Not terrible, but disappointingWarning: This review might contain what some people consider SPOILERS. Rating: 5/10 PROS:- Strong emotional connection between two leads who are selfless when considering the other’s needs and desires.- Interesting, well-drawn fantasy world.- Convincing and heartbreaking longing on the part of each man for the other. I didn’t have any trouble at all believing in their total love for and devotion to each other.CONS:- Tiresome resistance on the part of one of the characters. I understood his reluctance to engage in sex at the beginning of the story because of various external circumstances, but he is SO in love with the other guy that once he got his first taste, I became frustrated with his noble “we can’t do this because it’s not right” stance.- Some descriptions of sex in which the consent of both partners was doubtful.- The progression of sex scenes--from milder to more extreme, (seemingly) impersonal to emotional--is good for the most part. However, I read this only about 3 weeks after having read Anderson’s The Assignment, and the progression in the two books is very similar…enough so that I found the sex in this book a bit formulaic.- Contrived voyeuristic situations that I didn’t much enjoy. Although I bought into (for the most part) the explanations of why the characters had to perform at times for an audience, I felt a bit cheated by those scenes. The characters are in anguish over their inability to be together, and when they finally get to express their love physically, I was almost sick at the idea that they couldn’t do so in private.- I was very disappointed by the book’s conclusion…not how things turn out, but how it’s written. The final love scene, although sweet, is anti-climactic after the one that comes before it, and we never get to see the characters make love in an entirely uninhibited situation, when the two characters aren’t in danger, no lecherous aliens are watching, and the knowledge that they can never be together isn’t hovering over their heads.Overall comments: Good idea but not executed satisfactorily for me. I didn’t hate it by any means; I’ve just read other m/m romances that I enjoyed much more because they came closer to providing the total package than this book does. The only reason I did not give this book five stars was because the only time they had sex was when they were being "forced" to have sex. Yeah I know they had other times where they did sexual stuff, but I would have liked to see an actual sex scene where neither one was chained up by someone that was NOT participating in the sex, where neither one was hurt, but where they were actually happy and together. Other than that I thought this book was absolutely WONDERFUL, having the perfect blend (in my opinion) of space, sex, and lovely guys.
What do You think about Slave Boy (2008)?
a lot better than I thought it would be:so cute, and just the right amount of angst
—livieko0711
Awww! So sweet and romantic, with just the right amount of angst for me.
—gabby
A little irritating til' about halfway, then got very sweet.
—spiritoforient
