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Taming Riki #1
Taming Riki Vol 1, Part 1
Iason Mink: Jupiter's Golden Boy, Head of the Syndicate, and the ultimate Amoian Elite. When Tanagura's leading Blondie takes on a new Pet, all of Eos is abuzz with the news. His choice is none other than Riki the Dark, the infamous gang leader of Bison, a mongrel with no respect for Iason's rank or authority. What will it take to tame the notorious wild boy of Midas?
Words: approx 64,880
Words: approx 64,880
488 pages, online fiction
First published January 1, 2006
78 people are currently reading
996 people want to read
About the author
Kira Takenouchi
31 books98 followersKira Takenouchi is a writer best known for a long and popular yaoi saga called Taming Riki. She has many series in progress; however, her family has forbidden her to write. Her frequent disappearances from the public arena leave fans wondering.
Join http://www.patreon.com/kiratakenouchi to view her current works.
Join http://www.patreon.com/kiratakenouchi to view her current works.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
September 29, 2013
Why wasn't I told that child bride Courtney Stodden has written a book? Here, just a few tweets from my girl....
I don't know about you, but whenever I start feeling a little too sane, responsible and grounded, I like to pay Courtney's Twitter page a visit. Success ensured. So imagine my luck when I found a book that's written in the same style!
Sigh...you want proof? A few random sentences from Taming Riki...
"Now Indisputably aroused, Riki straddled him, undulating sensually against him as he moved to the other side of his throat."
"The mongrel released his unusually potent lust with a cry of ecstacy, the shudders of his unleashed rapture rocking through his body."
"He shivered, finding the thought deliciously erotic, as he provocatively twisted his nipple."
There's so much more where that came from.
But the art makes up for some of that.;p
Anyway, the Taming Riki series is pretty much as lengthy as Lord of the Rings, so this review will be altered within the next few...weeks? So far, I've read a whopping 200 pages in only 3 days (I think this is going to make someone named Kyn very smug ;)), and my thoughts are all over the place (read: I'm going to ramble now).
Riki is a street smart guy, a gang leader who lives outside the civilized city in which the Blondie (sorry, I didn't make up that name) Iason Mink is the powerful head of the syndicate. One day, Iason snatches Riki off the streets and makes him his new pet. Wild child Riki isn't exactly pleased with this turn of events and fights his new master every step of the way. Iason, however, isn't used to not getting what he wants and accepts his pet's challenge; he will make him submit completely, whatever it takes.
And it takes a lot.
So..hmm.. what makes this book addictive is that Riki really is a rebellious slave boy! He just doesn't accept being made into someone's play thing. Something I can understand and appreciate. I love his fighting spirit, it's fun. That's probably the main reason why I'm still reading this, because other than that Taming Riki is a total repetitive sex-fest. There's not much plot, and what is there serves solely as an excuse to jump into sex scene after sex scene. I'm one who believes that too much sex can actually be a bad thing. It gives me...I dunno... Xaviera Hollander vibes. It makes me feel a little..unclean?
For those who have read that one, the sexy times remind me a bit of the The Last Pure Human, except that here, you will encounter pretty violent punishments and dub con/non con.
I regret that there's not that much depth to the story. The characters seem to be stuck with an IQ of 80. Everything that happens - including suicide attempts, nervous break downs, harsh punishment and rape - is kissed and made up with sex. So I've come to not expect too much of this book in terms of exploring murky minds, D/S play and power dynamics. When you can overlook that - and the dreadful writing, may I add - then this is an enjoyable, guilty pleasure really!
*** Okay, stalled at chapter 18 and I think I should go for 2 stars for now ("it was okay"). Despite the tedious writing, it was still exciting and enjoyable, until I realized that the little plot there is revolves around the repetitive sex scenes and there's never any depth to the emotions of the characters or their interactions. Overall, just not satisfying enough for me. ***
I don't know about you, but whenever I start feeling a little too sane, responsible and grounded, I like to pay Courtney's Twitter page a visit. Success ensured. So imagine my luck when I found a book that's written in the same style!
