John Twelve Hawks -- The Traveler

Author Message   Mastadge Posted on Tuesday, June 28, 2005 - 06:03 am:    It seems to be a very open secret that John Twelve Hawks is a pseudonym . . . anyone have any idea who he is, or whether he's been published before?   Lord Ruthven Posted on Tuesday, June 28, 2005 - 09:40 am:    It's one of Gabe Chouinard's crew. If I had to guess, I'd say Vera Nazarian or Kage Baker.   Ellen Datlow Posted on Tuesday, June 28, 2005 - 03:11 pm:    Craig Strete is a guess that a few people have made.   MarcL Posted on Tuesday, June 28, 2005 - 06:00 pm:    Strete was the first to pop into my head too.   Lord Ruthven Posted on Tuesday, June 28, 2005 - 11:16 pm:    Why, because it's a Native American name? I'm tellin' ya, it's one of Chouinard's cronies. He's been pimping the book and the "conspiracy theory" all over the Internet.   montmorency Posted on Wednesday, June 29, 2005 - 04:14 am:    It's smoothly written and definitely by someone with some experience, but no new ideas to talk about. Possibly someone writing mainly thrillers?   Gordon Van Gelder Posted on Wednesday, June 29, 2005 - 07:38 am:    I said elsewhere that I had the nagging sense it might be Craig Kee Strete. My reasons include: * He's a very facile writer and I've heard the writing in the book is slick. * He has written under pseudonyms before and likes to play games with identity. * The Native American pseudonym sounds like something he might adopt. However, this nagging sense of mine has faded since I looked at the Website for the agent handling the book, Joe Regal: http://www.regal-literary.com/books.html Given Regal's clientele, and given the fact that Craig Strete was with another agent in the late 1990s (an agent that's still in business), I suspect that if it is Craig Strete, then he's putting it over on Regal. Which I find unlikely unless Craig Strete has someone else cashing his checks for him. (And yes, I'm aware that when Joyce Carol Oates started writing those books under the name of Rosamund Smith, she was with a different literary agent from her longtime one.) So my suggestion now for anyone looking to guess the identity of John Twelve Hawks is: start with Regal's client list.   GabrielM Posted on Wednesday, June 29, 2005 - 08:31 am:    I'd be pleased as punch if someone like Kage or Nazarian were the beneficiaries of what's by all accounts an ultra profitable deal, but I'm sure that's not the case here. I started the book yesterday. It's not unentertaining, but so far it's the usual unexceptional, quick, movie-friendly (and, to me, ultimately boring) style we've come to associate with bestselling thrillers. I don't think it necessarily improbable that it's a first novel. (The first novels by, say, Caleb Carr or Thomas Harris were also thrillers and significantly better written than this.) It could also be by someone who was previously writing scripts or movie tie-ins. Still, Gordon's suggestion seems to make the most sense.   Ellen Datlow Posted on Wednesday, June 29, 2005 - 09:14 am:    The agent has a great list. And several of the authors on it deal regularly with native american themes. So Gordon may indeed be on the right track.   MarcL Posted on Wednesday, June 29, 2005 - 10:17 am:    Lord Ruthven: Yes. I didn't say it was a reasoned idea, just the first one that popped in my head. When I'm reflexively cross-indexing names of Native American sf writers I'm familiar with who might be wanting to start fresh with a new name, there's a pretty short list. I have absolutely no actual reason to think it is Strete. I'd never heard of the book till yesterday. Hot off the mental press!   Claude Lalumičre Posted on Wednesday, June 29, 2005 - 02:45 pm:    I read the book because I had to review it. It's indeed quite slick (although it's heavily laden with repetitive and preachy exposition, but it feels like it's done intentionally, with the no doubt accurate assumption that will help the book's sales), and obviously written by someone with experience. It's also very crass, in its transparent attempts to jumble together elements from popular sources such as The Da Vinci Code, The Celestine Prophecy, Buffy, Harry Potter, Left Behind, etc. Just add water, and there's your bestseller. I aksed my contact at Random House, and she claimed that no-one knew his real identity. Here's one clue to consider: there's a lot of stuff the feels like Zelazny. The fight scenes are pure Zelazny, and the basic scenario borrows elements from Amber. So someone who admires Zelazny, or who is known to write like him at times?   Rob Posted on Thursday, June 30, 2005 - 09:57 am:    Philip K. Dick?   Carole C Posted on Thursday, June 30, 2005 - 09:59 am:    I know nothing, but could it be William Sanders?   Claude Lalumičre Posted on Thursday, June 30, 2005 - 11:38 am:    William Sanders had occured to me as a possibility, but the book is so humourless; could he really so utterly expunge his wit from anything he wrote?   