A review by nordicreads
The Slave by Kate Aaron
3.0
A steamy story that peters out to just 'meh'.
This is a decent book: as a freebie it's definitely worth a read if you're at all into M/M romances with some vivid action involved. I'd happily have paid £1-2 for it even. But wriggle beyond "alright" this does not.
The TL;DR of my review is: the world if fab; the characters had a chance; but the sex gets too samey; character development dies out by the end; I started off enthralled but ended off bored.
First, the pros:
-From a technical standpoint, this is competently written. My first concern was "oh god, it's free, it reads like a dishwasher manual, doesn't it?" But no, the text flows nicely, and there's enough detail to paint the world without being overwhelming. The text itself never repels and it's one of those books where you forget that you just keep going: "just a few more sentences" turns into a few chapters very easily.
-The sex is steamy! If you're looking for good sex scenes, this book has good sex scenes aplenty. They're lovingly rendered, and I'm particular to the inclusion of a nice, slow foreplay. The positions and approaches are different each time which keeps it interesting.
-The characters. At the outset the characters have heaps of potential. Tam, Kai, and the master are also quite distinct from one another in personality and mannerisms, so it's easy to tell them apart. It also makes me want to get to know each of them better.
-The world. Wow, do I want to know more about this world! The circling of the two suns is cool. I know it's not original–multiple suns seems to be something of a trope in fantasy books–but I somehow liked the description of how they arc through the sky better than usual. And while there is no moon, there are silvery planetary rings that shine like a moon–OMG that was cool! It reminded me of the planet Voeld from Mass Effect Andromeda (whatever you think of the game, that planet was beautiful). Now I really just want to have a 3D rendered version of this world which I could roam around in and explore! If this world ends up the basis for a game someday, I'm buying it just to see this world realised!
Now, the cons:
-The character development peters out by the end. This was perhaps my greatest grievance. The only character who really gets any tangible development is Kai. He's a mess when Tam buys him from the slave market in the beginning, and by the end he's changed and adapted to his new situation in a believable way. He was my least favourite character at the start, as I really wanted to focus on the beautiful Tamelik, but by the end Kai ended up as my favourite character since he was the only one who felt like he'd changed at all. And I feel so sad about that. There's this one scene where Tamelik is almost allowed character development, where he tries to address his feelings to his master and there's this slight hope that their relationship might change emotionally one way or the other. But no, that's snuffed out almost as soon as it happens and we're back to business as usual.
-The sex is steamy...but it's really just the same thing repeated over and over. Yes, the technicalities change and while the detail is lush, but by the time the final encounter happens I just found myself bored and kind of fighting the urge to skip forward. This might be a side effect of the character development grinding to a halt – nothing else changes the dynamic between these characters, so why should the sex matter if little else does? By the end it feels like sex is used as a substitute for doing anything to further their relationships (because we all know the stablest relationships are those that are emotionally dysfunctional but sexually flawless). Now, it might be argued that "they're slaves, he's the master, emotional relationships hardly matter." And yes, except the narrative itself goes out of its way to point out that their master is a kind man who cares about them more than as just property, or as Tam so eloquently puts it, "as just a hole to fuck." So it feels like the text is setting me up to expect emotional development but then doesn't sufficiently explore that. Don't shunt this train onto the "emotions matter" tracks and then refuse to progress along that line, is all I'm saying.
-The plot and the world feel underdeveloped, at least in this book. Yes, it's realistic that the slaves stay in the compound almost exclusively, but for me it felt like it took so much away from what could have been fantastic development for the both the characters and–frankly–an intriguing world. Slavery, and wars, and two suns, and planetary rings, far off settlement stuck between treacherous mountains and a desert...hell yeah! Gimme that s**t! And yet all we see are these little glimpses...views from windows and reports from people returning from those places. It all left me screaming, "Why aren't we there?" Contriving reasons for Tam and Kai to be in those places and experience things firsthand I think could have elevated this from "yeah, it's a book" to "I NEED MORE NOW." As I understand the sequels promise to fix this, but judging this book only, it's just very lacking in this department.
