Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The best in the series., July 2, 2009
The other two were great, but I thought the conclusion was the best in the series. I was glad things were tied up and though I was sad to see it go, I had fun while it lasted! Anne Rice is a top notch writer and she should be applauded for her efforts at writing bdsm, some of which can be a bit trying, to say the least. This one, however, goes on the permanent bookshelf, or in the nightstand--haven't decided yet! Another good bdsm novel: Eager To Please.
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10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
This trilogy sure opened MY eyes....., March 18, 2006
All right; growing up I was kinda sheltered. Until I picked up the second book in the series by "accident"--my dad had brought it home discarded from a rest area thinking it was just a fairytale book without looking and I took a peek and YOWZA!--I had very little insight into the world of S&M. I was nineteen years old at the time just for the record.
I was fascinated in a way I felt was very forbidden--the only one left in the family with religious tendencies--and I put the book aside for a few years until I ran across the whole trilogy in a book store. I could not resist the allure of forbidden fruit and bought all three, and settled down to read. Holy Hannah!
My thoughts on the trilogy all, at first, had to do with intense horror at what to me translated as horrible female abuse (yes, I have femenist tendencies) and an outright denial that such things could EVER bring pleasure to one forced to endure regular beatings, rapes, anal rapes (hello, dangerous?!) and even one act with a cat involved in book two.
Book three was quite different in tone for the most part, I almost enjoyed the forays into the palace of the Sultan. There was very little violence involved and never before had I read in detail male homosexual acts. To my horror I found it intensely arousing. I remain firmly convinced however that Lexius using fisting as a punishment on Laurent crosses the line into being far too dangerous. Face it, many of the punishments here in real life *would* be too dangerous.
That, and overall lack of character development, is why I rated this three stars. If I could, I would have rated it three and a half, but Amazon does not allow it. I could never imagine without a S & M fetish submitting willingly to acts like this and Rice's views into the minds of slaves are absurd. Still, there is something magical about this trilogy. I recommend great caution if you read it....and only if you're over 18.
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25 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Erotic Themes by "Serious" Writers... Truth or Consequence?, November 23, 1999
By A Customer
The risk a "serious" author takes when s/he writes erotic fiction is very real. Part of her audience may vilify her, she may risk loss of her publisher's good will, and the scorn of her colleagues. The consequences are potentially very severe. But some authors, like Miller or Joyce, have contended that if an author fails to explore erotic themes, s/he risks missing the whole truth about humanity. So Anne Rice appears to have ventured in search of the truths to be found in eroticism, and risks the consequences. God bless her. I found the idea that a major author like Anne Rice would write a graphic erotic novel trilogy irresistible, so I bought all three and read them stright through. I was pleasantly surprised, although less titillated than I thought I might be. Yes, there's plenty of hot sex, and plenty of kinky sex, and a plethora of male homosexual activity (I suspect Anne's making a point, there... that women get turned on by men having sex about as much as men get turned on by the lesbian stuff), so it's not a book likely to be found in Jerry Fallwell's library. I think. But I was far more intrigued by the way Rice approached her erotic theme, and the slow development of it, than in the erotica itself. This is a damn good series of books, erotic or not. The interesting thing about this series is that Anne has taken the job of writing erotic fiction with the same sort of zeal that she writes about vampires, or art, or music: that is, she's not even attempted to write something in the erotic mainstream, she's plunged in on the fringes of what's socially acceptable, sexually speaking, and in doing so has fashioned a work which transcends the merely pornographic. She has not shied away from graphic description of sexual acts, but she hasn't wallowed in them, either, for which I am grateful. She has used her descriptions of sexuality, and her characters' emotional responses to these acts, to say something about trust, love, and strength of character. There are few villains in this trilogy, but many heroes and heroines. I disagree with readers who feel the lack of character development in the Beauty books. No, Anne hasn't gone on for pages and pages describing her hero and heroine, as she has done in her vampire works, but that's not all bad. This is a different kind of writing, a different kind of book. She has sketched her characters, but sketched them truly and well. No, they aren't rich and full, as her vampires have been at times, but they are not flat and toneless, either. The reader is forced to look for them by the style of the book. Laurent fairly springs from the pages, if you look for the contextual clues to what makes him tick. (Guys, ask your girlfriend if you don't believe me on this one.) Male readers who find homosexuality threatening will perhaps not find him easily, because it's in the gay scenes that we see him revealed most clearly, right up until the end, when he is revealed most clearly. Beauty's character is perhaps easier to find, especially in Beauty's Release, but in any case all three books need to be taken together to get a real sense of who Anne intended her to be. These books are well worth reading, not just for the eroticism, but for the satisfaction of reading a good story, well told.
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