Maelstrom Compilation Set: (Yaoi)

Maelstrom

by Yamila Abraham, Himitsu Studio (Illustrator)

This is the ENTIRE EIGHT PART Maelstrom Series! Demetri knows giving in to Malstrum’s desires will protect his band of miners, but the heterosexual Earthling will struggle with violent courtship rituals on a planet devoid of women. Demetri messed up in the military and now must serve as a miner on Earth's ally planet Secren. This is the last place he wants to be. Earth men are considered small and cute to the violent Secren men. Demetri already ran a mine on the ice world Donovan. This gives him enough notoriety for mine overlord Malstrum to take an interest in him. It seems cut and dry that he's going to rebuff Malstrum and make it on his own, but Secren is a brutal world. The male population are all slave miners desperate to reach their quotas. As an Earthling Demetri is an easy mark to get robbed or killed. Giving in to Malstrum is the only way Demetri can survive. The charismatic mine overlord decides to make it easy for him. With all eight glorious covers embedded, and newly edited for a limited edition release, Maelstrom is back in a super value compilation!

Genres: M M Romance, Romance, Novels

235 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 22, 2014

About the author

Yamila Abraham founded the publishing company Yaoi Press in 2004 and published over 50 graphic novels, many she wrote herself.

Abraham is a prolific writer of male/male romance, yaoi, yaoi graphic novels, science fiction romance, and erotica. She's known for explicitly detailed love scenes and dynamic premises. She wrote two of Yaoi Press' best selling series: Winter Demon and Dark Prince. Her best known ebooks include Maelstrom, UnPrison, Alien's Bride, and the Vanquished series.

Abraham has been a speaker or guest of honor at 150 anime fan conventions.

Reviews

[QuietlyKat]

Yikes! Nothing like rereading a book you liked 7 or 8 years ago to show you how much you’ve grown and changed. WTH younger Kat!? Giiiirl! WTF were you thinking back then!? My brain hurts.

I don’t want to be too brutal but… damn… not good. Really not good. Problematic in so many ways. SO MANY WAYS.

Note to self: Do NOT ever read this again! Really! Just no. So much no.

[Elaine White · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was tentative, going into this, but I was so intrigued by the plot that I just had to give it a go. And I'm glad I did. I loved it.

It started a bit slow. Demetri was so resistant to everything, a feisty character for sure but a bit stuck in his ways and obtuse, that I wasn't sure how it was going to proceed. But once it started in earnest, I fell completely into the story, the plot, and the characters. I actually really loved Maelstrom and Demetri, especially together. Brainbox was annoying at first, but grew on me. And I loved that this wasn't your typical yaoi where the relationship was forced (in all ways!) but Maelstrom actually worked really hard to comfort, seduce and make Demetri feel comfortable in the relationship.

[B · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was initially interested in the premise, but this is poorly written in several different aspects, abrupt scene transitions, unclear speakers, poor characterization, a total lack of realism just uh anywhere. Not to mention the damn translator box. It's absolutely wild to me that this has such high ratings.

[Kosh Gott · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this was published as a Yaoi, I am not sure that is an apropos label since both MCs are over 30—though other Yaoi elements are present.

This is a dystopian sci-fi m/m romance. It is set on a world where, except for a few government workers, the entire population is factory-grown males who are a slave race. So, on this world, the concept of sexual orientation has no meaning. The men fight for the dominant position in couples. Into this world a straight human man from Earth (Demetri) is sentenced as a prisoner/slave. He develops a relationship with Malstrum, a more dominant man. The story follows Demetri's character journey to accepting a same-sex relationship even though he is straight. He does eventually grow to love his male partner.

Themes included are computer-generated rape fantasies, cannibalism, extreme dystopian violence, starvation, slavery, slave revolts, and torture. The world building and character development is excellent. However, the text needs better editing, including misused words and grammatical errors.

Overall, while this is quite interesting, it does contain very disturbing text. Definitely not for everyone.

[Pan · Rating 5 out of 5]

So at first I was worried that this was going to basically be like Ai No Kusabi or reverse Gorean style, but was pleasantly aurprised to find only minimal eleme ts that were pulled together gracefully amd didnt feel ripped at all. While there were some elements that resonated with those storylines such as a world consisting of mostly one binary gender, they weren't so much a "Dominant" gender as a complex minority group that made up most of the population.

The culture was just amazing. At every turn you think you know what this world is all about but then something truly wild happens and everything is thrown through the loop. Outdated future tech meets the wild west but there ain't cowboys here, we got miners instead.

