Maori

A Novel

De: Alan Dean Foster

Narrado por: Bruce Mann

A sweeping historical novel set in 19th-century New Zealand from the New York Times best-selling author.

The only son of a poor British coal miner, Robert Coffin sets sail for the far ends of the Earth in search of his fortune, leaving his young bride and infant child behind in England. In the sordid and dangerous South Pacific port of Kororareka, on the sprawling island the native Maori call "the Land of the Long White Cloud", Coffin builds a successful new life as a merchant. He gains an unwavering respect for the aboriginal people and their culture, and finds comfort in the arms of his fiery Irish mistress, Mary.

But the unexpected arrival of a China-bound clipper bearing his wife, Holly, and son, Christopher, throws Coffin's world into turmoil - compounded by the ever-increasing tension between the Maori tribes and the mistrusted "pakehas" who are plundering their land. As the years of a volatile 19th century progress, the indomitable family of the stalwart adventurer the Maori have named "Iron Hair" will struggle, sacrifice, and endure through war, chaos, catastrophe, and change.

©1988 Alan Dean Foster (P)2019 Tantor

Wonderful

I was curious about the topic of this novel as I had heretofore not realized the author had done any work outside the sci-fi and fantasy genres. I was utterly enthralled by this fictional history. It goes on the list of my favorites and I would put it up there with Pearl Buck’s The Good Earth.

History—great!

I learned a lot about the Maori culture. I would have liked to hear the female parts with female voices. It was a too long for me. I was ready for it to be done before it finally ended. Enjoyed character development—Always a good sign for a book.

A preface to “once were warriors”

Not literally a preface to “ once were warriors” but ia great novel to precede any late 20th century book , that is if u don’t know much about pre western contact or 1 st generation contact with the western civilizations.

Slightly similar to the mark Twain letters from Hawaii.

Maori by Alan Dean Foster

Maori held my interest because it was based on facts about the history of New Zealand. The story helped me understand what a big role the arrogance of foreign settlers played in replacing an existing civilization's customs and ways of thinking with that of the invader or settler. This story was fascinating because it followed the development of a family through several generations, showing how challenging it can be for one generation to adequately appreciate the challenges of theprevious one or of the next one ahead. . Foster's depiction of various characters showed how complex people are: a mixture of admirable and undesirable qualities.
The narration was wooden, although the narrator's way of portraying a conversation was usually very good. His accents were well done. Sometimes I thought I couldn't keep listening because of the narrator, but the plot was complex enough to keep my interest. When the narrator portrayed females, his various voices were very similar; the women all sounded unbelievably sweet.
Overall: I learned a lot about the Maoris and could see how white supremacy has a long history to come to terms with and to undo. The story was both entertaining and informative. I was sorry the narration was not as good as the story.

Educational, good story but with an ambiguous lead

I liked this book a lot, despite the critical features of this review. I learned a lot of history and looked forward to listening. Many of the characters in the story are supremely unlikeable (weak willed, frustrating choices, lacking development, etc,) and the main character is the worst of all. I wasn’t sure if that was by the author’s design nor not, or a feature of changing paradigms over time. The reader did a pretty good job, but his voices for the women in the book were a bit whiny, which contributed to the characters seeming like “fainting daisies” when they actually had some legitimate grievances.

Not bad

Great story. The Māori “accents” were pretty cringey, sounded more like Chinese but still a good story about the first European settlers in NZ.