The Traveller by John Twelve Hawks

[Hyperstorm]

I just read an awesome book called "The Traveller" by John Twelve Hawks

its a little hard to describe but the best way to sum it up as 1 review says "The matrix meets 1984 meets Alias"

i dont quite agree with that but the book has a very intriguing storyline & a very, very paranoid author who lives off the grid, which basically means that no1 knows who he is & where does he live[not even his agent & editor]

http://www.randomhouse.com/features/traveler/

check it out & read the book, its really good!!!

Storm

 

[Summerfey]

The Traveller

Has anyone read 'The Traveller' by John Twelve Hawks? What did you think of it. I loved it, completely different from anything I've read before and does make you wonder, who's watching you.

 

[Stewart]

I heard it wasclaptrapfoisted upon people by Random House to plug the gap between the Robert Langdon adventures by Dan Brown, between The Da Vinci Code and The Solomon Key, as a Dan Brown novel under the pseudonym of John Twelve Hawks which, in my cynical view, is an attempt at wringing money from those who think Dan Brown is the worst abomination to hit the shelves in recent years and would never buy another of his books. Anonymous writer, same editor and publisher as Dan Brown, space between sales but doesn't want to be seen completely clogging the bestseller charts for fear of peaking with the public too early.

The Amazon reviews, as usual, have five stars from the this is grate!!!!! brigade (and probably Harriet Klausner) while all the one star reviews are the only ones making sense by talking about amateur writing, repetitive situations, cliched sci-fi tropes, characters so thin you could decorate your walls with them, and, like all Dan Brown novels, full of shoddy research as to make him a laughing stock albeit a rich one.

 

[Stewart]

Some Amazon reviews:

Written the way a virgin would write a script for a pornographic movie. Written the way James Joyce would sound coming out of Clive Cussler's mouth. This is the first book I've purchased in years where I actually wanted to ask for a refund.

Please, please, please, do not waste your time with this childish, poorly written, over hyped example of corporate merchandising. The characters are painfully two dimensional, the story is agonizingly predictable, and the writing is filled with gross errors, juvenile stylistic devices, and "unbeatable" villains that somehow seem incapable of posing a threat to anyone. Of course, anyone who actually believes that the author (and I use the term loosely) really lives "off the grid" or that the name "Twelve Hawks" is any more than a marketing gimmick probably deserves to throw his or her money away on this stinker.

If you ever want to show someone an example of writing by committee, then by all means have them read this work. It is a complete mishmash of scientific terminology poorly applied and probably chosen by a quick google of Popular Science. It's biggest sin, however, is the complete and total lack of imagination. The "other realms" are as devoid of original thought as anything you'll see on the Sci Fi channel on Saturday night. From the very instant that a character or scene is introduced, even a casual reader will be able to determine exactly what is going to happen next, who is going to do what, and, often, exactly what is going to be said.

It's a bad, bad, bad, bad, bad novel. Mr. Twelve Hawks may have decided to live "off the Grid"(how daring!) but he may wish to enroll in a basic writing class at the nearest college or univerisity.

I give this book four U's

Unimaginative

Uninteresting

Uninspired

Unreadable

Please, please, please, do not waste your time with this childish, poorly written, over hyped example of corporate merchandising. The characters are painfully two dimensional, the story is agonizingly predictable, and the writing is filled with gross errors, juvenile stylistic devices, and "unbeatable" villains that somehow seem incapable of posing a threat to anyone. Of course, anyone who actually believes that the author (and I use the term loosely) really lives "off the grid" or that the name "Twelve Hawks" is any more than a marketing gimmick probably deserves to throw his or her money away on this stinker.

If you ever want to show someone an example of writing by committee, then by all means have them read this work. It is a complete mishmash of scientific terminology poorly applied and probably chosen by a quick google of Popular Science. It's biggest sin, however, is the complete and total lack of imagination. The "other realms" are as devoid of original thought as anything you'll see on the Sci Fi channel on Saturday night. From the very instant that a character or scene is introduced, even a casual reader will be able to determine exactly what is going to happen next, who is going to do what, and, often, exactly what is going to be said.

A quick example.

Tell me how many times you've seen this scene. The heroes are in a remote diner. A pretty waitress appears. Boorish thugs make a grand entrance. Now what are the odds that a fight scene is about to occur, as the protagonists leap to defend the virtue of a poor, working girl? If you said 100%, you'd be right. If there's ever been a Steven Segal or Jean Claude Van Damnit movie without that scene, I've never seen it. You could, in fact, assemble every scene from this book from sections of bad movies and pulp novels. I'm pretty sure that's how it was written.

