In the first half of the book, I was bored to tears. It was an endless list of names and titles, I had no idea who anyone was and if they were relevant to the plot or not. It was too early to care about anyone (no, not even Maia) and frankly, I was considering dropping the book entirely.

I'm glad I didn't. I'm not as enthusiastic about it as most, but it was still an interesting experience and I might try other books in the universe.