Jeremy Lassen Posted on Thursday, June 30, 2005 - 05:08 pm:    I've got the promotional DVD that came with the ARC of this book. Anybody know of any clues hidden in the bookseller promo stuff?   Carole C Posted on Friday, July 01, 2005 - 01:41 am:    Maybe there is a clue in the name itself - perhaps an anagram, or some other connection?   cybersoul Posted on Friday, July 08, 2005 - 11:39 am:    This is THIRD hand knowledge (sorry!) -- from a girlfriend who knows someone who knows someone at Random House, but the only real fact she's heard is that Hawks has some kind of serious physical problem and that he might be in a wheelchair. The mailroom sent a package to an address and it got sent back because Hawks couldn't drive and pick it up. Apparently he needs a helper to do things like this for him. No names. Don't want to lose anybody's job over this. I have read the book and liked all the stuff about the different realms. I would bet that Hawks has taken some heavy duty drugs. Had that feeling to me...   Vera Nazarian Posted on Saturday, July 09, 2005 - 09:21 am:    Well, I can tell you safely that John Twelve Hawks is not me. :-) However, based on some of the comments upstream, I am venturing my own guess: Stephen Hawking   GC Posted on Saturday, July 09, 2005 - 08:04 pm:    I recently read this book. Slick is a great description of how it's written. The ease in reading it and the word choice left it feeling more like a pretty little shell of a story than anything of real depth. It kept me interested enough to read it but I came away feeling like i just read a book geared to not so advanced middle school readers. I did read it all though, I just feel like I need to go read DREAM OF GLASS again.   Edna B Sankey Posted on Sunday, July 31, 2005 - 12:42 am:    According to a report in today's Observer (http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,1539746,00.html): "Not even his New York editors at Random House, has yet met [him]... [he] has refused to appear in public to promote his hugely successful debut work... [he] will only communicate with his editor on a telephone connection that is scrambled and he calls on an untraceable satellite set." He's quite clearly Bin Laden.   JV Posted on Sunday, July 31, 2005 - 10:22 am:    I started reading the book in the bookstore and was bored stiff. JeffV   Mr x Posted on Monday, August 01, 2005 - 04:48 am:    Pretty obvious really. Same publisher, same editor, and same globe hopping ( I know every foreign city intimately, but from an simplistic American viewpoint )condescending writing style. And who else could get Random house to spend an insane amount of money on promotion and pr. Dan Brown   Lawrence Evans Posted on Friday, August 19, 2005 - 01:53 pm:    Will Sanders says he's insulted that anyone would think he'd have written such a thing or used such a pen name; he is very definitely NOT this John Twelve Hawks.   Reginald Beaty Posted on Saturday, August 20, 2005 - 12:36 pm:    Good lord, success breeds contempt. I truly enjoyed the novel dispite its lack of literary gravitas. Is it breazy and slick? Yes it is. Did it touch my soul? No, not so much. It is however, what summer novels are intended to be but so seldom are: a blistering page turner. I like the suggestion that Hawking wrote it. It has been rumoured that the author is wheel chair bound as was the Thorn character. References to to scrambled voice communication with the author makes since if he communicates through a computer as Hawking does. As an added bonus, if it is Hawking, i can now state truthfully that I finished one of his books and completely understood every concept.   London Dave Posted on Sunday, August 21, 2005 - 12:15 pm:    The Traveller is currently selling well here in London (#7 on Amazon.com.uk). In a recent newspaper article, odds were offered on the John Twelve Hawks identity. The leading candidate appears to be Dan Brown. I've read the book and don't think Hawks is a science fiction writer. I don't think it's Brown either. Listening to the voice recording, it's clear that Hawks has some kind of physical problem -- perhaps a stroke??? The wheel chair idea would match this theory. Don't know if anyone is still reading this string, if so please offer any more information if you have it.   mastadge Posted on Sunday, August 21, 2005 - 12:55 pm:    I think it's a college professor who doesn't want to sully his name by having it attached to a science fiction novel.   JV Posted on Sunday, August 21, 2005 - 05:31 pm:    It's not Dan Brown. Dan Brown can't write his way out of a paper bag. This cat can at least do that. And it's not success breeding contempt. It's putting a pig in a tux and calling it aristocracy that's the problem. It's a perfectly good pig. It's a terrible aristocrat. I could be wrong, but I think the high concept PR for the book doesn't actually fit the book. JeffV   GabrielM Posted on Sunday, August 21, 2005 - 10:46 pm:    The voice recordings use an electronic scrambler to disguise the speaker's identity, it's just part of the whole tiresome PR surrounding the author and I don't think necessarily means anything. (Other than that it might actually be a woman.) Re it being Hawking: "I studied martial arts for several years and have fought both in tournaments and on the street." http://www.randomhouse.ca/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780385661355&view=qa Assuming we take the interviewee at his/her word it doesn't quite fit Hawking, does it? I don't think it's Dan Brown either, for the reason JV mentioned.   