Sigh...you want proof? A few random sentences from Taming Riki...
"Now Indisputably aroused, Riki straddled him, undulating sensually against him as he moved to the other side of his throat."
"The mongrel released his unusually potent lust with a cry of ecstacy, the shudders of his unleashed rapture rocking through his body."
"He shivered, finding the thought deliciously erotic, as he provocatively twisted his nipple."
There's so much more where that came from.
But the art makes up for some of that.;p
Anyway, the Taming Riki series is pretty much as lengthy as Lord of the Rings, so this review will be altered within the next few...weeks? So far, I've read a whopping 200 pages in only 3 days (I think this is going to make someone named Kyn very smug ;)), and my thoughts are all over the place (read: I'm going to ramble now).
Riki is a street smart guy, a gang leader who lives outside the civilized city in which the Blondie (sorry, I didn't make up that name) Iason Mink is the powerful head of the syndicate. One day, Iason snatches Riki off the streets and makes him his new pet. Wild child Riki isn't exactly pleased with this turn of events and fights his new master every step of the way. Iason, however, isn't used to not getting what he wants and accepts his pet's challenge; he will make him submit completely, whatever it takes.
And it takes a lot.
So..hmm.. what makes this book addictive is that Riki really is a rebellious slave boy! He just doesn't accept being made into someone's play thing. Something I can understand and appreciate. I love his fighting spirit, it's fun. That's probably the main reason why I'm still reading this, because other than that Taming Riki is a total repetitive sex-fest. There's not much plot, and what is there serves solely as an excuse to jump into sex scene after sex scene. I'm one who believes that too much sex can actually be a bad thing. It gives me...I dunno... Xaviera Hollander vibes. It makes me feel a little..unclean?
For those who have read that one, the sexy times remind me a bit of the The Last Pure Human, except that here, you will encounter pretty violent punishments and dub con/non con.
I regret that there's not that much depth to the story. The characters seem to be stuck with an IQ of 80. Everything that happens - including suicide attempts, nervous break downs, harsh punishment and rape - is kissed and made up with sex. So I've come to not expect too much of this book in terms of exploring murky minds, D/S play and power dynamics. When you can overlook that - and the dreadful writing, may I add - then this is an enjoyable, guilty pleasure really!
*** Okay, stalled at chapter 18 and I think I should go for 2 stars for now ("it was okay"). Despite the tedious writing, it was still exciting and enjoyable, until I realized that the little plot there is revolves around the repetitive sex scenes and there's never any depth to the emotions of the characters or their interactions. Overall, just not satisfying enough for me. ***
January 8, 2015
ADULT REVIEW OF EROTICA BOOKS. NOT FOR MINORS.
My Guilty Pleasure treasure <3
A story for those who adore spunk and spirit in a human pet. Said pet was not called a mongrel for nothing ;) His master likes the challenge of taming a wild untrained pet. Says it was a refreshing change from all those boring factory manufactured pampered pets for the rich and famous.
It was absolutely delightful and fun to read about a super stubborn, unwilling, cursing pet who fights his master every step of the way. So much spirit tat one. Gotta love it! And all those delicious spankings plus the uhm.. pain & pleasure cock ring to control said recalcitrant pet. Chains and manacles are included too.
Here, let me show you the Taming Riki world and why I love this story so much:-
[NOTE: Please note that some of these images are not found in the book itself as some of it used to be part of Kira Takenouchi's website. And some are from Book 2 and 3]
By the way, this is a novel NOT a graphic novel. I am stating this here because I don't wish to confuse anyone due to all the pictures I am lining up here. lol
More over here (some not so safe for work - NSFW):
P/S: I know this does not really qualify as a review, just consider it as an introduction ;)
June 4, 2016
4.5 stars. Delightfully erotic yaoi slavefic. The Elite Blondie Iason Mink saves mongrel Riki the Dark's life and takes him for his pet in payment, but first he has to tame him. There follows lots of yummy sex and punishment - excellent stuff! I have no idea how to pronounce 'Iason'. Not sure if this is the whole text, 13 chapters in my link.
