The Marketplace (The Marketplace Series, 1) [Paperback]

Laura Antoniou (Author)

Book Description

Series: The Marketplace Series, 1 | Publication Date: October 2000

Laura Antoniou's modern classic of BDSM-themed fiction returns to print. In The Marketplace, the first book of the series, follow the trials and tribulations of four aspiring slaves as they undergo training hoping to be accepted into the secret underground society of masters and slaves known as the Marketplace. Under the firm hand of Grendel, the sharp eye of Alexandra, and the painful leather strap in the hands of Chris, these men and women will find some of their hardest challenges come from within themselves. They embark on a sensual and erotic journey, and yet nothing is quite as they expect in their quest to serve.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Mystic Rose Books; 2nd edition (October 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0964596040
• ISBN-13: 978-0964596047
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.3 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #924,350 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Laura Antoniou is the author of the well known Marketplace series of erotic novels, She has also edited the groundbreaking "Leatherwomen" anthologies, and several other collections of fiction and non-fiction. Her work has been translated into Spanish, German, Hebrew, Japanese and Korean.

The Marketplace series describes "an elite and secretive world organization,dedicated to the auctioning and overseeing of the world's finest lifestyle slaves... a world so vivid in sequel after sequel, it takes on a reality of its own, one that's visually hard to let go of once the reader has put down the book." (Libido Magazine). Laura plans several more novels in the series as well as other writing projects.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The first book is back -- CELEBRATE, November 13, 2001

By 

TammyJo Eckhart "TammyJo Eckhart" (Bloomington, Indiana United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

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This review is from: The Marketplace (The Marketplace Series, 1) (Paperback)

(...)The Marketplace series by Laura Antoniou is erotic literature of the highest quality and it will encapture your mind and heart as well as turn you on. This reissue is very welcomed and the new short story at the end covers a gap between this and the second book of the series, "The Slave" very well -- this short story alone is worth the cost of the book for any Marketplace fan. You'll meet all the important and reoccuring characters from Antoniou's series; you'll develop strong opinions about each too that may surprise some of you. This isn't soft and romantic BDSM though so if you can't handle DS without limits, serious punishment, and even sexual use to the extreme, you'll want to skip this series. It appeals across the board to all seuxal orientaions within the BDSM category -- in fact it plays around with the orientations in wonderfully engaging ways. I highly recommend this book.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One Word - Brilliant., April 29, 2001

By 

Margo Eve (Northern VA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Marketplace (The Marketplace Series, 1) (Paperback)

I loved this book when I first read it several years ago - I love it even more now. To the experienced BDSMer many of the characters will seem familiar, even if you have never read it book before. The Do-Me-Queen Princess, The awkward Sissy maid, The delicate yet 'always proper' servant girl, The leather boy looking for something "more"... here is the Marketplaces newest arrivals. Maybe you've seen them in the clubs or even online? Ever wonder what would happen to such a person if they got what they say they want? Ever wonder what "REAL D/s" is? Ask yourself - do I have what it takes to train a slave? Read this and ask yourself again.

This book (heck this entire series) is what I go for whenever I hit a rut in my scene life. I've often referred to it as "the most realistic fiction" in BDSM literature. And I recommend it to EVERYONE in the scene.

63 of 75 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not quite my view of BDSM, April 16, 2003

By 

eeepy (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Marketplace (The Marketplace Series, 1) (Paperback)

This is the story of four slaves - Brian, Claudia, Sharon and Robert - who all have an inherent need to be "owned" in the fullest sense of the word. We follow their journey as they are trained in a crash course by Alex, Grendel and Chris.

Basically, The Marketplace is a secret society catering to those who wish to own well-trained slaves and those who wish to be sold as slaves. When we're talking about a slave in this context, we're talking about one with no limits.

I'm ambivalent about this book for a number of reasons. Firstly, if this was reality, the training provided in this book would be utilised by owners who can't be bothered training their own slaves and who want to buy one off the shelf. To me, that takes the dominant's authority away from them - isn't half the pleasure of owning a slave knowing that you've trained them yourself?

Secondly, there is a huge amount of sex in this book. I'm no prude and I don't have a problem with sex, but BDSM is not all about sex. If you want a lot of sex scenes mixed in with punishment, then you'll love this. But to me, it misrepresents what real-life BDSM is about and enforces the "kinky sex" stereotype that a lot of people seem to have about BDSM.

Thirdly, the grammatical and typographical errors throughout are horrendous. I don't know what device was used to type The Marketplace, but repeatedly mis-spelling "circumstance" as "circomestance" could easily have been corrected in most modern word processors. There are other oft-repeated and very annoying grammatical errors, which drove me to distraction. I admit that I'm fairly picky about things like this and I can live with a few errors, but this book is riddled with them.

However, I found this an interesting read overall. It is more than just a bunch of sex and BDSM scenes and it has a storyline.