MAYA had first caught my eye as a freshly started crowdfunded project, and it immediately felt dangerously ambitious, but also insanely complex and original.

With big ideas like that, I'm always wary if they will deliver on said ambitions, and by the time of finishing book one, I think that MAYA has many intriguing bits to offer for hard sci-fantasy readers that make it a worthy read, with only a few critiques and potential warnings from my side.

First off, the writers of this series have created a vast world with a deep love that blends their interests in biology, tech, philosophy, and socio-politics. The worldbuilding is so rich that I can't recall encountering one like it in a while. There are classes, races, divinities, tech, politics, philosophy, riddles, and most of these are given unique names, so be ready to be confused at first, and learn fast. Since I was listening to the audiobook, the book's website was of immense help, because the character drawings helped me get used to all the weird new names thrown at me at first, and imagine all these new creatures that appear in this world. I also simply went back and relistened to the first few chapters with a bit more focus, and I am grateful that I had the patience to stick with this book because I've enjoyed the ideas shared in it.

The big science fiction idea here is the tethering of all individuals to the MAYA trees, which are almost all connected to each other through their root systems, and share data in this way. This can be seen both as a need and an addiction, can be turned into games and competitions of avatars within it, but can also provide a kind of afterlife for said avatars for a while after an individual's passing. This reminded me a lot of Ready Player One in its core idea.

However, this series also introduces many species that often look different and take up diverse roles in the works of the socio-political system and ecology of the world.

One thing I've heard the series praised for is a relatable antagonist, a hired killer who went into it all to cure his son, making him pretty hard to hate, as it gives him such strong, noble, and loving motivations for his choices.

Another strength of this book I haven't heard anyone mention is its action sequences, which are numerous! The story is equal parts deep and philosophical and action-packed, so you better love both if you want to jump into it. Book one also doesn't move the storyline much in the grand scheme of things and ends with a major cliffhanger, so be ready for that.

My biggest warning for this series is that there will be many new and weird-sounding terms that can clutter the reading experience, making the story hard to follow and requiring a good amount of commitment and patience. The storyline also, at times, jumps from one action-packed scene to another, with great but short dialogues in between, still somehow not moving the plot forward that much.

The narration is done by Hugo Weaving, who is also playing Elrond in The Lord of the Rings, and his character voice work is excellent! Apart from a few bits where his voice intentionally or unintentionally differs from the rest of the recording, making it sound like it was done separately or on different equipment, which drew me out of the immersive story experience, I have no other complaints.

All in all, as a biologist, I'm amazed by the worldbuilding and amazing species and their interconnectedness done for this series, and with the cliffhanger at the end of this book, I'm pretty curious to continue reading. Already in book one, the series gives us some tense and tragic moments, as well as some great social commentary on surveillance and subtle methods of manipulation and control, so I suspect that the real resistance is yet to come.

I thank Simon & Schuster Audio for sharing an advance listening copy of this book via NetGalley with me, as I have been honored to be chosen to receive early access to this book! All opinions shared in my review are my own, unbiased, and honest.

If you're anything like me, and you're not heavily into romance, but much more into horrific creatures which are somehow oddly mixed with the best (i.e. selected circle of supportive colleagues) and worst of corporate culture ("we are all family up until we need to throw someone under the bus"); then this is the book for you!

I think whenever "slow burn" is meant for real, and bickering is done well, that is the only case when I can enjoy a book where one of the top genre tags is romance. For this book, I'd put genres in order of fantasy, then horror, followed by way too real corporate culture, and then romance.

This book has drawn me in with its vibrant yet gruesome cover (beautiful covers are my weakness!), scared me a bit in the beginning with how long we might stay in the office setting and will there be a lot of romance, but then quickly got me fully engaged with the monster lore, dynamic adventure, gore, and a full on emotional roller coaster. It has a well developed world and rich set of characters, but also great character development and reveals along the way. I will be looking forward to continue reading this series!

I thank Crooked Lane Books | Alcove Press for allowing me access to an advance reading copy of this book via NetGalley! All my reviews are honest and unbiased.