So I grabbed a book at my dad's for whatever reason (that reason being I was going to the bathroom) and got hooked by Kushiel's Dart. I'm not very far in but I like it pretty well. The writing is decent (for a fantasy novel, I was going to say, but I'm in no position to sling little darts like that) and the story, to my unjaundiced eye, reasonably original. I like that it's not a fantasy of the usual made-up world sort, but takes place in an alternate Europe some centuries after the Roman Empire never really rose. This makes it alternate history and better yet, there is nothing supernatural, none of that deus ex machina magic crap.
The main character is in training to be a special sort of courtesan in a world where sex is sold openly as an aid to spirituality. I rather like that, and again, the writing is good; but a friend of mine grabbed it and with her unerring eye found the most openly sexual scene I had read to date and pronounced it terribly written. She said, "Oh! This is a sex novel! I've read lots of these," and proceeded to laugh at the hackneyed description of a public sex-worship scene that made much of cascading hair and phalluses and parting the folds and so on. Well, all right, I've not read much of that, and I suppose there are many ways to describe sex without originality.
Last night's scene was I admit a bit over the edge. The main character Phèdre is delivered to the man who bid highest for her virginity and who, in keeping with his status as an enemy of her patron and hers as a natural-born masochist (so I gather), slaps her and forces her into gobbling him (much classier term than "fellating", don't you think?), then immediately after climaxing rips her clothes off, throws her to the floor and takes her again, brutally, so as to make sure of the virgin-blood. He then lashes her to a post and has fun with the whip. All the while she seems somewhat unimpressed, which might be in keeping with her intense training; but I think we should all be impressed, either with the man, or un- with the author, that even in middle age he can rise to the occasion twice in quick succession. I'm not admitting to any particular weakness when I say, ah, no, I couldn't do that.
So maybe it is a cheap sex book. I guess if later on a boy and a girl get it on and climax in the same instant, we'll know. It's published by Tor, and they are very successful, but I have a vague recollection of their reputation for sex slavery and bondage stories many years ago. Or maybe I've got that mixed up in my head, and/or hung out in too diverse a selection of bookstores as a lad back in Berkeley, I dunno. For rich and original language, enjoying it regardless.
Kushiel's Dart, by Jacqueline Carey, Tor Books 2002
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
I just read a crappy romance novel where they didn't actually have explicit intercourse sex until the epilogue -- and that was after like 7 kids. It was the WEIRDEST thing ever!! I think the editor told the author, hey, you'd better stick some actual fucking in here, dummy, and she was all oops, RIGHT! Gawd.
Oh, can I use the f-word in your comments?
Bwahaha! I remember Tor science fiction and the Gor novels in about the same breath -- I may or may not be accurate on that. ("Priest Kings of Gor," and the like.) There was a lot of soft pore corn and slave girls' loincloths in the Gor novels. I never got past the cover and a quick riffle, but they were ubiquitous at one time.
A heavyweight BJ, by a Buxom Babe followed up by brutal virgin-ripping of same? Hookers used to call that a "half and half" in the trade, although the order was usually reversed and the "virgin ripping" part was rather more theory than practice, since virginity was a long-gone commodity of doubtful value.
At any rate, I'd heard rumors that some can't do it, but never actually met one. Any REAL man can do this standing on his hands (which actually costs extra.)
Sigh. OK. I'm lying. Maybe when I was about 18 and nothing but a walking hard-on in the first place. Nowadays when she says "Yeah, baby, give me 9 inches and make it hurt," I give her 4.5" twice (during commercial breaks,) then hit her with a stick.
Yet another lie. I try to hit her with a stick, she'd rip my arm off and do some virginal ripping of her own with it. The stick, not my arm. Or maybe both.
Anyhow, on reconsideration, perhaps the fictionalized half-and-half is a BIT over the top.
Post a Comment