I finally read this, after refusing to for YEARS. I read it in tandem with one of my daughters: I liked it better than I expected and she liked it less than she had hoped, but even for her, it grew on her.
I had the same thought about Csevet! Or rather, more along the lines of, How handy that literally the first person you lay eyes on turns out to be really an excellent secretary for you! And all throughout, I felt that things fell out pretty heavily in Maia's favor, all things considered. Also, his good intentions never once went awry: he never did anything that was a hideous mistake whose consequences he had to then live with. On the one hand I was just as happy for that? It's a big wish-fulfillment thing for me to have good intentions communicate! To have the force of will and desire make a difference to people. But at the same time, it's really, really contrary to real life.
I also was bemused at the use of magic in this world. It comes up *solely* in the context of the attempts against Maia--once when the traitorous bodyguard puts the other one to sleep (but I misunderstood that as basically just due to some natural compound, you know, like elf chloroform), and the other where the bodyguard kills the attacker with death magic. Wow! Like wow! Magic doesn't figure at ALL and now it's killing people! As Little Springtime and I were saying to each other, What else can magic do? "Can it put a bridge across a river?" --"Nope!" "How about help with weaving fine silk so the weavers don't go blind?" --"Hells to the no!" "Mmmmm, can it help workers in some way?" --"Definitely not" ....
But for all that, I really enjoyed it. I liked being in Maia's company, I guess--liked seeing him figure things out.
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I had the same thought about Csevet! Or rather, more along the lines of, How handy that literally the first person you lay eyes on turns out to be really an excellent secretary for you! And all throughout, I felt that things fell out pretty heavily in Maia's favor, all things considered. Also, his good intentions never once went awry: he never did anything that was a hideous mistake whose consequences he had to then live with. On the one hand I was just as happy for that? It's a big wish-fulfillment thing for me to have good intentions communicate! To have the force of will and desire make a difference to people. But at the same time, it's really, really contrary to real life.
I also was bemused at the use of magic in this world. It comes up *solely* in the context of the attempts against Maia--once when the traitorous bodyguard puts the other one to sleep (but I misunderstood that as basically just due to some natural compound, you know, like elf chloroform), and the other where the bodyguard kills the attacker with death magic. Wow! Like wow! Magic doesn't figure at ALL and now it's killing people! As Little Springtime and I were saying to each other, What else can magic do? "Can it put a bridge across a river?" --"Nope!" "How about help with weaving fine silk so the weavers don't go blind?" --"Hells to the no!" "Mmmmm, can it help workers in some way?" --"Definitely not" ....
But for all that, I really enjoyed it. I liked being in Maia's company, I guess--liked seeing him figure things out.