Pg. 69: John Twelve Hawks's "The Dark River"

Today's feature at the Page 69 Test: The Dark River by John Twelve Hawks.

About the book, from the publisher:

A frantic race to save a long-lost Traveler.
An epic battle for freedom.
Two brothers whose power puts them on a collision course ... with each other.

In The Traveler, John Twelve Hawks introduced readers to a dangerous world inspired by the modern technology that monitors our lives. Under constant surveillance of the ‘Vast Machine,’ a sophisticated computer network run by a ruthless group, society is mostly unaware of its own imprisonment. Gabriel and Michael Corrigan, brothers who were raised “off the grid,” have recently learned they are Travelers like their long-lost father — part of a centuries-old line of prophets able to journey to different realms of consciousness and enlighten the world to resist being controlled. But power affects the brothers differently. As The Traveler ends, Gabriel hesitates under the weight of responsibility. Michael seizes the opportunity — and joins the enemy.

The Dark River opens in New York City with a stunning piece of news. Gabriel’s father, who has been missing for nearly twenty years, may still be alive and trapped somewhere in Europe. Gabriel and his Harlequin protector, Maya, immediately mobilize to escape New York and find the long-lost Traveler. Simultaneously, Michael orders the Brethren — the ruthless group that has been hunting Gabriel — into a full-scale search. Gabriel yearns to find his father to protect him; Michael aims to destroy the man whose existence threatens his newfound power. The race moves from the underground tunnels of New York and London to ruins hidden beneath Rome and Berlin, to a remote region of Africa that is rumored to harbor one of history’s greatest treasures. And as the story moves toward its chilling conclusion, Maya must decide if she will trade everything to rescue Gabriel.

A mesmerizing return to the places and people so richly portrayed in The Traveler, The Dark River is propelled by edge-of-the-seat suspense and haunted by a vision of a world where both hope and freedom are about to disappear.

Advance praise for The Dark River:

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. Given the complicated plot and complex setting, readers are advised to read The Traveler first.
--Publishers Weekly

Read what the critics wrote about The Traveler.

Visit the website for The Dark River; read an excerpt and learn more about the novel at the publisher's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Dark River.

--Marshal Zeringue