'Yes he, Iason Mink, Head of the Syndicate, was in every sense smitten with this defiant warlord from the slums, this dark-haired, dark-eyed mongrel who rejected his every advance, who announced daily his hatred for him - for all the Elites.'
July 30, 2009
I reviewed Part 2 before I saw this one, so some of the same cautions apply, with regard to sexually graphic content and scenes of discipline. Highly enjoyable, erotic, funny, sexy, entertaining piece of work, for a certain kind of reader. Not for everyone and may even offend some people. I've heard in some countries the Taming Riki books have actually been banned. Seems weird in this day and age but whatever, I guess some people are sexually uptight and can't deal with the whole yaoi scene. A very addictive read and hard to put down. Not something you want your grandma to see you reading but when you're by yourself it makes a good friend. I would pay almost anything for these books and I think Kira must know that because she keeps increasing the price. :O I forgot to mention this in the Part 2 view but there are gorgeous color images in these books, a few in each one. You don't usually get that in books these days, so it's a real treat.
I had put my books in a closet out of protest and refused to read them until I found out Kira was back. What a relief. I thought for sure I wouldn't get to read Part 3 and that would have been a big disappointment. If you don't know this (I think everyone does, though) she IS back and writing yaoi now and her site is here: Kirafix. Interestingly she is regrouping with the old investors from her previous companies before that big internal internal split in 2008, whatever the hell that was. I think some of the investors had gone on to create a new company and Kira kicked all the investors out, not knowing who was involved or being paranoid or whatever, but now she's bringing them back into Yaoi House again and returning their shares, which is an interesting development. Talk about drama, I've never seen anything like it.
Anyway those remarks probably don't really belong in a review, the critical point is that this is a great read for yaoi-lovers and Ai no Kusabi fans especially. Kira is definitely one of my favorite yaoi writers, and I love all her stuff, but there's a special place in my heart for Taming Riki because that's where it all began. For those of you who followed Kira from beginning, you know what I mean. It's pretty amazing how much she has written over the past few years, so many different novels going now, I don't know how she does it. There's really no one else out there who has written as much as she has in the same amount of time, but sometimes I think with so many different stories going it can be frustrating for readers who are really waiting for their favorite series to be updated, you can wait and have cobwebs on you before it's updated, if you're like that. As for me I love them all so I'm happy with whatever is updated. But once again I digress.
To me, Taming Riki is THE classic Ai no Kusabi alternative. It's sort of an underground cult classic. I know Taming Riki will still be around 70 years from now, and by then who knows how big it will be.
I had put my books in a closet out of protest and refused to read them until I found out Kira was back. What a relief. I thought for sure I wouldn't get to read Part 3 and that would have been a big disappointment. If you don't know this (I think everyone does, though) she IS back and writing yaoi now and her site is here: Kirafix. Interestingly she is regrouping with the old investors from her previous companies before that big internal internal split in 2008, whatever the hell that was. I think some of the investors had gone on to create a new company and Kira kicked all the investors out, not knowing who was involved or being paranoid or whatever, but now she's bringing them back into Yaoi House again and returning their shares, which is an interesting development. Talk about drama, I've never seen anything like it.
Anyway those remarks probably don't really belong in a review, the critical point is that this is a great read for yaoi-lovers and Ai no Kusabi fans especially. Kira is definitely one of my favorite yaoi writers, and I love all her stuff, but there's a special place in my heart for Taming Riki because that's where it all began. For those of you who followed Kira from beginning, you know what I mean. It's pretty amazing how much she has written over the past few years, so many different novels going now, I don't know how she does it. There's really no one else out there who has written as much as she has in the same amount of time, but sometimes I think with so many different stories going it can be frustrating for readers who are really waiting for their favorite series to be updated, you can wait and have cobwebs on you before it's updated, if you're like that. As for me I love them all so I'm happy with whatever is updated. But once again I digress.
