There’s
a lot of terrific writing in this abundant, sharply-focused theme anthology
from editor D.L. King. Slave Girls is
a collection of twenty-one surprisingly diverse short stories exploring the ‘s’
in D/s, from the sometimes breathless, needy, longing, hungry, curious,
occasionally reluctant, perpetually horny point of view of the submissives
themselves. Several of these stories are undoubtable masterpieces of the
subgenre: Alison Tyler’s Cubed;
Lisabet Sarai’s Muse; Dirty Pictures by Thomas S. Roche; the
beautiful, imaginative and poignant My
Master’s Mark by Lydia Hill; Erzabet Bishop’s The Red Envelope; Teresa Noel Roberts’ Bridle Party. I particularly enjoyed Summer Marsden’s stylish,
character-driven, inward-probing Breathe:
Breathing is the first thing an
anxious person forgets to do, and then they wonder why they feel as if they’re
drowning. Breathing is the first thing that Nick helped me with when our
relationship went from part-time play-and-fuck-buddies to something more. He
tells me what to do at times like this. I do it. It is simple and perfect as that. A mystical
symbiosis on which words would be lost.
Nina
Fairweather’s Press My Buttons deftly
explores the inner workings of a would-be submissive’s mind:
I didn’t want to be gagged. It
limited my speech. I couldn’t communicate effectively. It objectified me. Yet
when Lynn threaded the scarf through my teeth, under my hair and around my
head, I could feel my sex throbbing. While she tied it tightly I could think of
little else except the fact that I wanted to beg, and beg, and beg to be
touched, but I could not. That seemed only to make my excitement more profound.
Equally
impressive is the understated yet wholly ineluctable eroticism of Donna George
Storey’s Passing the Final. Not
relying on kinks or paraphilic gimmickry, never descending into raunchiness or
vulgarity, the aphrodisiacal potency of the writing is nonetheless undeniable:
His bedroom was illuminated only by
two thick, round candles arranged on the nightstand as if it were and altar. A
satin robe lay shimmering in the golden shadows across the pillow. She hung her
dress in his closet, kicked off her shoes, and slipped the robe over her lacy,
bride-white bra, matching thong and thigh-high stockings. She paused to check
her reflection in the closet mirror.
Don’t be afraid. The Master said
you were ready.
He hadn’t elaborated exactly what
she was ready for, but she would find out soon enough.For some reason he’s
removed his quilt and flat sheet, but fortunately the room was quite warm. She
stretched out on the bed, realizing she’d never been here without him beside,
above, or below her.
So,
clearly, what’s good here is very good indeed. It would not be honest, however,
to say that everything is equally good—I’m not giving out trophies for T-ball
after all—there is, unfortunately, a whiff or two of “bad”, and here and there
even a soupçon of “ugly”. Several issues plague what I will diplomatically
refer to as the “second-tier” stories in this collection; poorly conceived
points-of-view; amateurish malapropism, a retreat to platitude and shallow
stereotype, and a discouraging sense that some of these authors’ hearts weren’t
in the project.
I
have always tried to adhere to a set of simple rules for reviewing; foremost
among these is never give a bad notice
based on my bad mood. But what if the writing itself puts me in a
funk? Second-person POV is infuriating
when it isn’t boring. Aside from the fact that I have no interest in being made
a de-facto character in an author’s story, the conceit doesn’t—can’t—work
because the author doesn’t know me, doesn’t understand my motivations and
desires, what turns me on or makes me tick. Second-person also lends itself to
a kind of soporifically sing-songy backing and forthing “I do this/You do that”
ad sempiternum nauseum. Employ this
kind of writing in erotica and what inevitably results is the literary
equivalent of a checklist for an oil change. Thus, Evan Mora’s Noise was probably not the best choice
for the opening story in the collection, and the title of D.L. King’s What’s Not to Like begs a very loaded
question indeed.
Malapropism,
if sufficiently glaring, can effectively put me off a story, especially if
other issues have already gotten my attention. Please repeat after me; crescendo does not mean climax; you don’t “build up to a blazing
crescendo” (again, Evan Mora’s Noise);
the crescendo IS the building up. I was
already sufficiently annoyed with Graydancer’s sloppily written Savoring Little One not to overlook the
author’s use of ‘attenuated’ when the word obviously ought to have been
‘acclimated’. Honestly, one can look this stuff up—and, clearly, there are many people who need to.
Beyond
these basic technical considerations, there are a few aesthetic and
philosophical issues to give thoughtful readers pause. I have to admit that I
am weary of power-exchange stories in which Domination is reflexively (and
simplistically) equated with Sadism and, conversely, submission with weakness.
There is, too often, an unarticulated assumption to the effect that submissive
tendencies indicate a psyche that is less than whole and submissives—especially
female submissives—are accordingly portrayed as naive, airheaded pushovers,
willing to be used, humiliated, and hurt beyond the point of reason and safety
simply in order to feel loved and wanted. In fact, the best subs in fiction—and
in life—are often plucky, strong-willed, fully actualized, “totally together”
human beings who know precisely what they want, just as the best Doms know when
to lighten up and show affection.
In
addition to negative stereotypes, I got the impression that some of the authors
here either had no real life experience on which to draw (or, perhaps, no life
whatsoever), or were simply going through the motions of telling a steamy story
without stretching their imaginations too terribly far. Is it possible to write
convincingly about an act that doesn’t really turn one on? An act one would
never truly enjoy in real life? Some writers pride themselves on their imagined
ability to work in any genre, slipping into the established modes of convention
the way many people change clothes in the course of a day, but just as genuine passion
always shines through, indifference renders even the most engaging subjects
drab and tedious. I do not like having to read that kind of writing.
Still,
on balance, the good and the great far outweigh the mediocre and the bad in this
collection. Highly recommended for its ample trove of gems.
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