Maia (1985) is an odd sequel to Shardik. It tells of events in Bekla, but the story occurs at a time before Shardik's coming. It continues the theme of the enslavement of children, but instead of depicting physical cruelty, it recounts the hedonistic life of a fifteenyear-old concubine named Maia. Although this novel explores the corrupt core of a civilized empire, it totally lacks the attention to natural landscape and the epic vocabulary that gives Shardik its power. Almost twelve hundred pages long, Maia reads like a combination of Robert Graves's I, Claudius (1934) and Jacqueline Susann's Valley of the Dolls (1966). That this mixture of ceaseless political intrigue and constant amorous adventure will attract the same favorable response from readers and critics as Shardik seems doubtful. Maia is ultimately redeemed at the novel's end, but after more than a thousand pages no one may care.

Maia seems to...