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elfsWynd Temptress, by Kathryn Anne Dubois (2003, Ellora's Cave) is one of those stories that's sat on my hard drive for ages and I finally got around to reading, because I was bored yesterday and stuck on a bus for a long time without my laptop. I regret having read it.
There's a modest infodump in the beginning where we learn that it is 2150 and the Earth is recovering after The Psychic Wars, in which the normals and their tame psis are now hunting down and trying to control or eliminate any remaining telepaths. Forty years earlier, the Psychic Wars ended with the death of the super-telepath the Tyrea, who apparently lit of nukes and otherwise trashed the planet in a "if I can't have it nobody can" spasm as he went down.
The Tyrea left behind three daughters (convenient that, but I've written worse), whose names are suggestive of wind, fire, and water. Each of their "romance" stories is told by a different author, starting with Dubois's tale of "wind," Jezermaih, and the man sent to assess the risk she presents, Adam.
Adam is a telepath, retired from the PSI Agency (an extragovernmental agency that all governments agree is necessary to stop the Continental Council, a renegrade group of telepaths trying to breed the next Tyrea, from succeeding), called back to duty to assess this greatest risk they've ever known: a child of the Tyrea, now living in Alaska. In chapter one, Adam tells us his plans: he'll kidnap Jezermaih and take her to one of the agency's Sekret Bases, where he'll interrogate her as roughly as necessary to determine her risk level. Oh, and Adam's favorite tool to accomplish his mission? Rape.
Yes, it's that kind of story. It's presented as a romance. He does kidnap her, whisks her away to his Sekret Agency Base (which is in the middle of a vast Alaskan plain but somehow has power and a five-star suite of romantic bedrooms and jacuzzis and a heated swimming pool), ties her down, strips her naked, and molests her with his hands and mouth. She manages to get free, bashes him on the head with a lamp, and ties him up to try and get the numerical code on the ignition of his SUV so she can get out of there. After confessing to the reader that she's not brave enough to actually torture him with a knife or a strangulation rope, we get another sex scene where she "tortures" him with frustration. He gives her the wrong code, she runs to the SUV, he takes advantage of her absence to get free and again they reverse their situation and he's again taking advantage of her immobility.
It's not just awful. Dubois is a competent writer, a little expository, but no David Weber. It's ugly. The characters' "love" that they achieve by the end of the book is presented as an ultimate state of being. Moral of the story: Somewhere out there is the perfect man (buff, exceptionally well hung, cooks a perfect meal, and has money), and if he has to rape you for you to figure out he's perfect, eh, so what's a little rape?
She should have killed him in chapter three.
There's a modest infodump in the beginning where we learn that it is 2150 and the Earth is recovering after The Psychic Wars, in which the normals and their tame psis are now hunting down and trying to control or eliminate any remaining telepaths. Forty years earlier, the Psychic Wars ended with the death of the super-telepath the Tyrea, who apparently lit of nukes and otherwise trashed the planet in a "if I can't have it nobody can" spasm as he went down.
The Tyrea left behind three daughters (convenient that, but I've written worse), whose names are suggestive of wind, fire, and water. Each of their "romance" stories is told by a different author, starting with Dubois's tale of "wind," Jezermaih, and the man sent to assess the risk she presents, Adam.
Adam is a telepath, retired from the PSI Agency (an extragovernmental agency that all governments agree is necessary to stop the Continental Council, a renegrade group of telepaths trying to breed the next Tyrea, from succeeding), called back to duty to assess this greatest risk they've ever known: a child of the Tyrea, now living in Alaska. In chapter one, Adam tells us his plans: he'll kidnap Jezermaih and take her to one of the agency's Sekret Bases, where he'll interrogate her as roughly as necessary to determine her risk level. Oh, and Adam's favorite tool to accomplish his mission? Rape.
