John Twelve Hawks is the pseudonym of an author of four novels and one short non-fiction book. His legal name and identity are unknown.[1]
His first published novel was the dystopianThe Traveler and its sequels, The Dark River and The Golden City, collectively comprising the Fourth Realm Trilogy. The trilogy has been translated into 25 languages and has sold more than 1.5 million books.[2] The trilogy was followed five years later by a fourth book, Spark, and a non-fiction eBook, Against Authority.
In the sources listed and in his interviews, he has stated that he was born in the United States. In the non-fiction Against Authority, Twelve Hawks wrote that he grew up in the 1950s. He is a Buddhist who had meditated for most of his life. In the Spiegel interview he states he is not a Native American.
In the Spiegel interview he talks about visiting East Germany before the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall. In the USA Today article, his response to a question about religion began with, "When I was in my twenties..." and when an editor asked him whether the "realm of hell" could be compared to current conditions in Iraq, Hawks replied "it's more like Beirut in the '70s". In the Spiegel interview and in the Daily Telegraph article, Hawks states that he drives a 15-year-old car and that he does not own a television.[3]
The SFF World interview indicates that Twelve Hawks once lived in a commune and learned about literature by stealing books from a restricted university library and then returning the books the next day. In the same interview, he states he wrote The Traveler after passing through some sort of personal crisis. In the interview in SFF World Twelve Hawks claims that he has "no plans to go public" regarding his identity.[4]
According to Twelve Hawks' agent, "He lives in New York, Los Angeles and London", and The Traveler sets its story in all three of these locations.[5]
In a 2008 interview on Joseph Mallozzi's weblog, he answered a series of questions about this life:[6]
QUESTION: Is there a reason for the pen name? One you’d be willing to share, I suppose. As in, is it because you’re actually a secret CIA agent and/or Russian spy, or merely because you don’t ever want your mother knowing what you’ve written?
JTH: My mother and the rest of my family don’t know that I have written the novels. Those people I know who aren’t close friends see me as a failure by the American standards of success. Being a “failure” in such a way has been a continual lesson. It’s helped me realize that we make quick judgments of others based on little real information. We assume so much – but don’t know the secrets held within the heart.
PseudonymEdit
In Against Authority, Twelve Hawks describes writing The Traveler. His decision to use a pen name was triggered by a combination of personal and political reasons:
For the first drafts of the book, I kept my birth name off the title page. The old me wasn’t writing this book. Something was different. Something had changed. I had always admired George Orwell, and had read his collected essays and letters countless times. When Eric Blair became Orwell, he was set free, liberated from his Eton education and colonial policeman past. And there was another factor about the title page that troubled me. I was telling my readers that this new system of information technology was going to destroy our privacy, and that they should resist this change. It seemed hypocritical to go on a book tour or appear on a talk show blabbing about my life when our private lives were under attack.[7]
During an online conversation he had with his fans on the We Speak for Freedom website, he explained the origin of his name:[8]
The real story is this …I was walking through a forest and encountered a hawk nesting area. Twelve hawks circled around my head for about ten minutes …so close that the tip of their wings brushed the side of my head. That was why I picked the name. REAL hawks. Not symbolic ones.
Spark was published in October 2014 in the United States and Great Britain.[9]
The book is narrated by Jacob Underwood, a man who suffers from Cotard delusion, a real-life neurological condition in which the afflicted person thinks that he or she is dead. Underwood is hired by a New York investment bank to work as an assassin, eliminating threats to the bank's clients. "Underwood’s strength as a hired killer is the emotionless, robotic nature that allows him to operate with logical, ruthless precision."[10] But, when the bank asks him to track down Emily Buchanan, a low-level employee who has absconded with financial secrets, Underwood gradually becomes more human and feels moments of empathy. Hawks describes a dystopia where people are beginning to be replaced by robots. Underwood's journey is an exploration into what human values will survive in a world of machines.
Reviews of Spark were generally positive. The Publishers Weekly review mentioned JTH's writing style: "Twelve Hawks’s prose, cold and clinical at times, yet punctuated with moments of great sensitivity, matches the tone and mood of his setting perfectly." In a starred review in Booklist, reviewer David Pitt wrote: "It’s been several years since the Fourth Realm trilogy ended, and some readers might have wondered if the author had only one story to tell. But guess what? As good as the Fourth Realm books were, this one may be even more appealing: less fantastic, more grounded in a contemporary real world, with a narrator who is deeply scarred and endlessly fascinating."[11]
On August 20, 2014, John Twelve Hawks released a free non-fiction book called Against Authority: Freedom and the Rise of the Surveillance States.[13] The book is dedicated to novelist Thomas Pynchon. An excerpt from Against Authority was published on Salon.[14]
Against Authority begins with a personal description of the neurological experiments performed on Hawks when he was a child and states that all of us have the ability to reject the “right” of those in power to control our lives. Hawks describes how the reaction of governments to the September 11 attacks led to the Patriot Act in the United States and the proliferation of Closed-circuit television cameras in London. He references his 2006 essay "How We Live Now" [15] that was his first published reaction to these systematic attacks on privacy.
