The Path of Mysteries

The Artifex and the Muse #2

by Audrey Auden

An action-packed, thought-provoking metaphysical fantasy set in a richly imagined world of myth and mystery

Yesterday, Ava and Dom risked everything to escape a life of servitude to the mysterious Voice in all. Unfortunately, their bid for freedom failed disastrously. The pharmaka-enhanced bond between Ava and Dom has become dangerously unstable as a result, and Ava's survival now depends on the help of the Mohirai. Ava and Dom seem to have no choice but to accept their callings from the Voice and begin the novice training that will lead to their initiation as Mohira and Artifex. The sisterhood of Mohirai and brotherhood of Artifexi seem wise and welcoming, but can anyone who serves the Voice really be trusted?

As Ava and Dom begin their journey along the path of mysteries, their friendship faces trials they never could have imagined. Did the Voice in all bind them together only to tear them apart?

The Path of Mysteries is Book Two in the fantasy saga The Artifex and the Muse.

Genres: Young Adult

397 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 1, 2023

About the author

In all my fiction writing, I aim to explore humankind’s pressing social and sustainability challenges through engaging, thought-provoking, optimistic stories for young adult readers.

Fantasy fiction was one of my earliest passions as a child, and as an adult I’m a lover of all forms of speculative fiction. I became an engineer because that seemed the next best thing to magic, and I’ve spent over twenty years building useful products, leading mission-driven teams, and growing technology startups.

But as satisfying as it is to build things in the “real” world, there’s nothing quite as fun as building my own worlds from scratch. I’m pleased to share the result in the form of The Artifex and the Muse fantasy series, set in the world of my debut novel Realms Unreel.

To learn more about my books, please visit my author website at audreyauden.com, where I share everything from story soundtracks and illustrations to publishing updates and reflections on the writing journey.

Reviews

[Laura Jutras · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Path of Mysteries… is amazing! The story of Ava and Dom continues. They’re now traveling with the Muses to Velkanos. They’re being followed and not completely sure who to trust….except each other. They let Hanu and Eumelia get closer as well.

But Dom and Ava are halves of the same circle. Even though Ava can be bossy, and sometimes reckless, Dom stands with her.

In this book, we learn more about their role in the Voice in All and creating the Path of Mysteries.

This book ends with a big surprise (and I don’t give spoilers 😉).

The voice in me is telling you that if you haven’t started the series do so now. And if you’ve read book one, book two does not disappoint. I cannot wait for book 3!

I received an advance review copy for free from Book Sirens, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Darya]

DNF @14%

I really enjoyed the first installment in the cycle, but I unfortunately haven't been enjoying this one as much. I want to highlight that this judgment is not about the quality of the writing or a second-book slump or anything like that. It's about the genre switch that we experienced at the end of the first book. I am just personally less interested in this type of speculative fiction.

There are definitely books where a sudden change of perspective in terms of "what type of a world are we even in?" becomes the gem of the reading experience. But, let's admit, in the world of genre fiction, which is heavily compartmentalized by favorite story formulas and tropes, there is a good chance, statistically, that if readers picked up a genre they were interested in, the switch will be to a genre they enjoy less or are less interested in. That's exactly what happened here for me.

I was excited about the YADF promise that the annotation of the first volume suggested. I grew even more fascinated by the YADF-adjacent exploration as the first book developed, when we started to doubt which side exactly was the dystopian freedom-limiting baddie. I am less interested in the type of speculative fiction about characters' awarenesses following each other side by side across multiple lifespans in multiple "branches" of reality. (That's not to spoil anything; I guess we gather this much already in the final scenes of Book 1, and the opening chapters of Book 2 simply continue exploring this.) I wouldn't have picked up the book if that had been in the annotation (when I decided to commit to the entire series, I mean), so no wonder I grew lukewarm toward this development of the worldbuilding.

[Fedythereader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you so much to the author for sharing an ARC of book two in the Artifex and the Muse series with me!!!

“But after all we’ve suffered since our journey began, haven’t we earned this one moment of pleasure together?”

“Damn your mysteries,” I say. “They’re nothing but cages you’ve built to keep us enslaved in your cursed new age.”

“I don’t think any of us can choose what we want. We can only choose whether to go after what we want.”

