Title: Slave Boy
Author: Evangeline Anderson
Publisher: http://www.loose-id.com
Genre: GLBT (M/M), Science Fiction, Fantasy
Length: Novel
Rating: 5 stars out of 5
Master D’Lon Haven is the most respected mediator in The Order of the Light, a revered sect of mediators and healers that roam the galaxy righting wrongs. Ten years ago he found a ragged slave boy on Rigel Six and brought him to live at the Temple of Light on Radiant. He and Wren have been together since then and Wren’s gratitude is exceeded only by his desire for his Master. He has been in love with Haven from the moment he laid eyes on him when Haven rescued him from a life of sexual slavery but he is off limits because a sexual relationship between Master and Novice is forbidden, so they keep their feelings a secret from each other.
Haven and Wren have been sent to mediate an interplanetary dispute between two races, the Tiberions and the Gowans. The Tiberions are very powerful and are threatening to wipe the peace-loving people of Gow gi Nef off the face of the planet. From the beginning things start to go wrong. Due to protocol Wren has to pretend to be Haven’s slave which brings back bad memories of his previous life. The worse part of his new role is he must be naked at all times during their stay on the planet much to Haven’s dismay because he’s finding it very hard to resist Wren. To complicate matters even more the Tiberion Minister of War, H’rak is very suspicious of the relationship between the two men and has his eye on Wren whom he wants for his very own slave boy.
I found both the story of Slave Boy and its execution to be exceptionally well done. The plot was complex and I thought that the characterizations worked very well within the context of the genre. Wren was particularly well drawn – his vulnerability and love for Haven were off the chart and Haven was totally believable in his role as the protective older teacher who was very much in love with his student but had to be responsible and adhere to the rules of the Order. Evangeline Anderson writes extraordinarily hot sex scenes between her protagonists and sometimes the reader feels like a voyeur which was the case in this book as the sex between Haven and Wren was passionate, intense and very sensual.
This is a fantasy therefore the reader’s imagination and the author’s world building play a huge part in the credibility and believability of the main characters as well as the story. In my opinion this was accomplished in Slave Boy and, in addition, the large supporting cast including the villains seemed to be quite realistic for the genre. I really enjoyed this book; it was exceptionally well written and I would recommend it to both fans of this author and new readers as a great addition to their bookshelf.
Sigh. Still haven’d found the time to read it. 🙁 I stayed up all night Suday night to finish the bloody PR documents so yesterday after my shots and visits to the bank and the optometrist I dropped dead on the couch. It’s at the top of my TR list. Well, maybe second because the Jennifer Cole sounds nice and it’s shorter. I don’t want to be disturbed when I read Slave Boy and I’m not sure I’ll find the uninterrupted time today.
Great review :).
Hi Mary
You know, a holiday is supposed to be a great time in one’s life, especially a holiday like yours which will last for months. You sound wiped out.
One way of solving your problem with books is (if you can afford it) to get an e-reader – I believe there are some for $200 now (Palm for one). You just have to make sure that it can read the format of your ebooks. The Kindle is too expensive at double that price plus you’re limited in terms of format.
I did enjoy Slave Boy which is novel length but if you want a fast read then Jennifer Cole might be better at this time. But you should still read Slave Boy when you have a chance – it’s a terrific sci fi love story.
Wave
Sigh. I am rather wipe out, to tell the truth, but it,s mostly my fault. I always wait at the last minute to do everything so I end up not sleeping much. I will try to get some rest before I leave, though. During the trip, tiredness shoudln’t be a problem – I’m always on an adrenaline high 😀
I did think about the e-reader, but besides the price, which I don’t want to pay now when I have such huge expenses ahead of me, I am badly inclined to losing things. Like, everything. Sunglasses, vests, cameras, wallets, you name it. On my last trip in Thailand I lost both my camera andd my wallet – that was a feat, even for me. Although they might have been stolen. I’ll never know. So I’m wary of spending more than 50$ on anything I would carry around with me. Even my MP3 was a free gift my granfather got when he bought his new glasses. So I’m unsure I’m ever going to buy a reader. Sigh.
And I will read Slave Boy before I leave, that’s a given. I won’t be able to wait two months and a half for it and I DON’T want to pay 5 euros for each 15 minutes of computer access at some European city to read it. That would be extreme, even for me :-D. Lol.
Well, I guess the e-reader is out. Do you have a PDA? Some of them have a built in e-reader like the Palm TRX.
I don’t know how you’re going to read all the books you want to before you leave.
Internet access time is very expensive overseas unless you find an internet cafe that charges by the hour on the off hours.
SLAVE BOY sounds almost *exactly* like PLEASURE PALACE, only M/M instead of M/F.
PP was good…I bet I’d like SB as well. But I wonder if they’re similar enough that I wouldn’t feel as though I were reading the same book…?
