My rating: ★★★

Dorian’s Worlds

In a dystopian future, medical science has extended the human life span, and age has become the all-important measure of status. The young only exist to serve their elders, whether it’s to hand them food just beyond their reach or to provide sexual gratification. Dorian is a young man in his late teens, a service worker at the beck and call of two elderly ‘patrons’ who use him however they wish.

One day, in a fit of temper at his patron’s insensitivity, Dorian throws some fruit at them and stalks off. For this, he is sent to prison to be reformed. But prison only hardens Dorian’s resolve to find a way out of the unfair system, and he quickly finds friends that think the same way. Together they begin to make plans for an escape that grows to include dozens of rebellious youth.

“Dorian’s Worlds” manages to pack quite a bit into its very short length. Despite being only about 50 pages long, the story feels complete. The characters aren’t exactly deep, but they’re realistic enough. As with many science fictions stories, you can start poking holes in the plot, but none of the issues I identified were glaring enough to really detract from the plot. It’s more the kind of things you might question after you’d read the book, which you will probably finish in a single sitting.

However, once it’s all said and done, the big question might be whether or not Dorian’s new world has simply supplanted one dystopia for another, but that conundrum is only hinted at. Perhaps there will be a sequel which delves into it more.

“Dorian’s Worlds” is available from the publisher, JMS Books.

My rating: ★★★★

Trenekis of Hiera

Trenekis faces his impending coming-of-age in the small village of Hiera with a lot of trepidation. Survival of the isolated village on the semi-arid planet requires that each young man take a wife and begin procreating within a year of turning twenty, but Trenekis can’t imagine doing that. His best friend and former lover Keenam came of age the year before and seems to have adapted to married life, but Trenekis doesn’t want to live that lie, even though declaring his true nature means banishment. Adding to the young man’s troubles is the disclosure that the only mother and father he has ever known are not really his birth parents. And then there’s the rapid decline of the man who leads the village and has been closer than an uncle to Trenekis.

All of this inspires Trenekis to journey to the city the villagers abandoned when he was just a baby, to hopefully find some forgotten technology that might help his ‘uncle’ as well as possible answers to his heritage. The city was founded by a radical religious cult that rejected technology and left the few settled worlds behind. The cult’s charismatic leader brought the colonists to this planet almost 50 light-years from the nearest human settlement to follow the ‘true path’ but some of his followers became disillusioned. A devastating earthquake on the eve of their planned split with the group meant their departure to found Hiera went unnoticed.

The remaining true believers also left the city to establish their own village. The group is now led by the son of the original leader, who, like his father, maintains a firm grip on his followers and will not allow any interference from outsiders. He is aware that others survived the quake and split with the cult, and is determined to eliminate their ‘contamination’ from his world.

Meanwhile, back in the human worlds the cult left behind, they’ve discovered faster than light travel. This now makes traveling to further reaches of the galaxy to find worlds that can be settled more feasible, and a survey ship is on its way to Trenekis’ world to check it out. While everyone on the ship knows about the cult’s disastrous departure, it was never known where they went, so the existence of humans on the planet comes as a complete surprise.

Among the crew of the survey ship is Niko, a man whose family history is intertwined with the cult. Like Trenekis, Niko also prefers men, only he has never had to hide who he was or fear banishment. However, he still struggles with the choices he has made.

“Trenekis of Hiera” is one of those books that can be difficult to get into at first, as we learn about each character and their story. There are a number of flashbacks to Trenekis’ childhood as well as the events surrounding how he came to be with his adoptive parents. The numerous jumps can be a little hard to follow at times. However, about halfway through the book, all the groundwork is set and the pace begins to pick up considerably. It quickly becomes a real page turner as all the threads begin to weave into an exciting story that you can’t be sure of the ending.

This story shares some common themes with the author’s earlier work, Stealing Some Time, most obviously the meeting of two cultures at radically different stages of technological development. But, “Trenekis of Hiera” is not a rehash of the same story. It stands well on its own, and if you like the earlier book, you’ll most likely enjoy this one. The main characters are well drawn and engaging.

