Publisher’s
Description:
A world that exists in the shadows of our own.
A conflict we will never see.
One woman stands between those determined to control history and those who
will risk their lives for freedom.
Maya is hiding in plain sight in London. The twenty-six-year-old has
abandoned the dangerous obligations pressed upon her by her father, and chosen
instead to live a normal life. But Maya comes from a long line of people who
call themselves Harlequins–a fierce group of warriors willing to sacrifice their
lives to protect a select few known as Travelers.
Gabriel and Michael Corrigan are brothers living in Los Angeles. Since
childhood, the young men have been shaped by stories that their late father was
a Traveler, one of a small band of prophets who have vastly influenced the
course of history. Travelers are able to attain pure enlightenment, and have for
centuries ushered change into the world. Gabriel and Michael, who may have
inherited their father’s gifts, have always protected themselves by living ‘off
the Grid’–that is, invisible to the real-life surveillance networks that monitor
people in our modern society.
Summoned by her ailing father, Maya is told of the existence of the
brothers. The Corrigans are in severe danger, stalked by powerful men known as
the Tabula–ruthless mercenaries who have hunted Travelers for generations. This
group is determined to inflict order on the world by controlling it, and they
view Travelers as an intolerable threat. As Maya races to California to protect
the brothers, she is reluctantly pulled back into the cold and solitary
Harlequin existence. A colossal battle looms–one that will reveal not only the
identities of Gabriel and Michael Corrigan but also a secret history of our
time.
Moving from the back alleys of Prague to the heart of Los Angeles, from
the high deserts of Arizona to a guarded research facility in New York, The
Traveler explores a parallel world that exists alongside our own. John Twelve
Hawks�s stunningly suspenseful debut is an international publishing sensation
that marks the arrival of a major new talent.
Review:
I’d heard a lot of buzz about
The Traveler prior to picking it up, and it’s supposedly the next Big Book
from Da Vinci Code editor Jason Kaufman, so I was looking forward to it
with great interest.
I’d heard it described as "powerful," "breathtaking," and as "The Matrix
crossed with William Gibson." Alas, it isn’t any of those things.
It’s one of those books that reads as if it was written
only to be made into a movie (indeed, the movie rights have already been snapped
up by Universal with Spielberg attached to direct), and if one were to make an
accurate this crossed with that comparison, one might choose "The
Highlander crossed with Robert Ludlum," rather than the absurd analogy
quoted above. But though the book seems to have only popcorn pretensions,
the prose is sharp and clean, with vividly described action sequences, making
for a fast and easy read.
I admit my initial interest in the book came about as a
result of a discussion on the Night Shade Books message board in which people
were speculating as to the real identity of the author John Twelve Hawks (a
pseudonym). The biographical information included on the book jacket says
only that Twelve Hawks "lives off the grid." But not only is Twelve Hawks
"off the grid," he’s a complete recluse, and apparently won’t engage in any
publicity for the novel, and supposedly only communicates with his agent via a
satellite phone with a voice scrambler. I will also admit that had I known
about the satellite phone/voice scrambler thing before reading the book, I might
have lost interest in Twelve Hawks completely. And that would have been a
shame, for though this is a snack novel designed for consumption by the masses,
rather than a critical audience, it’s a fairly enjoyable one, and given the huge
marketing push the book has been getting, it’s nice to have read it just so I’ll
know what the heck everyone’s talking about.
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