Just Finished Reading: The Dark River by John Twelve Hawks

This is the recent sequel to The Traveller in which we first encountered the secret war between the forces of control – called The Tabula or The Brethren – and the forces of freedom personified by the Travellers themselves and their bodyguards the Harlequins. Throughout all of recorded history The Brethren have tried to suppress the disruptive influences of Travellers as they return from journeys into other Realms bringing back revolutionary ideas. Finally at the turn of the 21st Century they are close to their dream of total societal control. With the expanse of information technology they are within reach of their Virtual Panopticon – a world where it is always safest to assume you are being watched at all times.

But first they must eliminate the last of the Travellers before he can ferment dissent and unhinge their plans. Standing in their way are the last of the Harlequins, warriors dedicated to protecting Travellers at all costs. But their enemies have a new weapon at their disposal. They have a traveller of their own now.

The first book in this series – The Traveller – subtly changed the way I look at things. Read it and you’ll begin to notice how many surveillance cameras there are around you and just how many times you tell the 'Vast Machine' exactly where you are and what you’re doing. So you can imagine just how much I was looking forward to the sequel – which is probably why I was a little disappointed with it. Though I couldn’t fault the writing style, the story or the underlying philosophy of the book I don’t really think that it moved the story on very much. We had more of an insight into the workings and personnel of The Brethren as well as a bit more about the Four Realms that Travellers can go to. People died, people fell in love and interesting new characters were introduced – but to what end?

Although the story ‘progressed’ it didn’t really feel like it was going anywhere in particular. Maybe it’s because it’s the middle book in a trilogy. I don’t know. But it did leave me feeling kind of flat at the end. I still want to know what’s going to happen next but my expectations have been lowered. Quite possibly that’s a good thing. Maybe with that attitude the third volume will blow me away?