Long Time No See, But Still Reading (Book Review: The Fourth Realm Trilogy)

I've pretty much decided I don't review books well. I keep reading though. Currently, I'm on the third book of the Fourth Realm trilogy by John Twelve Hawks, The Golden City. I just started last night so I haven't gotten very far. The stories are about 3 main groups of people: Travelers who are persons whose consciousnesses can leave their bodies as "Light" and travel to the other 5 realms though for what purpose I've never really gleaned. We live in the Fourth realm, some sort of Hell is the second, etc. Travelers, when they return to our realm apparently are revered by many people are famous enlightened people from history are either known to have been or suspected of being Travelers.

The Tabula, who call themselves the Brethren are a group who hunt down Travelers to kill them over the centuries because they don't seem to like enlightened people because then it is harder to control the masses. These power hungry people are not nice and in this day and age are using computers, the media, etc to collect the world's populace into the "Vast Machine" where everyone is watched, cataloged  and in some cases, removed from life, if they don't comply.

Then there are the Harlequins, these are warriors trained to protect Travelers from the Tabula. It is their soul purpose and often come from the same families (which, in my opinion makes them easier to find and kill by the Tabula, so they really ought to change this). In these books there are about 4 known Harlequins left, the daughter of one trained to be a Harlequin but who would rather be part of the Vast Machine and be left alone. All Travelers are thought to be wiped out but it comes to the attention of everyone that 2 brothers in California could become Travelers with a little training.

Thus ensues a race by the rival factions to find these men and kill or save them. The brothers, of course, are mostly clueless about the whole thing.

The story is interesting, the characters interesting, and the Vast Machine thing relevant to society today. I am enjoying the books, hating the evil, nasty bad, head of security Tabula bad guy, liking the Harlequin main character, but thinking the brothers are dweebs. They both are rather predictable in how they think, who they listen to, etc.

But the writing is well done and the story well paced, no skimming of paragraphs due to boring long-winded descriptions, or stilted dialog. I actually feel a little fleshing out may have been okay in a few places, some things seem barely to be mentioned before they are gone.

But I do recommend these books. The first is called The Traveler, and the second is The Dark River.