From Publishers Weekly: At the start of the engrossing second entry in bestseller Twelve Hawks’s Fourth Realm trilogy (after The Traveler), the Brethren continue to control civilization through a computerized information system, the Vast Machine, and a host of offshoot surveillance technologies.
Opposed to the Brethren are the Travelers, an ancient clan with the mystical ability to slip in and out of several dimensions. The Travelers are guarded by Harlequins, a warrior caste with sharp swords and ferociously lethal skills. In the Cain and Abel story at the book’s heart, the quest of two Travelers, brothers Gabriel and Michael Corrigan, to find their legendary father has split them irrevocably: Gabriel fights for the forces of good, Michael has turned to the dark side.
A love story featuring Gabriel’s beautiful, deadly but conflicted Harlequin bodyguard, Maya, adds human interest to an often superhuman tale, and Gabriel’s out-of-body journey to a horrifyingly fascinating parallel world adds a particularly compelling component to a saga that’s part A Wrinkle in Time, part The Matrix and part Kurosawa epic.
Praise
“A thrilling sequel…. Engaging and relevant.” —Time Out New York
“Page-turningly swift with a cliffhanger ending . . . John Twelve Hawks has drawn upon both pop-cultural and literary touchstones and modified them to create a cyber-1984.” –The New York Times
“The stuff that first-rate high-tech paranoid-schizophrenic thrillers are made of.” –Time
“Portrays a Big Brother with powers far beyond anything Orwell could imagine . . . Political prophecy is rarely such fun.” –The Washington Post
“Seductive . . . Quickly hooks you into its Matrix-esque world . . . [Let] the butt-kicking begin.”–USA Today
Quotes from The Dark River by John Twelve Hawks
“True freedom is tolerant. It gives people the right to live and think in new ways.”
“If privacy had a gravestone it might read: “Don’t Worry. This Was for Your Own Good.””
