The Fourth Realm Trilogy from John Twelve Hawks

The Traveler, The Dark River and The Golden City are the 3 books in John Twelve Hawks Fourth Realm Trilogy. To start off, John Twelve Hawks is not the author’s real name. He is supposedly not a Native American. He possibly lives off the grid. There is very little known about him (or is it a her) and he likes it that way. Most interviews point out that he only talks to people through a satellite phone with a voice scrambler or via email channels. Needless to say the book deals with issues around privacy and living off the grid.

The Traveler starts off introducing us to the world. There are 3 groups of people who are fighting over the world: The Bretheren (or Tabula), Travellers and Harlequins.  The Travellers are people who can travel between worlds. They are generally people who can make large changes in society and attract many followers. Harlequins are warriors who are sworn to protect Travellers from the Bretheren. The Bretheren want to control people by instituting a Panopticon (a virtual prison where people can be monitored without them knowing when someone is watching them).

The motivations of the Bretheren are not well developed. It is unclear whether they want to protect people (from themselves and each other) or want to gain power and control people. They are written as the obvious villains and is my main issue with the book. There is no subtlety in their actions and little reasoning given on why they have their viewpoints.

Our story follows Maya, a Harlequin by birth, who renounced her upbringing and was left alone by the Bretheren. Maya gets dragged back into being a Harlequin to protect two brothers who are Travellers, Michael and Gabriel Corrigan. Michael is more interested in wealth and power and Gabriel is more aligned with the Travellers lifestyle. When the Bretheren come for them, Michael is grabbed while Gabriel escapes and finds Maya to protect him.

Michael learns what the Bretheren are up to and volunteers to help them out. With his Traveller ability he is able to slowly come to power within the Bretheren as he sees a path to money and power. Maya and Gabriel jump around the world trying to protect Gabriel, rescue Michael (until they learn he is helping the Bretheren) and make contacts with other Harlequins. As Maya and Gabriel start falling in love (a huge no-no for Harlequins), Gabriel starts gathering followers across the world.

Interspersed with this story are the attempts by both Michael and Gabriel to cross worlds (in a metaphysical way with leaving their bodies behind) and learn about what’s in the other realms. The Bretheren are interested because they are getting messages from an alien intelligence in another realm which is giving them technology that will help them build their panopticon. The Harlequins and Travellers are interested to protect themselves and to take down the Bretheren.

The books are entertaining and have some insight on privacy and regulation concerns. But the issues seem too one sided. They are well written, considering that these are the first published writing from the author and I wouldn’t be surprised if the author had published works under his real name.