Review: Mayake Chronicles by E.E. Giorgi

This is a triple review for Akaela, Athel, and The Gaijin Girl (a short story), Mayake Chronicles by E.E. Giorgi. Firstly, I need to apologize to Ms. Giorgi because I received a copy of Akaela after expressing interest in the book at a release party in the fall. Of 2015. Like, nine months ago. And I read the book immediately and I am only just now writing the review. Ms. Giorgi, I am so very sorry! I hope you can forgive me, and I can’t thank you enough for the wonderful book!

Read on for my review of these incredible dystopian books!

 

Akaela (Mayake Chronicles #1) by E.E. Giorgi

Category: Young Adult, Sci-fi, Dystopian
Publication: April 27th, 2015
Purchase: Amazon

Fifteen-year-old Akaela doesn’t know what fear is. She was built this way. But in a world where survival is no longer of the fittest, being fearless can become a deadly curse.

Proud and steeped in tradition, Akaela’s people, the Mayake, are dying. While they carry implanted nanobots and sophisticated chips to compensate for their crippled and diseased bodies, these enhancements come at a price. Aging technology and a lack of resources make the Mayakes vulnerable to their enemies and on the brink of extinction. As the elders cling blindly to the past, the only hope Akaela and her 16-year-old brother Athel have to save their own people is to challenge the system or die trying.

 

The Gaijin Girl (Mayake Chronicles #1.5)

Publication: October 14th, 2015
Purchase: Amazon

A Mayake Chronicles Short Story
Twenty years ago the Gaijins lost the battle against the deadliest and most infectious bacterium ever engineered. To save themselves, the few survivors retreated to complete isolation, surrendering their lives and all human interactions to computers and artificial intelligence.

Now, two decades later, a sixteen-year-old girl eagerly awaits the New Queen’s ending of the mandatory quarantine, allowing the Gaijins to finally step out a of their forced segregation. Lilun longs to start a new life, away from the sterile prison of her virtual world and the control of her robotic mother. But what she doesn’t know is that the outside world has irreversibly changed …

 

Athel (Mayake Chronicles #2)

Publication: November 10th, 2015
Purchase: Amazon

Hidden beneath the ruins of Astraca, the legendary city destroyed by raging fires more than a century ago, hides the last sanctuary of the Mayake people—if only they can reach it.

Hounded relentlessly by the Gaijins, the Mayakes are in a race against time as they search desperately for the entrance to Astraca’s fabled Underground City. Young Athel and his friends know the only way to enter the City is to solve the mystery of the engrams, bits of encoded memories passed from one generation to the next. What they don’t know is that even if they elude the Gaijins’ latest threats and succeed to escape, the Underground City has its own secrets to reveal.

Secrets that could either save the Mayake people or make the Gaijins’ work a lot easier.

Review:

We’re the Mayakes. We survived the Plague, we won’t perish now.

The Mayakes don’t question. The Mayakes obey, endue, and move on.

As mentioned above, I received a copy of Akaela after expressing interest in it at a release party in the fall. You all know how much I love a good dystopian novel, and this amazing book did not disappoint. I can’t even describe the world that E.E. Giorgi created! The visuals, the details, and the emotions are overwhelmingly realistic. I was frustrated, horrified, intrigued, and awed by the world that the characters inhabit.

Akaela is the story of 15-year-old Akaela, who is a member of the Mayake people. The Mayakes have survived a horrible virus that destroyed most of their society and forced their rivals, the Gaijins, to go into hiding. The Mayakes are interesting because they are part human, part technology. They are immune to the virus that killed the rest of their people, but that virus still causes deformities. Therefore, the people who survived and the babies subsequently born have to make up for these deformities with bits of outdated tech, from robot eyes to prosthetic legs. The story is such an interesting mix of old and new, technology and primitive.