This extends to the cast of characters. If I recall, only about 6 or 7 get names–only 5 of them memorable, only 3 get anything approaching a personality, and only 1 (Kai) gets real character development. Yes, it's a short book, but I wish there had been a little more time invested into Tam spending some time with (or at least observing) anyone other than Kai and the master. I'd happily have sacrificed one or two sex scenes from the heaping pile in favour of a chat in the kitchens with the other slaves, or an argument with the guards, or an encounter with a visiting merchant. As it is, the other people in the compound–and the city–feel like placeholders: I didn't even know there were more than 3 slaves in the house until very late in the story where Tam explicitly remarks that "the other slaves" were helping master. They don't even get names! For goodness sake, the brigands off in the mountains we never see get more detail than the household staff they live with. While the house and world don't feel empty, it does feel like everyone outside of the main trio is a ghost or an empty shell, only there because the plot wills it, not because they're real people.
-Tam. While Tam never gets close to the neurotic levels of Edward Cullen–thank god! (I just finished Midnight Sun and it traumatised me)–he still devolved into more of a reactionary character stuck in his own head than an active participant in his own story. This is yet another reason why Kai ended up being far more interesting than Tam, even though Tam had all the potential of this big, beautiful world he lives in (which we never got to see either). Not only that, I came to actively dislike him by the end. There's a moment when Tam actually makes the decision to kill himself and his loved ones if faced with the treat of being separated from them. I'm sorry, but nothing turns me off from a character faster than psychotic intentions/behaviour that are passed off as romantic. For all the things Tam himself lists that might make or paint him as selfish, this was what cemented him as a truly selfish and narcissistic to me. Planning to kill someone rather than be apart from them? Care to check how they feel about the issue? It's one thing for characters to mutually enter a suicide pact to avoid being separated, and wholly another for one person to make that decision silently on behalf of everyone involved.
Overall, the text doesn't do enough damage to make me dislike it, but my enthusiasm definitely waned, and when I finished I was perfectly happy to move onto another book and away from the series.
On the one hand, I partly want to read the next book in the hopes that maybe there will be some of the character development and world building that was missing from this. But on the hand, I've seen this song and dance a bit too often before: first book is decent with a few critical flaws that could be saved in the sequel, but which ultimately never are. I'm honestly concerned that if I keep going there'll just be more violence and sex without any of the plot or character development to justify it.
It feels to me like this book was banking too hard on the "it gets better/addressed in the sequel" gambit because, judged on its own merits, The Slave doesn't inspire me to keep going.
I'm on the fence. I might continue with this series, I might not.
This is a decent book: as a freebie it's definitely worth a read if you're at all into M/M romances with some vivid action involved. I'd happily have paid £1-2 for it even. But wriggle beyond "alright" this does not.
The TL;DR of my review is: the world if fab; the characters had a chance; but the sex gets too samey; character development dies out by the end; I started off enthralled but ended off bored.
First, the pros:
-From a technical standpoint, this is competently written. My first concern was "oh god, it's free, it reads like a dishwasher manual, doesn't it?" But no, the text flows nicely, and there's enough detail to paint the world without being overwhelming. The text itself never repels and it's one of those books where you forget that you just keep going: "just a few more sentences" turns into a few chapters very easily.
-The sex is steamy! If you're looking for good sex scenes, this book has good sex scenes aplenty. They're lovingly rendered, and I'm particular to the inclusion of a nice, slow foreplay. The positions and approaches are different each time which keeps it interesting.
-The characters. At the outset the characters have heaps of potential. Tam, Kai, and the master are also quite distinct from one another in personality and mannerisms, so it's easy to tell them apart. It also makes me want to get to know each of them better.
-The world. Wow, do I want to know more about this world! The circling of the two suns is cool. I know it's not original–multiple suns seems to be something of a trope in fantasy books–but I somehow liked the description of how they arc through the sky better than usual. And while there is no moon, there are silvery planetary rings that shine like a moon–OMG that was cool! It reminded me of the planet Voeld from Mass Effect Andromeda (whatever you think of the game, that planet was beautiful). Now I really just want to have a 3D rendered version of this world which I could roam around in and explore! If this world ends up the basis for a game someday, I'm buying it just to see this world realised!
Now, the cons:
-The character development peters out by the end. This was perhaps my greatest grievance. The only character who really gets any tangible development is Kai. He's a mess when Tam buys him from the slave market in the beginning, and by the end he's changed and adapted to his new situation in a believable way. He was my least favourite character at the start, as I really wanted to focus on the beautiful Tamelik, but by the end Kai ended up as my favourite character since he was the only one who felt like he'd changed at all. And I feel so sad about that. There's this one scene where Tamelik is almost allowed character development, where he tries to address his feelings to his master and there's this slight hope that their relationship might change emotionally one way or the other. But no, that's snuffed out almost as soon as it happens and we're back to business as usual.
