Customer Reviews

Slave Trade

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

 

 

This book was a good read, but don't be deceived by the title/cover or Amazon's "recommended also" titles. The negative reviews seem to be concentrated on the fact that it wasn't erotic enough. Read Laurell Hamilton (I do!) if that's what you're after. This isn't an erotic thriller--more of a space adventure, and a lively one at that. No sex scenes in this or the sequel, but fun characters. The story is reminiscent of Anne McCaffrey's Catteni Sequence/Freedom books. They didn't have a lot of sex even though humans were pleasure slaves in that story too. Don't go into it with high expectations--just read it for a good story.

This is the beginning of trilogy that will look at a universe of hierarchy. In that universe, human beings are at the bottome of the ladder, used as sex slaves. However, we aren't shown alot of what that really means. Oh, there are scary emotions described but beyond some beginning lines nothing explicitedly sexual happens. That left me wondering what was so bad -- sort of like the movie "Spartacus" before the director's cut came out. Beyond this, Wright does a good job of showing the complex social and political relationships between characters, sometimes there is too much to follow and you have to slow down your reading to be clear on what is happening. A question for the publisher: what is the deal with the cover? It has nothing to do with the book.

Until now Susan Wright has written several "Star Trek" novels and anthology entries, all of them thoughtful and original takes that stayed true to the voices of the franchise's beloved characters. With "Slave Trade" Susan remains among the stars, but travels into all new territory-truly where no "Trek" novel has ever gone. Casually racy, off-handedly lurid, and eyebrow-raising in its pansexuality, "Slave Trade" is the start of a weird and bizarre, but certainly fully realized science fiction odyssey. Critics of the novel are missing its subtle but always sly commentaries on our society's freedom (or lack there of) of sexual expression. Slavery to the sexual status quo, Susan seems to be saying, is merely a state of mind that can only lead to self-destruction. Rose Rico, heroine of the "Slave Trade" trilogy, is a young woman who is on a kinky journey of enlightenment that will (hopefully!) ultimately alter that status quo. My guess is that this wild trilogy will only get better and better.

I picked up this book expecting either something like Flash Gordon or John Norman's naughty old "Gor" series. I got neither. Despite the cover and promotional blurb, this book is in no way erotic. Even the characters who are in love never came across as passionate sexual partners, and there are no actual sex scenes in this book. The characters are one-dimensional; Rose Rico is angry and larger-than-life, nothing more, the villain ambitious and cruel, nothing more, and so on. In-depth explorations of their personalities are absent. The writing is frequently clumsy, leaving me with the impression that the author was trying to mimic the instructions from a "how-to" book on writing rather than developing her own style.

Positives? The space battles are pretty good, and after a very dull first half, the second half of the book does pick up a bit as the various plot threads are brought together. But if you want a story about aliens abducting humans for sex, there are better books out there than this one.

I came across this book in the science fiction section of a local bookstore. The cover and description on the back of the book certainly are misleading. I was thinking there must be some sort of mistake and the book might have been shipped to the store by mistake instead of being sent to a adult book store.
I read the information on the author and noticed she had written several star trek books. I'm not a fan of star trek, or books based on television shows, but I assumed the cover was designed by someone who either didn't read the book or designed it to lure people who are interested in pornographic literature into buying it. I decided to take a gamble that my assumption was correct. Luckily I was right, there are no perverse scenes and only vague suggestions of perversion. It is a fairly good science fiction book, worth reading.
This just proves you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover.

I picked up this book in an electronic format because I needed something to read immediately. I was going to be stuck in a horrible conference for the whole day and I needed something I could load on my laptop.
I didn't pay too much attention to what it was (thank goodness) or I would have never picked it up.
Boy was I surprised! It was not what I expected at all...when I finally read the whole description of the book I was afraid I had picked up one of those flimsy excuses for a novel that is totally designed to take a reader from one torrid scene to another. However, what I found instead was an interesting universe peopled with 3 dimensional and totally unique races and characters.
Far from being a little distraction to get me through a boring conference I found myself devouring the silly thing that night when I got home......you should have seen the look on my husbands face when I brought my laptop to bed!
Now I am no literary critic but I know what I like. Yes I wish some things had been more descriptive and I wish the author had given us a bit more background...but any book that sends me out immediately to look for the next book, is one I would recommend to my best friend. A sure fire "hurray for our side" story!
Ignore the silly title and try it...you'll be as captivated as I was.