Akaela is incapable of feeling fear, which is obviously both a blessing and a curse. Surrounded by her brother Athel and a few friends, she is on a mission to find her father and break the confines of the traditions by which the Mayakes live—traditions which are supposed to protect them but are actually destroying them. She is often headstrong and rushes into situations she shouldn’t because she has no fear, no inner warning button yelling “STOP!” She is loyal to her family and she is incredibly loving to her horses and her falcon, Kael. I loved the scenes with the characters and their animals. My only complaint about Akaela is that she is sometimes immature when it comes to arguing with her brother, but the arguments are realistic because, well, siblings fight.

Akaela is the first book of The Mayake Chronicles, and I was thrilled that the story would continue. What a fantastic introduction to this world! Amazingly detailed, fully realized, imaginative, and unique. 4.5/5 stars!

Athel is the second book in the series and is told from alternating POVs (I forgot to mention above that Akaela is also told in alternating POVs.). I absolutely loved Athel. This book furthered the series perfectly; the premise is that the Gaijin are going to attack the Mayakes, so they must find shelter in the legendary underground city of Astraca—if they can find it. Athel and his crew figure out how to put the pieces together to gain entrance into Astraca, but constant obstacles prevent the Mayake from finding refuge.

This is once again an amazing entry in The Mayake Chronicles. The Mayakes break my heart; they are so steeped in tradition and fear that they can’t see they need to progress and adapt to survive. Athel and his friends realize this, of course, but have to act in secret.

I was immersed in the perfect juxtaposition of old and new that is essential to any dystopian, post-apocalyptic story. They have tech advanced enough to message one another through their eyes, but they live in a burned out tower with broken windows and gaping holes instead of walls. They weave nets for fishing but have advanced prosthetics. E.E. Giorgi’s writing is so detailed that I have a permanent image of the Mayakes’ world etched into my brain.

The characters have grown, particularly Akaela, and are primed to become the new leaders of their people. Athel’s secret struggle with Lilun is riveting and definitely sets us up for the next story, which I can’t wait for! 5/5 stars!

The Gaijin Girl is a short story that should be read before you read Athel. I was so thoroughly impressed after Athel and suffering from such a major book hangover that I started stalking Ms. Giorgi. I was thrilled to find that I could receive a FREE copy of The Gaijin Girl just for signing up for her newsletter! I was so happy to be able to quench my thirst for more of this world.

The story is told from the point of view of Lilun, a sixteen-year-old girl who wants nothing more than to leave the compound which houses the Gaijin. She lives in solitude and has only had the company of her A.I. caretaker. What she learns about her life is shocking and a perfect set-up for her appearance in Athel. I highly recommend reading this before Athel; since I read it after I finished Athel, I kept thinking, “OH! That’s why that happened!” or, “Oh! That makes total sense now.”  It’s a quick, 5-star read and totally worth signing up for the newsletter!

Quotes

Event: He died, shot by droids while checking the fishing nets.
Number of Mayakes left: 432.
Goal for today: Survive. –Athel’s point of view, Akaela

 

We’ve lost aunts, uncles, friends, cousins. I’ve become number to the pain, my emotions hardened by too many losses. –Athel, Akaela

 

People want an end to this but they’re too scared to start another war against the Gaijins. We’ve surrendered to our enemies, given them our land, and got only more deaths in return. –Athel, Akaela

 

It’s raining ashes again. It always does when we’re mourning, as though the sky knows of our pain and sheds its own tears.—Akaela, Akaela

 

We are the Mayakes. We are strong. We will protect our children. He doesn’t say why we’re leaving or where we’re going. Nobody asks. That’s the thing with Mayakes. We obey. –Athel, Athel

 

“But I want us to stay together,” she says softly. “And now that Athel’s being forced away . . . ”
I throw my arms around her neck and hug her, inhaling her familiar scent of summer grass and soap.
“We’ll be fine, Mom,” I say, caressing her white-streaked hair. “We’ll all be together again soon.”—Akaela, Athel