Oh, where do I begin?

First, I ought to mention that I was a HUGE Anne Rice fan back in the day. I adored her books. I read them constantly. Over and over and over. My paperback copy of “The Vampire Lestat” of was worn through and had to have the cover reinforced. (Thank god for moms who work in libraries.) I was utterly in love with Lestat. However, I eventually became a bit of a ‘burnt Rice’ fan. I find most of her writing to be over blown, and as she went on, her writing became rather lazy. “Blood Canticle” was particularly horrid, which made me sad, since I wanted the Chronicle’s swan song to be a bit better.

Then, there is one thing that drives me *crazy* about Anne Rice. She does not allow her books to be edited. Thus, there are a fair few missing words, grammatical mistakes, and general weirdness. Not everyone picks up on it. I’m crazy and nit-picky. It is more of a problem in her later books, since she did have to work quite hard to get to the level where she didn’t have to answer to an editor, so I can go back and read some of my favourite books, like “Cry to Heaven”, with out a problem. (Thank the gods!) Quite frankly, I don’t know any author who should be allowed to edit their own books. As a writer, I *know* how close you are to the creative process. I know, for example, I make mistakes here in this blog. I self publish. While I go over my posts several times, I can’t spot anything, and I’m hard pressed to change things I really like. Imagine if it were a book!

Anyway, on to the Beauty books themselves. I had read “The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty” several years ago, however, I wasn’t impressed at the time. Recently, I decided to give the trilogy a try again, since I did have a nice boxed set. I slogged through the first book, despite having read it already. I spent most of the third book screaming “TRIPE! This is utter bloody tripe! God, I need something *good* to read after this! How on earth am I going to finish this? My brain is melting. It is melting!”

Claiming, while lush, was…boring. I know, I know, how can the idea of a castle full of pretty naked slaves getting paddled and tied up be boring? First of all, there are only so many ways you can describe a paddling in one book. Secondly, there were no characters I felt I could relate to, which you think would be easier, considering I’ve been on both sides of the coin. Beauty was too servile for me to relate with, and very flat and two dimensional, through out the entire series. Nothing about her appeals to me in any way. I don’t care about her, I don’t care about her slavery, and I don’t care about what is going to happen to her. Her story was always written in the third person, while later on Alexi (by virtue of telling Beauty about his life), Tristan and Laurent are given page time and are written in the first person point of view.

Maybe this is because I no longer identify as being a bottom, nor do I see myself in any way, shape or form submissive. But I doubt it, since I’ve been there and enjoyed it. None of the dominant characters appealed to me either. The Prince was as flat as Beauty, and I felt he was very immature as well. The Queen and Lady Juliana didn’t even get enough time for me to get a feel for them. Despite the lushness and appeal of the castle lifestyle, I got the overwhelming feeling of banality and ennui.

The second book got a little better, with the introduction of Tristan’s point of view. Beauty and Tristan were slaves being punished by being sent down to the Queen’s Village, where they were auctioned off to the town’s people.

Beauty is bought by a tavern proprietress, where she is given a firm hand, is firmly beaten, and becomes the personal slave of the Captain of the Guard, the most important lodger in the inn. She enjoys the brutality and firmness of her new Mistress, and becomes very happy with her life.

Now, the book picked up interest for me when Tristan is given his say. Perhaps I disliked Beauty so much because she is a woman. I like having sex with girls, but when it comes right down to it, I’m a dominant female who wants to play with men. Tristan also has more interesting interactions with his new master, Nicholas, the Queen’s Chronicler. He is very quickly fitted with a ‘phallus’ in his bum, decorated with a horse tail. He’s tacked out, and put to work as a pony, pulling his master’s carriage to the country, where he collects apple’s in the orchard with the other ponies.

Lets just say, by the end of this trilogy, I had a new interest in pony play, and I *really* want to know what was going on in Anne and Stan’s bedroom.

Tristan is a character I grew to care for. I was happy with his relationship to his new owners. I was interested in his journey, and what happened to him. I found reading his punishments was pretty hot, and I started to care about him. I wanted to find out about his life, and I wanted him to be happy. Maybe its because he actually spoke his story in the first person. Maybe its because Anne started adding a plot. Maybe I just like pretty men sweating while pulling a cart, getting beaten, and anal rape. Who knows.

