The
Traveler by John Twelve Hawks
This is the first
book out of a trilogy that John Twelve Hawks will be writing. It unfolds in modern times and has reference to human evolution over the ages and how humanity is being subtly pushed into doing what a secret but omnipresent organization called the Brethren also known and referred as Tabula by there opponents wants them to do. The
Tabula is ever wary of a special and very rare category of
people called the Travelers, they can see through the designs of the Tabula with the aid of their
powers which enable them to travel to other worlds, Travelers over the ages have been responsible for rallying people against the setup that Tabula have been wanting to enforce. Travelers are being systematically sought and terminated by the tabula and there are fears that they may have been completely wiped from the face of the earth. A special community identified as the Harlequins work for there entire lives and sometimes over generations to protect the Tavelers from the Tabula.
Maya a Harlequin with a German father who himself was a fearless Harlequin and a Sikh mother from a warrior clan of Punjab takes up the cause to find and protect two unconfirmed Travelers from United States. She is pitted against the Vast Machine of the Tabula; this is a system of constant electronic surveillances and monitoring of the humankind by the Tabula. The brothers are also being sought by Boone, a Tabula elite who is a completely ruthless and effective operator feared even among the Tabula. This time around the Tabula want to capture these probable Travelers instead of eliminating them so as to use there powers for their research programme which involves interactions with alien civilizations as well. This programme will lead to an even more efficient control by Tabula over human society. It turns out that these two probable are actually Travelers.
Maya with some help from some people who are also up against the Vast Machine and the Tabula manages too take one of the Travelers Gabriel under her protection where as the other one Michael is taken by the Tabula. Gabriel, Maya and there associates confirm there faith in the freedom of the humankind and vow to continue their struggle against tabula. On the other hand Michael seeing the resources and comforts that he can have while cooperating with the Tabula starts working according to there wishes and relinquishes his freedom and submits to Tabula and the Vast Machine, along with this are lost the chances that he would have provided the humanity to break from the controlled society of the Tabula and the Vast Machine. This is how the
novel ends.
The next book in the series will showcase the struggle between Harlequin/Traveler and the Tabula, the free and the controlled as it continues and in it the Tabula will be powerful than before as the have for the first time the powers of a cold traveler Michael with them. Will the last remaining true Traveler Gabriel and his Harlequin friends stand up and deliver the humanity from the predicament that it faces and will they themselves come out alive and safe from the whole affair?
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