“Trenekis of Hiera” is available from Amazon.

My rating: ★★★★

The Hot Floor

Josh is a shy young man living in Bath. He was recently dumped by his boyfriend and now lives in a small apartment on the top floor of a run-down converted house. He likes his job as a glass blower, making traditional ornaments, but otherwise he has a rather empty life with few friends. As the story opens, Josh is crushing on his downstairs neighbors, Evan and Rai. The big strapping Evan from Manchester and geeky Japanese Rai make an unlikely couple. They’re as different as chalk and sushi, but the two men seem devoted to each other. They also seem to enjoy a very active sex life, as Josh is reminded when he visits his friend Denise, who lives on the floor below Evan and Rai. The sounds of their lovemaking can be clearly heard in Denise’s rooms.

Evan and Rai befriend Josh, but as he spends more time with the two men, Josh is unsettled by his growing attraction to both of them, as well as envy for the close relationship they share, which is something he longs to have. Then, one night the crumbling old house conspires to throw Josh, Evan and Rai together. The relatively inexperienced Josh is drawn into a sexual relationship with both men. But as much as the sex thrills him, as Josh is drawn closer and closer to Evan and Rai, he wonders how long it will be before he is asked to leave. He feels like a guest in the relationship, and isn’t sure if the other two feel as strongly about him.

“The Hot Floor” is a very good story of a developing menage relationship. Each of the characters is fully developed, with distinct personalities. The tale is told in the first person by Josh, so we get everything that is going on in his head. Josh’s lack of self confidence comes across as a bit of angst at times, but it stops short of being annoying. I’ve marked this as a D/s story, but Evan and Rai don’t have a typical D/s relationship. Although Rai is a pure bottom and sometimes likes it rough, he and Evan banter as equals. However, they do have rules, particularly as it relates to playing with people outside their relationship, and as Josh is drawn into their embrace it becomes clear that he does have submissive desires.

For the most part, “The Hot Floor” is a very enjoyable read. The humor is generally very funny. However, the attempt at rendering Evan’s Manchester accent isn’t very successful, for a non-UK reader. It makes you stumble over the words, especially at first. However, this is a minor annoyance and didn’t detract too much from the story. There is also a rich set of well drawn supporting characters in the story, although they seem to get a little lost as the relationship heats up, only to suddenly to pop up again near the end.

“The Hot Floor” is available from Amazon and All Romance Ebooks.

My rating: ★★★

Before I Wake

This review originally appeared at BDSM Book Reviews.

Jonesy is a nurse’s assistant working the graveyard shift at a hospital when a new comatose patient is brought in. The young man, named Michael, has been the victim of a gay bashing and the doctors aren’t sure if he will ever come out of his coma, or if there is any brain damage even if he does wake up. It soon becomes clear that the young man has nobody who really cares about him. His religious parents threw him out on the street when he told them he was gay, and after one visit to him in the hospital, they tell the doctors to take him off life support.

To everyone’s surprise, Michael breathes on his own when the ventilator is shut off. Bit by bit, he starts to improve and Jonesy spends as much time with him as possible, taking extra care to talk to him and keep his body healthy. When the hospital plans to move the uninsured patient to a state long term care facility, Jonesy makes plans to care for Michael in his own home.

In Michael’s own mind, he is trapped in a dungeon right out of his “Lord of the Rings” fantasies, alone for the most part. He spends his time trying to find a way out, but the dungeon is a maze and he isn’t sure which exit to take.

This is a sweet short story that you will almost certainly finish in a single sitting. There is no kink to this tale. There is almost no sensual contact between the two men at all. It’s just a ‘nice’ little story, which could be the start of something longer and more interesting but is complete enough on its own.

“Before I Wake” is available from the publisher, Torquere Press, or from Amazon.

