Customer Reviews

Traveller, The

5 star:		(106)
4 star:		(61)
3 star:		(51)
2 star:		(39)
1 star:		(51)

 

 

Yes, there has been a lot of marketing hype regarding the hyper-anonymity of Mr. John Twelve Hawks who, like his countercultural characters in "The Traveler," has supposedly decided to live off "the Grid" and avoid exposing his precious identity in a post-9/11 world where the government has increased its surveillance of citizens under the guise of anti-terrorism paternalism. And yes, one could engage in an endless debate over whether this book is best labeled as speculative fiction, techno-thriller, urban fantasy, or science fiction.

But these issues, while perhaps interesting topics of discussion, are ultimately much less relevant than the fact that this is a highly entertaining thriller, with a premise that will appeal to fans of "The Matrix" franchise and an anti-control theme that will resonate with conspiracy lovers and Robert Heinlein readers. Heinlein once wrote that "political tags - such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth - are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire." Mr. Hawks's work fully embraces this same theme as well as the Aldous Huxley-ish viewpoint that science without mysticism is ultimately meaningless.

In the tradition of the best thriller writers, the author manages to avoid the pitfalls common to many first-novelists, juggle multiple points of view, and keep the pages turning with cliffhanger chapters. He also writes with a direct, unpretentious style that aids in the suspension of disbelief and fits well with the technology-laden world he has created. And his characters, particularly Maya and Gabriel, have more depth than the cookie-cutter heroes common to books of this sort.

At times, this book teeters on the edge of becoming an over-the-top amalgamation of too many proven Hollywood elements (martial arts, quantum physics, Buddhist meditation, "Highlander"-esque chases, a "Terminator"-like bodyguard, travel to other dimensions a la "The Matrix," etc.), but the author's palpable passion for the philosophical threads running through the book somehow links everything together in a way that is both entertaining and mentally stimulating.

The author (whoever he or they might be) knows the conventions of the genre, though I wonder whether the genre this is meant for is really film or print. There's been a tremendous amount of publicity around this book. I even wonder how many of the ecstatic reviews posted are from publicists. Certainly the people determined to make this into a product like Harry Potter or The DaVinci Code are at least as diligent -and perhaps as powerful - as the Tabula who run the world in the book.

The set-up for the story is pretty good. The author postulates the six realms of Buddhist teaching (gods, demi-gods, humans, animals, hungry ghosts, hell) as real places coexisting in the universe. The realm we live in is the human realm, fourth in the numbering system used by the author. OK, an interesting spin on the many realities idea used so well by Philip Pullman in "His Dark Materials".

Our world is controlled by a secret society and the events in the news are staged to keep us ordinary folk distracted and diverted while the people who really run the show do - well we don't get to learn what they actually do except know people who can do things for them everywhere and try to stamp out the Travelers, who are able to do out-of-body travel to the other realms and then come back with insights that make people less like sheep, and the Harlequins, who don't write Romance novels as you might think, but are instead extraordinarily trained and dedicated fighters who protect Travelers. Sort of The Matrix and a few others.

In the time covered by this book, the bad guys have changed their strategy with the Travelers. They want to capture one and use him to communicate better with beings from another realm (we don't know in this book whether and how that will come about, or even which real it is but it doesn't look as if any good will come of it[shades of Peter Hamilton]). They still want to destroy the few(?) remaining Harlequins.

This book, like most first books in trilogies, is primarily set-up for what follows. It's not especially well done in that regard. There are a lot of pages of characters telling each other things that we readers need to know and they aren't especially gracefully worked in to the narrative. The chapters tend to end with cliffhangers, some nicely done.

Maya, the Harlequin we spend most of the book with, has some traces of shading as a character. The other characters are pretty flat.

I'm at something of a loss in assessing this book. The interesting world alluded to in it is not very evocatively created (read Dan Simmons's Hyperion books to see what can be done), as a thriller it's nowhere near "Eye of the Needle" or Tim Powers's "Declare". It's a workmanlike book, no better. It's good to see a major publishing house get behind a work of speculative fiction but this one almost could have been written from market research. It never seems to take pleasure in telling a story. That troubles me.

Is the Traveler by John Twelve Hawks the best thing since sliced bread? No. Is it an incredibly original plot? Definitely not. However, it is still a page-turner and combines all of the derivative elements others have noted into a satisfying adventure/martial arts/sci fi novel.

The main protagonist, Maya, is a Harlequin, although a reluctant one-- she has been trained to devote her life to protecting Travelers, people who can shift into alternate universes. However, she doesn't really want to be a Harlequin, but she is forced into it by her father's death. She takes on her assigned duty of protecting Gabriel and Michael because it is her duty, not because of any emotional affection she may have for either of them.

