Customer Reviews

Brig

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is great erotica for the gay male S/M enthusiast. The author creates a richly described setting for his story which hits home with all the darkest non-consent fantasies a bottom has. Unlike lots of the work in this area, the details are extensive enough to bring a disturbing sense of reality to the story. It may well leave you pondering the depths of your own desires, both sexual and non-sexual.

This is a work that has political, psychological, psychic, physical, sexual overtones. Power, sex and politics are intertwined into a cauldron of pain, passion, desire and submission. For those who seek the depths of the power to transform, subdue and the life force that ultimately triumphs over it all, this is a great book.

I first read this novel well over 10 years ago, and it still haunts me to this day. I'd read most of the the "Master's" (ahem) of the genre to that point and this really seemed the most realistic in what would have to be called a nightmare scenario. It had the hard edge that I found lacking in the works of authors like Larry Townsend or John Preston.

Most of their stuff was of the safe/sane/consensual variety. I'd call it "pansy" S/M Fiction (although Preston did have some good ones). Why would I want to read a story about something I might actually do in real life? I'd prefer to just "do it." What I want in my fantasies is something I wouldn't have the cojones to do in real life, or to fantasize of a situation I'd never seriously want to be anywhere near in real life.

The Brig is UNsafe/UNsane/UNconsensual and yet believable.

The only author of that day (and today) that I find that can come close to creating such a well written, hard edged, believable story would be Steven Saylor, a.k.a. Aarron Travis, and then only in his short stories. Yes, you can find harder edged, nastier, stuff on the net, or in small publishing formats (Metropolitan Slave & Katharsis come to mind--both now defunct): but this is actually a real literary style piece of traditional fiction that also happens to be incredibly hot. And I think that's the difference, it tells a story of self-discovery and growth in a brutal and nightmarish environment.

It's a crime that the book is no longer in print. I'd like to send the original publishers to "The Brig" for some re-education; except my guess is they are long gone by now.