Keeps reader interested... Full of action | The Dark River (Vintage)

Love this book | The Dark River (Vintage) | John Twelve Hawks

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	• The Dark River (Vintage) John Twelve Hawks Vintage, 2008 - 432 pages average customer review:based on 61 reviews view larger image
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love this book

I loved this book, just like the first. Definitely amongst my all time favorites. Wake up people!

Keeps reader interested... Full of action

First of all, let me tell you that I haven't read the first book in the trilogy. I was in the airport this summer, I forgot my book in the car... and I wanted a book to read for my 14 hour flight... I read the backpage and I thought... "Why not??"

The truth is that I read the book in less than a week... If you are an action lover, you definitely cannot stop reading this book... It is a never ending action...

Second, you can follow the story even if you don't know what happened in the first book... but it is not an independent book... at the end you get the feeling that... now what??... and I hate to realize that it's been 3 months and there is no answer to my question... because I have to wait the third book... that's the only thing I do not like... I need the book to have some kind of an ending... and this one definitely doesn't have one...

Now if you are the type of person that doesn't like action books... you will definitely do not like this, as there is no break on action in it...

It lacks some explanations of how the author views some stuff... but I believe it is at the discretion of the author to leaves some mystery around...

Finally, the spoiler is that the title makes no sense until.... :) ok I am not going to spoil it... :)

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Love this book

I loved this book. I enjoyed every minute. The only real problem I had with it was that I have to wait to on the next book in the series. The book wasn't hard to understand, there wasn't too much going on, and it is very interesting. I enjoyed reading it, and I can't wait to read the next book.

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Weak Sequel To "The Traveler"

"The Dark River" is the second in a planned trilogy folowing "The Traveler". If you have not yet read "The Traveler", please read it before attempting "The Dark River" as the plots, back stories, and character threads are complicated and fuzzy enough without knowing the background going in.

"The Dark River" picks up with Gabriel, a Traveler who is capable of moving through parallel dimensions known as the Six Realms, and Maya, his Harlequin bodyguard and sworn protector, fleeing New York after discovering that the Brethren have destroyed New Harmony, a peaceful community founded by Matthew Corrigan, father of Gabriel and Michael. Michael has gone over to the "Dark Side" where his lust for power and misguided revenge against his father drive him to become a fixture in the Brethren who manipulate the Vast Machine (the modern network linking all mankind into a computerized monitored world unless living "off the grid"). Gabriel and Michael are now locked into a Cain and Abel sibling struggle that reflects the forces of good and evil.

Although little new conceptual information or direction is included in this sequel, there are new characters--who are not particularly well fleshed out; indeed, shallow characterization is a problem with "The Dark River." Hollis Wilson and Vicki Fraser are civilians who join Gabriel and Maya along with little Alice Chen a survivor of the destruction at New Harmony. Other new notables include Mother Blessing, a legendary Harlequin, and the Free Runners, a small group of resistance fighters who befriend Gabriel.

While an entertaining read, this sequel was disappointing because little "new" material emerges to advance the reader's understanding of the grand scheme of things. The new ideas and possibilities explored in "The Traveler" have begun to grow stale as "The Dark River" does little to advance the story or the background knowledge needed to flesh out the greater story. For instance, after reading both novels, I still do not know what compels the Travelers to journey into the neighboring realms (some of which are dark and deadly places)and, moreover, why do other lust for their secret? Why did Matthew disappear and where is he now...and how did he get there? Why are the Harlequins so determined to sacrifice life, limb, and innocents to protect a Traveler, yet intrinsically afraid to become humanlike with their charge?

The story, of course, is a layered attack on the madernization of the world and the subsequent loss of individual rights, most particularly the right to privacy. Detailing the spying and individual monitoring of the population through manipulation of cell phones, the internet, street cameras, cash register receipts etc. is not a new concept but it is a well developed underpinning to this projected trilogy.

If the loyal reader has made it through "The Traveler" I recommend this sequel as an entertaining although not particularly trail blazing entry. Once reaching this point, we must anticipate the third book to hopefully see how all this activity fits into a grander scheme.

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Much noise but little substance

Having so much enjoyed The Traveller, I could barely wait for the next installment and ordered The Dark River as soon as it came out. I was, however, somewhat disappointed. While it was perfectly adequate for an action thriller, it did not live up to the high standard of the first book.

For me the difficulty was that while there was relentless non-stop action, the story didn't actually move forward very much. The bad guys were still ahead and the good guys hadn't really made any progress and were pretty much in the same place they had been at the end of the first book, except that some of the more sympathetic characters had been killed off. An author's willingness to kill characters with whom the reader might identify - the 'good' characters -adds to the suspense. If we know they are not ultimately safe, we will worry about them. I think, however, that Twelvehawks goes a bit too far in that direction. The destruction of Victory from Sin Fraser, a wonderful character with a happy future, was too depressing and I really didn't want to go on reading. And was it necessary to destroy the Harmony community? Did it really serve the story. We know the Tabula are really bad people but do we need to have our noses rubbed into it that much?

I also hoped that we would learn more about the other realms and apart from the First Realm, there was nothing. I would like to have learned more about the higher realms and how Travellers to these realms became able to raise other people's level of consciousness to such an extent that they were a threat to the forces of order and control.

My overall feeling about the book is that the author had a great idea and got off to a roaring start and then hadn't quite worked out where to go with it. I hope he figures it out because in spite of my criticisms, I did enjoy the book enough to stay with it and will read the third, if there is one.

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A shattering vision of a society where both hope and freedom are about to disappear.

Two brothers born into a race of Travelers?prophets able to journey to different realms of consciousness?have just discovered that their long lost father may still be alive. Gabriel, who could be humanity's savior, wants to protect him. Michael, however, wants to destroy his father and humanity's hope for freedom. As they race across the globe, their frantic search puts them on a collision course, and the fate of the world hangs in the balance.