My rating: ★★★★

The Song of Achilles

The love between Achilles and Patroclus is one of the great classics of Greek literature. For gay men, it’s a story we can look to as proof that there have always been men who loved other men, and they weren’t always as reviled as we sometimes feel in modern society. It’s no wonder that contemporary authors keep returning to the story to try and reinterpret it.

“The Song of Achilles” gives us the story from Patroclus’ point of view. We follow him from early childhood, when his aggressive father puts him forth as one of Helen’s suitors at the age of nine, through the accidental killing of a noble boy which sends him into exile, where he meets Achilles. As the two boys grow into young men, love blooms, and Achilles remains devoted to Patroclus, despite the objections of his mother, the sea-nymph Thetis.

Although Thetis is determined that Achilles fulfill his destiny as the greatest of all Greeks, when news of the war with Troy comes, she spirits her son away into hiding to keep him from going. Patroclus tracks him down, to find Achilles in drag and secretly married to a princess. Soon Odysseus also discovers where Achilles is hiding and the young man is finally convinced that he must join the battle to fulfill his destiny. While Patroclus has no desire to fight, he knows that his place is by Achilles’ side, even though he knows that the hero is destined not to survive the war.

The events of the battle of Troy unfold much as they are related in the Illiad, only now we see them through Patroclus’ eyes. We see how Agamemnon’s poor leadership and jealousy of Achilles’ prowess leads them both down the path to conflict, which ultimately leads to the warrior’s withdrawal from battle. In this key moment, we see how Achilles’ own determination to meet his fate is forged.

Unlike other modern interpretations of the Illiad, “The Song of Achilles” does not relegate the gods to abstract ideas, but rather makes them very real and an integral part of the story. The two young men spend several years in the wilderness with the centaur Chiron, and then of course there is Achilles’ mother, Thetis. The goddess watches over Achilles and, being divine, she can see everything her son does. While the erotic content of this book is minimal, there’s enough to strongly suggest that Achilles and Patroclus enjoy a physical relationship, formed when they were in the one place Thetis couldn’t see them, when they were with Chiron. Imagine doing the nasty with your boyfriend knowing his mother could see you. No wonder Patroclus fears Thetis so much.

Retelling a well known story can be no easy task. You can’t very well change the tragic ending, or even the major events. The most you can really do is try to bring a fresh perspective to the tale. By giving us Patroclus’ point of view, “The Song of Achilles” does achieve that, and it does it in a very readable style that doesn’t attempt the poetic cadence of many Homeric translations. The portrayal of Patroclus as a less-than-heroic figure, at least until the very end, is a little different and personally something of a disappointment, but the contrast it creates with Achilles definitely adds to the story. The contrast between the shy, gentle Patroclus and the supremely self-confident warrior Achilles couldn’t be greater. This is definitely a worthy addition to the collection of Achilles lore.

“The Song of Achilles” is available from Amazon.

My rating: ★★★

Choices

This review originally appeared on the BDSM Book Reviews web site.

Teman and his boyhood friend Jasim are professional thieves, although they prefer to think of themselves as specialists in the recovery of lost items, by any means. As “Choices” opens, they are caught in a trap set by the palace guards. They are taken to the captain of the guards, who gives them a choice: be cast into the dungeon or agree to become pleasure slaves in the palace. Thinking that life in the palace would offer a better chance of escape, they both agree to become slaves.

In the slave quarters, Teman and Jasim are trained to be submissive sex slaves, able to take pain as pleasure and unable to achieve orgasm without permission from their master. They become good friends with the two slaves who help with their training, Cyrus and Nadir. Once trained, Teman is called to service the king, a truly sadistic cruel man who regards his slaves as less than human and delights in testing how much pain they can take without any sexual relief. But there are other masters in the palace that are not so unpleasant, and Teman has also caught the attention of the crown prince, Bathasar.

