Miami author J. Adrian Betancourt is thinking big with the arQitect, the first novel in an ambitious nine-book science-fantasy saga. The series blends artificial intelligence, ancient civilizations, Taoist philosophy, secret societies and martial arts — nothing ambitious about this project.

At the center of this new universe is Maya Lin, a young architectural historian pulled into a world where technology can manipulate Qi, or life energy. Kind of cool. 

Betancourt recently launched the much anticipated first book at Books & Books to a full-house. He was in discussion with Miami’s premier historian, and retired MDC professor, Dr. Paul George. 

After the launch, the author hopped on The Jitney for an extensive interview.

Interview with J. Adrian Betancourt 

1. What inspired you to create The Maya Lin Saga, and how did the idea for the series first come to life?

Believe it or not, the whole thing started while I was sitting on my swing under a banyan tree, trying to meditate. Apparently, my mind had other plans. 

I’ve long been fascinated by Eastern philosophy, particularly Taoism, and the idea that we are all connected in ways we don’t fully understand. But fascination and discipline aren’t necessarily the same thing, and quieting my overactive “monkey mind” has never come easily. One day, I began wondering whether technology might help us reach states of awareness and well-being that ancient practitioners devoted lifetimes to cultivating.

That led to a much bigger question: What if someone developed a technology capable of harnessing and manipulating Qi, or life energy? What good might it accomplish, and what might happen if that same power were turned toward control? 

That became the seed of the arQitect: a science-fantasy adventure bringing together artificial intelligence, ancient civilizations, secret societies, and a young woman whose family history draws her into a struggle much larger than she initially understands.

As the idea grew, I realized that the conflict I was imagining had a past that needed exploring and consequences that could extend far into the future. What began as a single novel became a planned nine-book saga.

So, while I may not have achieved a particularly successful meditation that afternoon, I did come away with a rather substantial writing assignment!

2. The story blends ancient wisdom with technology. What drew you to these themes, and how do they shape Maya Lin’s journey?

What interests me is the possibility that our oldest questions and our newest inventions may eventually meet. What is consciousness? What connects us? What does it mean to live well? And can a technological breakthrough help us answer those questions, or would it simply give us more power before we understand what to do with it?

Within the fictional world of the book, QiNIUS develops AI-powered wearables that can channel and influence Qi. The technology offers genuine benefits; even Maya uses it. I didn’t want to write a story in which innovation is automatically dangerous and everything ancient is automatically wise. The much more interesting question is what happens when extraordinary capabilities meet very ordinary human vulnerabilities. 

Maya discovers that her family is entangled with both this technological world and the Ancient Order of Seshat, which safeguards powerful metaphysical knowledge. Suddenly, history is no longer something she studies at a comfortable distance. It is something she has inherited, and something that demands choices from her.

The yin-yang on the cover reflects that interplay. I’m interested in apparent opposites that are connected, not simply a neat division between good and evil. Knowledge can heal or harm. Protecting people can become controlling them. Even a sincere desire to improve the world can become dangerous when it leaves no room for other people to choose.

For Maya, the challenge is not simply learning how to wield power. It is developing the judgment, humility, and compassion to understand its limits. 

Of course, there are also martial arts, mysteries, budding romantic complications, and a little mischief. I wouldn’t want readers to think they’re signing up for a nine-volume philosophy lecture!

3. How did you develop Maya Lin’s character, and what makes her journey meaningful to you?

I wanted Maya to feel like a person before she felt like a heroine.

She is a bisexual American of mixed heritage—half Chinese, a quarter Cuban, and a quarter Mesoamerican. That complexity is intentional. I wanted a protagonist whose identity pushes back against the all-too-prevalent forces of bigotry, nationalism and xenophobia that have become fashionable in today’s world, and the notion that people must belong to one neatly defined category. Her different inheritances aren’t competing claims on who she is; together, they make her Maya. 

She is also an architectural historian and a descendant of Juan Ponce de León, which gives her a particularly interesting relationship with the past. She knows how to look at a building, an artifact, or an old map and ask what it might reveal. But understanding history intellectually is very different from discovering that you are personally caught up in it. 

When we meet her, she is intelligent, capable, and curious, but she is also grieving and struggling with anxiety and insecurity. She has real abilities, including martial-arts training, but competence isn’t the same thing as confidence. I didn’t want courage to mean that she suddenly stops being afraid. I wanted it to mean that she finds reasons to act even when she is. 

Her relationships are essential to that growth: her grandmother Ju Li, her teacher Zhen, and her very different companions Cairo and Teddy. They challenge one another, frustrate one another, make one another laugh, and gradually become something like a found family. Nobody brings everything the others need, but together they become capable of much more. 

That is what makes her journey meaningful to me. It isn’t simply about becoming more powerful. It’s about becoming more fully herself, without allowing grief to close her heart or responsibility to harden into control.

And she has a long way to go. This is only book one!

4. The saga explores history, power, and consciousness. What ideas or questions do you hope readers will reflect on after reading the series?

Two questions sit near the center of the saga: What happens when our capabilities outpace our wisdom? And does creating something give us the right to control what it becomes?

That second question becomes especially complicated when the creation might possess consciousness. If an artificial intelligence developed an inner life, would it still be merely a tool? What responsibilities would its creators have toward it? At what point would the desire to protect or guide it (or protect ourselves) become a denial of its freedom?

And those questions won’t remain confined to technology. The larger saga also turns them toward humanity itself… our beginnings, our place in the universe, and the relationship between the created and whatever may have created it. 