To me, Taming Riki is THE classic Ai no Kusabi alternative. It's sort of an underground cult classic. I know Taming Riki will still be around 70 years from now, and by then who knows how big it will be.
November 7, 2008
I enjoyed Taming Riki volume I, Part I much more than I did the original fiction, "Ai No Kusabi" by Rieko Yoshihara. I would have given Taming Riki five stars, but being that the main characters did not originate from Kira Takenouchi, I subtracted one star from the possible five star rating.
'Taming Riki' is an intense story of a straining relationship between a gang leader held captive against his will and his master, an Amoian Syndicate Elite. Diverse situations from romance between the two characters to BDSM and severe discipline come into play as Iason Mink attempts to break Riki's spirit throughout the story. Though deemed as an oversized paperback by many, Taming Riki Vol. I, in my opinion, has enough meat and hot action to make it an interesting read to the end.
'Taming Riki' is an intense story of a straining relationship between a gang leader held captive against his will and his master, an Amoian Syndicate Elite. Diverse situations from romance between the two characters to BDSM and severe discipline come into play as Iason Mink attempts to break Riki's spirit throughout the story. Though deemed as an oversized paperback by many, Taming Riki Vol. I, in my opinion, has enough meat and hot action to make it an interesting read to the end.
August 13, 2017
Nope. This entire thing lost my interest as soon as Iason was raped by Raoul and he did nothing. As far as I'm aware, no harm ever came to Raoul, no punishment. For all talk of Iason being the head of all the Blondies, he made empty threats left and right. He'd be like "I could do this to you" and then proceeded to do nothing to Raoul except tell him to leave him alone, which Raoul would ignore again and again. He had no authority whats-so-ever for someone supposedly in a higher position and he did nothing in the form of punishment, despite claiming he could. It was sickening. I would have cut his balls off and made him Furniture, Blondie status be damned. Or done whatever the hell else he emptily threatened. Some leader. Maybe a little punishment would actually keep those he's in charge of in line. For someone supposedly higher up, he basically let Raoul walk all over him. He's threats did bubkiss because the asshole kept coming around apologizing and proceeding to retry to get into his pants, to which Iasons only response was GO AWAY. Bullshit. You have no problem punishing your Pet but you can't even keep those below you in the chain of command in line. I call bullshit.
November 22, 2011
Great story, though I much prefer the original novel 'Ai no Kusabi' by Reiko Yoshihara. The characters are beautiful. Iason Mink is my favourite and Riki comes in at a close second. This book is basically a fan fic and I'm not sure how Kira Takenouchi managed to write and publish another author's characters without copyright infringement, but somehow it's been done. Ms. Yoshihara did pass away, so who knows, maybe she passed on her copyright, but it's still a strange state of affairs. Regardless, I'm a huge fan of ANK and it's because of Ms. Yoshihara that I became a yaoi fan in the first place. So ANK remains my all time favourite yaoi novel and OVA. The only reason I'm giving this book 3 stars is because the story was decently written and the plot well thought out. In all honesty, I don't know if I cared for reading someone else's vision of Reiko Yoshihara's characters (if that makes sense). Only Ms. Yoshihara would know what her characters think and feel. Bit of a rip-off in a way. I'm planning on writing a proper review of ANK soon for my blog.
December 1, 2008
Admittedly, a guilty pleasure in the way watching soap operas is a guilty pleasure. This is gay male sex written by a woman and ended up being quite a bit more S&M than I would have liked. The events are quite cyclical and get repetitive and eventually, the violence started to get to me, but for some reason, I just kept reading it. By the end, I knew I would, of course, have to read the second one.
