MASTER HAN'S DAUGHTER

by Midori

In the sexual cyberpunk world of futuristic Tokyo, sex and desire are as sharp as a knife blade. Love and cruelty make a strange, sadomasochistic mix in these short stories by top professional dominatrix, Fetish Diva Midori. Professionally, she has honed her storytelling skills, her voice and her imagination to excite her clients and transport them to other worlds. Though some of the stories in this volume have been published in The Spectator and elsewhere, most are new.

Genres: Erotica, BDSM, Fiction

112 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Antonomasia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much human - and some non-human - weirdness is here in these cyberpunk sex stories. Almost everything apart from your conventional vanilla slightly-dom male/ slightly-sub female pairing. Instead: the femme assassin contracted to hunt down her secret butch lover; female gangsters kidnap the male star of the current fifteen minutes; the drug-addicted hooker who's also half-cat; the sex-cult priestess who never has sex herself; corrupt immigration officials having a threesome with a beautiful hermaphrodite; tentacle porn; semi-cyborgs who sell their experiences to plugged in paying customers... You get the idea. Maybe. (And then there's an utterly extraordinary story about abusive relationships: this book is more than just erotica.)

Midori is better known under that oddly American term, as an "educator" in kink matters - an author of factual books and giver of talks and workshops. In Master Han's Daughter it's evident that she can also write pretty reasonable fiction.

Firstly, she can often make scenes hot despite violence and weirdness. (So if you're actually really into that stuff, then you'd probably love this book even more). And that hotness makes it utterly evident how and why many of the characters use sex as escapism from their brutal lives.

She creates a complex world in which characters from one story may appear in the background in others - and we get an idea of government, international politics, religion and the lifestyles of rich and poor.

She understands something that few curent erotica writers have grasped: stories don't always have to have happy endings and a trajectory of emotional "realness" can make them more appealing.

The story Love - which in the notes Midori states was inspired by a friend who fell into "an unhealthy relationship of profound codependency" - is a mindblowing (and stomach-churning) short fable applicable to anything from being too into someone who is a little bit of a bad influence, to full-on domestic violence. It's some of the best, and least cliched, fiction I've ever read on the subject and I would easily give it six stars.

Not in that story, but in some, and in the general features of this world, there are various cyberpunk cliches. In the opener where a male character - worrying about his marginal life and his next fix - takes a break to get off with an internet neural plugin to a Japanese porn star in a schoolgirl outfit, it was difficult not to imagine Neuromancer starring Momus.
(Midori has the courtesy to state that the porn star is 21, to alleviate possible legal dubiousness for readers in some countries.)

Very strange, and often good, stuff.

[Alex Sarll]

Myths and fairytales retold as sensual, blood-soaked cyberpunk, like Angela Carter with more neural interfaces. The sheer range of polymorphous perversity encompassed in one fairly slim volume does nothing to dispute the notion that female fantasies can be much stranger and broader than male ones. Meanwhile, even more than William Gibson, Akira or Blade Runner, the future Tokyo setting reminds me of the synthesis of them all in the old Cyberpunk RPG; as such, despite being published in 2006 and describing a future to which we approach ever closer, it does sometimes feel very nineties.

[Mander Pander · Rating 1 out of 5]

When I got to the story about the half cat/ half woman slave being raped by her owner's barbed penis sheath, I said to myself "ok, this is where I tap out."
Most of the content grossed me out a little, and I thought the writing flow was sub par from a technical standpoint.

[Indy McDaniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read it a while back, but I definitely recommend it. It's an anthology of loosely connected erotic cyberpunk stories. If steamy, Philip K. Dick-ish tales set in a dystopian Neo Tokyo sounds like your cup of tea, check it out!

[Troy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Based on a review I had read, I was expecting a novel that included all of my favorite elements: Sci Fi + Cyberpunk + Neo-Tokyo + Kinky Sex. Midori's book included all of that (and more), but was most definitely not a novel. It is a series of short stories based on the same setting, with loose ties, and a few parallel themes tying them together. As science fiction goes, I enjoyed most of the stories. The author successfully captured the cyber-punk mood and rhythm, and the often predatory element of its citizenry. Midori is clearly a talented writer, and I look forward to a novel along similar lines. The short stories couldn't quite carry through on some of my other interests. For example, I would've preferred a more detailed discussion of her version of Neo-Tokyo, and its stratified society. As for the sex, as other's have mentioned, it was pretty hot stuff--well beyond vanilla--let the buyer beware. Midori's book was quite reminiscent of Bacigalupi's "Windup Girl," without the detailed descriptions of the devastating effects of climate change on economies and societies. It had the same dystopian tone, including that element of hopelessness, and actors with few redeeming moral qualities. All in all, a worthy effort, though quite short for those looking to spend a bit more time in Midori's Neo-Tokyo.