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3.58 AVERAGE
3.58 AVERAGE
adventurous
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Twelve Hawks , John (2005). The Traveller. London: Corgi Books. 2006. ISBN 9781407071886. Pagine 498. 12,86 $
Twelve Hawks , John (2007). The Dark River. London: Corgi Books. 2008. ISBN 9781407038032. Pagine 515. 11,55 $
Twelve Hawks , John (2009). The Golden City. London: Transworld. 2010. ISBN 9781407056746. Pagine 370. 17,69 $
The Fourth Realm Trilogy
Un’altra recensione tardiva. Sono 3 libri che ho letto nell’estate del 2010, dopo essermi imbattuto nel primo della serie perché incuriosito da una citazione di Albert-László Barabási nel suo Bursts: The Hidden Pattern Behind Everything We Do (un altro libro letto e non recensito).
L’intera saga – che naturalmente t’acchiappa, ma non vale realmente la pena di leggere – è dominata dalla paranoia del Grande Fratello attraverso i secoli, e soprattutto nella nostra era di sorveglianza totale (dal Big Brother al Big Data). I membri di una società segreta vivono off-the-grid. Come l’autore dei tre romanzi, di cui in realtà non si sa nulla.
E persino io, di cui non si può certo affermare che non sia compulsivamente curioso, posso vivere benissimo senza.
* * *
Qualche citazione (riferimento come sempre alle posizioni sul Kindle).
Cominciamo da The Traveller.
At that moment, she was trying to control her anger and find the calm place within her heart. Think of a stone, her father used to tell her. A smooth black stone. Pull it out of a cold mountain stream and hold it in your hand. [2289]
Privacy had become a convenient fiction. [2856]
«Love is just another means of manipulation […]» [2923]
«Freedom is the biggest myth ever created. It’s a destructive, unachievable goal that has caused a great deal of pain. Very few people can handle freedom. A society is healthy and productive when it’s under control.» [3731]
«[…] History is a puppet show for childish minds.» [3927]
He wanted a road map, not philosophy. [4742]
«Every new experience is unusual. The rest of life is just sleep and committee meetings. […]» [5376]
«[…] The realms are dominated by a particular quality. In the Sixth Realm of the gods, the sin is pride. In the Fifth Realm of the half gods, the sin is jealousy. You need to understand that we’re not talking about God, the power that created the universe. According to the Tibetans, the gods and half gods are like human beings from another reality.»
«And we’re living in the Fourth Realm ….»
«Where the sin is desire.» Sophia turned and watched a king snake moving slowly down a conduit pipe. «The animals of the Third Realm are ignorant of all others. The Second Realm is inhabited by the hungry ghosts who can never be satisfied. The First Realm is a city of hate and anger, ruled by people without compassion. There are other names for this place: Sheol, Hades, Hell.» [5430]
[…] the appearance of freedom with the reality of control. [5910]
Passiamo a The Dark River.
Maya had watched the growing attraction between Hollis and Vicki. It was the first time she had ever noticed the evolution of two people who were falling in love. At first, their eyes followed each other when one of them got up from the table. Then they leaned forward slightly when the other person was talking. When they were apart, they spoke about the other person in a bubbly, foolish manner. [833]
Infine The Golden City.
«Even crazy people have enemies …» [1573]
«If the gods have left the stage, then it’s just the two of us.» Matthew stepped toward his son. «So who are you, Gabriel? And what kind of world do you want to live in? I’m not going to tell you what to believe. All I can do is guide you forward, and make sure you don’t turn away from your own vision.» [4588]
They were Styrofoam words — light and unsubstantial, packing materials to blunt the sharp edges. [4667]
«As ideas lose their power, stories and visual images become more and more important. Leaders offer competing stories, and this is what passes for political debate. […]» [5497]
«We can regret the past, but we can’t change what happened. We can anticipate the future, but we can’t control it. All we have is this moment—here in this room.» [5888]
«Privacy is the ability to control access to information about one’s Self. It’s easy to see that this invisible, all-pervasive system will destroy any sort of privacy. We’ll lose the power to protect our Self from the scrutiny of unknown groups or individuals. […]» [6700]
Twelve Hawks , John (2007). The Dark River. London: Corgi Books. 2008. ISBN 9781407038032. Pagine 515. 11,55 $
Twelve Hawks , John (2009). The Golden City. London: Transworld. 2010. ISBN 9781407056746. Pagine 370. 17,69 $
The Fourth Realm Trilogy
Un’altra recensione tardiva. Sono 3 libri che ho letto nell’estate del 2010, dopo essermi imbattuto nel primo della serie perché incuriosito da una citazione di Albert-László Barabási nel suo Bursts: The Hidden Pattern Behind Everything We Do (un altro libro letto e non recensito).
