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SEVERAL YEARS ago, author John Twelve Hawks introduced readers to a world in which people, known as travelers, with mystical abilities to visit other worlds, were all that stood between our world and a secretive group bent on total social control, mostly via technological means.

Now the trilogy that began with "The Traveler" has come to a conclusion with "The Golden City." The novel opens with Maya (who guards travelers) in the first realm, a hell of hopeless ghosts, unable to find the portal back to our world. Her traveler, Gabriel, is determined to find her and bring her home. Meanwhile, his twin, Michael, who has turned his traveling abilities to evil and is working for the bad guys, is searching the realms to find the ultimate technological advance that will allow him to rule the world.

It's up to Gabriel to stop Michael, and ironically, it's technology that may allow him to do it--although it's not necessarily the most plausible of story lines that the same society that allows gradual intrusion into their lives in the name of safety would suddenly be willing to chuck it all on the word of another guy on the Internet.

Readers who have followed the story through the first two books will want to finish it; but those who haven't read the prior two books will be lost (and those who have might still find a refresher helpful). There are some series a reader can pick up at any point, but this is not one of them.

Chelyen Davis is a reporter with The Free Lance-Star.