The Vessel: Nothing

The Vessel #1

by J.H. Black

In the year 2030, overpopulation is at critical levels. To combat the problem, a new law is passed which creates a class system, including a Forfeit class in which the least deserving are stripped of all rights and labeled as non-human. Twenty years later, the Elite class rules the world on the backs of the Worker class, while the Forfeits are nothing more than a consumable product, to be used and abused with no restriction whatsoever.

The Vessel was a college-aged boy with a name and a future before his parents went bankrupt and damned the entire family to become Forfeits. He’s purchased at auction by a doctor with his own agenda, and becomes one of many who will find their way into an in-home clinic where the Hippocratic oath no longer applies.

Warnings: noncon, dubcon, torture, forced medical procedures

Genres: M M Romance, Dystopia, Abuse, Dark, BDSM, LGBT

34 pages, ebook

First published February 20, 2019

About the author

JH Black has never had an apple pie and ice cream existence. He lives down a rabbit hole of the taboo, where he happily coexists in the dark depths with his twisted perversions.

Reviews

[Nazanin · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 Stars

It wasn’t the kind of dark that I used to read. There wasn’t any trace of love/romance between the vessel and his master or if there was I didn't feel it and the scary thing is I don’t know if there will be in the next installment(s) and I didn’t understand the experiment! I didn’t know what they wanted to do with the vessel. Told in single POV, 3rd person, it’s the first installment in "The Vessel" series and it's a bit cliffy. Overall, it wasn’t what I expected and hope you like it more than me!

[Jan]

My ramblings are written in book two.

[Karla · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars**

[Moony Eliver]

Excellent narrative quality, but it's impossible to rate this on its own merit. It would feel like rating the first chapter before reading the rest of the book.

NOTE: Not a romance even if you squint. Everyone who's reading this except you two I'm pointing at, just stay faaaaar away.

[Jo * Smut-Dickted * · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very smooth writing - given the subject is harsh that's a huge plus. I loved the first chapter or two but then I realized it was not my kink - even though it has some of my favorite kinks in it like inflation fetish (not enough of this!), body modification, and feminization (to a degree). However, I'm not a fan of objectification or the type of slave who exists only to please master w/o much of a mind himself. The type that is likely to say "this slave" and speak in third person of himself. Nothing wrong with that - just not my thing. This is a great book for those who love that type of kink or story. I love the sort of non-con'ness of it and the future world with grim realities.

[Shaz · Rating 5 out of 5]

In a world where the poor or those fallen from grace have no status, no rights, who are deemed rubbish, anything goes. This instalment introduces us to one of these Forfeits who lives as a slave.

This isn't an easy read. It's dark, very dark to be honest, and brutal. It's also not a romance. Yet it gives a fascinating insight to what could happen in a society where lives don't matter. Where the twisted, the corrupt, or purely evil rules the world.

The tags and warnings are there for a reason! Make sure you take note of them before you read this story, as it's definitely not for everyone.

[Jason Bradley]

I wrote it.
Available on Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...

[Don Bradshaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fall down your own personal rabbit hole with this story. If you enjoy something dark and different, you will love this first book in a new series. I want more of Master and Dr. Milner!

[annob [on hiatus]]

Excellent writing, solid 4+ star quality. But yikes, I'm the wrong type of reader for this story. No rating due to this, but in the hands of the right reader this book will do very well.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is written, for me, almost like a thriller or a mystery. What will happen to The Vessel, What will The Master do? What will the other characters do? This is dystopian and a dark future, especially for the boy called The Vessel. It's an excellent read for those both into and not into BDSM. For those into BDSM, the reason is obvious. For those of us not into BDSM, the interest comes in trying to understand The Vessel and his feelings and emotions. Jace is a brilliant writer.