Brian T. Posted on Monday, August 22, 2005 - 02:51 pm:    Going to earlier posts... Is Gabe Chouinard actually saying he knows who Hawks is? Because if that's so, then I can just cross-reference the writers he's being promoting for the last few years. As for the Dan Brown theory, let's finally kill that idea off for good. I've read The Traveler and there are scenes where the characters go to another reality. Dan Brown would never write about something that didn't involve "research." Mastadge's comment very insightful and probably true...   Mastadge Posted on Monday, August 22, 2005 - 03:53 pm:    No, gabe's not claiming to know who Hawks is. He was just one of the early ones raving about the book.   P.H. Dee Posted on Tuesday, August 30, 2005 - 08:04 am:    Steven Hawking wasn't always a chair-user...I'm really quite taken with that idea! Especially the anagrammatical excitement [hmm, until I find no "g" and what should I do with the "j" etc... LOL I did consider Dan Brown but changed my mind pretty quickly - the beginning was too fuzzy for Brown. I'm actually enjoying The Traveller now. I think it's a British writer [no American would allow a female London-based anti-heroine!]   P.H. Dee Posted on Tuesday, August 30, 2005 - 09:03 am:    "From stephen hawking's own synthesizer... "My dreams at that time were rather disturbed. Before my condition had been diagnosed, I had been very bored with life. There had not seemed to be anything worth doing. But shortly after I came out of hospital, I dreamt that I was going to be executed. I suddenly realised that there were a lot of worthwhile things I could do if I were reprieved. Another dream, that I had several times, was that I would sacrifice my life to save others. After all, if I were going to die anyway, it might as well do some good. But I didn't die. In fact, although there was a cloud hanging over my future, I found, to my surprise, that I was enjoying life in the present more than before."   JV Posted on Tuesday, August 30, 2005 - 01:56 pm:    As reported at www.tinglealley.com: In the LA Times article, the publisher of The Traveler, Doubleday, attributes the lacklustre sales to the lack of an “author”, that is, because “John Twelve Hawks” lives “off the grid” he’s not available for “promotional tours” and “the like.” (”Sorry.”) But as author Tod Goldberg noted: “I think the thing that has really hampered The Traveler, and which this article doesn’t quite illuminate, is that it would have been nice if it hadn’t sucked.”   Brian T. Posted on Tuesday, August 30, 2005 - 05:52 pm:    With all due repect, JV -- go on Tod Goldberg's website if you want to experience a terminal dose of writer envy. He hates just about everyone. As Publisher's Weekly said about his first book: "Goldberg's characters are cardboard and unsympathetic, his prose hollowly minimalist. Even worse, some of his plot devices seem to have wandered in from Chuck Palahniuk's superior Fight Club." Palahniuk is a favorite writer of mine and I think people are going to be reading him 20 years from now. I can't say that about Tod Goldberg or -- for that matter -- John Twelve Hawks.   JV Posted on Tuesday, August 30, 2005 - 07:46 pm:    LOL! I don't even know who Tod is. I just think it's a funny quote. The fact is, word of mouth isn't working on the book. I find it fascinating from a PR point of view. I didn't really give the book a chance, myself. Maybe it's better than I thought from a glance. But from a PR point of view, I find the PR for it very "high tech" but the reaction to that PR to be kind of "eh--so what" from a lot of readers. So I'm curious--is it that the PR is somehow fatally flawed or that it was done around the wrong book? This is of great interest to me. JeffV   canty Posted on Thursday, September 01, 2005 - 02:37 pm:    I picked up the book from a borders book store. I had free time and was wondering aimlessly around looking for a book. There was a display in front of the customer service desk and the cover caught my eye. The back of the book seemed promising but I tend to avoid books marketed (for some unknown reason). I ended up buying the book and I read it fast. I had heard nothing prior of the book nor even read the blurb about the author until the end. Having been ignorant of it prior to reading it i can say i found it well written and easy to read, but in a paint by numbers sort of way. It may be pretty, but not impressive at all.   tod goldberg Posted on Monday, September 05, 2005 - 09:49 pm:    Now, c'mon, Brian T, that's not even the best line about how bad Fake Liar Cheat is from the