Slaves of Tarne (Idol Series)

Rating:
Summary: The Truth Shall Set You Free
Review: Lemme share a little something I learned writing romance for women (that's right--want to make something of it?) Sometimes less is more. Sometimes what the writer leaves out is more interesting than what the writer puts in. Granted, that SOMETIMES is a big sometimes (as big as some of the appendages in Neale's SLAVES OF TARNE), a big, fat, qualified SOMETIMES. But in this case--and in the case of 99% of m/m erotica--less is more. In Slaves of Tarne we have (besides the jarring constant switch from third to first person narrative) an undefined place and time. The narrator mentions 'electricity in the air,' and glass doors, and yet people are drinking ale out of tankards and wearing cloaks. But okay, I'll go with it. I'm caught by the skillfully handled eroticism in the first scene between Pascal and the beautiful, hypnotic and crazed Caspar. But then the story switches to Denton and then Pascal and then Troy and then Pascal and then...you get it. Heck, everybody gets it. Because that's all this book is. Caspar takes beautiful boys to his S/M version of Fantasy Island, and misuses them (in graphically depicted loving detail), getting ever closer to killing someone, and the big question is, will Pascal manage to tear himself away in time? Every scene, every thought, every conversation is about sex. And yet I complain. See, I have a fantasy too, and that is that porn can be blended with plot and even dialog to create something called a story (aka 'erotic fiction') which would be satisfying for both the mind AND body.

Rating:
Summary: The Truth Shall Set You Free
Review: Lemme share a little something I learned writing romance for women (that's right--want to make something of it?) Sometimes less is more. Sometimes what the writer leaves out is more interesting than what the writer puts in. Granted, that SOMETIMES is a big sometimes (as big as some of the appendages in Neale's SLAVES OF TARNE), a big, fat, qualified SOMETIMES. But in this case--and in the case of 99% of m/m erotica--less is more. In Slaves of Tarne we have (besides the jarring constant switch from third to first person narrative) an undefined place and time. The narrator mentions 'electricity in the air,' and glass doors, and yet people are drinking ale out of tankards and wearing cloaks. But okay, I'll go with it. I'm caught by the skillfully handled eroticism in the first scene between Pascal and the beautiful, hypnotic and crazed Caspar. But then the story switches to Denton and then Pascal and then Troy and then Pascal and then...you get it. Heck, everybody gets it. Because that's all this book is. Caspar takes beautiful boys to his S/M version of Fantasy Island, and misuses them (in graphically depicted loving detail), getting ever closer to killing someone, and the big question is, will Pascal manage to tear himself away in time? Every scene, every thought, every conversation is about sex. And yet I complain. See, I have a fantasy too, and that is that porn can be blended with plot and even dialog to create something called a story (aka 'erotic fiction') which would be satisfying for both the mind AND body.