And the social structure?! The perfect combination of suspense, desire, and romance where rules of "engagement" are fairly simple. Fuck, Get Fucked, or Don't Fuck at All. A beautiful love story woven between inner turmoil and self denialism.

[Shinashi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good thing I can do the whole set. It's very much a series of books that could have been combined into one.... or at most three books. Cute, succinct characters, which is a breeze for Yamila, still shine. As is often the case, I get lost in their particular hang-ups and become flustered at the tiniest trouble sent their way. My favorite character is the AI stuck in ol' dude's head. I read this some time ago, but I just remember him being adorable, and really felt like the fujoshi voice in the story, haha... I don't remember much else- ah, I say this with most gay writing but there was a dead period of no sex. So if that makes things too slow for reading, that is something you should look out for.

[PaintingFiction · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was a pretty cute story with much more plot than the author's normal books. It follows an earthling Demetri who has a prison sentence where he has been shipped to an essentially all male planet to oversee a mining crew. He is almost immediately claimed by an important mine leader Maelstrom and the rest of the story follows Demetri trying desperately to not accept that Maelstrom wants him while dealing with some serious wild west style anarchy and a respectable amount of union riots.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first of Yamila Abraham's books that I have read that was actually novel length and I really liked it. I was always impressed by Abraham's world building in her short stories and was happy it translated well into long form. The resolution to the main plot was a little simple, but it was still satisfying. One thing I didn't like though was the "dream sequence" sex scenes at the start. I'm already not the biggest fan of sex scenes and it's even worse when the sex isn't actually even happening. That said though, I still enjoyed this book and plan to read more of her works.

[Joshua · Rating 4 out of 5]

A enjoyable read

I enjoyed the world that this series was set in and found it to be interesting. However I did find some dialogues in the book to be confusing as to who was speaking when, especially when the two main characters were talking with brainbox. But other than that issue it was a fulfilling and enjoyable weekend read.

[Gerald Sessions · Rating 5 out of 5]

revolution.

4 books 8 sections. Demetri was from earth and a slave on a mining planet Malstrom was out of the planet and his mate. They bonded father revolution, and one. Fantastic story.

[Littlebit · Rating 2 out of 5]

meh

[ronald wood · Rating 5 out of 5]

great Readin


Great reading couldn't put it down. It was given to me a gift. Took me a while to really get into it. But once I got it wow.

[Susanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Came for the smut, stayed for the plot. Not very long, but tells a complete story of love and rebellion on an inhospitable alien planet populated only by men.

[emily curtis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Erotic science fiction story written in a yaoi style.

[Darlene · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, I wish I had read this one when I first bought. It's a great futuristic, love story. Plenty of action, well worth reading and its complete.

[NightySenti · Rating 5 out of 5]

Firstly, I spotted this plot in visual novel, but I don't really like the game and complete there only Helix's route (cauz love this type of guys so much). However, I gone this far to read original compilation (or the novel) and glad it was just as cool as I expected it to be. Will surely miss Brainbox's lines and heroic-like temper of Malstrum. (want some extra afterstory actually)
Surely will reread it a bunch of times, but not recommend for those one who dislike too lovey-dovey gay romances. Chest kisses for author!

[Domi Mooser · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exactly what I like about this kind of (lgbt) fiction: One part self-discovery, seduction and sexuality, one part compelling and engaging sci-fi story. Neither part of it overshadows the other: The story doesn't seem to be put on just to fill the pages and it is not ALL about just shagging around.

It was one of my first reads in this genre and I haven't really found many that have left me as satisfied as this one, in any aspect. :)

[kerryann williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

More please

Great series. Not a bad price either for the whole thing. Well written, keeps your attention through out. Makes me want to see this planet for myself. You won't regret getting this series at all.

[charlotte rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

I Give it five star five star five star

Great read it made me think of Vampire Poison and that's a good thing. Wish had more to it but sometimes less is more. Five star yes yes yes yes

[Helga Gonzalez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Envolvente y picante

Muy buen relato. Es mejor comprar la serie completa que individualmente. Ya que querrás leerla de corrido. Puedes cambiar planetas por países y se hace muy entendible la política que desarrolla la historia. Muy bien escrita, pero no es excepcional.

[Lori Jackson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great read

The plot is engaging and the characters were filled out. The story moves quickly with some surprising twists. I'm not sure it needed to be 8 volumes but, the compilation set works out just fine.

[小さな N (.❛ ᴗ ❛.)⊃ [_|_] ♡]

I haven't touched this for a few days so I put it on DNF.