Helpful Score: 1
Reading Maia was a very interesting experience. The book had many chapters that crawled by, but also many that seemed like a best-seller page turner. It was very hard to get into at first, especially because I had a copy without a dust jacket and therefore I had no idea what I was "getting into" at all.
This is the story of a young girl - in her early teens, who is sold into slavery and eventually bought as a pleasure slave in a very rich and prestigious household in the capital city.
She is very innocent, but in a simple sweet way and she has an amazing friend - also a pleasure slave named Occula who helps her adjust to the new way of life.
And then she gets wrapped up in the politics of her world, gains enemies and allies, affects a great war, becomes beloved by all the people in the country. She does all this without trying, and certainly without any scheming.
I found her kind of boring. She seemed so empty-headed most of the time, and Mr. Adams continuously wrote of her being so gay and joyous and troubles never settling on her for longer than a moment. Things seemed to simply happen to her, with neither her nor the author really sure why.
As Watership Down was the only other book by Mr. Adams I have read, I was greatly surprised by the sex scenes and how erotic they were. I shouldn't have been surprised considering Maia was a pleasure slave, but I just couldn't believe the same author wrote about bunnies trying to find a new home!
The style of writing was probably the hardest to follow and made the book even longer than it's 1,000+ pages. It was just too flowery and slightly paternal in tone. Often it felt like he was making up emotions for a young woman to have rather than what she would actually feel.
All that aside, the world was very interesting, and Mr. Adams has a great flair for writing stories within stories. In both Watership Down and Maia he comes up with believable and interesting fables and mythology which his characters tell in the books.
I would give Maia a try if you have a lot of patience, really like Mr. Adams' writing, and don't mind some erotic sex scenes.
This is the story of a young girl - in her early teens, who is sold into slavery and eventually bought as a pleasure slave in a very rich and prestigious household in the capital city.
She is very innocent, but in a simple sweet way and she has an amazing friend - also a pleasure slave named Occula who helps her adjust to the new way of life.
And then she gets wrapped up in the politics of her world, gains enemies and allies, affects a great war, becomes beloved by all the people in the country. She does all this without trying, and certainly without any scheming.
I found her kind of boring. She seemed so empty-headed most of the time, and Mr. Adams continuously wrote of her being so gay and joyous and troubles never settling on her for longer than a moment. Things seemed to simply happen to her, with neither her nor the author really sure why.
As Watership Down was the only other book by Mr. Adams I have read, I was greatly surprised by the sex scenes and how erotic they were. I shouldn't have been surprised considering Maia was a pleasure slave, but I just couldn't believe the same author wrote about bunnies trying to find a new home!
The style of writing was probably the hardest to follow and made the book even longer than it's 1,000+ pages. It was just too flowery and slightly paternal in tone. Often it felt like he was making up emotions for a young woman to have rather than what she would actually feel.
All that aside, the world was very interesting, and Mr. Adams has a great flair for writing stories within stories. In both Watership Down and Maia he comes up with believable and interesting fables and mythology which his characters tell in the books.
I would give Maia a try if you have a lot of patience, really like Mr. Adams' writing, and don't mind some erotic sex scenes.