-The sex is steamy...but it's really just the same thing repeated over and over. Yes, the technicalities change and while the detail is lush, but by the time the final encounter happens I just found myself bored and kind of fighting the urge to skip forward. This might be a side effect of the character development grinding to a halt – nothing else changes the dynamic between these characters, so why should the sex matter if little else does? By the end it feels like sex is used as a substitute for doing anything to further their relationships (because we all know the stablest relationships are those that are emotionally dysfunctional but sexually flawless). Now, it might be argued that "they're slaves, he's the master, emotional relationships hardly matter." And yes, except the narrative itself goes out of its way to point out that their master is a kind man who cares about them more than as just property, or as Tam so eloquently puts it, "as just a hole to fuck." So it feels like the text is setting me up to expect emotional development but then doesn't sufficiently explore that. Don't shunt this train onto the "emotions matter" tracks and then refuse to progress along that line, is all I'm saying.
-The plot and the world feel underdeveloped, at least in this book. Yes, it's realistic that the slaves stay in the compound almost exclusively, but for me it felt like it took so much away from what could have been fantastic development for the both the characters and–frankly–an intriguing world. Slavery, and wars, and two suns, and planetary rings, far off settlement stuck between treacherous mountains and a desert...hell yeah! Gimme that s**t! And yet all we see are these little glimpses...views from windows and reports from people returning from those places. It all left me screaming, "Why aren't we there?" Contriving reasons for Tam and Kai to be in those places and experience things firsthand I think could have elevated this from "yeah, it's a book" to "I NEED MORE NOW." As I understand the sequels promise to fix this, but judging this book only, it's just very lacking in this department.
This extends to the cast of characters. If I recall, only about 6 or 7 get names–only 5 of them memorable, only 3 get anything approaching a personality, and only 1 (Kai) gets real character development. Yes, it's a short book, but I wish there had been a little more time invested into Tam spending some time with (or at least observing) anyone other than Kai and the master. I'd happily have sacrificed one or two sex scenes from the heaping pile in favour of a chat in the kitchens with the other slaves, or an argument with the guards, or an encounter with a visiting merchant. As it is, the other people in the compound–and the city–feel like placeholders: I didn't even know there were more than 3 slaves in the house until very late in the story where Tam explicitly remarks that "the other slaves" were helping master. They don't even get names! For goodness sake, the brigands off in the mountains we never see get more detail than the household staff they live with. While the house and world don't feel empty, it does feel like everyone outside of the main trio is a ghost or an empty shell, only there because the plot wills it, not because they're real people.
-Tam. While Tam never gets close to the neurotic levels of Edward Cullen–thank god! (I just finished Midnight Sun and it traumatised me)–he still devolved into more of a reactionary character stuck in his own head than an active participant in his own story. This is yet another reason why Kai ended up being far more interesting than Tam, even though Tam had all the potential of this big, beautiful world he lives in (which we never got to see either). Not only that, I came to actively dislike him by the end. There's a moment when Tam actually makes the decision to kill himself and his loved ones if faced with the treat of being separated from them. I'm sorry, but nothing turns me off from a character faster than psychotic intentions/behaviour that are passed off as romantic. For all the things Tam himself lists that might make or paint him as selfish, this was what cemented him as a truly selfish and narcissistic to me. Planning to kill someone rather than be apart from them? Care to check how they feel about the issue? It's one thing for characters to mutually enter a suicide pact to avoid being separated, and wholly another for one person to make that decision silently on behalf of everyone involved.
Overall, the text doesn't do enough damage to make me dislike it, but my enthusiasm definitely waned, and when I finished I was perfectly happy to move onto another book and away from the series.
On the one hand, I partly want to read the next book in the hopes that maybe there will be some of the character development and world building that was missing from this. But on the hand, I've seen this song and dance a bit too often before: first book is decent with a few critical flaws that could be saved in the sequel, but which ultimately never are. I'm honestly concerned that if I keep going there'll just be more violence and sex without any of the plot or character development to justify it.
It feels to me like this book was banking too hard on the "it gets better/addressed in the sequel" gambit because, judged on its own merits, The Slave doesn't inspire me to keep going.
I'm on the fence. I might continue with this series, I might not.