The Traveler - John Twelve Hawks

[Eyashusa]

Searched the forums and didn't find any posts about this book...

Curious if anyone has read this. This is the first time I've been able to read a non-academic book in a couple years (graduate school steals all your time!) and I really enjoyed it. I'm interested in picking up the second book in the series and was wondering what any opinions of it were.

I'm bad at book reviews but it was a good read. It's got a sci-fi, big brother theme, almost like the Matrix but not centered entirely around computers and technology. The author does a good job of making all of his theories believable, no matter how crazy they may seem. I started reading this thinking it would be another rehash of all the "The Government is watching you!" books, but it has its own flavor and concepts that were very engaging.

The rumor/story behind the author is that he is some ex government employee who now lives off the grid, has never met his publisher, communicates via the internet and satellite phone only, and scrambles his voice when he does use his phone. Whether this is true or not, I don't know, but I heard this before I read his wikipedia page and adds a different element to the reading experience I think.

Also I think this book would make a great movie, and towards the end I kept thinking about who would play the different characters. It also has no relation to the TV show Traveler.

[Gaereth]

Read this last year I think. Maybe even 2006.

It was good and I keep looking for more installments.

[Damastas]

I'm actually currently reading this right now. It is definitely an interesting read so far, I am about halfway done. It started off fairly slow with introducing all the concepts, but I am at the point where it is starting to pick up.

Parts that I find most interesting are that really, the "Vast Machine" does not use that many complex or technologically dependent ways of tracking them. In fact, almost all of them are in the realm of believable, and virtually all of them could easily be implimented in our own world, if they are not already.

Most employers now use direct deposit only, which means any time you access your money, it could potentially be tracked. Some of the things that were a bit far fetched though was the whole random number generator part. It seems like they put too much of an emphasis on it, only for it to really not make that much of a difference. When deciding to stay in an inn or not, based on an even or odd number, really makes no difference. However, things like always using cash, avoiding main interstates, avoiding areas with survelliance cameras, etc. are actually what I would imagine the best course of action for someone trying to avoid getting caught in the world today would take.

Once I finish the book I'll be more able to judge how much I liked it. If it continues with how it is, it's definitely a good read, but if it declines, it'll be mediocre at best.

[Gaereth]

2nd book just came out.