I liked this book, but it doesn't live up to the sexy cover. In fact, there wasn't much sex or bondage at all. The story is about an Earth that has become a breeding ground for sex slaves that various and sundry aliens enjoy; the main character is abducted, stripped naked and sold to a vile villainess that we see only briefly and she doesn't do much to our heroine before the rescue begins. Our heroine then shares the book with a host of rebels, bad guys and whatnot. The story then spreads out into a Star Trek plot which makes sense since the author is a Trek-novel writer. This is fun sci-fi but boring sex slave stuff. There is no threatening male master on female slave situations, if that's what you're looking for. But well worth a first read because the spaceship battles are highly addictive. This is the first of three books so there is still time for our main character to find herself in the clutches of a male master, alien or otherwise.

Would you think a book entitled 'Slave Trade' with a writhing naked woman in bondage on the cover is going to involve something steamy? The back cover says that the book you're holding is about humans who are kidnapped and forced into sexual slavery to aliens. I hope the author is having a good belly laugh at the expense of her hapless readers because not once in the entire book was sex more than hinted at. No, the plot concerns a young woman, Rose Rico (a completely stereotypical plucky latino) and her journey into and out of the aliens' sketchily-realized empire, leading a band of freed slaves. I blame the publisher for the misleading cover and blurb, but the author has to take full responsibility for the hackneyed plot and lack of innovation. Ms. Wright's experience as a Trek writer clearly has shaped her writing chops. The aliens' different races literally are distinguished by their different wrinkled foreheads. Technology is used as a magical plot device instead of given any realistic treatment. Come to think of it, Star Trek fans will probably love this book.

Slave Trade by Susan Wright introduces us to Rose Rico, a woman with a chip on her shoulders. Rose lives in Mexico in a post-apocalyptic Earth where people just disappear regularly. Rose learns that her mother and the rest of the World Council have entered into an arrangement with aliens called the Domain. In return for technology, Earth provides slaves - innocent human lives. Through treachery, Rose finds herself in a cube hurtling through space as a slave.

Solians, as humans are called by the Domain are greatly desired as pleasure slaves. It would seem as though the aliens of the Domain have lost the ability to be spontaneously sexual. They have lust cycles that are dictated by the race of the alien. Solians are able to be sexual at any time and this makes them ideal as sexual slaves.

Rose is not happy with her enslavement and does everything she can to escape. Lucky for Rose, she meets Ash, a hir and hermaphrodite slave. Together, they have a chance at freedom, but have no idea what to do once they are free.

The Domain has enslaved many different worlds. One world that is trying to fight back is Qin. Qin is mired in political apathy that seems insurmountable. S'jen, a Qin battleship captain has decided the time is ripe for the Qin to strike directly at the Domain. This strike places Rose and Ash together and changes the entire tactics of the Qin.

The Domain, Qin, and the Solian slaves begin a war that takes many prisoners and has a huge cost in life. Nothing will ever be the same for Rose and all her comrades.

Slave Trade is an interesting read, but does not contain any titillating sexual encounters. They story is more of a space-opera/action adventure in genre. The beginning of the book is a bit on the boring side as each player is meticulously introduced and we are given a glimpse into their motivations. Once the action starts, things get interesting.

According to her website, Susan Wright writes science fiction novels and nonfiction books on art and popular culture. She is the author of numerous Star Trek books and the Slave Trade series. Slave Merchant, the second in the series was published in January 1, 2004 and Slave Revolt, third in the series, is due to be published at a future date. New York City is her home, where she lives with her husband Kelly Beaton. After graduating from Arizona State University in 1986, Susan moved to Manhattan to get her masters in Art History from New York University's Institute of Fine Arts. Susan is currently the Spokesperson for the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom, a national organization committed to protecting freedom of sexual expression among consenting adults.

Yes, the cover is misleading and the actual story is misleading but that isn't what is wrong with this book. The writing is distinctly poor, character development is sketchy at best. This reads like a piece of B grade fanfiction. This is not a book to buy unless you pick it up from a used bookstore. I def think this is one the average scifi fan can skip. The plotline is neither provokative nor original.