With a mix of 1984, The Matrix, and Illusions this trilogy could be epic if done right.Let's start with the author, John Twelve Hawks, who is shrouded in mystery.

His die hard fans call him J12H or JXIIH.He lives "off the grid"--no bank account, and no fixed home.The editor of the books has never met him.John only talks to people using a voice scrambler.

What's even crazier is John Twelve Hawks is not his real name.Now that you understand a bit about the person who wrote it, you are probably wondering what the hell the story is about.

As I don't think i could do a good job describing it, here is a Wikipedia excerpt:The book is set in the new future and lays out a world where the real power lies not with people or governments, but in the hands of a secret organization who call themselves “the Brethren” but who their enemies refer to as “the Tabula”.

The Tabula are a centuries old secret society who believe in the importance of control and stability, making them in essence advocates of a kind of extreme Utilitarianism.

Influenced by the ideas of the philosopher Jeremy Bentham the Tabula wish to enforce a Virtual Panopticon: a society where all individuals become so accustomed to being watched and monitored that they act at all times as if they were being observed and are as such completely controllable.This Virtual Panopticon is made possible through the use of surveillance cameras, centralized databases, RFID-like tags for each citizen, and assorted spy gear (heat sensors, infrared cameras, X-rays, etc...).

The Tabula are a relatively small group, operate largely in secret, but they have great power across the planet, in part by manipulating politicians and other powerful individuals/organization, and in part because of their great wealth and advanced technology, which is in some cases far beyond the technology available to other groups and even governments.The underlying premise for the realms in which this book is set greatly resembles the cosmology of Tibetan Buddhism (and other eastern cosmologies).

Most notably, the second realm is explicitly labelled the realm of the Hungry Ghosts, but each realm in the enumerated hierarchy is associated with a given human shortcoming, much like in Hinduism and Buddhism.

The world we inhabit is the fourth realm, and different Travelers can visit one or more of the other realms.Although the basic plot is not new, the author provides a setting for discussion of larger issues, such as free will, the rapid increase in public surveillance and information gathering, the culture of fear, etc.

While the motivations of the Tabula are explored in the book, this is kept at a rather superficial and crude level.

Individual members are generally portrayed as either power hungry, psychopathic or deeply prejudiced, and the Tabula are set up as villains set to enslave humanity rather than misguided humanitarians.The author has written a post-script at the end of the book in which he talks about his reasons for writing the novel and discusses, among other things, the development in western countries regarding surveillance (such as CCTV), data-mining, RFID and GPS, the Information Awareness Office, etc.

He claims that all of the technology referred to in the book is either already being used or in the advanced stage of development.More info on what a Traveler is:The Travelers are individuals with a special gift, often but not always inherited, which allows them to detach from their bodies and journey through elemental barriers (water, fire etc) to other realms.

They do this by detaching their “light” (internal energy seemingly analogous to the soul but found by the Tabula to be empirically measurable) from their body.

Travelers’ experiences and gifts (they can view the world around them with greater speed and clarity than normal people) can lend them great charisma, wisdom and vision.

Many Travelers become religious prophets, or opponents of the Tabula, and the random element they add to societies makes them enemies of the Tabula who have hunted them almost to extinction.Those samples are just the world and not even the story.

A few of my concerns are that some of the concepts might be too abstract for mainstream audiences.

The Matrix did a brilliant job of making deep philosophical ideas palatable to regular flick goers.

It's going to take a brilliantly adapted script to make this flick ring true for its fans.

据悉，华纳公司已经买下美国畅销科幻作家约翰·图维尔·霍克斯(John Twelve Hawks)的经典科幻小说三部曲《the Fourth Realm Trilogy》的版权，首部曲《旅行者》（The Traveler）将被率先改编成电影。一个月前，《好莱坞报道者》曾发布消息说，福克斯获得了霍克斯三部曲的改编权，看来真正抢到这块肥肉的是华纳。

约翰·图维尔·霍克斯本人和他的作品一样神秘，这位天才的科幻作家是一位至今没有露面的隐居者，他没有信用卡，没有驾照，没有任何能够让人确定其真实身份的信息。他的作品被出版《达芬奇密码》的编辑意外发掘，首本小说《旅行者》甫一上市即荣登纽约时报畅销排行榜，被誉为丹·布朗之后下一位重量级畅销作家。但是霍克斯平常和外界往来只有透过网路和语音信箱，就连他的图书编辑也从未谋面。

《旅行者》是一部混合着科幻和政治阴谋斗争元素的小说，故事讲述：

26岁的玛雅，目前在伦敦一间设计公司工作。之前才被男朋友劈腿的她，正定期接受着心理医生的面谈──这一切归因于父亲在童年时期对她的“教育”与“期待”，她与父亲已经两年没见面了……乍听之下，感觉是一般家庭都会有的烦恼，但是玛雅的问题可不一样！

玛雅出生于历史悠久的“哈里昆”家庭──背负着特殊使命的“战士”一族。自12岁起，她便被迫学习各种武器的使用方法与杀人技巧；以及必须保护“旅行者”一族──他们能够跨越三维的世界，取得影响人类的重大启发，数百年来一直暗地促成世界的改变……然而，随着时代变迁，“旅行者”的数量逐渐减少，如今几乎已经不存在了。

某天玛雅收到了父亲的来信，并且告诉她已经掌握到世上仅存的“旅行者”消息─是洛杉矶一对年轻的双胞胎兄弟。父亲告诉她必须在两人觉醒之前找到对方，以免企图利用他们能力的不法组织毁灭人类世界。对于让自己不能过正常生活的‘旅行者’一族，玛雅心中抱持着怀疑，却又有一股使命感指引着她。面对接连发生的恐怖攻击，她该挺身而出挑战邪恶势力、帮助“旅行者”改变世界；或是，让“旅行者”的传说在此终结……

从故事简介就可以看出，这是一部混合着科幻和政治阴谋斗争元素的小说，充满了反乌托邦的气息，不仅让人联想到刚刚上映就刷新了多项票房记录的《饥饿游戏》，因此华纳也很有信心，把霍克斯的科幻三部曲拍成一个备受年轻观众青睐的电影系列。而《饥饿游戏》的成功会刺激华纳加快启动《旅行者》制作的步伐。

霍克斯本人在最近的访谈中也对此事发表了自己的意见：“我很高兴华纳公司能获得三部曲的改编权，因为这个公司曾经制作过哈利波特系列等众多经典的奇幻电影，我也很期待看到三部曲被搬上银幕……”