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Guardians of the Pattern #3.0
Ghost in the Mythe
Miko Asada does not belong in the human world, not since the jump drive accident that warped him into something other. Fragile, beautiful, and silent, Miko remains an enigma, even to those who know him best.
Ajhani Guardian Tarrin Rhivana no longer belongs on the world of his birth. Exiled for choosing his clan’s safety over the sanctity of human life, Tarrin attempts to escape aboard a ship belonging to the Sky People who have invaded his world.
When Tarrin’s ignorance of Federation technology threatens his sanity and his life, he is saved by a beautiful ghost, and brought to the Institute for Psionic Research. There, he meets Miko and learns that one of the Sky People has bonded to one of the ancient artifacts his people are sworn to protect.
As a Guardian, it is Tarrin’s duty to return to his clan and convince them of the danger the Sky People represent. But his fellow Guardians will kill an exile on sight, and Miko may be the only one who can prevent them from executing Tarrin before he can deliver his warning.
~104,000 words
Ajhani Guardian Tarrin Rhivana no longer belongs on the world of his birth. Exiled for choosing his clan’s safety over the sanctity of human life, Tarrin attempts to escape aboard a ship belonging to the Sky People who have invaded his world.
When Tarrin’s ignorance of Federation technology threatens his sanity and his life, he is saved by a beautiful ghost, and brought to the Institute for Psionic Research. There, he meets Miko and learns that one of the Sky People has bonded to one of the ancient artifacts his people are sworn to protect.
As a Guardian, it is Tarrin’s duty to return to his clan and convince them of the danger the Sky People represent. But his fellow Guardians will kill an exile on sight, and Miko may be the only one who can prevent them from executing Tarrin before he can deliver his warning.
~104,000 words
ebook
First published June 1, 2015
1 person is currently reading
48 people want to read
About the author
Jaye McKenna
24 books132 followersJaye McKenna was born a Brit and was dragged, kicking and screaming, across the Pond at an age when such vehement protest was doomed to be misinterpreted as a “paddy”. She grew up near a sumac forest in Minnesota and spent most of her teen years torturing her parents with her electric guitar and her dark poetry. She was punk before it was cool and a grown-up long before she was ready. Jaye writes fantasy and science fiction stories about hot guys who have the hots for each other. She enjoys making them work darn hard for their happy endings, which might explain why she never gets invited to their parties.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
March 11, 2018
Miko is a bit of an enigma in the first stories, but in this book, we finally get to be inside Miko’s head. And omgosh was it ever worth the wait. Miko is stunning and every bit as broken as he’s been painted through the eyes of the other characters but he’s also strong and such a pivotal characters to the whole series. Love Miko.
The way the author handled Miko and Tarrin’s love story was perfect, and given Miko’s background there was just no other way I could have seen it going. They were beautiful together.
The plot of this series as a whole is fascinating and so complex. Miko first appears in book 0.5 right at the beginning of the series and his journey so far is beautiful. I am so glad it’s not totally over yet.
The way the author handled Miko and Tarrin’s love story was perfect, and given Miko’s background there was just no other way I could have seen it going. They were beautiful together.
The plot of this series as a whole is fascinating and so complex. Miko first appears in book 0.5 right at the beginning of the series and his journey so far is beautiful. I am so glad it’s not totally over yet.
July 27, 2016
My favorite story so far. I love how it's tying everything together and I can't wait for the next one :)
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January 28, 2017Now available at Amazon and Smashwords
January 31, 2016
2nd read Jan 2016- even better this time around
Jaye McKenna's writing is so beautiful and fluid that it draws me completely into the story and world. This is the 3rd book in the Guardians of the Pattern series and although there are no cliffhangers, the books should be read in order. Miko is one of the most endearing characters I've ever read and to know that he's found someone just for him is wonderful. There are just a few sex scenes but they are so loving and tender that I'm still smiling over them.
The blurb gives an accurate description of the book and all I can do is drool over it instead of giving any type of constructive review. PLEASE, Jaye McKenna, don't make me wait long for another book in this series!
Jaye McKenna's writing is so beautiful and fluid that it draws me completely into the story and world. This is the 3rd book in the Guardians of the Pattern series and although there are no cliffhangers, the books should be read in order. Miko is one of the most endearing characters I've ever read and to know that he's found someone just for him is wonderful. There are just a few sex scenes but they are so loving and tender that I'm still smiling over them.