review you quote. They also say it's smarmy and self-congratulatory and they're probably right. Hell, I've even said so myself. I don't hate everyone, either. In fact, I like quite a bit of stuff, the Traveler not included, which was about as exciting and well written as, well, Fake Liar Cheat. What I will say is this -- I think the second book in the traveler series may have a better chance of succeeding simply because it won't be buried with the backstory that the first one has and perhaps it won't be sullied by the pr blitz that I think ended up usurping what is, at base, just a run of the mill thriller, no better or worse than many books released every year with little or no fanfare. And that's fine. Do I have writer envy? Of course. I'd love to have a million dollar ad campaign behind all of my books, even the ones that suck.   Reginald Beaty Posted on Tuesday, September 06, 2005 - 10:44 am:    I think your choice of the word "usurping", is telling. You could have used "overshadowing" but usurpation is much more sinister. I sense a romantic proletarian heart laboring in noble obscurity. I am quite certain that Mr. Twelve Hawks, whoever he is, had little if anything to do with the marketing of his work. His little "run of the mill thriller" is no better or worse for all the childish gimmickery that accompanied its release. Having said all that, none of this is really on point with the topic. Who is Mr. (or Ms., Mrs.) John Twelve Hawks.   Janet Rice Posted on Saturday, September 17, 2005 - 08:25 pm:    I read The Traveler because the theme (per the reviews) of people with special powers whom bad guys sought to use was similar to Stephen King's Dark Tower series that I just finished. My husband has some background in physics and says the science in The Traveler is not convincing. So not Hawking. I don't read much fantasy or many thrillers, so I don't recognize many of the names mentioned. But I happened to read The Traveler in close proximity to Michael Cunningham's Specimen Days, and developed the theory (illusion? delusion?) that Cunningham was Hawks, mostly from thematic commonalities. Social criticism, science fiction, a character who wants to disappear, reference to The Family (like The Brethren?), focus on a character learning to feel love, even use of the expression "off the grid" at one point. Yes, I know Cunningham is supposed to be great with language, and I know his book came out at about the same time. Still. Maybe similar ideas (like inventions) just crop up at the same time. --Or maybe an acclaimed author, like a college professor, might get off on writing under an assumed name. I didn't think the book was as bad as some of you did. It started off flat but picked up steam. The characters came alive, and I can remember them (and the plot), unlike Dan Brown's, for example.   D. Gamburd Posted on Sunday, September 18, 2005 - 10:57 am:    Hello everyone! I just spent some time searching the Internet and this is the only site where people are rationally discussing this issue. Is this a major question that will change the course of world literature? Of course not. But it's a minor mystery that engages my mind and I think it can be solved. I'm going to propose five ideas as a starting point: The audio. If the audio really is John Twelve Hawks, then I think it's clear that he's an American male. The book. I really liked The Traveler and -- important conclusion -- I think John Twelve Hawks knows how to write. I have written a SciFi novel (the manuscript is stored in our guest bedroom closet and will never see the light of day!). It's difficult to write exciting scenes, difficult to create a plot with a lot of characters, etc. This is a writer who knows what he's doing. The ideas. If you read John Twelve Hawks essay on Amazon Shorts you'll see that he's given a great deal of thought to the ideas in the novel. It's my view that he's expressed these ideas before -- and that they've been published. That's why Janet's idea about Michael Cunningham does have a logic to it. I don't know if she's right. But it's a productive manner of analysis. Living off the grid. My work involves personal security issues.(How's that for a vague job description?!)Believe me, it's not that hard to create a false identity for yourself. Clues. This part of the analysis is pure speculation, but I think that John Twelve Hawks has left clues in the book about his identity. Conclusion. I am not proposing a name. Just trying to see if we can agree on a starting point. Most of you have probably read a more novels than I have. (I don't usually read fiction) Because of this, you'll probably have more informed insights.   