Just Finished Reading: The Golden City by John Twelve Hawks

In a near future world frighteningly similar to our own two shadowy organisations fight each other over the fate of mankind. The Brethren are dedicated to control through fear, manipulation and constant surveillance, The Travellers and their diverse followers believe in human potential, freedom and choice. Each side seek allies and information on other planes of existence through the activities of brothers Michael and Gabriel who have the ability to leave their bodies at will to travel along well worn paths to worlds out of myth. Now Michael is becoming frustrated at the pace of which his organisation is gaining control over the minds of millions. Convincing the higher echelons of The Brethren that he has the answer to the problems of accelerating control he causes a series of events across the world designed to generate fear and panic. When the time is right they will come out of the shadows to offer their solution to all our fears – a global surveillance system designed to keep us safe. The few remaining travellers know that this is an opportunity to strike back – but can such a diverse group pull together and co-ordinate a global response of its own? Only Gabriel can provide the impetus but his abandoned body lies awaiting the return of his travelling spirit which might very well be trapped in Hell itself.

This is the third book of the Fourth Realm trilogy I started some years ago. I enjoyed the first book (The Traveller) very much indeed but was disappointed by the second book (The Dark River) which didn’t really grip me at all. The Golden City is a welcome return to form with strong characterisation, a decent plot and some rather frightening ideas of how a cartel of powerful individuals can use technology to manipulate and spy upon most of the developed world. The technology is necessarily far fetched but only just. In a few decades much of the equipment and know-how will be available and could be (actually will probably be) put to these very uses. In a way this trilogy is a modern variation on 1984 – both more blatant in some places and more subtle in others. It’s certainly believable that this level of manipulation could exist without most people knowing about (or more scarily caring about it as long as it kept them ‘safe’). This is a book designed to be disturbing – a job it does very well indeed. Its creepiness is not in its use of monsters but almost in the banality of the process of creeping control. It contains a timely message for a worried age – don’t trust those who want to put a camera on every corner and a bio-chip in every arm, no matter what argument they use to make you scared enough to accept them. Recommended.