The blurb gives an accurate description of the book and all I can do is drool over it instead of giving any type of constructive review. PLEASE, Jaye McKenna, don't make me wait long for another book in this series!
January 22, 2018
What a relief. This intriguing addition to the series was a pleasure to read, start to finish. Still wish for better world building, but of course the character development was excellent. On to #4.
May 15, 2022
favourite of the series so far - fantastic blending of sci-fi and fantasy worlds.
reviewette to follow
reviewette to follow
June 8, 2015
I'm such a Miko fan! Best book in the series so far, which is saying a lot considering how fantastic the entire series has been so far.
September 4, 2017
Have to give the author credit for not using the word "force" when describing the mythe (something they overcompensated for by having almost every character say "I've got a bad feeling about this" at least once. When this was a scifi series, it sort of had a sense of how the universe it was set in worked. When it devolved into a fantasy meets scifi (meets Battlestar meets Star Wars), it lost cohesion and small holes that were just a bit annoying became glaringly obvious. Add in the surprisingly stiff dialogue, the growing cast of goody two-shoes (all male, except for one token female) and I don't think I'll be finishing this series.
June 18, 2019
Read as part of Guardians Compilation: Volume #1, Stories #1-3.
July 23, 2015
This series takes place in a pretty complex futuristic paranormal galactic empire. The "Psions" are people with the ability to access the Mythe, a sort of life energy/chi/energy stream thing.
Throughout the series, Miko has been the enigmatic mystery character. He connects to the galactic equivalent to the internet via the mythe, and manipulates hardware and software at will with the power of his magick. He was rescued from sexual slavery by the leader of the organization that trains Psions and harnesses their power for the greater good. He is a pretty typical fantasy enigma- lovely beyond compare but detached from the flow of the plot, with subtle clues that he is manipulating events or perhaps foretelling them. He doesn't speak except via voice synthesizer.
So this is his story, and I was looking forward to it. However, the unfortunate truth of the beautiful enigma in romantic fantasy is that telling his story makes him less compelling. It's the mystery that makes him interesting. Some authors pull it off, but many end up with disappointed readers, and I was disappointed.
Miko in the background was intriguing. Miko in focus is kind of annoying.
So the story here is that there is a planet that is home to an indigenous group of humans (? this is never confirmed, although the assumption is that they are human and there is discussion about whether they are a lost colony or preexisted Earth). They are spiritual and tribal and the Mythe, which nobody else other than Miko seems to believe in, is their religion. Tarrin is part of this tribe (the Ajhani) and is exiled. This is a pretty drawn out process and defines the tribe as being rule bound and not particularly spiritual, despite their link to the mythe. For example, they have a "dragon speaker" who supposedly is able to enter the mythe and speak to the guardians there (called dragons) but they don't actually listen to anything she says. Tarrin used his powers to kill an outsider who was stealing sacred mythe weapons, and snce this tribe has an inflexible moral code that was the end of him.
Right off the bat the story seemed less thoughtful than the previous stories. The rigid morality in a supposedly spiritual culture, combined with the unambiguous villains, made Tarrin's whole ordeal more a means to an end (a way to get him to Miko) than an interesting plotline in itself.
After this, Tarrin decides he has to get off the planet for kind of vague and nonsensical reasons and, even though he's ill after his ordeal, hops on a ship and stows away. Followers of the series know that this is a bad idea, as the jump technology they use makes people insane. Luckily Miko finds him in the mythe and rescues him.
What follows is an effort to visually represent this energy stream. I found it lacking, unfortunately. While there's a lot of talk about how the visual aspect is only a perception, and efforts to make it a bit stretchy/dream-like, it really was a bit mundane and lacking in any metaphorical originality.
So now we follow Miko (who is resistant to having a relationship in a pretty normal romance novel fashion) and Tarrin (who isn't) as they meet and like each other and go on some adventures and try to save the universe. See, the head mythe dragon has tasked Miko with staving off the destruction of everything.
