Here’s another round of recommendations for anyone who has finished Maej and is looking for their next read.
If you liked MAEJ, you’ll love…
A Wizard of Earthsea and The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K Le Guin
Affinity with Maej: Tales of magic and speculation with sometimes mystical, sometimes estranging effects.
The Left Hand of Darkness is famous for how it scrambles assumptions about gender as anthropologist Genly Ai attempts to learn about the ambisexual Gethenians. In Maej the character Jad Jaret hå Jaretheim, an scholar of “anthropologism” who goes to study the Ilasi, is a direct homage to Ai and other anthropologist-like characters in Le Guin’s work.
The entire Earthsea series, of which A Wizard of Earthsea is the first volume, subverts “Chosen One” tropes and uncomplicated quest narratives. In Maej, a phrase that recurs is the exhortation to “do the needful”, which I intend as homage to a passage from an Earthsea book: “Do nothing because it is righteous or praiseworthy or noble to do so; do nothing because it seems good to do so; do only that which you must do and which you cannot do in any other way.”
The Final Strife by Saara Al-Arifi
Affinity with Maej: A surprising degree of similarity in the premise: a city inhabited by three peoples, visually indistinguishable but riven by class differences, some made victim, some enjoying the spoils.
This recommendation is for readers who’d like a stirring, plot-oriented fantasy tale told in uncluttered commercial prose, as a bit of a breather after Maej’s density.
…And two bonus recommendations from friends of Maej:
The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan
This recommendation comes from author friend Zilla Novikov; actually, she recommends his whole Wheel of Time series, which she loves for its high-fantasy blend of gender politics and political scheming.
Wraeththu by Storm Constantine
This recommendation comes from Rysz Merey of tRaum Books, the publisher of Maej. He adores this omnibus-size cult classic with its single-gender race and journeys and adventure and majick and sex work.
Enjoy!