The Dark River

Book Two of the Fourth Realm Trilogy

By: John Twelve Hawks

Narrated by: Scott Brick

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.

Critic reviews

RAVES FOR THE TRAVELER

"Page-turningly swift with a cliffhanger ending . . . John Twelve Hawks has drawn upon both pop-cultural and literary touchstones and modified them to create a cyber-1984."
--The New York Times

"The stuff that first-rate high-tech paranoid-schizophrenic thrillers are made of."
--Time

"Portrays a Big Brother with powers far beyond anything Orwell could imagine . . . Political prophecy is rarely such fun."
--The Washington Post

“Seductive . . . Quickly hooks you into its Matrix-esque world . . . [Let] the butt-kicking begin.”
--USA Today

Excellent second book

John Twelve Hawks has created an unorthodox and dangerous world with just enough reality to pull the reader deeply into the parallel dimensions of his world.

Interesting but Average

A little dark, but good story. Not really blown away, but wanted to see how it ended. A little anti-climatic however...

Dissapointing

I love the first book, there was NO action in this one. I have enjoyed Scott Brick work on other books, but his performance fell very short when it came to giving believable accents here. Too bad I really wanted this one to be a home run!