REVIEW | The Golden City by John Twelve Hawks (Doubleday)

The Golden City is the third and final book in the Fourth Realm series by John Twelve Hawks.  I devoured The Traveler soon after its hardcover release and thought it showed great promise for a modern take on 1984, but with more Fantasy elements.  The Harlequin mythology and realms pulled me along with its mix of different eastern ideologies and the Travelers influence through history.  The Dark River suffered from middle-book syndrome somewhat, but it did keep things moving along fairly well.  However, things fall apart with The Golden City.  The story gets bogged down with far too much of the author trying to impart his ideals rather than telling a good story.  While I appreciate and realize our world is closer than ever to being turned into a freedomless prison, readers would have been better served with a story that stayed with them and therefore imparted its message rather than being beaten over the head with one.

What's great about so many Sci-Fi and Fantasy books from the last few years is that instead of having black and white characters and situations things are grayer. This aspect is totally missing from The Golden City where Hawks prefers hardliner axioms of good and evil.  The only redemptive part is that all of the realms previously discussed are revealed although one is sick and twisted and another a bit of a disappointment. The story moved far too quick and is more akin to a screen play where the action elements are left in, but the parts that would connect you to the characters are left out or overdone. Maybe things could have been improved with a few extra scenes.  Maya's rescue was especially underwhelming and Boone being redemptive just doesn't ring true even with the backstory.

What tries to be a modern speculative fiction thriller ends up being more akin to books from 20 years ago just veiled with modern settings and technology. Lastly, the ending didn't entirely make sense as to why the brothers did what they did and as a final confrontation it was a let down.  I give The Golden City 4 out of 10 Hats.  I'd only recommend this if you've read the first two books as you get resolution on quite a bit, but otherwise I'd steer clear.  If you've only read The Traveler stop there and enjoy it for what it was and what could have been.  John Twelve Hawks will have to blow me away with the premise of his next book to get me back on board.


Copy purchased.

Contest for The Golden City by John Twelve Hawks

I have one hardcover copy of John Twelve Hawks' The Golden City recent release up for grabs.  This is the third volume of the Big Brother SFish Fourth Realm Trilogy that started strong with The Traveler and followed with The Dark River. 

Send an email to madpye (AT) yahoo (dot) com with your full name and snail mail address with "GOLDEN" in the subject line. The deadline is midnight October 5th. I'll announce the winner the following day. This contest is open to the people of the United States and Canada only (sorry  rest of the world). If you send multiple entries you will be disqualified from the contest.

Be sure to stop by IAmJohnTwelveHawks.com to see what John’s fan’s have done to celebrate The Golden City.  Here is one of the videos, which is a reading from The Golden City:

Cover Unveiled for John Twelve Hawk's The Golden City

This is the third and final volume of The Fourth Realm series by John Twelve Hawks. I loved The Traveler when it was first released. The 2nd book The Dark Realm was only OK, so I hope Hawks can pull it out to close strong. Right now I don't care much for this cover given the beautiful work Doubleday has already done with the first 2 books in the series. But what's always sold me in the end is the finishing touches they've done on the books. The first had a pinstripe effect all over the jacket, which gave it a great effect and feel while the second had a die-cut in the jacket to reveal an image casebound around the whole book. So I'll hold judgement until I see the final printed book.

P.S. The black dots on the cover may turn out to be a die-cut like they had on The Dark River.