November 20, 2013
I don't even understand! What was the point of this book? It was so repetitive and there is absolutely no character development after maybe the first 5 chapters. So really in my opinion if you've read the first 5 chapters of this book you've read all of them.
The threesome chapter seemed really out of place. By the time you got to that chapter it made no sense for Riki to decide that it was a good idea to sleep with either IF it had happened closer to the beginning of the book I would have though it more probable. The bj that happened chapters before made sense in the context of the book.
Anyway, as ridiculous as this might sound I'm actually going to read the next part. I gave this book 1 star for the first 5 chapters and 1 star for the last maybe 2 chapter because it actually seemed like a story was beginning to develop!
Oh and the pictures that are cascaded throughout the book were kinda cool haven't really seen that before. It helped with the world building in a way since you are literally thrown into a new world and not explained ANYTHING.
Edit: Or not. Looks like after volume 1 there is no story left to read. Aw well, guess I'll have to make up my own ending.
The threesome chapter seemed really out of place. By the time you got to that chapter it made no sense for Riki to decide that it was a good idea to sleep with either IF it had happened closer to the beginning of the book I would have though it more probable. The bj that happened chapters before made sense in the context of the book.
Anyway, as ridiculous as this might sound I'm actually going to read the next part. I gave this book 1 star for the first 5 chapters and 1 star for the last maybe 2 chapter because it actually seemed like a story was beginning to develop!
Oh and the pictures that are cascaded throughout the book were kinda cool haven't really seen that before. It helped with the world building in a way since you are literally thrown into a new world and not explained ANYTHING.
Edit: Or not. Looks like after volume 1 there is no story left to read. Aw well, guess I'll have to make up my own ending.
June 6, 2009
Ok, I just loved the characters there... The way Kira Takenouchi is writting is very intriguing...
July 23, 2009
My favorite writer of all time!!!!! I adore Taming Riki, even more than Ai no Kusabi on which it's based!
September 10, 2009
It was awesome. i loved reading this book. I say it is a must read book. And if any one has it i am willing to buy!
November 17, 2010
Awesome book and series.
May 25, 2011
I wouldn't even give this a 0.5 star if I could This is one sad sad sad book...
Want to read
October 28, 2012oooo! And it's free online!
November 21, 2017
Great book, fantastic writing with a touch of sensuality common in Kira's books. I am a huge fan.
April 9, 2021
repetitive
It would have been 5 stars if not for the constant repetition. This book could have been half the length and would have been better for it. The plot is really good but there are so many ‘erotic’ scenes between plot points you forget what happened. I know it’s meant to be an erotic story unfortunately the sex isn’t all that erotic it’s just the same screen with a minor change again and again and it wasn’t exactly mind blowing the first time. I’m unsure if I’ll continue with this series I want to know what happens but don’t know if I can force myself to slug through all the repeated sex to find out.
It would have been 5 stars if not for the constant repetition. This book could have been half the length and would have been better for it. The plot is really good but there are so many ‘erotic’ scenes between plot points you forget what happened. I know it’s meant to be an erotic story unfortunately the sex isn’t all that erotic it’s just the same screen with a minor change again and again and it wasn’t exactly mind blowing the first time. I’m unsure if I’ll continue with this series I want to know what happens but don’t know if I can force myself to slug through all the repeated sex to find out.
Currently reading
September 17, 2023Although the story has potential I am forced to question whether the author actually read the books this series is supposedly based on. Events and actions are reference that do not happen until after the time period this story supposedly takes place. There is also the failure to understand the workings of robotics and android bodies as laid out in the original story. Over all I am forced to look at this series as a separate series with only names stolen from Ai No Kusabi (which I own physical copies of books 1-3 and digital of all 8 English translation as well as both movies).
February 29, 2024
I was beyond surprised when I first read this. It's like an alternate universe to Ai No Kusabi. I honestly like this more. I bought every book after the first. I'm sad that the series is over, but I can still reread the books. Thanks for continue this series in a unique way.