Yes, it's that kind of story. It's presented as a romance. He does kidnap her, whisks her away to his Sekret Agency Base (which is in the middle of a vast Alaskan plain but somehow has power and a five-star suite of romantic bedrooms and jacuzzis and a heated swimming pool), ties her down, strips her naked, and molests her with his hands and mouth. She manages to get free, bashes him on the head with a lamp, and ties him up to try and get the numerical code on the ignition of his SUV so she can get out of there. After confessing to the reader that she's not brave enough to actually torture him with a knife or a strangulation rope, we get another sex scene where she "tortures" him with frustration. He gives her the wrong code, she runs to the SUV, he takes advantage of her absence to get free and again they reverse their situation and he's again taking advantage of her immobility.
It's not just awful. Dubois is a competent writer, a little expository, but no David Weber. It's ugly. The characters' "love" that they achieve by the end of the book is presented as an ultimate state of being. Moral of the story: Somewhere out there is the perfect man (buff, exceptionally well hung, cooks a perfect meal, and has money), and if he has to rape you for you to figure out he's perfect, eh, so what's a little rape?
She should have killed him in chapter three.
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Date: 2008-04-23 05:34 pm (UTC)This could be a very useful quote.
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Date: 2008-04-23 05:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-23 06:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-23 06:32 pm (UTC)She was a popular political leader back in her home town. He tied her up, cut her clothes off, and raped her. Not a single person she told her story to would doubt she did herself, and the world, a favor.
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Date: 2008-04-23 07:23 pm (UTC)That's the sorta thing that would piss me off. I actually like romance stories, but there are so many out there where the male lead is such an ass or such a generally horrible person that it really breaks the brain to think the female lead could possibly fall in love with him. And this fall in love thing happens even when the female is portrayed as a strong "modern" woman who doesn't put up with BS and knows her worth. Then she throws it all away because the preferred state is to let this asshat dominate her and take care of her for the rest of her life. WTF?
Why don't you read something good for a change? Granted there's not alot of sex in them, but Nalini Singh writes a damn good story. She has 4 so far (I missed the first one, but that doesn't hurt the reading of the on-going plot too much). I'm currently reading the 3rd book about a psy character who escaped from the net mind and is currently dealing with the breakdown of his "Silence" a conditioning that leaves him emotionless, but able to control his terrible gift so he doesn't harm his society the way strong psys in the past did. BTW - he's an assassin of sorts, the type of person who would have been put down in the past because it's inevitable that without Silence he would turn nuts and use his psy to murder all he loves, but his work gives his personality this outlet without harming innocents. Or so he's been told. The female lead is a wounded creature trying desperately to put herself back together after the horrible mind-raping she endured in book 2 (no, not a spoiler). She's from the changer races (werewolf in her case, there are other critters people change into) who are mostly outside the grid of the psy race. The changers are a physical people who need constant touch, though only from people they trust and are willing to allow "skin privileges" with. Her overprotective brothers are driving her crazy as she struggles to regain her sense of safety and independence. There's alot of psychological speculation by both characters as to why she's attracted to him and why he thinks he can't let himself feel emotion.
So, it's basically another sweet girl falls for asshat kinda situation, but it's very well done and you can actually see what there is in him that she'd fall for. Somehow you can relate to them both and you can see how both characters are changing due to their interactions and growing relationship with each other. The writing flows well, the characters are *very* well done, and the on-going plot is very interesting. I think you'd enjoy it. And even though there's not alot of smut, I bet it would be a good read as far as writing techniques and ideas and stuff. ;p I'd recommend starting with book 1 though because you'll probably get caught up in the on-going plot too. Don't let the overblown titles fool you though.
1. Slave to Sensation (I like the writing so much I'll be reading this too)
2. Visions of Heat (had a picture of a gorgeous jaguar on the cover!)
3. Caressed by Ice (the one I described above)
4. Mine to Possess
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Date: 2008-04-25 06:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-25 04:22 pm (UTC)Uh, huh. Pull the other.