Book Review: The Stellar Trilogy Book 2: Awake, Envy McKee

By M. Quintero Moore

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?

M. Quintero-Moore is BACKLINE MAGAZINE 's editor and music/book reviewer who lives in Philadelphia, PA.

Book Review: Envy McKee's "The Stellar Trilogy", And The Birth of Soul-fi

Author and Media Personality, Envy McKee

By M. Quintero Moore
BACKLINE MAGAZINE

Envy McKee is that visionary for whom there is no gray area. You either love her or not. Either way, it’s of little consequence. She will always continue to follow her path, with or without you. She’s not your average bear, and life (she will gladly tell you) is her picnic basket. Whether she is on radio, television, or just hanging out with family and friends, McKee is consistent in her core values and beliefs, spreading the gospel of universal consciousness as if she was John the Baptist reincarnate. So, it’s no surprise that her first installment, The Stellar Trilogy – Book 1: Among Us, is far removed from the predictable modern day African American literary genre. McKee says she is dismayed at the kinds of conversations we (Black People) keep having with each other. Therefore, she set out to have a different conversation about spirit, spirituality, and our truest nature. “Instead of writing a "self-help" book for which there are thousands, I wrote an adventure story,” she said in our two-hour long interview. She added, “The caveat is that the lead character Kai-- is all of us…male and female. Kai means love, and love is what we are in a fundamental sense”. Dubbed a “Soul-fi”, Book 1 of the Trilogy seems to be a cross between ‘Angels and Demons’ and ‘The Matrix’. Each chapter challenges us to reconsider the zeitgeist of human thought and emotion; and invites us to question the intergenerational archetypes of our collective beliefs.The interaction and self-actualization of the characters are so central to today’s growing movement of modern enlightenment, it has the potential to shape future imagination and thought.

In Book 1, which McKee calls the “set-up”, the protagonist, Kai, is a young woman who has experienced every heartbreak and misfortune one could imagine. She has always felt like she didn’t belong– that she was ‘other’. This was confirmed when she was sent to live with her evil “Aunt Myra”. There, Kai experienced a level of abuse no one ever should. Years later, when she finally feels “normal”, she meets an angel. His only purpose at that moment is to reveal everything she has ever known about herself was a lie. Kai finds out she isn’t from Earth. Unbeknownst to her, she is a part of an intricately planned recognizance mission to retrieve her father and return him to their people. However, due to internal and external forces i.e. “Aunt Myra”, the “anger plague” that ravages the Earth, and herself, Kai doesn’t remember anything about this mission. If life was challenging enough, she and her young daughter are abducted by an “Angelic” (that angel), held hostage in “The Eden” (yes, that Eden), and find themselves in the middle of ‘The Great War’. All of this is happening while the Earth is crumbling. So, Kai must remember, now that she knows there is too much at stake for her not to. However, further complications arise after she falls in love with an Elder, finds out about her heritage, and the real reason why The Stellar came to be among us.

Everything in this book is worth reading, if nothing more than for the refreshing idealisms and the fierce, descriptive elegance of McKee’s prose. It is a story of self-discovery, beauty, triumph and wonder-despite all odds. It's deep…it’s funny…it’s weird and refreshing, scary and unusual. It's definitely a journey you won't soon forget.

If you want to learn more, visit McKee's website: envymckee.com.