Bathasar is the complete opposite of his father the king. He has never used the pleasure slaves, although he is quite familiar with the training they undergo. Bathasar has been fascinated by Teman since his first presentation at court, although he observes the young slave from a distance. But one night, after an altercation at a state dinner, he feels compelled to take Teman back to his quarters, to keep him out of the clutches of both the king and a bothersome foreign guest. Once alone with the handsome slave, Bathasar is unable to keep himself from enjoying the pleasures that Teman has been trained to provide, and even to need. For his part, Teman feels something different for the prince than he has felt with any other master.

The two quickly become lovers, although Teman must remain a slave, since Bathasar is powerless to free him. Keeping Teman safely away from the king and other courtiers is only part of the problem, as the two soon learn of the mad king’s plan to attack one of his neighbors, to whom Jasim was gifted after its empress dressed down the king for his lack of humanity towards Teman.

“Choices” is a tale with epic ambitions, set in a middle-ages “Arabian Nights” fantasy world. It is, as you can probably guess, very steamy, with detailed descriptions of the training that Teman and Jasim undergo to become pleasure slaves. They learn how to take pleasure from pain as well as how to delay their orgasm until it is permitted, and even how to be ready to go again after only a few minutes pause, if necessary. Their training conditions them to be aroused on cue and remain so until their master is finished with them.

While Bathasar has no desire to treat Teman as a slave, he can’t undo the conditioning the young man has been put through, and like it or not, Teman has discovered a deep desire to submit within himself. Instead, Bathasar learns to use Teman’s training, particularly the thrill he gets from being edged, to keep the young man from dwelling too much on the friend he misses or the fact he is still a slave. If you’re a fan of the BDSM practice of edging, then you will almost certainly enjoy this book. Several group scenes add even more steaminess to the story.

Unfortunately, the writing in “Choices” is a bit lackluster, with numerous anachronisms, repetitious details and phrasing, and even the occasional lapse into physical improbabilities – the kind of thing that makes you stop and think, “Wait, he has one hand there, and the other hand where? How is that possible?” Sometimes the group scenes get a bit muddled in a similar way, as you try to figure out who has what stuck into whom. This is made worse by frequent and sudden shifts in the point of view between Teman and Bathasar. The flaws, while many, are never quite serious or frequent enough to be annoying. Rather, the lack of tight editing keeps what could have been a much better book from achieving its potential. It does get bonus points, though, for having a cover that actually comes close to reflecting the image of the main characters that the text conjures up. That’s such a rarity these days that it’s worth mentioning.

“Choices” is definitely one of the more, er, stimulating, books I’ve read in a while, but for a more powerful and emotionally charged treatment on the theme of slave versus submissive I would recommend Gaius and Achilles.

“Choices” is available from Amazon or from the publisher, Dreamspinner Press.

My rating: ★★★★

Afflicted II

This sequel to the first Afflicted book picks up right where the previous story left off. Dillon has just found out that Hunter’s mother is seeing his cousin, which dredges up all the pain and anger of being thrown out by his family. It’s a lot for him to deal with, and adding to the issue is the concern that his past will come between what he has with Hunter.

For his part, Hunter has trouble dealing with the rapid pace at which the relationship is progressing, and the depth of his feelings for Dillon. Used to being in control, Hunter has a hard time accepting that he can’t fix all of Dillon’s problems with his past and his family.

While “Afflicted II” is a bit more somber than the first book, it still is touched with a sense of humor, as Dillon and Hunter work to understand the feelings they have for each other, as well as deal with their pasts. Unlike so many contemporary romances, this is a very realistic look at modern relationships, and families. It avoids the cliché and schmaltzy “love conquers all” silliness and shows that two people need to work to build a relationship, no matter how strong their sexual connection may be.

The two books are very tightly connected, with minor characters from the first part popping up in the second book with little or no introduction, so you’ll want to read “Afflicted II” soon after the first book, or you’ll likely forget who some of the characters are, like I did. Like the first book, the second features very readable prose that also gets rather steamy rather often.

