They're Watching Me Right Now! (Fourth Realm 1: The Traveller - John Twelve Hawks)

Member Name: samueltyler

Product:	Fourth Realm 1: The Traveller - John Twelve Hawks
Date:	27/05/09 (53 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Interesting Dystopian vision, action

Disadvantages: Becomes bogged down

The more paranoid amongst us may fear the future of technology. One such invention that may rob us all of our personal freedoms is the humble RFID, a chip that allows direct communication between itself and a computer (and therefore web). If the government introduces their ID cards they will inevitably contain RFID chips. Now Big Brother will know exactly where you are and where you have been. No big issue perhaps if you believe yourself to be a good citizen? What about the embarrassment that may be caused as you walk into a shop and the screen pops up saying, 'Welcome back Mr Smith, would you like to buy more porn?' What about if you worked for a large private company? You go on a drive one day and you return to work to find an automated email asking why you went to the town of the company's nearest rival. The idea of central powers taking over individual liberties is not new to Science Fiction, but it has become more prolific in the genre of late. 'The Traveller' is a prime example of paranoid future fiction.

Maya was brought up by her father to be a Harlequin. These are a group of warriors trained from birth to protect a select band of people called Travellers. Harlequins are equipped to do nothing but fight; it is the Travellers' ability to cross over into other dimensions that is the key. Initially, Maya rejected her father's wishes and became a citizen. However, when her father is butchered Maya is dragged back into this underground world. The evil Brethren are becoming more powerful having wiped out nearly all the Harlequins and Travellers meaning that Maya must find the last two Travellers's before the Brethren do. This is almost impossible when the Brethren have implemented nearly all the governments and big businesses in the world.

I am not adverse to a bit of science fiction that looks at the bleaker side of life. In fact, dystopian futures are probably my favourite genre as it is a great way of writing about current issues and how they impact us. 'The Traveller' is set in today's world, but imagines us as citizens unaware of an underground war. This concept has been used many times before e.g. 'Netherworld', 'The Matrix', but is a solid concept. What grounds 'Traveller' is that it uses modern technology and suggests some of the nefarious means that they could be used. In John Twelve Hawk's afterword he states his distaste for intrusive security and this is reflected throughout the book. I was able to enjoy the novel despite the slightly heavy handed anti-govt/big business propaganda that permeated throughout.

The core concept that they are watching you has worked since George Orwell and Hawk's does a good job of updating the Big Brother concept for a modern audience. 'The Traveller' peaks in the first half as we follow Maya's return to the Harlequin fold. It is here that we learn about how The Brethren have implemented their powers, their use of RFID the internet etc. Hawk's does an impressive and intelligent job of describing their role in an entertaining way.

With just an interesting paranoid vision of the future the book would have nowhere to go. Luckily then that Hawks has created some good characters and some excellent action sequences. Maya is an intriguing central protagonist and she holds the book together; although she is cold and aloof I actually related to her well. The world that she inhabits and the war between the Travellers and the Brethren is interesting. When these two groups meet it is usually in the form of a kinetic action sequence. Action is not easy to write, but Hawk's does a great job.

For the first half of the book I loved the setting, action and characters. However, things take a serious dip in the second half. The book moves from a world of possible truth into hard science fiction, all of a sudden I stopped believing in the story as it was too absurd and did not gel with the first half. Add to this the fact that the sections set in the alternative dimension are dull and you have a book that loses its way. I fear that as part of trilogy that the next book will only ever become more science fiction based. As this was the weakest element of book 1, I can only imagine 2 and 3 getting steadily worse.

By the final pages of 'The Traveller' I did not feel that Hawks needed some grand conspiracy to undo his work, as he achieved this himself. I still enjoyed the book as a whole, but the first part was far better than the second. A set of good characters in a well realised world are all undermined by Hawks' later flights of fancy. As a science fiction fan I have no issue with characters making inter dimensional leaps (in fact, I sometimes require them). What I don't like is a book that becomes bogged down, dull and overly complicated. I will give book 2 a chance in a hope that the strong elements from the first survive.

Author: John Twelve Hawks
Year: 2005
Price: amazon uk - £4.94
play.com - £5.99

Summary: We are being watched and don't even know it!