[Ana · Rating 2 out of 5]

I guess this wasn’t the right book for me. I didn’t liked it as much as I thought I was going to. The story is really interesting. It had also a good writing style and a plot that got my attention easily but there wasn’t something that really capture me. I think it had something to do with the medical procedures and body modifications. Or, perhaps with the fact that the vessel was already broken and there wasn’t struggle in him. That’s on me, because I did read the warnings that were very clear. I just thought I won’t mind it as much as I did. I still believe the story is good and I’ll keep reading to see if the next instalments aren’t that heavy on the things I don’t like and center a bit more in the ones that I do. Beware the tags before reading, but with that in mind I wouldn’t hesitate on giving it a chance again.

[Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Vessel: Nothing by J.H. Black is not for the faint of heart. In a world where the less fortunate are nothing, a Forfeit, if you have the attention of the Elite you at least have something… but is it better than nothing?

The Vessel (or Nothing as the man is called this time around) is the property of Master, aka Dr. Milner. He is a college aged young man whose family fell on hard times, thrusting him into his current fate. His journey is now not his own, but one doled out by his Master. A journey of torture, abuse, and mind games, with a bit of Stockholm Syndrome weaved in.

Nothing is allowed to work, but by Master’s rules. As a human experiment, he is forced to endure all sorts of depravity… written in such a s way that you feel right along with Nothing. As this is a short installment in the continuing The Vessel series, I don’t want to give anything away here. But take note of the warnings supplied by the author – “noncon, dubcon, torture, forced medical procedures” – they provide insight to what’s in store.

You also see inside the mind of Nothing to witness his feelings, emotions, and mental state. He has been under Master’s control for some period of time and his conditioning is already deep. He wants to please Master, but this is not a BDSM relationship where both parties are getting something from it.

The Vessel: Nothing won’t be an easy ready for some, but those who enjoy a well penned dark dystopian adventure will be happy with an expertly written tale that takes us to a world where lives are a commodity and evil reigns front and center.

[Kynthos-the-Archer (Kyn)]

The tags made me go wild with sexcitement


Came across this book when I was searching for another book. Read the blurb, and some of the reviews and I knew I had to get my hands on it fast. Thank the gods. The lovely author made it available at Smashwords instead of Amazon aka the-no-access-zone to me. Grab it in a flash! Took a peek, and the first few pages already got me so excited over the prospect of reading more of it. Oh yeah, I also bought the 2nd book together. I can't help it when a book contains elements such as non-con body modification, forced medical procedures and feminization. What's more exciting is when I saw the tags in the book, and it mentioned entombment . Boom! My heart went overdrive.

My god, please let this be what I think it is going to be.

[Elin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was intense 37 pages. And any idea I might have had when I bought it quickly faded when I started to read.

The Vessel is sweet in his adoration of his Master, which trained him to adore him for obedience rather than fear him, seemingly as affective as it's possible to be.

I enjoy reading about a broken person, and this goes even further, as this isn't a person any longer, everything he endures is for his master, striving to be the perfection that he is expected to become.

It's well written and I'm feeling the effects after finishing it, though as The Vessel, I too find myself remembering the dragon and it's children.

[Alastair]

Subject matter warnings:
noncon, dubcon, torture, forced medical procedures


Tags:
noncon/dubcon, CBT, medical procedures, doctor, slave/Master, gay, body modification, medical devices, electrical shock play, entombment

Okay like this is something I picked up because I was like a few of these sound okay and I didn't realize it said entombment and the moral of the story (of me picking this up) is that I in fact do not like entombment and this was a mistake

[Lieschen]

It is not easy to review this novel/novella.
I have very mixed feelings about this. I wanted to read it because the other reviews got me interested and I like some sexy m/m non-con/dub-con. I can only share my feelings and thoughts about this but wouldn't want to judge it as a „good or bad novel/story“. I am not a native speaker so I cannot exactly tell but the there is something about the writing that gets under your skin.

The kink
I read the warnings but was still thinking „ah, how bad can it be?!“ I was wrong. This kink is definitely not for me as it is very brutal and very depraved. But that is not the worst part about it astonishngly. The writing made me almost feel it. And together with the fact that the unnamed vessel seemed to like everything that was done to him because that would make his master happy was disturbing. It made me wonder what had been done to him that he thought that way. Was it simple branwashing? Stockholm syndrome? Or was he a masochist too? I do not mind some whips and chains etc. but this was hard for me to stomach. When the vessel was put into the cage and left in the dark that was the worst because it felt so much like an abandoned child which was punished and not really knowing why.