mybestguess Posted on Monday, September 19, 2005 - 12:20 pm:    I think it is J K Rowling. John 12 (looks like a k when smushed together) Hawks = rOWLing   JV Posted on Monday, September 19, 2005 - 12:33 pm:    I think D. Gamburd is John Twelve Hawks Gam = Ham (D. Gamburd goes on about how good John 12 Hawks is, hamming it up) burd = hawk D. Gamburd is obviously Spanish--thus the "g" sound is "h" (if my memory of long ago Spanish classes is correct) jeffV   JTH Posted on Monday, September 19, 2005 - 12:35 pm:    I am John Twelve Hawks and I don't appreciate the effing hatchet job some of you are doing on me. You bastards better watch out. I'll write you into my next book as the villains. That'll teach you sniveling spineless quivering cowards.   Jim Posted on Monday, September 19, 2005 - 01:01 pm:    He's on the grid. Quick. Grab him!!!   Vera Nazarian Posted on Monday, September 19, 2005 - 02:21 pm:    And I am Kage Baker. Or is she me? Or is Dan Brown both of us? And does that mean that JK Rowling and Dan Brown put together are... Hey, waidamminut, I mean -- AHEM, nevermind.   D. Gamburd Posted on Monday, September 19, 2005 - 02:28 pm:    Dear JV: Please tell Doubleday to wire me the royalities c/o Night Shade Books. Come to think of it, J = John. Roman numeral XII minus lucky VII = V. JV = JTH.   spiny murex Posted on Tuesday, September 20, 2005 - 08:41 am:    Local library got a copy yesterday and though I'd never heard of it, I read a lot of this kind of thing (...sad!), so I borrowed it. I'm about a third of the way through (well I do have some other things to be getting on with!) and it's ok - nothing special... but so obviously a hype that I googled and wound up here. I'm english. I think the sequences set in england have a ring of authenticity about them and the rest feel slightly researched - like early Lee Child. Given that his Jack Reacher is the definitive "off the grid" character I'd be inclined to chuck his name into the mix except... His prose style is generally a bit more fluid than this... ...but in the vicinity. I think a published british writer who's spent some time in America, Neil Gaiman flicks into my mind (but the story would be better and anyway why would he bother?...   Janet Rice Posted on Sunday, September 25, 2005 - 02:25 pm:    After posting my previous comment, I thought of more points. Then I read Twelve Hawks' essay from Amazon as suggested by D. Gamburd in his comment. I assembled my old and new stuff and posted it at another site (Grumpy Old Bookman, under his review of The Traveler), because I was taking up so much space here, for one reason. For the 1st time, I noticed Twelve Hawks' sounding like one of Specimen Days' characters, so rather than identifying Twelve Hawks as Michael Cunningham, I'm now thinking of Twelve Hawks as an alter ego of Cunningham, that he got into as into a character. My husband says I'm obsessed by the idea that Cunningham wrote The Traveler. But, if so, it's a "little obsession" (an oxymoron?). For example, I didn't read the rest of Michael Cunningham's work, other than glancing at The Hours, which was on my shelf already. Others are better qualified than I am to compare Cunningham's and Twelve Hawks' grasp of science or to comment on what the significance might be of the two main male characters in each novel having biblical names. I didn't compare Twelve Hawks' and Cunningham's use of dreams. That was too much like work. This is not something that is going to change the course of life for millions if I make the wrong call. I may be wrong, but if not, you heard it here 1st! What would dissuade me from my theory would be if someone could show that all the commonalities I've noticed are really not specific to those two books. Or, of course, if someone else is shown to be Twelve Hawks. Then Cunningham could have a good laugh at all this. I'm not convinced I'm wrong just because both books came out at the same time, though. Or because the styles are different, which could be b/c Cunningham as Twelve Hawks is "in character." Could any of the rest of you say more about what led to your particular guesses? Neil Gaiman sounds interesting. I never heard of him before the above post. A review of his new book just appeared in my local newspaper. That just goes to show why I might be wrong. I've read such a small fraction of the universe of books. It's suspect in a way that I'm comparing The Traveler and Specimen Days just b/c I happened to read them at about the same time. What are the chances? But I don't go around thinking the same thing about everything else I'm reading--and reading them close together made comparisons easier. If you're interested in checking me out, Specimen Days is a long way from paperback, even in Quality Paperback Books, and is not on the best seller list. So could be expensive. But I had both the unabridged audio and the book from my local library, so spent no money. The book consists of three parts, loosely connected, one set in the past, one in the present, and the last in the future. I can't remember when I started noticing commonalities with The Traveler, but if it didn't start in Part 2, it picked up speed there. One last thought: why would Cunningham have bothered? (as Spiney Murax asked above about Gaimon). The cynics are all saying it's for money and the movie rights, and that Twelve Hawks is therefore part of Vast Machine commercialism. But couldn't it be for fun, as in award-winning author gets to let his hair down and avoid scrutiny about whether he's up to par? Or (and here's what I hope, but it's probably a Pollyanna-ish reaction to too much cynicism in the world), maybe the author had some ideas he wanted to get before a wider audience than he would have as a highbrow literary-fiction author. Couldn't it not be about the money, for once?   