Reflection's Edge

Book Review: The Traveler, by John Twelve Hawks

Reviewer: Romie Stott

Underneath our modern world of surveillance and pervasive media, a sinister organization called "Tabula" or "the Brotherhood" works to ensure that life is controlled and predictable, even at the expense of truth, freedom, and human life. For centuries, Tabula has worked to promote order by murdering Travelers - people with the ability to visit alternate realities and bring back dangerous ideas. 26-year-old Maya is the daughter of a Harlequin, an unpredictable warrior sworn to protect Travelers and battle Tabula's "Vast Machine" of pervasive illusions. She's walked away from that life - the loneliness of hiding, the pointlessness of fighting when all the Travelers are dead - but she's pulled back when the few remaining Harlequins discover two members of a Traveler family who may have survived. Soon she's embroiled in a fierce battle for the fate of the Travelers - and the future of the world.

The Traveler is the first in a projected trilogy called The Fourth Realm.

The Traveler reads less like a book than a Hollywood blockbuster: the characters are flat but pretty, the action sequences are clean and flashy, and the plot is insubstantial. Fortunately, The Traveler isn't intended for professors of literature - it's solidly targeted at mainstream audiences more used to television than War and Peace.

Accordingly, The Traveler might as well be built around the needs of a commuter. The chapters are short - those that are more than four pages are broken down into sections - so that a reader can pause every few minutes to check for his bus or train stop. The level of required reading comprehension is low, with extremely simplistic vocabulary and sentences rarely longer than six words; even if a reader is exhausted, or constantly jostled by fellow passengers, he will have no trouble following along. Multiple viewpoint characters allow the same concepts to be explained multiple times; if a reader is distracted during the first explanation, he has several more chances to orient himself, which may be particularly helpful to readers unused to genre fiction.

However, perhaps because of the restrictions The Traveler places upon itself, it is ultimately empty, and many readers will be left feeling bewildered and unsatisfied by its lack of content. The Traveler feels less written than produced by committee - which is a possibility, given author John Twelve Hawks' much-hyped mysterious anonymity. The Traveler isn't precisely derivative; instead, its creator seems to have analyzed the successful media of the last decade - The DaVinci Code, The Matrix, Highlander, Sin City, Kill Bill, and others - and combined their hooks. There's even a chapter that reads like Poppy Z. Brite. It's as though the author went down a checklist: Japanese swords? Check. Knights Templar? Check. Motorcycles? Check. Quantam computers and freakish genetic experiments? Check. There's even an anemic and half-hearted romantic subplot to provide the requisite sexual tension. All of this is particularly ironic in a book about the importance of escaping "the Vast Machine."

Despite its manufactured tang, The Traveler isn't all bad. Although most characters are barely sketches, only a few minor ones are cartoonish enough to be truly frustrating - the others simply exist to facilitate escapism. They're not exactly everymen, but they are action figures, and can consequently be fun to inhabit. At a few points, the book truly rises above itself with a haunting image or delicate bit of symbolism, especially when it explores what it feels like to be lonely.

As a book for adults, The Traveler is chewing gum; it's kind of fun to blow bubbles with, but it won't satisfy someone who is hungry. And like bubble gum, it eventually runs out of flavor; by the time you reach the end, you'll be relieved to set the book aside in favor of something meatier. That said, The Traveler may be a good buy for a 13- to 14-year-old non-reader; its movie-like structure makes it approachable to someone who doesn't traditionally associate books with entertainment. Its themes will resonate with teens starting to question the world around them, and it isn't a bad introduction to contemporary debates about privacy, safety, and civil disobedience. Moreover, The Traveler's "adult" status will let kids feel sophisticated, and may give them something to talk about with members of their parents' generation.

To buy a copy of The Traveler, click here.

If you liked this book, you may also enjoy:

The DaVinci Code, by Dan Brown

Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman

The Gnostic Gospels, by Elaine Pagels

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