The book explains how the Total Information Awareness program developed by John Poindexter at the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) led to the expansion of the National Security Agency and the revelations of Edward Snowden. Hawks criticizes the assumption of “mass surveillance” strategies against terrorism and shows how “trickle down surveillance” has spread to small towns and developing countries.
Hawks believes that surveillance technology has given those in power a crucial tool for social control. He describes how the culture of surveillance is used to track citizens for commercial reasons and gives examples of how people are now routinely watched at work. In the conclusion, he advocates a strategy of “parallel lives” that allows people to exist in the digital world while protecting their private actions and thoughts.
john, twelve, hawks, this, article, multiple, issues, please, help, improve, discuss, these, issues, talk, page, learn, when, remove, these, template, messages, major, contributor, this, article, appears, have, close, connection, with, subject, require, cleanu. This article has multiple issues Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page Learn how and when to remove these template messages A major contributor to this article appears to have a close connection with its subject It may require cleanup to comply with Wikipedia s content policies particularly neutral point of view Please discuss further on the talk page November 2014 Learn how and when to remove this template message The neutrality of this article is disputed Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page Please do not remove this message until conditions to do so are met November 2014 Learn how and when to remove this template message Learn how and when to remove this template message For persons of a similar name see John Hawks disambiguation John Twelve Hawks is the pseudonym of an author of four novels and one short non fiction book His legal name and identity are unknown 1 His first published novel was the dystopian The Traveler and its sequels The Dark River and The Golden City collectively comprising the Fourth Realm Trilogy The trilogy has been translated into 25 languages and has sold more than 1 5 million books 2 The trilogy was followed five years later by a fourth book Spark and a non fiction eBook Against Authority Contents 1 Biography 1 1 Pseudonym 2 Published works 2 1 Fourth Realm Trilogy 2 2 Spark 2 3 Against Authority 3 Bibliography 4 References 5 External linksBiography EditIn the sources listed and in his interviews he has stated that he was born in the United States In the non fiction Against Authority Twelve Hawks wrote that he grew up in the 1950s He is a Buddhist who had meditated for most of his life In the Spiegel interview he states he is not a Native American In the Spiegel interview he talks about visiting East Germany before the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall In the USA Today article his response to a question about religion began with When I was in my twenties and when an editor asked him whether the realm of hell could be compared to current conditions in Iraq Hawks replied it s more like Beirut in the 70s In the Spiegel interview and in the Daily Telegraph article Hawks states that he drives a 15 year old car and that he does not own a television 3 The SFF World interview indicates that Twelve Hawks once lived in a commune and learned about literature by stealing books from a restricted university library and then returning the books the next day In the same interview he states he wrote The Traveler after passing through some sort of personal crisis In the interview in SFF World Twelve Hawks claims that he has no plans to go public regarding his identity 4 According to Twelve Hawks agent He lives in New York Los Angeles and London and The Traveler sets its story in all three of these locations 5 In a 2008 interview on Joseph Mallozzi s weblog he answered a series of questions about this life 6 QUESTION Is there a reason for the pen name One you d be willing to share I suppose As in is it because you re actually a secret CIA agent and or Russian spy or merely because you don t ever want your mother knowing what you ve written JTH My mother and the rest of my family don t know that I have written the novels Those people I know who aren t close friends see me as a failure by the American standards of success Being a failure in such a way has been a continual lesson It s helped me realize that we make quick judgments of others based on little real information We assume so much but don t know the secrets held within the heart Pseudonym Edit In Against Authority Twelve Hawks describes writing The Traveler His decision to use a pen name was triggered by a combination of personal and political reasons For the first drafts of the book I kept my birth name off the title page The old me wasn t writing this book Something was different Something had changed I had always admired George Orwell and had read his collected essays and letters countless times When Eric Blair became Orwell he was set free liberated from his Eton education and colonial policeman past And there was another factor about the title page that troubled me I was telling my readers that this new system of information technology was going to destroy our privacy and that they should resist this change It seemed hypocritical to go on a book tour or appear on a talk show blabbing about my life when our private lives were under attack 7 During an online conversation