Morgan Hawke
Okay, let's try this again.
A while back, Sybil posted the cover to Morgan Hawke's upcoming Aphrodisia release, Kiss of the Wolf. The backblurb was okay, but what caught my attention was the cover art -- it was seriously hawt. On my last trip to the bookstore, I noticed a TPB release of an earlier Hawke book from Loose Id: Victorious Star.
The plot and the world building were pretty interesting. Starships as sentient beings? I'm there (the latent Trekkie in me coming out -- I loved Cpt. Picard.). Navigator-pilots modified to hook right into the ship's computer system? Fascinating and Matrix-like. A navigator pilot with a reputation for sacrificing captains in order to save ships? Excellent. Space pirates? Yum.
But for all of that potential, VS just didn't work for me for a couple of reasons. First, the heroine ends up as a slave, property owned by the two heroes. As she puts it, their fuck-toy. She goes from being a respected officer in the Imperium to having no rights whatsoever. Literally, she is listed as property on the ship's manifest. I understand that whatever submission goes on in a D/S relationship involve a negotiated power exchange between the participants. But to have that "relationship" extend into the real world (even in fiction) to the extent that her citizenship was revoked and she was a thing? Uh, no, not romantic, not sexy, not erotic. Second, the book crossed my squick barriers. Hell, the book breezed right past them and never looked back.
Squick #1. As I understand it, trust and consent are the bedrock of a D/S relationship. The first time Victoria, Seht & Aubrey have sex, there is none of that and the scene comes perilously close to rape in my opinion.
Squick #2: Constant anal sex. How could Victoria possibly walk or sit normally after so much anal sex with excessively large penii?
Squick #3. A golden shower. Ick.
Squick #4. One of the heroes has two cocks. And they swell during sex, locking him in. Reminds me of Lora Leigh's animal cocks. Ugh. Don't snakes have two penii? And don't dogs lock? Or maybe pigs? Okay, Seht is an alien, humanoid but not human. But still. Ewww.
But you know, despite the squicks, I'm still going to check out Kiss of the Wolf.
A while back, Sybil posted the cover to Morgan Hawke's upcoming Aphrodisia release, Kiss of the Wolf. The backblurb was okay, but what caught my attention was the cover art -- it was seriously hawt. On my last trip to the bookstore, I noticed a TPB release of an earlier Hawke book from Loose Id: Victorious Star.
The plot and the world building were pretty interesting. Starships as sentient beings? I'm there (the latent Trekkie in me coming out -- I loved Cpt. Picard.). Navigator-pilots modified to hook right into the ship's computer system? Fascinating and Matrix-like. A navigator pilot with a reputation for sacrificing captains in order to save ships? Excellent. Space pirates? Yum.
But for all of that potential, VS just didn't work for me for a couple of reasons. First, the heroine ends up as a slave, property owned by the two heroes. As she puts it, their fuck-toy. She goes from being a respected officer in the Imperium to having no rights whatsoever. Literally, she is listed as property on the ship's manifest. I understand that whatever submission goes on in a D/S relationship involve a negotiated power exchange between the participants. But to have that "relationship" extend into the real world (even in fiction) to the extent that her citizenship was revoked and she was a thing? Uh, no, not romantic, not sexy, not erotic. Second, the book crossed my squick barriers. Hell, the book breezed right past them and never looked back.
Squick #1. As I understand it, trust and consent are the bedrock of a D/S relationship. The first time Victoria, Seht & Aubrey have sex, there is none of that and the scene comes perilously close to rape in my opinion.
Squick #2: Constant anal sex. How could Victoria possibly walk or sit normally after so much anal sex with excessively large penii?
Squick #3. A golden shower. Ick.
Squick #4. One of the heroes has two cocks. And they swell during sex, locking him in. Reminds me of Lora Leigh's animal cocks. Ugh. Don't snakes have two penii? And don't dogs lock? Or maybe pigs? Okay, Seht is an alien, humanoid but not human. But still. Ewww.
But you know, despite the squicks, I'm still going to check out Kiss of the Wolf.