Customer Reviews

The Velderet (The Kylaran Chronicles)

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

 

 

I have read many Ms. Tan's short stories and was looking forward to this, her first novel. She did not disappoint. For those familiar with Cecilia Tan's work, this will be a change in that it is straight third person narrative. The absence of a particular voice however, only helps us to follow our two main characters, roommates Merin and Kobi, as they seek to explore their desires for sexual servitude in a utopian society where inequality is forbidden.

The sex is wonderful and hot and, of course, integral to the plot. I especially enjoyed the playful elements in Merin and Kobi's experimentation with each other as they try to fulfill vague fantasies without any cultural guidelines. They are the ultimate BDSM newbies.

As a science fiction story it works well. There are no clumsy explanations of customs and technologies; everything is tightly written and assumes and intelligent reader. There is a plot other than sex (a trade agreement with another planet) but the two subjects, that of an erotic novel and the sci-fi save the world story, mesh together seamlessly.

I would recommend this book as a wonderful introduction to the Circlet Press list. They mainly publish anthologies, but I hope that this novel is the start of a new trend.

The Velderet is a story about two characters, Kobi and Merin, who live in a world where acts of dominance and submission are not only subversive, they are illegal. Kobi works at The Velderet, a government-subsidized sex house where citizens can fulfill their monthly pleasure quotas through cybersex as well as flesh-and-blood liaisons. When Kobi and Merin realize that they both share a desire to submit to others, they turn to the Velderet as a way to cautiously find others who share their outlawed proclivities.

Not only is Cecilia Tan's book wonderful as a work of erotica -- there is sex in every chapter and it's hot, arousing sex that varies so much I ended up turning page after page, eager to see what the characters would try next -- it's also a great science fiction story with believable alien worlds and advanced technology as well as the traditional tendency towards social commentary in a fictional form. Despite the theme of BDSM being outlawed in Kobi and Merin's world, The Velderet never felt preachy or moralizing to me. The characters felt real and the plot was believable. Even the sex scenes were an integral part of the plot rather than side-explorations parallel to the plot. All in all, this book is tight and well put together.

This is the first piece of Cecilia Tan's writing that I have read and I am eager to seek out more of her work now. I give this book two thumbs up though it's hard to hold the book open with your thumb extended and Tan's book is so hot it takes both hands to read it.

A well written and enjoyable tale which highlights very well the fact that extremes of anything are dangerous: even extremes of equality, and that therefore has implications for our society and the restrictions we place upon how we act and think.

My only criticism is that I felt that the real story was with the couple and their awakenings, rather than with the aliens, and I didn't have much interest in the latter, they seemed to be a little too cliche, and also too much of a deux ex machina.

I found myself wishing that the author had skipped the whole thing about the aliens, and just followed the partners, and others they met, as they created an underground culture and attempted to liberate both each other and their their society.

"Equality" -- what a great concept but what does it mean? In "The Velderet" it means a world where individuality has been sacrificed because of historical guilt and sexuality has become limited and government approved. But this is your average distopian novel where all sex is outlawed or what you do is so important as why you do it and with whom. Yes, there is the invasion of a foreign people who seem rather new guard or old guard in their approach to power relationships but that isn't really the focus of the story. Instead the two roommates who discovered shared kinks and give us insight into the power of fear and authority are the reasons to read this book.

I was expecting this novel to be like erotica I have read in the past - entertaining, but shallow and raunchy. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised that while The Velderet was definitely sexy, it was also intellectual and thought-provoking. The story was one of passion, humanity and understanding. It explored how we view sex and pushed the boundaries, giving you sex scenes that not only made you hot, but also made you think.

This is definitely a book any fan of erotica should check out. It has an assortment of steamy sex scenes, but it's not another pointless and plotless erotic novel.

This book was incredible. I could not put it down from start to finish. I was actually upset that I finished it. I wanted to know more. Maybe if we are lucky she will write a volume two. In the mean time I highly recommend this book.

I've liked Tan's writing in the past, but it doesn't carry well at this length. Not everyone can write novels. A bit precious, unbelievable s/f moments, much repetition. Not worth the read.

Writing about sex is harder than it looks. "The Velderet" has a good premise, and takes the modern phenomenon of cybersex and extrapolates it into the future, asking the important question of what will sex be like if we can live out our fantasies without the risk of disease, pregnancy, or actual physical harm? We see efforts in our own internet to regulate sexual activity online, and without question the most interesting part of "The Velderet" is Tan's creation of a society where sex has been sanitized, made safe, and made "good". And it is the conflict between this "safe" sort of sex and the reality that human sexual desire is often messy and difficult and frightening that is makes this book's premise intriguing.

Unfortunately, this most interesting question gets very little attention in "The Velderet," and here we see the book's real failing: its focus is on the sex, and the kink, and the effort to titillate the reader and satisfy a fetish for BDSM, rather than the more interesting questions that this sort of sex poses. The fact that this was originally a serial means that there is a sex scene in pretty much every chapter, whether the larger plot calls for it or not. Secondarily, the book tries to be an exciting story where BDSM saves the world from an aggressive alien race, but this too is made secondary.

The problem with "The Velderet" is that it is merely a sexual fantasy written down. The very real struggle of Kobi to come to terms with his sexual desires, for example, is minimized in favor of depictions of his sexual adventures in cyberspace. The dark sides of those desires, the dangers that make them dramatic, are largely absent. And the irony is that this makes the sex in "The Velderet" sterile, detracting from the drama that can make BDSM stories exciting and titillating in the first place. Ironically, Tan has made her sex too safe here.

The biggest point in this book is that what's equal and what's equitable are two different things. Except in a few very narrow senses, enforced equality enforces what a lot of people just don't want. See - I did find something nice to say!

The story has a familiar sound: the aliens come, and it turns out that their breeding physiology and recreational practices are very compatible with the invadees. There's the Mars Needs Women theme, but this time the men are of interest, too. (Right. And just like on Star Trek, the females of this alien species probably look pretty good in a bikini, too.) **SPOILER** After being stood up for a date by someone who doesn't even know his name, the Invading Overlord threatens destruction of the race unless -- well, once again, the aliens come. The submissives save the world (!?!).

Only ordinary s/m, barely ordinary sci fi. Read something nice from Black Lace or in one of Violet Blue's collections instead.

//wiredweird