I, for one, was cheering for the bad guys, except that all of them, and I do mean all of them, are about as threatening as Cream of Wheat. The only time that the genetically engineered, super monsters that the bad guys use are actually able to hurt anyone, anyone at all, is when their victim is a paraplegic who's arms are tied to his wheel chair. This is worth noting again. Genetically engineered super monsters that even in overwhelming numbers can't even bring down a single minor character. Not one. Not ever. And as for the global control conspiracy that is supposed to form the background of the dynamic tension, the author spends enormous amounts of time telling us (over and over)how impressive they are only to have them beaten time, and time again, with annoying ease and consistency. And if I ever again read a story where the climax includes the main characters crawling through a jeffries tube, er, I mean, "air duct," to defeat the security of what is supposed to be one of the most closely guarded places on the Planet, it will be too soon. Oh wait a minute. They did it twice.

A final note.

Always remember that review venues like this one, where anyone can post more or less anonymously, are always fertile grounds for unscrupulous media promoters interested in building hype for their latest project. You don't have to look too closely at some of the early one here to become awfully suspicious of many of them.

Save some brain cells and read a different novel this summer.

 

[Stewart]

Here's a passage from The Traveller.

Hollis pointed the flashlight between two rows of pillars and they saw something pass through the shadows. "Splicers," he said. "They sent them down to kill us."
Maya reached into the knapsack and found the propane blowtorch. Her hands were awkward, fumbling, as she turned the steel knob and lit the nozzle with a cigarette lighter. A blue flame came out of the nozzle with a soft roaring sound. She held it up and took a few steps forward.
Dark shapes passed between the pillars. More quick laughter. The splicers were changing position, running in a circle around them. Maya and Hollis stood with their backs to each other within the small circle of light.
"They don't die easy," Hollis told her. "And don't you shoot them, the wounds heal right away."
"Go for the head?"
"If you can do it. They'll keep attacking until they're destroyed."
Maya spun around and saw the pack of hyenas about forty feet away. There were between eight and ten splicers - and they were moving fast. Yellowish fur with black spots. Blunt dark muzzles.
One of the splicers made a high-pitched laughing sound. The pack broke apart, ran between the pillars, and attacked from two sides. Maya placed the blowtorch on the floor in front of her and pumped a round into the combat shotgun. She waited until the pack was ten feet away from her then fired her shotgun at the lead animal. The pellets hit his chest and he was flung backward, but the others kept coming. Hollis stayed near her, firing his rifle at the other group.
She squeezed the trigger again and again until the firing chamber was empty. Dropping the shotgun, she drew her sword and pointed it forward like a lance. A splicer leaped through the air and was skewered on the blade. His body fell before her. Desperately, she pulled out the sword and began swinging with quick, slashing strokes as two more splicers attacked. They yelped and screamed as the sword cut through their thick skin.
Maya spun around and saw Hollis running away from her, trying to snap a new ammunition clip into his rifle while three splicers chased him. He turned, dropped the flashlight and swung the rifle at the first attacker, knocking it sideways. Two more splicers jumped on him and he fell backward into the shadows.
Maya picked up the blowtorch with her left hand and gripped her sword with her right. She ran over to Hollis while he tried to fight off the two splicers. She swung downwards, cutting off one animal's head and stabbing the other in the belly. Hollis's jacket was ripped open. His face was covered in blood.
"Get up!" she shouted "You've got to get up!"
The flashlight was dead, but the blowtorch continued to spit out a flame. Hollis scrambled to his feet, found a new ammunition clip and snapped it into the rifle. A wounded splicer was trying to crawl away, but Maya swung her blade downward like an executioner. Her arms were trembling as she stood over the dead body. The splicer's mouth was open and she could see its teeth.
"Get ready," Hollis said. "They're coming again." He raised his rifle and began murmuring a Jonesie prayer. "I pray to God with all my heart. May the Light protect me from the Evil that…"
A barking laugh came from behind them, and then they were attacked from both sides. Maya fought with her sword, stabbing and slashing at the teeth and claws that came at her, red tongues and wild eyes that burned with hatred. Hollis took single shots at first, trying to conserve his ammunition, then switched to automatic fire. The splicers attacked again and again until the final animal came towards her. Maya raised her sword, ready to swing, but Hollis steeped forward and shot the splicer in the head.

They stood together, surrounded by the dead. Maya felt numb inside, overwhelmed by the fury of the attack.
"You okay?" Hollis's voice was harsh and strained.
Maya turned to face him. "I think so. What about you?"
"One of them slashed my shoulder, but I can still move my arm. Come on. We need to get moving."
Maya slipped her sword back into the carrying case. Holding the shotgun with one hand, she led them to the outer edge of the underground area. It took them only a few minutes to find a steel security door, protected by electro-magnetic sensors. A cable led from the door to a circuit box and Hollis popped it open. Wires and switches were everywhere, but they were colored coded. That made it easier.
"They already know we're in the building," Maya explained. "I don't want them to realize that we've reached the staircase."
"What wire do we cut?"
"Never cut anything. That just triggers the alarm."
Make a choice, her father once told her. Only fools think they can guarantee the right choice. Maya decided that the tamper wires were green and the red wires carried current. She used the blowtorch to melt the plastic covering off each pair of red wires, and then attached them together with small alligator clips.
"Is that going to work?"
"Maybe not."
"Are they going to be waiting for us?"
"Probably."
"Well, that sounds promising." Hollis smiled slightly and that made her feel better. He still wasn't like her father or Mother Blessing, but he was beginning to think like a Harlequin. You had to accept your fate, and still be brave.
Nothing happened when they forced open the steel door. They were at the bottom level of a concrete emergency staircase with light bulbs on each landing. Maya took the first step, and started moving quickly.
Find the Traveller.