Hi Jen
I don’t remember reading Pleasure Planet but I did read Planet X. I’ll ask Evangeline and get back to you.
Not Pleasure Planet…Pleasure Palace. Slave boy sounds just like it. I think one of the characters in Pleasure Planet is even Tiberion. Two officers that like each other but have never admitted it are forced to play master/slave in order to infiltrate a shady operation. Some creepy dude is suspicious of the pair, all while coveting the slave…etc, etc.
Eerily similar.
Hi JenB,
Just wanted to address your comment about Pleasure Palance and Slave Boy being alike. I do have to say that there are some similarities between the two–I think because authors tend to revisit ideas that interest us or turn us on. For instance, I really like to make my characters do things they don’t want to do, so I enjoy putting them in situations where they can’t say no. For that reason, I’ve written several undercover type novels like The Assignment, Slave Boy, and Pleasure Palace. But just because they have the same premise doesn’t make them the exact same book. To me, good writing is all about the character arc so when I write, I’m exploring my different characters and how they react to a situation. Wren, for instance, has a much different reaction to playing a slave in Slave Boy than Ty does in Pleasure Palace. Wren comes from an abusive past and his situation brings out his hidden submissive tendancies in a big way. Ty, on the other hand, is a very dominant male who is actually the senior officer in Pleasure Palace and he takes every opportunity to take charge of the situation sexually and dominate his “mistress”, Shaina in every way. He’s posseseive and agressive and goes after what he wants. Not a submissive bone in his body–lol. So from a character driven stand point–which is the way I write–the books couldn’t be more different.
However they are both sci-fi undercover type plots so if you feel that you wouldn’t care to read more than one book in that genre, then I don’t reccomend that you read Pleasure Palace.
Hope I answered your question and thanks again to Wave for posting such a lovely reivew. You’re the best, Wave. 🙂
PS–Hi Mary, I hope you can get some rest before your big vacation. Take care and let me know when your book comes in the mail I sent it a long time ago so it should be there soon.
Evangeline
Hey, you both changed your icons! Nice :).
Lol. Wave, the answer is simple: I am NOT going to be able to read all the books I want before I leave :-D. There are simply too many. I’ll just read the few I find the time to. I remember how expensive oversees internet access is. It shocked the hell out of me last time. Shopping can be worth it though. For a full hour, there can be several dollars’ difference from one place to another. I’m still going to shed some bucks on it because I need to keep up with people and several friends have threatened me with horrible death if I didn’t keep them in the loop or didn’t send pictures :-D. Plus, I’m traveling alone, so I need at least some way to share my excitement and feelings :).
And I had to goggle “PDA” to know what you meant 😀 You mean the simili-computer devices like Blackberries or iPods, right? Nope, don’t have one of those either. Same rule applies – it’s till an expensive small thing I’m liable to lose or break, and I barely need a cell phone. So I have a reliable dinosaur cellphone that used to belong to my brother, which most sophisticated feature is sending text messages (never learned how to do it) and I buy a 10$, one-month card every few months when for some reason I believe I might have reason to use the phone this specific month. :-DD The battery is on its last miles though and I don’t think they make those anymore so I’m probably going to have to buy another sometime this fall. *sigh* I’ll seee if I can’y buy one of my friend old one, because I don’t want to pay 300$ for one when I barely use it and I’m not paying 30$ a month either when I seldom used more than half of the 25 minutes I had with a 10$ card. :-/
Hi Evangeline! I just saw your message 🙂 Thank you for the good wishes for my trip. I’m really looking forward to it. I’m probably going to visit less cities and spend more time in each, so that should make it easier for me not to exhaust myself. 🙂 I’ll let you know when I receive the book. I’m leaving only next Wednesday so it still has plenty of time to get here 😀 I hope you have a beautiful summer in Florida!
Evangeline – I hope my question didn’t insult you.
I was just thinking that maybe you had “rewritten” Pleasure Palace for the M/M market. I’ve seen that done before, and I think it’s cool. I just think in my case, as a person who reads so many books so close together, that it would be hard for me to read a book like that without feeling as though I was just re-reading the original. Does that make sense?
I’m certainly not calling Slave Boy unoriginal or anything like that, I promise!! 🙂
But now that you’ve explained the differences, I do see what you’re talking about.
Ok, I’m definitely interested in reading this now.
Hi Jen,
No worries about your question–I can see where you would wonder about the similarities in the two books. Are there really authors out there rewriting m/f as m/m? I don’t see how that could work unless you want one of your male characters to be super feminine which doesn’t do it for me at all. I think every new novel and every set of characters should be different but that’s just me.
Have a great day!
E
PS–Hi Mary. Summer here in FL so far is very wet–lots of rain but that’s ok. I hope the book gets to you before your trip so you have something to read on the plane.
: ) E