To this day, when I wait at a traffic light and see the cameras, I think of The Traveler series  and John Twelve Hawks.

His first book, The Traveler, introduced us to a world gone to the nth degree of interfering with our privacy and trying to control things. I think of this when I'm at the grocery store, and the coupons that spit out after the transaction are the same type of products I've just bought - there is little those who want to follow our actions can't do with a flick of a computer, and what we've spent, where, when - there it is.

Enter The Travelers - beings who can enter realms and have the freedom to elude the Vast Machine - in other words, they are a threat to those who want to control our every move.

The Corrigan brothers seem to be among the last of these Travelers. These twins, Gabriel and Michael choose different sides - Gabriel with the Resistance and Michael with the Vast Machine.

The travelers are usually guarded by folks who are called Harlequins. Maya is Gabriel's protector, but they have fallen in love. Not a good move when you're on a dangerous mission to save the world from domination!

The latest, and apparent, last of this series, The Golden City, is the race of the brothers to reach the golden city - where the gods reside and can bestow powers. At least that's what they think -

Both brothers appeal to the public via different ways - Michael has children kidnapped to create a campaign to put tracking devices into children, who, as they grow,can be tracked every second of their lives. Gabriel appeals to the masses to stop and see what's really happening -

Whatever you say about John Twelve Hawks, he certainly makes you stop and think how much of the electronics we use, the cameras on the streets, etc. could be used for evil, and what can be done to potentially stop it.

It is, as I said at the beginning of this review, a series to give pause -- and see the potential danger we could be in as individuals and collectively as a society.

The Traveler, The Dark River, and The Golden City are the trilogy - worth reading -

ellen george

The Golden City by John Twelve Hawks, ISBN 978-0-385-51430-9, Doubleday Publishers, review by ellen george