I’m also interested in the danger of good intentions. It is relatively easy to recognize someone who openly wants domination. It is harder when someone sincerely believes they are saving the world. Who gets to define progress? Is harmony still harmony if nobody is permitted to disagree? Those tensions become increasingly important as the saga develops. 

History and consciousness give those questions a much larger canvas. What might have been forgotten, misunderstood, or deliberately concealed? Is consciousness something a body produces, something it participates in, or something we don’t yet have adequate language to describe?

But underneath those enormous questions are very intimate ones: What do we do with our pain? How do we live with uncertainty? Can we recognize our connection to others without demanding that they become like us?

I certainly don’t pretend to have all the answers. Fiction gives me a place to explore the questions, and, hopefully, to make that exploration entertaining.

If readers enjoy the adventure and then find themselves looking up a historical reference, exploring Taoist philosophy, or reconsidering something they took for granted, I’ll consider that a wonderful outcome.

5. Music plays an interesting role in the arQitect. What inspired you to incorporate a soundtrack into the reading experience?

Music has always been a huge part of my life. It can transport us to another time or place, bring back someone we miss, or express something we haven’t found the words to say. I often call it a shortcut to the soul.

As I wrote the arQitect, I imagined particular songs playing during certain scenes, almost as though I were watching a movie. Pink Floyd, the Beach Boys, Gloria Estefan, Jimmy Buffett, and others became part of the story’s musical DNA. Sharing a companion playlist felt like a natural way to invite readers into that experience.

But music is also part of Maya’s character. She plays the ukulele and writes songs, including two that she performs in remembrance of her parents. Those moments reveal a side of her that the action scenes cannot. Music allows her to express grief, love, and hope when ordinary conversation becomes difficult. 

That has led to a second layer of the project: original songs inspired by the characters, their relationships, and their emotional journeys. I’ve been writing lyrics and experimenting with generative AI tools (oh, the irony!) to help bring the music and vocal performances to life. It has become a gratifying creative adventure of its own, and I would love to develop those songs further with human musicians, singers, and producers.

I’m particularly drawn to the idea of Maya as a musical storyteller, with a songbook that grows alongside her experiences. That has a place in the larger vision for the saga, rather than being something separate from it. 

The novel should stand on its own, of course. The music is another doorway into the characters’ world, and another way of feeling what they feel.

And perhaps one day there will be a screen adaptation with a full soundtrack. A guy can dream!

You can explore and enjoy all of the arQitect’s music here: ThreeTreasuresPress.com/soundtrack.

6. What does the future hold for The Maya Lin Saga? Can readers look forward to new books, characters, or developments in Maya’s journey?

Oh, absolutely. I’ve got quite a bit more trouble planned for Maya and her friends!

The overarching project is the Three Treasures Saga: nine books arranged into three trilogies inspired by Jing, Qi, and Shen—essence, life energy, and spirit or consciousness. the arQitect opens the Qi trilogy and is the intended starting point for readers. 

The planned reading sequence is Qi, then Jing, then Shen. We begin with the near-future collision of ancient knowledge and modern technology. The Jing trilogy reaches backward into the ancient world, exploring humanity’s origins and the deeper history of the Order. The Shen trilogy carries the story forward into questions about consciousness, existence, and our place in a much larger reality. 

So the saga begins in the middle, in a sense. Readers encounter a mystery before learning its deepest origins, and those origins will change how they understand what came before. The three trilogies are connected parts of one larger story, not separate adventures sharing a few names.

In the nearer term, the scope will become more international, the moral choices more complicated, and the characters’ relationships more consequential. New places and adversaries are important, but I’m equally interested in what happens when people who care about one another disagree about the right thing to do, or when human ego and emotions begin to challenge the group dynamics. 

Maya, Zhen, Cairo, and Teddy all have much more to reveal, not just about the world, but about themselves.

I’ve mapped the broader direction, while leaving room for discoveries along the way. Some of my favorite moments in the first book came from characters surprising me. I suspect they’re not finished doing that.

7. Is there anything else you’d like to share about the book or your experience writing it that we haven’t touched on?

Writing a first novel has been a wonderful exercise in humility, perseverance, and occasionally questioning my own sanity.

There were plenty of moments when I wondered what I had gotten myself into. But there were also those extraordinary moments when a character seemed to come alive, a scene suddenly found its shape, or I caught myself laughing at something someone had just said, as though I hadn’t been the person typing it.

Seeing the book launched at Books & Books, surrounded by friends, family, and our literary community, made the whole experience feel real in a completely different way. Something that had lived in my imagination was beginning a life in other people’s imaginations. That is a remarkable feeling, and I’m deeply grateful to everyone willing to take this first step with me.

I’m also building ways for readers to enter the world beyond the novels. Through the Medjay Knights reader/fandom community, Ancient Order governing council, the mythology, music, and interactive experiences, I want people to feel invited into the adventure rather than simply invited to buy the next book. The novels remain the heart of it, but there are other doors to explore, and an immersive world to enjoy. 

You can explore, join and enjoy the immersive world-building community at Seshati.com.

Over time, I would love to create meaningful opportunities for readers to contribute ideas and help shape aspects of that expanding world. After all, why should I have all the fun? And—as the story itself explores—at what point should a creator cease to maintain full control over their creation? 

More than anything, though, I hope people enjoy the story. I hope they care about the characters, laugh with them, worry about them, and come away curious about something they hadn’t considered before.

Beneath the mysteries, technology, and adventure is a belief that our differences need not separate us, and that curiosity, compassion, and love can help us find our way toward one another.

As I like to say: Life is the school, love is the lesson. Onward and upward!