Such a beautiful book! Such a wonderful story! Such amazing characters!! My heart is so full!! I’m so happy I had a chance to read it!! Be back with Ava and Dom when their love and resilience and determination is put to the test both by the never ending presence of the Voice and Lilith and the strange and complicated role of the Mohirai!!! But who is the real enemy? And what’s the purpose of all their suffering? While they are trying to come back after everything that has happened to them, Ava and Dom will have to face the reality of Ava’s powers and their bond, in a journey of trust, faith, love, family and different universes. The author brought a new chapter in this series that was quite unexpected. Andrea she even introduced a trope that I am -unfortunately for me - a fan of: fated lovers. And while the world gets more complicated and Ava gets weaker, only her love for Dom will help her get through whatever it is she has to do for the Voice. This book was quite unique and a great way to keep the reader interested in the series and engaged to the story. I have to admit that I’m more than looking forward to reading another one !!! And after THAT ending … I’m too scared to let go of them. I need to know what happens next!!!

“As much as I distrust Lilith, I trust the Mohirai even less.”

“All are one. In every path, the sum of all.”

“You and I are bound to love each other and lose each other, always. It’s the reason we’re here.”

[Kimberly · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The Path of Mysteries” picks up right where the first book ends. There’s a lot going on in this second book, but it’s written in a compelling style that keeps you hooked until the last page.

I love the bond between Ava, Dom, Hanu, and Eumelia. They’re all so different but they balance and strengthen one another perfectly. Also, I really liked High Priestess Serapen’s strong presence in this book. The wisdom and guidance she gave to Ava was very much needed with everything going on.

My biggest hang-up with this book was how Ava was purposely avoiding being close to Dom during a majority of the story. I understood her reasoning, but it was so frustrating when they spent so much time together in the first book. The duel POV really helped so I knew what was going while they were separated. I was also really confused by the bridge/branch situation going on with Ava. It made more sense as the story went on, but it was difficult to follow at times because so little information was being given.

The story takes some really dark turns that I wasn’t expecting for this book, so I was in shock multiple times over. I won’t give anything away, but I’m hoping the third book will have some happier moments and put more explanation into the Voice in All.

Overall, I did enjoy this book and am looking forward to the third book so I can continue the journey. I would recommend it to older teens and young adults who love romantic fantasy with a dystopian spin.

Thank you to Book Sirens and author Audrey Auden for the opportunity to read an eARC of this book for an honest review.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a tricky one. The author contacted me to ask for a review because I'd enjoyed Book 1 of the series (with some reservations), and although I normally have a firm policy against reviewing by author request, I waive it when I've already read an earlier book by the same author and given it a good review.

This one, though, didn't end up quite working for me. Let me try to unpack why.

First, some positives. The copy editing, even in the pre-publication ARC, is excellent; only a few capitalization issues. The premise is highly original, which is something I look for and, these days, often struggle to find.

Unfortunately, the originality is also one of the negatives, in that it goes so far outside genre expectations that I found myself confused.

I mentioned in my review of the first book that it has too many genres, including post-apocalyptic and YA dystopian (neither of which I usually read), and cosmic and cyberpunk (introduced late in the book). This book leans more into the cosmic and, to a lesser extent, the cyberpunk; the post-apocalyptic isn't that prominent, because the apocalypse was a long time ago and society has re-stabilized and is reasonably comfortable, so it's mainly a reason for the dystopian setup.

That setup was part of what had me confused. It is, first of all, clearly dystopian; men have essentially no access to education, knowledge, or power, which is all in the hands of immortal priestesses. This supposedly results from the aforementioned apocalypse, an environmental collapse caused by the short-sighted and arrogant policies of kings and corrupt priests; the panentheistic deity, the Voice in All, rendered a judgement that elevated the priestesshood, which had remained pure, to power and took away all power from men. Will men ever regain a fuller share in society? In a promise reminiscent of the Soviet Union's promise of a classless utopia, someday, but not yet.

Now, this to me is an obviously dubious explanation. As any up-to-date feminist will tell you, patriarchy harms men as well as women, and many will also admit that women can be complicit even when they have no overt power. The explanation comes from the high priestess, too, who can be counted on to have a major bias.

But one thing that confused me was that in this YA dystopia, the keepers and enforcers of the dystopian situation did not seem malevolent, power-hungry, devious or ruthless, but the leader (or at least a leader) of the resistance, Lilith, was all those things. Ava, one of the two protagonists, had been raised by Lilith to distrust the priestesses, which enabled her to question their justifications for the state of things, but Lilith clearly functioned in the book as an antagonist, and an antagonist that it was easy to despise. Perhaps this is a subtle subversion of the black-and-white tropes of YA dystopian, reminding us that there are people of goodwill and even wisdom among the maintainers of oppressive systems, and people of ill will among those who want to tear those systems down. But even as an adult reader who believes this, I wasn't sure where to put my support. The political structure and the tropes were pointing one way, the structure of the relationships within the book the other, and it left me scratching my head. Maybe that's intentional, but purely in terms of a fiction-reading experience, it wasn't optimal for me.

The other thing that confused me is that, despite a heavy preponderance of exposition over plot, especially early on, I never did get straight how the "branches" of the book's cosmic aspect worked. They seemed to be a version of the many worlds hypothesis of quantum physics, which was supported by some technobabble about storing information in quantum computers to make it available across multiple branches; but because it was closely intertwined with the cosmic aspects, and those weren't really clear, I was never sure how the presence of the same characters on multiple branches worked, and whether there was a reincarnation aspect or not. Dom, the second protagonist and Ava's love interest, is present on branches in advanced versions of our world's San Francisco as a middle-aged man rather than the teenager he is on Ava's world, but he appears to remember a youth in her world; that was never explained, and Ava never asked about it.

I was left with a lot more questions than answers at the end of the book, in fact. Others include: why, a couple of pages after stating that only Ava, of all the girls, spoke to him or knew his name at the Children's Temple, does Dom reminisce about his close relationship with Hana at that same place? If a Muse is made a Muse by an Artifex choosing to do a major project with her, and Dom, as an Artifex, is expected to choose "a Muse," and there appear to have only been two Artifexes prior to Dom, why are there more than two Muses? Why do two of the Muses have the names of Greek muses appropriate to what their specialty is, while the others don't? Why, in fact, are the names in general (both people and places) a grab bag from half a dozen different cultures' mythologies? How does food production in this society work? (That last question was left over from the first volume.)

Unfortunately, I didn't find this book compelling enough to persevere with the series in the faint hope of getting answers. Ultimately, there wasn't enough plot per thousand words, and despite the mass of exposition - mostly of the cosmic aspect - I ended the book without a clear idea of where the story was going, how the world(s) worked, or even where my sympathies lay. It's unfortunate; it has the opposite problem to most of the new books I pick up for review, in that while it's well edited and original in concept, in terms of its storytelling and emotional arc I found it didn't work so well for me.

[Que]

This sequel presented several challenges for me as a reader. One, I struggled to grasp the author's vision and the narrative direction compared to the first book. The story's structure seemed disorganized, which was disappointing after the well-organized plot of its predecessor. Two, the characters' motivations were unclear, and the plot heavily relied on their development rather than a compelling storyline. This made it difficult for me to engage with the narrative at hand consistently. Thirdly, the world-building and plot twists felt implausible, and I found it difficult to suspend my disbelief.

Moreover, the characters' actions lacked convincing justification, especially concerning their moral decisions and understanding of consent, which troubled me deeply. The pacing of the novel was another issue, as it moved slowly without a sense of urgency until the very end, where significant events finally unfolded.

The book heavily delves into intricate theories of memory which seem more suited to academic discourse than a fantasy novel. The author's focus on memory's winding nature overshadows the plot, making it feel like a scholarly thesis rather than a continuation of the captivating storytelling of the first book.

Furthermore, the female protagonist's shift in priorities from evading the Mohirai to exploring memory's complexities feels abrupt and disconnects entirely from the pre-established narrative. The stylistic changes, including drastically altered language and character personalities, further distance this sequel from its predecessor.

While the novel introduces involute concepts like time travel and astral projection, it also inundates the reader with dense exposition, which detracts from the enjoyment of the few fantasy elements it manages to retain. Quite frankly, at times, I felt like I was studying physics instead of reading a fiction novel. As a result, the decision to classify this book as a fantasy is questionable to me. While the book's experimental nature showcases the author's creativity, its heavy scientific focus may alienate readers seeking a more straightforward narrative.