L’intera saga – che naturalmente t’acchiappa, ma non vale realmente la pena di leggere – è dominata dalla paranoia del Grande Fratello attraverso i secoli, e soprattutto nella nostra era di sorveglianza totale (dal Big Brother al Big Data). I membri di una società segreta vivono off-the-grid. Come l’autore dei tre romanzi, di cui in realtà non si sa nulla.
E persino io, di cui non si può certo affermare che non sia compulsivamente curioso, posso vivere benissimo senza.
* * *
Qualche citazione (riferimento come sempre alle posizioni sul Kindle).
Cominciamo da The Traveller.
At that moment, she was trying to control her anger and find the calm place within her heart. Think of a stone, her father used to tell her. A smooth black stone. Pull it out of a cold mountain stream and hold it in your hand. [2289]
Privacy had become a convenient fiction. [2856]
«Love is just another means of manipulation […]» [2923]
«Freedom is the biggest myth ever created. It’s a destructive, unachievable goal that has caused a great deal of pain. Very few people can handle freedom. A society is healthy and productive when it’s under control.» [3731]
«[…] History is a puppet show for childish minds.» [3927]
He wanted a road map, not philosophy. [4742]
«Every new experience is unusual. The rest of life is just sleep and committee meetings. […]» [5376]
«[…] The realms are dominated by a particular quality. In the Sixth Realm of the gods, the sin is pride. In the Fifth Realm of the half gods, the sin is jealousy. You need to understand that we’re not talking about God, the power that created the universe. According to the Tibetans, the gods and half gods are like human beings from another reality.»
«And we’re living in the Fourth Realm ….»
«Where the sin is desire.» Sophia turned and watched a king snake moving slowly down a conduit pipe. «The animals of the Third Realm are ignorant of all others. The Second Realm is inhabited by the hungry ghosts who can never be satisfied. The First Realm is a city of hate and anger, ruled by people without compassion. There are other names for this place: Sheol, Hades, Hell.» [5430]
[…] the appearance of freedom with the reality of control. [5910]
Passiamo a The Dark River.
Maya had watched the growing attraction between Hollis and Vicki. It was the first time she had ever noticed the evolution of two people who were falling in love. At first, their eyes followed each other when one of them got up from the table. Then they leaned forward slightly when the other person was talking. When they were apart, they spoke about the other person in a bubbly, foolish manner. [833]
Infine The Golden City.
«Even crazy people have enemies …» [1573]
«If the gods have left the stage, then it’s just the two of us.» Matthew stepped toward his son. «So who are you, Gabriel? And what kind of world do you want to live in? I’m not going to tell you what to believe. All I can do is guide you forward, and make sure you don’t turn away from your own vision.» [4588]
They were Styrofoam words — light and unsubstantial, packing materials to blunt the sharp edges. [4667]
«As ideas lose their power, stories and visual images become more and more important. Leaders offer competing stories, and this is what passes for political debate. […]» [5497]
«We can regret the past, but we can’t change what happened. We can anticipate the future, but we can’t control it. All we have is this moment—here in this room.» [5888]
«Privacy is the ability to control access to information about one’s Self. It’s easy to see that this invisible, all-pervasive system will destroy any sort of privacy. We’ll lose the power to protect our Self from the scrutiny of unknown groups or individuals. […]» [6700]
I really enjoyed the first book in the series, The Traveler. Dark River was a nice continuation of that book and with such an abrupt, cliff-hanger of an ending, I'll definitely be reading the next one!