Unfortunately, instead of an insightful and creative character who is straddling two realities, Miko just comes across as a stubborn and frightened child. I think a little of that is fine, but the mystical and enigmatic was almost completely discarded in an effort to make him the vulnerable ingenue needing rescue by Tarrin's big strong warrior character. Even his trips into the mythe did not really give him any magic, because the mythe was almost entirely described as pretty mundane and earthly (a shelter, a forest, crossroads, etc).
As romantic fantasy, it's still OK, and it definitely has the worldbuilding of previous books to prop it up, but for someone who was looking forward to this particular character's turn to find love, the oversimplistic treatment killed some of the magic.
Yet, if you've followed the series and enjoyed it as I have, you'll have to read it anyway. It's part of the overall story arc. And maybe others will think she did exactly the right thing with Miko's character. This reader, however, was disappointed.
Throughout the series, Miko has been the enigmatic mystery character. He connects to the galactic equivalent to the internet via the mythe, and manipulates hardware and software at will with the power of his magick. He was rescued from sexual slavery by the leader of the organization that trains Psions and harnesses their power for the greater good. He is a pretty typical fantasy enigma- lovely beyond compare but detached from the flow of the plot, with subtle clues that he is manipulating events or perhaps foretelling them. He doesn't speak except via voice synthesizer.
So this is his story, and I was looking forward to it. However, the unfortunate truth of the beautiful enigma in romantic fantasy is that telling his story makes him less compelling. It's the mystery that makes him interesting. Some authors pull it off, but many end up with disappointed readers, and I was disappointed.
Miko in the background was intriguing. Miko in focus is kind of annoying.
So the story here is that there is a planet that is home to an indigenous group of humans (? this is never confirmed, although the assumption is that they are human and there is discussion about whether they are a lost colony or preexisted Earth). They are spiritual and tribal and the Mythe, which nobody else other than Miko seems to believe in, is their religion. Tarrin is part of this tribe (the Ajhani) and is exiled. This is a pretty drawn out process and defines the tribe as being rule bound and not particularly spiritual, despite their link to the mythe. For example, they have a "dragon speaker" who supposedly is able to enter the mythe and speak to the guardians there (called dragons) but they don't actually listen to anything she says. Tarrin used his powers to kill an outsider who was stealing sacred mythe weapons, and snce this tribe has an inflexible moral code that was the end of him.
Right off the bat the story seemed less thoughtful than the previous stories. The rigid morality in a supposedly spiritual culture, combined with the unambiguous villains, made Tarrin's whole ordeal more a means to an end (a way to get him to Miko) than an interesting plotline in itself.
After this, Tarrin decides he has to get off the planet for kind of vague and nonsensical reasons and, even though he's ill after his ordeal, hops on a ship and stows away. Followers of the series know that this is a bad idea, as the jump technology they use makes people insane. Luckily Miko finds him in the mythe and rescues him.
What follows is an effort to visually represent this energy stream. I found it lacking, unfortunately. While there's a lot of talk about how the visual aspect is only a perception, and efforts to make it a bit stretchy/dream-like, it really was a bit mundane and lacking in any metaphorical originality.
So now we follow Miko (who is resistant to having a relationship in a pretty normal romance novel fashion) and Tarrin (who isn't) as they meet and like each other and go on some adventures and try to save the universe. See, the head mythe dragon has tasked Miko with staving off the destruction of everything.
Unfortunately, instead of an insightful and creative character who is straddling two realities, Miko just comes across as a stubborn and frightened child. I think a little of that is fine, but the mystical and enigmatic was almost completely discarded in an effort to make him the vulnerable ingenue needing rescue by Tarrin's big strong warrior character. Even his trips into the mythe did not really give him any magic, because the mythe was almost entirely described as pretty mundane and earthly (a shelter, a forest, crossroads, etc).
As romantic fantasy, it's still OK, and it definitely has the worldbuilding of previous books to prop it up, but for someone who was looking forward to this particular character's turn to find love, the oversimplistic treatment killed some of the magic.
Yet, if you've followed the series and enjoyed it as I have, you'll have to read it anyway. It's part of the overall story arc. And maybe others will think she did exactly the right thing with Miko's character. This reader, however, was disappointed.
January 31, 2016
Certainly the one where you really have to suspend belief and go with the flow. As with the others I love the universe, the guys, and cannot wait to continue the series!
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews