Mayan Interface

Mayan Interface is the creative output of two genius authors, Wim Coleman and Pat Perrin. Both are collaborating their writings for more than 25 years now. Mayan Interface is based on myths and traditions of Mexico, which Wim and Pat got in contact with when they were living there. This book is written for any fictional fantasy genre reader.

The story begins with bit confusion but with passage of time and lines you as reader get to know the depth of what is written, like:
"My city gone.
My people gone.
And I, myself, a ghost in my own world."

Symbolism and real places are at the core of this book. If the book was only about the Worlds end in 2012 then if would have been pretty boring because it's already 2013. But Wim & Pat were able to create very compelling fantasy thriller. The thing to look forward to in this book is, how technology and myths are merging together and form one of the best plots.

When I got the copy of the book, my expectations with the book were simple; a nice and easy read that somehow manages to give hybrid view on Mayan prophecy. What I got was way more, a very complex and deep plot. Good characters. And a nice story to move them forward. The Language used was bit heavy and could have been simplified.

On concluding notes I know that authors have put forth way too much research while writing this book. This is a good book to read but certainly not the best. I'll give this one 3.5 stars out of 5. And I am most certainly going to read other books by Wim & Pat, because they have the quality (richness) to the content.

Mayan Interface by Wim Coleman and Pat Perrin is a novel about synthesis, particularly synthesis between our world of technology and the world of the Mayans. But it is not just a novel about synthesis, it is also a novel with a thesis. However, unlike most thesis novels, Mayan Interface is light and graceful reading. The characters are humorous, and sad, and real, and, like us, not in complete possession of all the facts. A lively, sensitive female archaeologist meets a master computer whiz-kid who is attempting to create a virtual reality Mayan city. Because of the pockets of non-understanding each character brings to the project, there are incidents where science gets out of hand and lives are threatened. Yes, the novel ends on a comfortable note, but we aren’t allowed to forget that the unknowably rich Mayan culture is still in ruins.
The authors are wise enough to slip in welcome allusions to other books, real and fictive. One, Milpa Spirits, written by the protagonist and quoted extensive in Mayan Interface, is a book about Mayan spiritual beliefs (and, even if it doesn’t exist, it’s a book I’d like to read). The authors also sneak in an extensive and amusing dialogue regarding one of the greatest books about cultural evolution, Julian Jaynes’s must-read The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, a title that captures the great humor and equally great complexity of its author.
Mayan Interface also reminds of us of parallels between what happened to the Mayans and what is happening to us. We (us, now) need to consider what made these great Mesoamerican cultures so vulnerable, so breakable. (Surely it wasn’t just conquistadors or measles, because we aren’t worried about these anymore, right?) I wonder how many of us agree that our current mode of life is turning out to be as unsustainable as the inexplicable blood rituals of the Aztecs. (Wait a minute! I do know Mayans and Aztecs aren’t the same, but when all that is left of a great culture is an array of beautiful enigmatic artifacts, we need to think about that, and think hard.)

Mayan Interface follows Lydia, an archaeologist, as she in entwined in mysterious events that were set into motion long ago. On a dig in Yucatan Peninsula she finds a stela (a stone tablet used to publish/write various messages). Things start getting weird as she deciphers the meaning behind the tablet. Her niece turns up dead in a virtual simulation of the very site the stela was found, and Lydia explores both the real and virtual world looking for answers.

The writing is pretty captivating, and captures the sights, sounds and smells of exotic places well enough that I can envision them. The book seems well researched enough to add some veracity to the more fantastical elements. The details about Mayan culture are one thing that kept me reading, as I like to learn about different places. There are even images of some of the runes in the book. A neat touch. The story mixes ancient shamanism with modern technology, creating a mash-up that is intriguing and successful. Mayan Interface is something of a twist on the 2012 Mayan calendar apocalypse rumors that circulated, but it covers many themes beside that. The characters are interesting and fleshed out, their relationships to one another made clear. There are touched of action, sci-fi, fantasy and horror that made this a refreshing read.

