• The Dark River

  • Book Two of the Fourth Realm Trilogy
  • By: John Twelve Hawks
  • Narrated by: Scott Brick
  • Length: 12 hrs and 55 mins
  • 4.0 out of 5 stars (1,319 ratings)

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The Dark River  By  cover art

The Dark River

By: John Twelve Hawks
Narrated by: Scott Brick
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Publisher's summary

The Dark River opens in New York City with a stunning piece of news. Gabriel's father, who has been missing for nearly 20 years, may still be alive and trapped somewhere in Europe. Gabriel and his Harlequin protector, Maya, immediately mobilize to escape New York and find the long-lost Traveler.

Simultaneously, Michael orders the Brethren, the ruthless group that has been hunting Gabriel, into a full-scale search. Gabriel yearns to find his father to protect him; Michael aims to destroy the man whose existence threatens his newfound power.

The race moves from the underground tunnels of New York and London to ruins hidden beneath Rome and Berlin, to a remote region of Africa that is rumored to harbor one of history's greatest treasures. And as the story moves toward its chilling conclusion, Maya must decide if she will trade everything to rescue Gabriel.

Listen to the first book in this series: The Traveler.
©2007 John Twelve Hawks (P)2007 Books on Tape

Critic reviews

"Engrossing....Part A Wrinkle in Time, part The Matrix and part Kurosawa epic." ( Publishers Weekly)
"John Twelve Hawks has drawn upon both pop-cultural and literary touchstones and modified them to create a cyber-1984." ( The New York Times)
"The stuff that first-rate high-tech paranoid-schizophrenic thrillers are made of." ( Time)

What listeners say about The Dark River

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Don't bother.. especially for two credits!

This gimmicky sequel takes the first passable novel and brings it to another level of boring. I'm starting to feel that John Twelve Hawks is living off the grid so you can't hunt him down and demand your money back for his pedestrian attempt at moving his series along. It's almost a rehash of the first book. Nothing more is really revealed that I can say I cared about and it ends with a completely lame cliffhanger. I'm writing this so hopefully no one else makes the mistake of wasting two credits on this publishing gimmick.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Not as good as the first book

I thought the first book of this series was very good. I couldn't wait to get the second book. However, the second book just doesn't have that "quality" to make the listener want to keep listening. It is not worth 2 credits. That is like paying for a so-so book twice.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

I Liked It

The other reviews are lukewarm but I liked it. It had been 2 years since I heard the first one so I went back and listened to it again before I started book 2, maybe that helped.

It was great to meet Mother Blessing and to see the Hollis character develop. I love all the character development with Maya through both books. I'm wondering if Michael is who he seems or does he have more up his sleeve? Of course we're rooting the most for Gabriel and wondering...where is their father? I like that we don't know who is going to come through the battles.

The book also gives the reader food for thought with modern technology and the way we live 'on the grid' and under surveillance...some things are a little far-fetched...but still enjoyable.

For me, The Dark River went very fast and I'm looking forward to the last one...it's hard to imagine how it will end. I agree that it is dark and it doesn't look good for the good guys..I'm hoping for some positive light to shine through at the end.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Not as good as the first

While I don't want hollywood fairytales, this sequel was so dark, I'm not sure I'll read the final book in the trilogy. A really great book makes you feel somewhat invested in the characters and at the end of this one, I felt no hope for any of them.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Disappointing!

This latest book from J. Twelvehawks is only about "SixHawks" worth. It's too bad we only got about half the quality for twice the credits. So, based on this, I guess the third book will cost us 3 credits and re-hash the first book even more. I will probably pass on book 3. If you read "The Traveler" and liked it, you'll be disappointed with "The Dark River". Maybe it should be named, "The Dark and Murky River", because the story line in this one certainly was.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Lacks substance

The author has one good idea and tries to make a novel out of it. If it weren't on my iPod when desperately needed a diversion, I would never have finished the book. You can't even begin to care about the characters, and the plot is one note - go to the next world. Very trite. Certainly doesn't live up to the possibilities of his first book.

And the narrator: yawn...takes himself too seriously since there's nothing to the story.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Not horrible...

The Traveler series is a strange one, indeed. The author's call-in at the beginning of book 2 is hilarious. He is presumably on a cell phone, calling us from "off the grid" to warn us of a coming world bereft of love and compassion. But the series is chock-full of one-dimensional characters and gratuitous violence from both sides. Not exactly an ode to love and compassion. The historical context is entertaining from a reverse perspective, sort of like Dan Brown without the benefit of research. I won't call it a stinker because it kept my interest, but listening to it's like eating a big bag of junk food.

Scott Brick, whom I consider to be a good reader, seems to have trouble with accents in this one. The Brits all sound like Crocodile Dundee and the Italian guy sounds like Count Chocula.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Middle Book Lag

I love the first book. Not as good as the traveler. But a must have if you want to finish the series. Less character development and less action.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

off the grid

I wish I could go back in time and live off the grid myself, now I am too integrated there is no way! What a fantasy, sci-fi, non-fiction book! GREAT! So refreshing to see a new take on our modern world, a whole new conspiracy in an alternate universe but with the same earth and current events. Truly something to sink your ears into!

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

The Dark River

This is a hugely disappointing sequel to the Traveller, not least because I was expecting it to be brilliant. I was hoping for a compelling story about an epic struggle between the ultimate conspiracy and its free spirited opponents. What was delivered was dull and bordering on clich?, the heroes were straight out of a ‘Die Hard’ movie and the villains just plain nasty. Scott Brick’s narration, usually fantastic, was also disappointing, his attempts at English regional accents we toe-curlingly bad. All in all I wouldn’t bother.

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4 people found this helpful