveler by John Twelve Hawkes

Thursday, August 16, 2012 | Posted by kara-karina@Nocturnal Book Reviews

The Traveler by John Twelve Hawks (Forth Realm #1)

gifted

Synopsis from Goodreads
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 live "off the grid" — free of credit cards and government IDs. Welcome to the world of The Traveler — a world frighteningly like our own. In this compelling novel, Maya fights to save Gabriel, the only man who can stand against the forces that attempt to monitor and control society. From the back streets of Prague to the skyscrapers of Manhattan, The Traveler portrays an epic struggle between tyranny and freedom. Not since 1984 have readers witnessed a Big Brother so terrifying in its implications and in a story that so closely reflects our lives.

Amazon US/UK | Amazon kindle US/UK | The Book Depository US/UK | Fishpond

9/10

* * *

Another ridiculously good book that found me by pure chance. All the conspiracy theorists of the world, this book is definitely for you. As I count myself one of the men in the tinfoil hats, that book felt like home.

My mom-in-law gave it to my hubby to read and it was gathering dust in our car, until one day I went to work forgetting my own book (oh, horror!) and had to make do with this one.
I was so engrossed by it, I did not put it down until it was finished. Thanks, Mom! *grinning*

Brilliant conspiracy thriller with a neck-breaking pace. Somehow it had the style of Heroes despite a very different plot. I kept hearing this music in my mind, I swear!

Maya is a Harlequin, a secret warrior trained since her childhood by her father to live off the grid and to protect The Travellers at all costs.

Travellers are people who can astral travel in other dimensions and come back seeing the world as whole, preaching freedom from control and more harmonious society. This is why they are known as great spiritual leaders and get killed all the time by Tabula - a secret organisation striving for a total control over the world.

When Maya is 17 she has to kill a member of Tabula. At that time she is standing guard over one monk - a sort of teacher for travellers, and the murder is as much as in self-defence as to protect her guy.

Shaken, she breaks away from her dad and Harlequins and tries to live a normal life, getting education and starting working in one of London firms. All that changes few years later when her dad contacts her asks her to come and meet him in Prague.

What happens after that is one phenomenal race against time and almost total technological control of Tabula when Maya has to find the last two travellers on Earth hiding in US and save them before Tabula gets them first.

There are so many things in this book that make you stop and think how every new gadget, every new CCTV camera and every new "anti-terrorism law" tighten the noose around our necks. I find it really interesting as well, that the identity of the author himself is unknown.

John Twelve Hawks lives off the grid and talks to his publisher and editor through untraceable Internet connection and satellite phone with a scrambler. No one knows who he is and what he does, and I think it's so awesome!

Fantastic book, that makes you think and it's choke full of action as well. Really recommended.

* * *

Обалденная книга о заговорах, тайных сообществах, Путешественниках между мирами, способных изменить историю и Табуле - секретной организации, стремящейся к полному контролю над миром и уничтожающей всех Путешественников на своём пути.

Совершенно случайно это книга попала мне в руки и заставила ещё больше задуматься на тем, как по крохам у нас все больше и больше отбирают право на свободу и жизнь так как нам этого хочется - сплошные камеры наружного наблюдения, новейшие телефоны, которые хранят в себе всё вебсайты, на которые мы заглядываем, не говоря уже о сигнале GPS, что легко определяет наше местоположения для тех, кто хочет нас найти, и прочее и прочее и прочее...

Книга полна брутального действия на огромной скорости и читается очень легко. Майя - Арлекин, чья задача сохранить жизнь двух последних Путешественников на земле, офигительная героиня, хладнокровная и безжалостная.

В то же время Табула - просто чистейшее зло, а люди в неё верящие самы настоящие фанатики.

Что интересно, никто не знает самого автора, которые прячется под псевдонимом и общается с редактором и публицистом через спутниковый телефон, изменяющий его голос или через Интернет, где его IP невозможно отследить. Права на экранизацию его книг были куплены Голливудом, но ещё неизвестно, будет ли снят фильм или нет.

Очень советую, читайте!