“Afflicted II” is available from Amazon and Smashwords.

My rating: ★★★★

Naked Tails

In a small Georgia town, young Seth’s life is falling apart. He has just lost both his parents in a traffic accident, and now his maternal grandmother is taking him away from the only home he’s ever known, because she fears and despises the ‘deviant’ behavior of her late son-in-law’s family. Seth can’t bear to be parted from his kindly great aunt, or his best friend Dusty, a slightly older boy who is the closest thing Seth has to a brother.

Fast forward 20 years. Seth’s great aunt Irene dies, leaving most of her estate to her only living relative, Seth. The young man has never returned to the small town, even after his grandmother had died. She has led him to believe that his old friends and family didn’t care about him. Thinking he is just going down to wrap up his great aunt’s estate, Seth is landed in the middle of a power struggle for leadership of the community his relative once headed. Unbeknownst to the clueless young man, that community was a group of shifters who take the form of possums, and as the only living relative of his great aunt, many people look to Seth to step into the leadership of the passel.

I first read a story by this author a little over a year ago for the BDSM Book Reviews site. While the book wasn’t actually a good fit for that site, I did enjoy the author’s style and promised myself to read something else by her for this site. What I liked about the previous book, “Galen and the Forest Lord” was the humorous, irreverent approach to writing about shifters. After all, if you’re going to take on the rather preposterous idea of humans changing into wolves, you might as well have some fun with it. While “Naked Tails” isn’t quite as laugh-out-loud funny as the previous book, it is still infused with humor, starting with the very premise that there are possum shifters. Wolves or bears people can understand, but as Seth himself asks, why would people turn into possums?

Behind the humor, the core of the story is a straight-up romance. The well crafted plot has just enough twists and turns to raise doubts about the eventual outcome and keep you reading to find out how Seth faces each new challenge. Seth and Dustin are surrounded by a rich cast of engaging small southern town characters, which makes the story all the more engaging. This isn’t a ‘deep’ book, but it is a very enjoyable read.

“Naked Tails” is available from Dreamspinner Press and Amazon.

My rating: ★★★

Warlock Masters

This review originally appeared at BDSM Book Reviews.

“Warlock Masters” is a short anthology of just four stories, all by the same author. All but one of the tales is told in the first person by a warlock who recounts various sexual escapades. It is easy to see these almost as memories of various stages in the development of his powers. In the first three stories, the generally nameless narrator reveals himself to be a man who revels in a submissive role, although he can be quite aggressive in seeking out that role, and using his magical powers to ensnare men to dominate him. That said, it’s worth pointing out that magic and mysticism play a minor role in the stories, enough that it’s easy to forget that it’s the theme of the anthology.

In “Alias Love” the mature warlock beguiles a relatively innocent young couple at a sex party and draws the man into a sexual encounter in the bathroom.

“Big Puerto Rican Brazilian German Cock Summer” has the narrator playing the sex slave to a coven of warlocks.

“Beautiful Sadist” tells the disjointed account of our hero’s repeated pummeling by a sex-crazed married Italian stud.

“I’d Like Me Som’a That” seems to be about the initiation of a new submissive, although it’s the most incomplete-feeling of the stories.

The writing style of these tales could be described as a sort of raunchy stream of consciousness. In places, it reminded me of some of William S. Burroughs’ work, although these stories are generally a little more coherent than the often disjointed writing of books like “Naked Lunch”. While the narrator describes his sexual encounters in detail, and seems to enjoy painful penetration, aside from that there isn’t a lot of kink to the sex. The subtitle’s promise of “Erotic stories of dominance & submission” is over-selling it a bit. Yes, the theme is there, but it isn’t really developed.

Under-development would be the best way to sum up why I didn’t rate this book higher. Short stories are very difficult to get right. Most authors will tell you it’s the most difficult thing to write, and many of the stories in “Warlock Masters” read as unfinished bits of longer works. As erotica, they’ll certainly do the trick, but the plots and characters are interesting enough that you want more and feel a little cheated by what seems like premature endings.

