Corgi, London 2005

The cover of “The Traveller”  tells the reader nothing about its author, apart from the fact, that he, like his heroes, “lives off the grid”, meaning, they all try to avoid modern surveillance techniques, which are controlled by the “Tabula”. If Hawks had read “1984” or “Brave New World”, he might have known, that his ideas are not entirely new.

Nevertheless, he has created a world, in which the few chosen ones, “the Travellers”, are assisted by their loyal “Harlequins”, so that they can change the world into a better place, because they have special gifts, meaning, they can travel into other worlds and dimensions. And as there are five of these, we can expect Hawks to come up with four sequels.

We meet young Maya, who refuses to become a Harlequin, although her father trained her in all the fine points of camouflage and killing. Only when her father in Prague is killed cruelly by Tabula agents of the “Vast Machine”, she goes underground in America to find the two only left travellers, brothers, so that she can protect them.

With the help of Nicki, a fearless member of an underground religious society, and Hollis, a black martial arts teacher, she finds Gabriel Corrigan, one of the brothers, tells him about his destiny and protects him against the forces of evil, that have already managed to persuade his brother Michael to join the dark side.

In an unbelievably brave raid they wreck the Evergreen Foundation Research Center, where Michael helps the Tabula  to get in contact with other realms.  But Nathan Boone, the agent sent out to find and destroy Gabriel and his small group, will never give up.

In his epilogue Hawks admonishes us: “We must look into our own hearts to find the Travellers and Harlequins - the prophets and warriors- who will keep us free” (p. 605)