Janet Rice Posted on Monday, September 26, 2005 - 07:23 pm:    Oops! I'm sorry I murdered the spelling of your name, Spiny.   Brian T. Posted on Tuesday, September 27, 2005 - 07:51 am:    Hey, Grumpy Old Bookman is talking about you, Janet! And in a very nice way. http://grumpyoldbookman.blogspot.com/2005/09/who-is-john-twelve-hawks.html   Spencer Posted on Tuesday, September 27, 2005 - 12:56 pm:    I don't necessarily think John Twelve Hawks has to be a very well known or established SF writer. My best guess is that it's an author of Star Wars/Star Trek novels who was hired to write a thriller with a high-concept P.R. campaign.   Will Entrekin Posted on Tuesday, September 27, 2005 - 03:33 pm:    Found this through GOB, very interesting. I can't speculate, but I can say with confidence that it's not Neil Gaiman, whose new book, *Anansi Boys,* just came out. I'd also bet, with confidence, that *Anansi Boys* is the better.   Janet Rice Posted on Thursday, September 29, 2005 - 06:45 am:    I feel like I've just had one or two of my 15 allotted minutes of fame. It's heady stuff, and I just relaxed and enjoyed it for a little while. As to what's next, I'm looking into the expression "off the grid" a little bit. My husband Googled it for me. I'm curious about how common it was before 2005, when the hype for The Traveler started. Maybe I made too much of the fact that the term appeared in Cunningham's Specimen Days. I will post something in a few days. Meanwhile, for those of you who read thrillers and suspense by the shopping-cart load, is that phrase cropping up a lot?   D. Gamburd Posted on Thursday, September 29, 2005 - 11:09 am:    Okay, I'll admit it -- my new job is REALLY boring. So it's fun to go on this site and spend my time searching through the Internet. Re: Janet's question. It's my feeling that we're talking about two different uses of the same phrase. The original "off the grid" term was introduced in the early 1970's -- relating to going back to the land, raising your own food, home schooling, etc The way that Cunningham/Hawks uses the term is more oriented toward being "off the grid" as far as surveillance is concerned. Same phrase, but different emphasis. I don't know when this started.   wayneH. Posted on Thursday, September 29, 2005 - 12:49 pm:    i have read the book and believe it has a frank herbert ring to it. brian herbert or kevin j anderson?   Janet Rice Posted on Friday, September 30, 2005 - 09:48 pm:    I'm at a disadvantage because I haven't read any of those, even Dune. Still, I have a hypothesis: only fairly recent books will deal with the kind of electronic surveillance that's in The Traveler, because the technology only recently came together. I found about the same evolution of "off the grid" as D. Gamburd. Grid as related to electricity means "an interconnected system for the distribution of electricity over a wide area...." So "off the grid" 1st meant self-sufficient, unplugged, etc. Which could connote dropping out. As it got associated with environmentalism and the green movement, it sometimes took on anti-government, anti-big business overtones. But only fairly recently does it primarily mean hiding and concealment. Because I guess that wasn't so hard in the past, when you could just "drop out" or "go underground" (before your life support system would pinpoint you). The term "off the grid" really hooked me when I read the reviews for The Traveler. It seemed to communicate "underground, undercover" from the 1st. All this goes to show that it's not just that Specimen Days also uses the phrase, but it has the same meaning, in foreshadowing what happens in the rest of Part 2. So, anyway, doesn't argue against my theory--unless the two books are just looking to me like they are related because they both arose out of the same Zeitgeist. Here a couple of interesting links, but you'll have to paste them into your browser b/c I can't figure out how to make Netscape copy in hypertext. The 1st one is pretty fascinating, from 4/03. Could it have inspired an author living in N.Y. when it came out in an apparent alternative newspaper? The 2nd one is a long and drawn out review of The Castaway from 2001. Being "off the grid" meant being traumatically ejected from your life support system, and the reviewer had to keep saying "invisible AND off the grid" because apparently it didn't mean both yet. If you google you get mostly links meaning unplugged, a lot of them trying to use the term to sell you something. http://www.nypress.com/16/14/books/books.cfm http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/film/scopearchive/filmrev/cast-away.htm