Maia [Hardcover]

Richard and Alan Aldridge, Illustrated by Aldridge, Alan Adams (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 891 pages
• Publisher: Alfred a Knopf Inc, NY; First Edition. states, first american edition (1985)
• ASIN: B000VRC0QY
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (58 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,178,455 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Richard George Adams (born 9 May, 1920) is an English novelist who is best known as the author of Watership Down.

He originally began telling the story of Watership Down to his two daughters, and they insisted he publish it as a book. When Watership Down was finally published, it sold over a million copies in record time in both the United Kingdom and the United States. Watership Down has become a modern classic and won both the Carnegie Medal and the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize in 1972.

Richard Adams currently lives in Hampshire, England.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An epic story about a slave girl's odyssey in Bekla., May 13, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Maia (Audio Cassette)

This is an absolutely amazing novel about a beautiful peasant girl, Maia, who is sold into slavery and becomes a concubine in the household of the High Counselor of the Leopard regime. The Leopards are the upper ruling class of the semi-barbaric Beklan empire, an ancient, beautiful, and sometimes deadly city. Along the way, Maia is befriended by Occula, an exotic slave girl, and unwittingly becomes involved in a plot to overthrow the Leopard regime. This book combines political intrigue, a quest for identity, a struggle for freedom, and this remarkable girl's search for her one true love, Zen-Kurel. Richard Adams is a master storyteller, and reading one of his works is like "being woven into a tapestry". His descriptions of the Beklan empire, his intricate plot lines, his attention to detail, and his use of subtle humor, all make this a story worth reading, and one you'll come back to time and again.

35 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Finest Fantasy Yet Written, August 28, 2002

By 

"mnlaustin" (Austin, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: MAIA (Hardcover)

Don't freak out and spout the Tolkien line.....Mr. Hobbit is still the King and I love his work as much as everyone. However, one on one, Maia transcends any single work of fantasy by any author. The richness of storytelling, the depth of submersion you will slip into this story and the absolute believability of the world Mr. Adams has created is absolutely breathtaking.

I don't believe in giving a synopsis of the story. I'm a book fanatic and pitch my tent in the camp that believes a recommendation is good enough. If I for instance had based my decision of whether or not to read this book on a synopsis of the story....well, I wouldn't have read it. Good God I'm lucky I didn't. Instead I'll ask a question. You of course know the feeling of having just finished a book you enjoyed reading. Well, have you been lucky enough to (rarely, even for book fanatics) experience the `tears in your eyes' joy of having just read a book that you actually feel lucky to have found? I mean those very few times that, having just closed the book after reading the last page, you actually notice a few minutes later that you've been sitting there, in silence, still clutching this thing that's all at once no longer just paper and ink bound by glue? Yeah? Well that almost describes the soul deep satisfaction I feel each and every time I read this book.....and I'm not one that usually ever feels the need to read a book twice no matter how much I enjoyed it.

Go out of your way to find this book. I mean get in your car and scout used book stores. And then once you've found it, buy at least two more. I'm not joking. Always keep two for yourself in case one falls apart (trust me, you'll understand the feeling). That third copy.....share it. Please share it. It's just too damn good not to.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Epic complexity and beauty illuminate this masterpiece, September 18, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: MAIA (Hardcover)

Adams's Maia rivals the "greats" in its ability to create an entire world of believable characters, religions, and politics. The complex world in which the novel's action takes place is breath-taking. The novel actually serves as a prequel to Adams' previous endeavor, Shardik (itself an underrated and beautiful work), but Adams takes his Beklan Empire to new levels of epic sophistication with the introduction of the naive and good-hearted Maia; the grotesque and unforgettable Sencho; the wise and gutsy Occula; and the erotic, ambitious, and evil Fornis. Perhaps the only works of fiction more encompassing and completely original in their creation of an entirely new reality are Frank Herbert's Dune novels; however, Adams work maintains a beauty and sensitivity that is lacking in those science fiction giants. Overall I have to rank Maia as one of my all-time favorite works of fiction. I have read it three times and have to stop myself from picking it up again too soon in order to preserve the rewarding pleasure I receive from reentering Adams amazing world.