he had with his fans on the We Speak for Freedom website he explained the origin of his name 8 The real story is this I was walking through a forest and encountered a hawk nesting area Twelve hawks circled around my head for about ten minutes so close that the tip of their wings brushed the side of my head That was why I picked the name REAL hawks Not symbolic ones Published works EditFourth Realm Trilogy Edit See Fourth Realm Trilogy Spark Edit Spark was published in October 2014 in the United States and Great Britain 9 The book is narrated by Jacob Underwood a man who suffers from Cotard delusion a real life neurological condition in which the afflicted person thinks that he or she is dead Underwood is hired by a New York investment bank to work as an assassin eliminating threats to the bank s clients Underwood s strength as a hired killer is the emotionless robotic nature that allows him to operate with logical ruthless precision 10 But when the bank asks him to track down Emily Buchanan a low level employee who has absconded with financial secrets Underwood gradually becomes more human and feels moments of empathy Hawks describes a dystopia where people are beginning to be replaced by robots Underwood s journey is an exploration into what human values will survive in a world of machines Reviews of Spark were generally positive The Publishers Weekly review mentioned JTH s writing style Twelve Hawks s prose cold and clinical at times yet punctuated with moments of great sensitivity matches the tone and mood of his setting perfectly In a starred review in Booklist reviewer David Pitt wrote It s been several years since the Fourth Realm trilogy ended and some readers might have wondered if the author had only one story to tell But guess what As good as the Fourth Realm books were this one may be even more appealing less fantastic more grounded in a contemporary real world with a narrator who is deeply scarred and endlessly fascinating 11 In October 2013 Deadline Hollywood reported that the film rights to Spark were sold to DreamWorks 12 Against Authority Edit On August 20 2014 John Twelve Hawks released a free non fiction book called Against Authority Freedom and the Rise of the Surveillance States 13 The book is dedicated to novelist Thomas Pynchon An excerpt from Against Authority was published on Salon 14 Against Authority begins with a personal description of the neurological experiments performed on Hawks when he was a child and states that all of us have the ability to reject the right of those in power to control our lives Hawks describes how the reaction of governments to the September 11 attacks led to the Patriot Act in the United States and the proliferation of Closed circuit television cameras in London He references his 2006 essay How We Live Now 15 that was his first published reaction to these systematic attacks on privacy The book explains how the Total Information Awareness program developed by John Poindexter at the U S Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency DARPA led to the expansion of the National Security Agency and the revelations of Edward Snowden Hawks criticizes the assumption of mass surveillance strategies against terrorism and shows how trickle down surveillance has spread to small towns and developing countries Hawks believes that surveillance technology has given those in power a crucial tool for social control He describes how the culture of surveillance is used to track citizens for commercial reasons and gives examples of how people are now routinely watched at work In the conclusion he advocates a strategy of parallel lives that allows people to exist in the digital world while protecting their private actions and thoughts Bibliography EditThe Traveler 2005 The Dark River 2007 The Golden City 2009 Spark 2014 Against Authority 2014 References Edit Those remaining literary recluses in full The Guardian London 1 February 2010 Warner Bros Acquires Fourth Realm Trilogy March 23 2012 Six top thriller writers Daily Telegraph 2007 04 01 Retrieved 2007 04 01 Rob Bedford 2005 12 04 Interview With John Twelve Hawks SFFWORLD COM Archived from the original on 2010 01 26 Retrieved 2006 08 12 Carol Memmot 2005 06 27 Cryptic Traveler has book world buzzing USA Today Retrieved 2006 08 12 Joseph Mallozzi 2008 10 30 Interview With John Twelve Hawks josephmallozzi wordpress com Retrieved 2008 10 30 John Twelve Hawks 2014 08 20 Against Authority johntwelvehawks com Archived from the original on 2016 03 04 Retrieved 2014 08 20 John Twelve Hawks 2009 05 24 Live chat with John Twelve Hawks wespeakforfreedom com Retrieved 2009 05 25 Spark the Latest Dystopian Novel From John Twelve Hawks www nytimes com 2014 10 06 Retrieved 2014 10 06 Spark www publishersweekly com 2014 08 04 Retrieved 2014 08 04 David Pitt 2014 09 01 Review of SPARK www booklistonline com Retrieved 2014 09 01 Mike Fleming Jr 2013 10 14 DreamWorks Buys John Twelve Hawks Sci Fi Thriller Spark Deadline Hollywood Retrieved 2013 10 14 John Twelve Hawks 2014 08 20 Against Authority johntwelvehawks com Retrieved 2014 08 20 John Twelve Hawks 2014 09 14 New Surveillance States Have Placed Us In An Invisible prison salon com Retrieved 2014 09 14 John Twelve Hawks 2006 02 01 How We Live Now PDF California State University Northridge University External links Edit Wikiquote has quotations related to John Twelve Hawks Official website John Twelve Hawks at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title John Twelve Hawks amp oldid 1114998451, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