The lack of empathy and emotion makes it hard
What was also very hard to endure was the lack of emotion in the vessel and the master. Apart from „joy“ or fear from the vessel there was nothing else he felt, or so it seemed. And the master and the other side characters seemed cold, indifferent. Only Dr. Milner showed some strong emotion, even it that was fury. The whole atmosphere felt cold, devoid of any empathy. I think this strange mixture made it hard for me.
Shall the reader feel for the vessel or not I wonder? I couldn't. With whom shall the reader relate? What does it tell you about with whom you are relating?
I felt bad for the vessel and pitied him but apart from that I wasn't able to relate to any other character.

Asthetic violence vs real thing
My kink is more the like of a hero/main character suffering non-con, but still fighting and opposing his abuser. That is more sexy for me. Call it the „tiger in chains“-kink. Whips, chains, beatings, starvation and some humiliation etc. are o.k. But the dimension of abuse of the vessel was too much for me. There are some things that I cannot see and stomach. I would never want to see The Human Centipede or A serbian flm for instance. And Tusk gives me the chills even years after I watched it.
So I am still trying to figure out what it is exactly that causes my reaction. The violence in The Vessel is described almost clinically and thus not „sexy“ in any way, that is one aspect that I didn't like or that made me feel uncomfortable. If you look at films or other books violence is often staged in an aesthetic way, unrealistic. Real violence is often unspectacular, not aesthetic meaning not exaggerated. Admitting to finding delight in asthetic violence is kind of hypocritical while I say that this novel is too violent for me, I know. That the „real“ thing makes me more uncomfortable than the fiction tells a lot about our modern perception of violence for entertainment.

The social system
Interestingly the implied social system in which The Vessel takes place works as a metaphor. Looking at the people today who have already fallen out of society, all people who receive social aid and unemployment benefits are already a kind of Forfeit. They are so often already considered less and aren't given any real chances to get back on track. And looking at the opposite direction towards the super rich, there we already have a group of people that enjoy obscene things and that think of others as human capital and „slaves“. The system of enslaving other human beings was never really away in human history. It always existed and still does.

The joy of being abused and serving a master
The core about most slave fics seems to be that a person seeks safety and acceptance and being taken care of in the role of the slave while feeling it hard to care for himself/herself and living a life alone. It is about the feeling of belonging and being cherished and also for getting love back as a reward for doing sth good for your master while enjoying it yourself. All people want acceptance and appreciation.
Nothing of this exists here or at least it isn't felt. That the vessel still had to go to work made me think of how we people tend to do so much to keep our work and that some do experience some kind of abuse there. Our boss is the master and we have to keep him/her happy. And in the end we are all slaves to the money we earn via jobs. The Vessel is double abused, at the job and at home. There is no partition between play and real world thus no reprieve for him.

I had expected more story and less kink but The Vessel delivers the opposite. If you are not into the extreme kink it might scare you away from the story. Personally I would wish for more story and less description of the awful torture.
I got a copy of The Vessel chapters from the author in exchange for a review. Thank you very very much for the direct contact and kind offer and chance to read your work! Your writing is impressing!

[Don · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm sure I would have given this another star had I not read it right after finishing Claustrophilia a similar book that takes torture porn to a whole new level. Both stories feature doctors as MCs and in each, the doctor is blindly worshiped by his young male victim. It would be unfair to compare the two books, however, since The Vessel: Nothing almost feels like a short prologue to a novel, where the full length Claustrophlia takes a few hundred pages to detail its horrors. Perhaps The Vessel will get there in time with its subsequent chapters but I don't like being spoon fed so I won't be around to find out. Nor do I like females nosing in on a naked boy who's being deliciously tortured in my M/M literature (I'm weird like that). On the upside, short as it is, it's evident that the writing in The Vessel is very good. I only wish there'd been more of it.