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| By M. Quintero Moore |
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| Author, Envy McKee The Queen of Soul-Fi |
If you are a fan/follower of Envy McKee’s ineluctable classic The Stellar Trilogy, you can finally relax. Book 2-Awake, is now available for your literary consumption and critique. However, be forewarned. The second installment proves to be a much faster and more intense ride. There will be an occasional “OMG” and a few “WTFs” along the way, as you experience McKee’s wonderfully warped sense of “surreality” (yes, I made that word up).
In Book 1-Among Us, Kai discovered she was a fundamental part of an elaborate recognizance mission to retrieve her father and return him to his people. She managed to succeed to a point. She did meet her father. In addition, with the aid of The Heaven’s warriors, she helped to save Earth, and liberated the souls trapped in Firewah. In the process, she fell in love with an Elder, and conceived a son–the one designed “to replace the light they lost”. Then, in true “McKeenian” style, the reader is for a lack of better terminology…mind-fucked. None of what Kai experienced actually happened. It was all a dream from which she abruptly awakens.
In Awake, seven years have passed, and this once resilient, self-assured, and slightly audacious young woman, is now on the edge of insanity. What she thought she knew is even less than what she knew before.
In this segment, Kai meets the biological family she never knew existed, and travels to the land of her “true” people to Meet the Moon, to claim her birthright, which Mckee says "is a vital step toward completing her real mission".
Conversely, she has two obstacles on this particular journey...a villainous Umpshai monk and a ne'er-do-well band of apocryphal beings called The Dozen of Derg. The Derg returns to complete their own mission of destroying the Earth’s inhabitants. Kai must learn the ways of The Stai to acquire a series of Talents she needs to complete her objective. Only then, can she and her family return to Earth, balance the Entwine and save the planet from The Derg. It is now we see the emergence of a new kind of superhero. Her name is Kai of TuStai.
The Stellar Trilogy is an odd bird, purposely designed that way; because it sets the tone for this neo-genre McKee calls “Soul-fi”. There is one prerequisite. You should be a tad “eccentric” or at least extremely open-minded to appreciate all McKee has done with this multifarious plot.
Technically, McKee's skills are impeccable in terms of continuity and character development. Considering again, the intricacies involved in creating such a potential masterpiece, it is because of the continuity, one cannot help but speculate if Kai is McKee’s alter ego….or vice versa. Only Envy McKee (or Kai) knows for sure.
Might I suggest a carafe of Chardonnay or a bottle of Brandy to accompany you on this journey?
In Book 1-Among Us, Kai discovered she was a fundamental part of an elaborate recognizance mission to retrieve her father and return him to his people. She managed to succeed to a point. She did meet her father. In addition, with the aid of The Heaven’s warriors, she helped to save Earth, and liberated the souls trapped in Firewah. In the process, she fell in love with an Elder, and conceived a son–the one designed “to replace the light they lost”. Then, in true “McKeenian” style, the reader is for a lack of better terminology…mind-fucked. None of what Kai experienced actually happened. It was all a dream from which she abruptly awakens.
In Awake, seven years have passed, and this once resilient, self-assured, and slightly audacious young woman, is now on the edge of insanity. What she thought she knew is even less than what she knew before.
In this segment, Kai meets the biological family she never knew existed, and travels to the land of her “true” people to Meet the Moon, to claim her birthright, which Mckee says "is a vital step toward completing her real mission".
Conversely, she has two obstacles on this particular journey...a villainous Umpshai monk and a ne'er-do-well band of apocryphal beings called The Dozen of Derg. The Derg returns to complete their own mission of destroying the Earth’s inhabitants. Kai must learn the ways of The Stai to acquire a series of Talents she needs to complete her objective. Only then, can she and her family return to Earth, balance the Entwine and save the planet from The Derg. It is now we see the emergence of a new kind of superhero. Her name is Kai of TuStai.
The Stellar Trilogy is an odd bird, purposely designed that way; because it sets the tone for this neo-genre McKee calls “Soul-fi”. There is one prerequisite. You should be a tad “eccentric” or at least extremely open-minded to appreciate all McKee has done with this multifarious plot.
Technically, McKee's skills are impeccable in terms of continuity and character development. Considering again, the intricacies involved in creating such a potential masterpiece, it is because of the continuity, one cannot help but speculate if Kai is McKee’s alter ego….or vice versa. Only Envy McKee (or Kai) knows for sure.
Might I suggest a carafe of Chardonnay or a bottle of Brandy to accompany you on this journey?
M. Quintero-Moore is BACKLINE MAGAZINE 's editor and music/book reviewer who lives in Philadelphia,
PA.
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