Overall, while the book excels in theoretical exploration, it sacrifices narrative continuity and reader engagement by prioritizing academic depth over fictional coherence.

Moreover, the characters, particularly Ava, are deeply unlikable. Ava's erratic behavior, attributed to a pharmaka overdose inducing psychological instability, makes her intolerable as a protagonist. Dom’s character is flat and uninteresting. He is completely unaware about how society functions. He fails to deduce red flags and signs of side characters like Balashi and Tio plotting or acting suspicious right in front of him, which is sheer stupidity. Why dismiss the knowledge staring you in the face that someone is untrustworthy? An intelligent character, he is not. Ava is the smarter of the two but she is cynical to a fault, and I did not love her off-putting interactions with other-Dom, the geriatric weirdo from Earth. I do not care for the friendships between Dom, Hanu, Ava, and Eumelia, and they only exacerbate how much of a doormat Dom is. He is incapable of setting boundaries with others and enforcing them.

Ultimately, Dom's obliviousness and lack of discernment add little to the plot, making his eventual fate less impactful than intended. His narrative arc is completely devoid of meaningful development, and his flaws serve as a testament to the story's overall shortcomings in character and plot execution.

Overall, these factors diminished my eagerness to revisit the book or anticipate future sequels. Despite these challenges, I appreciate novels that push my thinking, even if this one suffered from overly complex themes and ideas, so I hesitate to rate it poorly. It definitely wasn’t for me, and that’s okay. Others can make of it what they will.

[Tpendleton · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Path of Mysteries expands the continuing adventures of Ava and Dom. The main characters are developing well; although, Dom seems to be like a twig being carried along by currents outside of his control. Ava, in contrast, pushes boundaries, particularly with respect to exploration of the metaverse.

As our view of metaverse expands, it alternatively seems to me organic at times and a programming construct at others. In my organic view, it appears like head of broccoli with stems and florets being various branches of the metaphysical construct. I see the hand of a gardener at work here. While the density of the metaverse is not yet like a nice head of broccoli, I suspect it may in time fill out.

The programming construct view presents as a clean matrix with neat and orderly spheres for each cell of the metaverse. I see the hand of a programmer at work here. The smooth and efficient interface to the metaverse certainly demonstrates a thoughtful approach to containing , and organizing, the free flowing life spaces in the construct.

I will admit to being a fan of AA's work. When Realms Unreel was first released, I eagerly explored the beginnings of what would become The Artifex and Muse saga. The Voice in All (#1) nicely pivoted from Realms Unreel to set the stage for this series. The Path of Mysteries (#2) brought dimension to the adventure. I am most curious to see if #3, and beyond, favor the Gardener or the Programmer.

Thank you AA for bringing us some enjoyable reading.

[Herbert Eder · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like in the first book, much of the world is still a mystery to both the reader and the adorable protagonists of the story, but together with Dom and Ava we learn more and more about this world that is full of mysteries.

Again, not that much seems to happen, there are no armies of evil to defeat and no dragons to kill, it's basically just a journey from Dom and Avas home to the capital city, but there is so much going on within and between the characters that there is never a feeling of something missing, and it ends with a bang.

I love the characters, the world and the book - just a word of warning, you need to read Book 1 first, and you will need to read the next book of the series, it does not work as a standalone book!

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Yue · Rating 1 out of 5]

There was just way too much going on … The MC was very annoying. Ava wasn’t fun and Dom was zzz. Book Sirens has had more misses than hits lately. The tree analogy was weird and the spellings of words very strange.

I just couldn’t get into it, I felt like I was missing a book so I went back and remembered I had read a book similar to this several years before. I looked it up and it is called “realms unreel.” I never finished it out of boredom.

So it is a book from a decade ago being reworked. No wonder I did not enjoy it when I wasn’t a fan then. Nothing has changed, sadly. It reminds me a bit of the Hugo clockwork book that I also could not finish for similar reasons.

[AB · Rating 5 out of 5]

imaginative and emotionally charged

Overall, this is a richly layered fantasy that will appeal to fans of Sarah J. Maas and V.E. Schwab, as well as readers who enjoy thoughtful, genre-bending stories with romance, rebellion, and big ideas at their core.