Took me a bit to get into the second book in the trilogy and I found myself with three days before my due date and most of the book unlistened to. Since someone was waiting for the book and renewing was not an option I found some activities for myself and sat down to listen to the book. Perhaps a pretty strong indicator that I simply was not as into this book as I was the first.
It isn't that I'm not interesting in seeing how this story plays out or that I find some of the government control themes this story brings up interesting, it simply feels like this story fell victim to second or middle book syndrome, for me. I'm glad I stuck it out but much of this book felt slow at times and I was frustrated with some of the plotting. The end did pick up a bit and I have already checked out the last book to see how everything plays out.
I am struggling a bit to write-up this review there just wasn't a whole lot I was excited about. The bad guys show up for three main scenes and we jump all over the place in search for the boy's father. If not for the interesting twist at the end I might have left this book here, but I got hooked and we will see if things improve in the next book. I hope we get to explore more of the other realms a bit more than we have in book one and two.
It isn't that I'm not interesting in seeing how this story plays out or that I find some of the government control themes this story brings up interesting, it simply feels like this story fell victim to second or middle book syndrome, for me. I'm glad I stuck it out but much of this book felt slow at times and I was frustrated with some of the plotting. The end did pick up a bit and I have already checked out the last book to see how everything plays out.
I am struggling a bit to write-up this review there just wasn't a whole lot I was excited about. The bad guys show up for three main scenes and we jump all over the place in search for the boy's father. If not for the interesting twist at the end I might have left this book here, but I got hooked and we will see if things improve in the next book. I hope we get to explore more of the other realms a bit more than we have in book one and two.
The heroes of the first book “The Travellers” are back for new adventures against the Brethen/Tabula - the organization that wants to control the world.
Both factions go through 509 pages of various ups and downs. Sadly, once the very first scene is gone, it takes about 200 pages to read some real action and reach a faster pace. Before that, the story plods along between America, England and Germany.
On the plus side, the splicers (a cross between a baboon and a dog), the Harlequin culture (as irritating as it is) and astral travels make their customary return. They are after all the trilogy’s trademark. They also differentiate these books from the “Da Vinci Code” to which the Fourth Realm is often seems to be compared. to But then these days any novel that ventures into ‘secret’ symbols of history receives a “New DVC” label on its cover ;-).
The Dark River is not a bad read, but you have to be pretty addicted to its characters to follow them through this new books, knowing full well that you’ll be left with a cliff-hanger until the next instalment is published.
In the same vein, I preferred “The Straw Men” by Michael Marshall Smith
Both factions go through 509 pages of various ups and downs. Sadly, once the very first scene is gone, it takes about 200 pages to read some real action and reach a faster pace. Before that, the story plods along between America, England and Germany.
On the plus side, the splicers (a cross between a baboon and a dog), the Harlequin culture (as irritating as it is) and astral travels make their customary return. They are after all the trilogy’s trademark. They also differentiate these books from the “Da Vinci Code” to which the Fourth Realm is often seems to be compared. to But then these days any novel that ventures into ‘secret’ symbols of history receives a “New DVC” label on its cover ;-).
The Dark River is not a bad read, but you have to be pretty addicted to its characters to follow them through this new books, knowing full well that you’ll be left with a cliff-hanger until the next instalment is published.
In the same vein, I preferred “The Straw Men” by Michael Marshall Smith
Pretty good sequel to The Traveller. With the two brothers on different sides, the race is on to find their lost father.
I've had this one sitting on my shelf waiting to be read since 2007....I'm not going to wait that long to read the last of the trilogy
adventurous
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Another book in the fourth realm trilogy. A traveler who doesn’t travel very much and the comic book bad guys they fight
I've been looking for this sequel for a long time, and was thrilled to find it up front at the library. Interesting ideas as well as a good read.