“Warlock Masters” may be purchased from the publisher, Riverdale Ave Books, or from Amazon.

My rating: ★★★★★

The Brig

In spite of recent events, the Vietnam War remains one of America’s most controversial foreign entanglements. It was the first ‘television’ war, in which the brutalities of conflict were brought right into people’s living rooms every night. The result was perhaps the first time any war was openly debated in American society, and that included the rank and file of the armed forces.

Against this background, the unnamed narrator of “The Brig”, a seminary dropout, joins the navy. However, while he largely enjoys military life, as he is exposed to more and more of the debate about America’s involvement in Vietnam, he concludes that the war is wrong and decides to get out as a conscientious objector. The navy can’t refuse to let him go, but they can make the eight weeks it takes to process the paperwork as uncomfortable as possible. The young man is transferred to the brig, where his three marine guards subject him to a regime of pain and sexual torture that breaks him down and remakes the ‘straight’ man into something new.

“The Brig” is a very disturbing story in many respects. Foremost among these is the idea that this book is based on what really happened to the author’s long time partner. While the erotic aspects of the story are fiction, given recent accounts of how common rape is in the military, and what may have been done to Bradley Manning during his long incarceration without trial, it’s easy to believe that something very much like “The Brig” still goes on routinely in America’s military.

Another disturbing aspect of the book is the idea of “conversion.” With conversion therapy, promising to turn gay people straight, in the news the idea of forcibly turning someone gay makes me just as uneasy. The young man of the story is turned from a vanilla straight guy into a quivering pain slut who wants nothing more that to be used as a cum-bucket by his guards while they whip him. The blurb describes this as the narrator “discovering things about himself” and that he does. I happen to support the theory espoused by Kinsey that the bulk of the world’s population is neither exclusively heterosexual or homosexual, but somewhere in between. So, it’s not unreasonable that the straight-identified protagonist of “The Brig” has a gay side, which is something he ponders towards the end of the story. Perhaps it’s just the force that is used to make him see it that makes me uncomfortable.

I also found myself taking issue, a little, with the general description of this book as a “BDSM classic” since I regard non-consensual bondage, whipping and sex as something that definitely isn’t BDSM. Perhaps I’m being overly-sensitive on this issue since a few recent reads have led me to believe that some contemporary authors (and I should probably emphasize some) are hiding what comes across as rather deep seated misandry behind a veneer of BDSM. They seem to delight a bit too much in putting their male characters through what are sometimes apparently pointless sexual abuse. Certainly, if the publisher of “The Brig” described this as a book about torture and rape, it would probably attract far fewer readers, and of course all the hot buttons of many gay fantasies are here: military, gang-bangs, S & M and, yes, rape, but maybe it’s the basis of the story in reality that has me a little irked by the BDSM label. I fear that such depictions reinforce the view in the ‘vanilla’ world that BDSM relationships are abusive.

Perhaps what is most disturbing of all about this book, and why labels matter, is that beneath all the issues that this book raises about sexuality, the military, etc. is that it is a deeply erotic work. The author takes us into the mind of the young sailor as he is broken and learns to submit to his jailers. As feelings he didn’t think he was capable of are awakened, it’s hard not to get aroused. Anyone who dismisses erotica as simply porn with no redeeming value probably needs to read this book. It really is disturbing, thought-provoking and erotic, all at the same time. Those feelings feed each other and make the messages of the story all the more powerful.

Although originally published around 30 years ago, and recounting events that are almost 50 years in the past, “The Brig” is amazing relevant to issues still faced in contemporary society. What’s more amazing is that the prescient messages of the book are delivered within some of the steamiest sex scenes I have read recently. This is definitely a book that will stick with me for a while.

“The Brig” is available from Smashwords, Amazon and All Romance Ebooks.