The last book takes place in a Sultan’s palace, where Beauty, Tristan, and the gorgeous Laurent are taken along with three other slaves. The Sultan’s slaves are more abject than even the Queens Village slaves - at the palace, slaves are not to talk, ever. They are considered more like pampered animals than humans that serve, and the Sultan has so many slaves available to him that they become completely depersonalized - some slaves are simply bound and used as wall art.

There is a whole lot more man on man action in this book too, which pleased me. You guy know I like my boysex. Anne and I have quite a bit in common like that. (Speaking of boysex, “Cry to Heaven” has quite a bit in it. It is also a ten times better book. It is one of my favourites!)

Laurent very quickly distinguishes himself as this book’s dominant character, right up until the end. The last chapter of the book is written from his point of view.

Laurent is very much a Lestat-like character. He’s big, blond, well hung, and gorgeous. He’s a total brat, who does as he pleases. He turns the table on his new trainer, eventually becoming the master of his master.

While Tristan and Beauty get their say, less than halfway through, “Beauty’s Release” really became Laurent’s story. He was a character I fell in love with. I actually had trouble putting the book down, because I was finally interested. I was finally having fun, not slogging through a book to write a review!

Laurent was the first truly complex character. He adored being a slave, and was often very happy in his role. However, he was a very dominant personality, very forceful and charismatic. He often topped the other slaves, claiming both his trainer, Lexius and fellow slave Tristan, as his own, as well as illicitly fucking Beauty on the boat ride home from the Sultan’s palace.

When returned to the Queen’s Village, he and Tristan were both punished, and sent to spend a year at the public pony stable, where they spent 24/7 living as ponies. Each day, ponies were given an hour of relaxation time in the yard, where Laurent quickly found himself a new personal slave in a fellow pony, with who he was quite in love.

He occasionally wrestled with his role as a ’switch’, but for the most part, ran with it, as he did with his bisexuality. He was full of piss and vinegar, spirited both as a slave and a master. I enjoyed reading about his punishments immensely. I wanted to get *my* hands on him, and do some damage. I cheered when he did a bit of turnabout. I was glad when he became happy in his life as a pony. When it was time for him to leave, I felt horribly sad for him.

Laurent was really the saving grace of the trilogy for me. Quite honestly, with out him, Tristan wouldn’t have been nearly as interesting to me, I wouldn’t have given a crap about the last book, and this would be a *horrible* review.

There were somethings I read which I honestly didn’t expect to see. Anne included both female vaginal fisting, and male anal fisting. She attempted to some social commentary, in a scene where Beauty discovers the wives of the Sultan have all been mutilated by female circumcision, but she doesn’t really go anywhere with it, and I found it rather out of place in an erotic novel.

I was also rather bothered by the lack of lube during oh, 95% of the anal sex scenes. While I love all forms of men getting buggered, I flinched every time a dry cock was rammed into a dry ass. Yeah, you know, I may slide my tiny dildo in my but with no lube other than whatever juices have dripped down there, but I really thing if anyone tried to ram their big ‘ole cock in my ass with out some prep, I would kick them in the face. Sorry.

While I eventually got some entertainment out of the trilogy, it wasn’t much to spank to. The sex was boring and stilted, and the words used to describe it were more clinical than sexy. The kink, while sometimes hot, wasn’t really that wankable for me either, though it did give me some fun idea. It also really made me want to use my new paddle, very soon.

I only gave this book three stars out of five. It was rather mediocre. I don’t understand the overwhelming attachment people have for these books, but perhaps it is because often, this is one of the first kinky books most people get their hands on, along with “Story of O”.

In my not very humble opinion, I think we can do better. However, I don’t think they’re completely awful books, and I’m not sorry I read them. I was somewhat entertained, and while I didn’t wank to the books, it sure did inspire some wank material of my own.

Wendy’s Rating: 3 of 5 stars
“I’d hit that.”