Mayan Interface, by Wim Coleman, follows a young woman named Lydia Rosenstrom. Lydia is a translator who is working alongside a group of archaeologists in a Mayan temple in Yucatan. The group uncovers some stone tablets that Lydia translates, finding birth and death years. Alongside these are some strange markings that she is not familiar with. Before she is able to translate them, she leaves for Oregon to work with a museum in Portland to help recreate the Mayan City for an exhibit. Lydia's niece helps her to recreate the strange markings on the stone for the exhibit, and then oddly meets an untimely and strange death. Lydia starts to unravel clues that start to prove that the mysteries that she has been uncovering may be more true than she has realized.

I found the story line to be very intriguing. I loved the mystery of it, as well as the tie in of the Mayan history. Lydia's character was very easy to relate to and she played a very strong female role. The story grabbed my attention from the very first page and held it all the way through the end. I found it hard to not turn the page late into the night. The story is packed full of details, making it easy to paint a picture of everything that is going on. I really enjoyed the book and I would recommend it to anyone simply looking for a good story to read. I will be looking forward to reading more from this author!

Intriguing, scary, haunting, inspiring... what other adjectives can I use? Wim Coleman and Pat Perrin have crafted a terrifying tale in their novel, Mayan Interface. But, intriguingly, the terror is so enticing you never beg the protagonist not go forward, begging her instead to try it and try it again. Best of all, the protagonist feels the same attraction, driven by the same curiosity, freed by the same sense of non-belonging that so characterizes modern society, and empowered by a wonderful mix of intelligent analysis and creative inspiration.

The novel moves between Portland Oregon and Yucatan, rendering both places convincingly, recreating the Rose Garden and a thatch-roofed house with equal aplomb under the watchful gaze of the Milky Way. But in Mayan mythology, the Milky Way is more than a carpet of stars. And in modern understanding, there's more to life than measurements and computer simulation.

"[W]hat doctors here call schizophrenia, folks there call magic and vision," says Lydia, describing her experience of reality knit by myth and legend in Yucatan. A combination of measurable and mythic, science and story, past and future threads through these tales, with computer's virtual reality almost as real as history, almost as true as feathered gods and priests in headdresses.

The mix of shamanic peace and scientific measurement in this novel is enthralling. Wonderful storytelling merges with the solid reality of archeological digs and complex computer programming, and a timely rejection of end-of-the-world simplicity. What stays with me most at story's end is a tale told by one of the characters to another, of a divided brain, left and right, art and science, and how perhaps the truths of life lie somewhere in unity. But read the book; the characters tell these tales and follow this plot with much more intensity and feeling than I can convey.

Disclosure: I was lucky enough to be offered a free copy of this book. I'm just sorry it took me so long to get around to reading it. I really enjoyed it.

"Mayan Interface," a new spiritual thriller from Wim Coleman and Pat Perrin, is a wonderful example of the growing genre of visionary fiction. Winner of the 2012 Silver Medal for Adventure Fiction from Living Now Book Awards, "Mayan Interface" is a marvelous mix of science, psychology, metaphysics, and mysticism packaged in a fast-paced thriller that keeps you guessing to the very end.

Spiritual/metaphysical content: Medium. Lydia is an archaeologist and a practicing shaman in the Mayan tradition. The novel explores how ancient and contemporary shamans use crystals, tarot cards, and other tools to create a state of shamanic awareness or "wide focus," which encompasses both intense concentration and a free flow of thought, say the authors, in a "paradoxical feeling of reverie and alertness."

A fascinating aspect of Mayan Interface is the interplay of science and metaphysics. If you enter a computer-generated virtual reality in a shamanic state, the authors say, the virtual world becomes real. Is it magic? Is it reality? To the brain, it really doesn't matter; you experience what you think and perceive. In some cases, a somatic shift happens in your brain--your sensory apparatus "buys into" the illusion; what was cartoon-like before suddenly takes on depth, color and richness. That shift is not produced by the software but only by the brain, particularly if the individual has a rich inner life. Virtual reality can merge with shamanic reality. There is a fine line, say Coleman and Perrin, between shamanism and schizophrenia.