When Michael is captured by the opposition, who want to use him for their own nefarious purposes, she focuses her energy and her fighting expertise on protecting Gabriel. She stubbornly tries to focus on the mission while he just as persistently tries to focus on the human side of things-- demanding that Maya take risks in order to save friends or intervene when a group of road warriors terrorize a waitress and her father at a roadside cafe.

Yes, the symbolism of Michael and Gabriel hits you rather heavily between the eyes (think archangels, folks.) However, I still enjoyed the book. There's nothing wrong with derivative fiction if it's done well and if the author puts his or her own twist on it. John Twelve Hawks accomplishes this in The Traveler, and I look forward to reading the next book in the series.

It would be unfair to say that the Traveller is a concoction of Brave New World, 1984, the Da Vinci Code, and The Matrix, because it is a much more literary and thoughtful work than that that statement would otherwise imply, analysing some of the major themes of life in an unusual way. This novel fulfils many of the aspects of science fiction that I, personally, enjoy, and despite a certain fixation with swords, and despite the non-motorcyclists' belief that somebody riding a bike can use a weapon with his right hand and maintain the speed of the motor cycle, the novel is worryingly believable. The simple writing conveys an atmosphere of menace emanating from what one normally considers boringly mundane systems and certainly realises the worst nightmares of conspiracy theorists and paranoids.

The heroine or, perhaps, more correctly, anti-heroine is engagingly real in her mental anguish and uncertainties just as her charge is a convincingly vulnerable young man.

With all books of this sort of genre, published these days, one has a lingering suspicion that they are really being written for the bigger money of the film industry but, in this case, the writer comes across strongly as someone who is definitely trying to put across a message, ahead of making big money, although retaining anonymity could be seen as a bit of a gimmick, and the timing of the book could not be more appropriate - when so much new and constraining legislation is being used under the banner of anti-terrorism.

Anyway... despite these small cribs, I found it an excellent read, exciting and thought provoking.

A good way through this book, I figured I would be giving it a three star review as a passable thriller with a nicely mysterious premise, some well-phrased portions, and a bit of tension, but also with too little plot, too much repetition, and pacing issues due to the somewhat densely written narative. (Unlike some other reviewers, I can believe this is a first time author--if nothing else due to occasional point-of-view shifts mid-scene that are an issue with many novice authors and which a good editor should have found and fixed. Pacing alone sets this apart from the likes of Dan Brown, Steve Berry, Douglas Preston, and Lincoln Child.) But, as I continued along, too many things began to bother me. Foremost was the lack of forethought by supposedly intelligent people, mostly on the Brethren side (bad guys are often played too incompetently). For instance: (a) it is hard to imagine that a super secret agency (other than the CIA in the terrible Mission Impossible movie) has failed to give any thought whatsoever as to how to maintain top secret information in the event of a fire (the Brethren have virtually unlimited power and money--they can't have their own fire station?); (b) a General works to give critters from another realm access to ours without any apparent thought that they might be a harmful influence or an invading army; and (c) despite awareness of the ruthlessness and resources of the bad guys, innocents are constantly put at risk unnecessarily and without any thought to the consequence and not just by the Harlequin (Gabriel spill the beans to Michael on where he is and who has helped him without a moment's hesitation). Second, the back and forth of a series of chases without any serious discussion of what these other realms actually have to offer the Traveler begins to wear (Why exactly would we want to connect with hungry ghosts and a hell dimension?). Third, the author's apparent belief in a vast conspiracy of watchers leaks through too often, making the book increasingly preachy. And finally, the lack of an end to the book and the intentionally hidden fact that this was merely part one to a book that is not a stand-alone work is beyond irritating. I suspect some will find this review too critical, but I guess you can just consider me underwhelmed after being over-hyped.

Wow! This is an amazing book. I read between 150 and 200 books a year and I must say that this is one of the best books I have read in a decade. It is like a cross between the Matrix and Blade Runner, or Dan Brown's Angel's and Demons and a Tom Clancy novel. Or like a little known author James Bryon Huggins, it has mystery, suspense and intrigue, weapons and people who know how to use them.

The main premise is that there is a war going on in this world, but it is a war that most are unaware of. Like all wars there are two sides, The Harlequin's and the Tabula or as they prefer to be called `The Brethren'. The Harlequin's are warriors committed to protecting the Travelers; Travelers are people who have the ability to send their life energy from their body and travel to other realms. They are lonely isolated people who live to serve. The travelers often become gurus or healers or prophets. The traveler's after returning from a different plane of existence return changed and their views of life challenge other people to look at their own lives and to seek something more. The Tabula on the other hand want to control the world. They want to have control over every person's life.

Michael and Gabriel Corrigan are brothers and believed to be the last descendants of travelers. Michael ends up with the Tabula and Gabriel with the Harlequin's. This becomes a battle between good and evil, and a battle between brothers, like Cain and Able of old, the brothers will war. Also of significance is their names, only three angels are named by name in the Bible, and the brothers each bare one of those three names.

The book is a literary treasure filled with religious and literary reference from around the world and across traditions. It is a book for book lovers who will be intrigued by finding all the reference, yet the story is strong enough to capture the imagination of even the most casual of readers.

I believe this is a book that anyone could enjoy, and I can only hope that the characters will return in a sequel to continue the story.

(First Published in 'Imprint' 2005-05-06 as 'Traveling Through Life')

Wow! This is an amazing book. I read between 150 and 200 books a year and I must say that this is one of the best books I have read in a decade. It is like a cross between the Matrix and Blade Runner, or Dan Brown's Angel's and Demons and a Tom Clancy novel. Or like a little known author James Bryon Huggins, it has mystery, suspense and intrigue, weapons and people who know how to use them.

The main premise is that there is a war going on in this world, but it is a war that most are unaware of. Like all wars there are two sides, The Harlequin's and the Tabula or as they prefer to be called `The Brethren'. The Harlequin's are warriors committed to protecting the Travelers; Travelers are people who have the ability to send their life energy from their body and travel to other realms. They are lonely isolated people who live to serve. The travelers often become gurus or healers or prophets. The traveler's after returning from a different plane of existence return changed and their views of life challenge other people to look at their own lives and to seek something more. The Tabula on the other hand want to control the world. They want to have control over every person's life.

Michael and Gabriel Corrigan are brothers and believed to be the last descendants of travelers. Michael ends up with the Tabula and Gabriel with the Harlequin's. This becomes a battle between good and evil, and a battle between brothers, like Cain and Able of old, the brothers will war. Also of significance is their names, only three angels are named by name in the Bible, and the brothers each bare one of those three names.

The book is a literary treasure filled with religious and literary reference from around the world and across traditions. It is a book for book lovers who will be intrigued by finding all the reference, yet the story is strong enough to capture the imagination of even the most casual of readers.

I believe this is a book that anyone could enjoy, and I can only hope that the characters will return in a sequel to continue the story.

To be honest, I enjoyed this first volume in the projected trilogy more than I expected to, or intended to. The writing style is rather amateurish and the author is badly in need of editorial coaching, but the complex plot is addictive. Character development is spotty, though Maya comes through in three dimensions, and so do Hollis and Vicki to some extent. Gabriel and Michael, the two Traveler brothers, possibly the only two remaining, are pretty flat. And none of the Bad Guys is very well developed. However, the real point here is not what Twelve Hawks (whatever his real name is) lacks in professional experience but what he has to say about the way our world is becoming more and more authoritarian, and less and less democratic -- and not just in George W. Bush's United States either. Most of us ignore the omnipresent surveillance cameras on the streets and on rooftops, in ATMs, in almost every public place in the Western world, but after reading this book you'll find yourself discovering them everywhere you look. Nobody in this country seems too concerned about the government's campaign for mandatory citizen ID cards. And if you thought supposedly paranoid accusations against the political Right, that they're making the rich richer and more powerful at the expense of everyone else, you'll have to rethink that, too -- or you should. There's a lot less fiction in this book than you might think: Try going to Wikipedia and looking up "Carnivore" and "RFID." And there are some very quotable lines, like "when people discard their notions of privacy, they permit a peaceful society," that sound like Republican tee-shirts. Or, "The Tabula worshiped the idea of political and social control, the illusion that everything should remain the same." Serious insights, if you care about where our world is headed.

The Traveler is fascinating book - 1984 meets Carlos Castaneda. Are there hidden forces controlling our lives? Is there something more to the world corporeal? The Traveler combines these elements with a well written action/adventure story.

I'm looking forward to the next book.

This type of book is right up my alley so I snapped it up almost as soon as I saw it. The first part of the book is fairly compelling, but the last half turns a bit formulaic and all the characters start becoming more two-dimensional as the story progresses.

I thoroughly understand what the author is trying to achieve, but for all his references to philosophy, mysticism and the classics he fails on a grand scale to make any truly new statement about any age-old ideas.

That said, the action is entertaining and many of the descriptions about surveillance in modern society are frighteningly accurate. On that level I think he does an excellent job of portraying intrusions into our lives that we largely take for granted and the proposed intrusions that we will probably only stave off for so long.