 

[Summerfey]

Sorry I spoke

 

[Stewart]

Has anyone read 'The Traveller' by John Twelve Hawks?

It's my way of saying NO!.

The forum doesn't let you make posts with only two characters.

Anyway, let's try this the other way around, Summerfey

What did you think of it. I loved it, completely different from anything I've read before and does make you wonder, who's watching you.

You say you loved it. What was there to love about it? Was it the writing? The plot? The characters? The locations in which it is set? Why did they move you so? Is it different from anything you've read before because it's your first "sci-fi" novel or have you read "sci-fi" before?

I'm curious.

 

[Ria]

The Traveler

Is anyone reading this? Pretty interesting concept given that the author apparently "lives off the grid." Let me know if you are reading it. I'm dying to discuss it with someone!

 

[Shade]

Though I don't agree with Stewart's theory that John 'Twelve Hawks' (be still, my beating sides) is Dan Brown, I do agree that the notion that this joker lives 'off the grid' is a publicity device and nothing more. Which, given that we're sat here talking about it, has clearly worked!

 

[G4G]

Is anyone reading this? Pretty interesting concept given that the author apparently "lives off the grid." Let me know if you are reading it. I'm dying to discuss it with someone!

Paint me the colour dumbass, but what does 'living off the grid' actually mean?

 

[Hyperstorm]

Paint me the colour dumbass, but what does 'living off the grid' actually mean?

In the book it means living without having any means of identity like not having a bank account, social security, drivers license etc...

You get the drift!!!

 

[G4G]

In the book it means living without having any means of identity like not having a bank account, social security, drivers license etc...

You get the drift!!!

oh i see...well i did that for years in the 80's.

 

[Ria]

Though I don't agree with Stewart's theory that John 'Twelve Hawks' (be still, my beating sides) is Dan Brown, I do agree that the notion that this joker lives 'off the grid' is a publicity device and nothing more. Which, given that we're sat here talking about it, has clearly worked!

Haha - so true. It's just so interesting though- so how can you not talk about. What did you guys think of the book? Apparently it's a trilogy too - so their will be more to come..

 

[Stewart]

What did you guys think of the book?

Based on the passage above: shit. It spells everything out. A book for lazy readers. Just look at those two sentences that start the passage:

Hollis pointed the flashlight between two rows of pillars and they saw something pass through the shadows.
"Splicers," he said. "They sent them down to kill us."

Wow! Just appreciate that tension. They see something pass through the shadows. By the next sentence that something has become splicers. It's too definite.

Then there's the clumsy word choice in the next paragraph where "Maya reached into the knapsack and found the propane blowtorch." - found is the wrong word here. Her motivation was to get the blowtorch from her knapsack so she knew it was there.

Also, there's stupid errors such as "Maya spun around and saw the pack of hyenas about forty feet away." when, up until now, we've had Maya and Hollis fumbling about in the shadows, unsure of what's around them. In fact, the author describes their space as "the small circle of light." Is a circle with an eighty foot diameter really a small circle? Nah, it's shit.

Five turds out of five for The Traveler: it stinks!

Apparently it's a trilogy too - so their will be more to come..

Oh joy of joys...

 

[Ria]

So i guess you don't like it? I didn't read into it that much and am enjoying it for the unique and interesting storyline, but I haven't read a lot of books like these either, so maybe that could be the difference.

 

[Stewart]

So i guess you don't like it? I didn't read into it that much and am enjoying it for the unique and interesting storyline, but I haven't read a lot of books like these either, so maybe that could be the difference.

Non. Je deteste.

Although I don't read sci-fi either I've seen enough films and TV shows to know the notion is neither unique nor interesting. It's positively cliche.

I have serious doubts about the editor's (Kaufman) ability to read. Seems like he picks mass market cornfeed over anything good without actually doing much editing.

 

[StillILearn]

In the book it means living without having any means of identity like not having a bank account, social security, drivers license etc...

You get the drift!!!

I'm laughing! My own father did that very thing for decades, and he was supporting a wife and four children. (Of course, this was before computers, you understand -- it'd all be a lot more difficult now.)

I wish I'd had this glamorous description to hand back then, but I'll share it with some of my siblings and maybe they'll get a kick out of it, too.

(He wasn't a drug dealer, he was a stone mason, and he worked hard for his money!)

 

[Stewart]

They do it in the east end of Glasgow in this day and age: deal drugs and live, er, off the grid!