My take: This wonderful visionary fiction novel asks, What is truth--your sensory experience, or how your brain interprets that experience? (Perhaps there is more than one "truth" in any experience.) The plot seamlessly fuses computer science and metaphysics to explore this question and many more, including how the bicameral brain may have evolved during the height of the Mayan culture in a way that changed the very nature of human consciousness.

The authors incorporate broad-based research and attention to historical detail. For instance, Mayans have a rich oral tradition, but they do not tell stories--they "converse" them with other people. Story-telling is a participatory experience. The authors' detailed research into Mayan glyphs is integral to the plot, not just window dressing.

Coleman and Perrin are master storytellers, ratcheting up the suspense until nearly the last page. They are adept at unusual and effective character development for even minor characters (such as a nerd/poet). The spiritual novel's pace is rollicking, keeping you on the edge of your chair until the very end. Although the book is a fast and easy read its depth is surprising, pulling in principles from so many scientific and philosophical sources that your head swims with new concepts. Take, for example, the importance of story: ". . . that's what stories do. Re-write the mind." What greater goal could fiction have?

Lydia is a master translator working on mayan glyphs at a site in Mexico. Her sister calls her and invites her to Portland to view a Virtual Reality program that she has created giving life, and depth to the site Lydia is presenly working on. There may be some confusion as times switch from early Mayan to present day but to point out that Lydia through some shamanisn on her part actually becomes part of the VR face of the village. She partakes in walking through the temple and becomes part of the ceremonies. View this as great fun with historically accurate aging and description.

In the epoch of miracles, a "time which includes this time and all times, there is a macaw and a there is also a living skeleton ... they are the best of friends."

We are plunged into this intriguing and stunningly well written tale filled with Mayan magic and breathtaking imagery with an ancient and unusual sacrifice only to be torn away again to meet Lydia Rosenstrom, an ancient Mayan translator, who has been working with the archeological team in Yucatan. Lydia's world has been focused on her work, but after helping create a virtual world of the Mayan landscape she finds herself in a three-fold dilemma.

"Why have time passing, moving us from babyhood to age to death, separating us from everyone and everything that lives before and after?"

The vision serpent is a gateway between the otherworld and the world of mortals and Lydia's life is thrown into chaos when she finds herself traversing this opening and "cascading across the centuries".

There are so many moments in this complex and elegantly written novel where I was crying out "No! Don't do that!" And yet another part of me was cheering Lydia on. This story was so cleverly written I was speaking out loud to it telling it how amazing it was - but don't be put off thinking it is written in a way to exclude those of us who simply love stories. In fact, this is perfect storytelling - with intertwined tales all neatly tied up by the brilliant ending.

We are invited into the world of archeology and Mayan magic with words that sparkle and intrigue. The characters are beautifully formed and the imagery is superb. I was there in the Virtual Reality globe, walking the temple steps, conversing with Itzam-Yeh, watching Lydia face the challenges with her three entities, her present self, Charon and Ix Kalem, and praising her willingness to transform.

According to Mayan Legend, the story is always happening, whether it be in the future or the past. It certainly didn't stop when I read the last page. Somehow I feel like the story has always been a part of me.

But:
"That's what stories can do.
Re-write the mind."

An absolute must read.

Mayan Interface is an exciting, deeply layered adventure tale that raises questions about the very nature of reality. Ancient Mayan translator Lydia Rosenstrom is thrown into a technologic virtual world that cleaves the ancient Mayan past, the present, as well as the realm of the Shaman. Lydia must learn to navigate this seemingly surreal experience using her free will and intuition when the danger of these worlds colliding threatens her very existence. This is a story that will speak to every one of us being called to fully commit to our choices, our lives, and the people we love.