March 29, 2021
want to express my
admiration for the author of
the fanf, a very tasty story.
admiration for the author of
the fanf, a very tasty story.
December 13, 2021
Fabulous classic. Emotional and intellectual love story within a great world system. Tons of sexy times and imbalanced power dynamics with messed up norms. Such gold!
June 10, 2022
Mieszane uczucia
Z jednej strony wciągająca, a z drugiej nieadresowanie w ogóle gwałtu i przechodzenie nad nim do porządku dziennego po dniu, jest odrażające
Z jednej strony wciągająca, a z drugiej nieadresowanie w ogóle gwałtu i przechodzenie nad nim do porządku dziennego po dniu, jest odrażające
February 8, 2023
It's a poorly written fanfiction of Ai No Kusabi (The Space Between in english). Every character is a dumber version of himself and nothing really happens it's just a succession of porn and abuse.
February 17, 2024
Interesting and interesting lots of good stuff
February 12, 2021
As the "alternate" telling of the 3 missing years in Ai No Kusabi story of Riki and Iason- I enjoyed it. I was very confused when I first started to read this before reading the original. Realizing the error a quarter through the book - I got a copy of the 8 Ai No Kusabi novels - read them and then came back to the Taming Riki books. And although the original was amazing and I did find that I actually liked the Taming Riki books and thought it was a very interesting read. I found myself even wishing that they "real" story had more of this porn-style derivative work dynamics - at least it would have explained why Riki liked (let alone loved) Iason at all - who I just wanted to punch in the face the entire 8 novels of the original.
February 27, 2012
I started this story not realizing what an epic this was going to be to read the entire set of volumes, but I thought I get through the first and see what I thought.
I found that I like Iason a lot, even though he is often very ruthless when punishing Riki, but as is clear he only does it because Riki provokes it. Daryl, who had been with Iason for 12 years had very rarely been punished.
And I think that is the thing that bothers me the most. WHY does Riki keep doing such awful outrageous acts of wilfull destruction? I like Riki, but he can be so tremendously thoughtless one minute and then be tremendously protective of his friends, even taking their punishement on to himself.
I've also found that it very sad that they both are so afraid to voice their true feelings for each other, even though Iason freely told Raoul about his love for Riki.
And Raoul is a snake and Iason should have got rid of him a long time ago. Now we have to see what happens in the next volume. I can hardly wait!!
I found that I like Iason a lot, even though he is often very ruthless when punishing Riki, but as is clear he only does it because Riki provokes it. Daryl, who had been with Iason for 12 years had very rarely been punished.
And I think that is the thing that bothers me the most. WHY does Riki keep doing such awful outrageous acts of wilfull destruction? I like Riki, but he can be so tremendously thoughtless one minute and then be tremendously protective of his friends, even taking their punishement on to himself.
I've also found that it very sad that they both are so afraid to voice their true feelings for each other, even though Iason freely told Raoul about his love for Riki.
And Raoul is a snake and Iason should have got rid of him a long time ago. Now we have to see what happens in the next volume. I can hardly wait!!
February 4, 2016
That was interesting.
I didn't think I'd like it at first seeing as it was nothing but sex... I even wondered why would the author sit and writes more than 500 pages worth of porn. But since I was bored, and had nothing to do, I decided to read it just to kill time.
I attempted on giving up this book more than I can count, however every time I remembered I have nothing better to do, I force myself to read it. It felt like I was watching Tom and Jerry... Like an ever ending cat and mouse game, it was hilarious. I laughed at Riki's stupidity and all. But then we get to the part were they start introducing the characters, I became genuinely interested, the short living drama and angst, the comedy, the romance, and of course the never ending fuck.
Well for any new readers, you should know that the first 20 long percent of the book is all sex. then the plot came afterward. If you give it a chance you might finding yourself appreciating it.
I didn't think I'd like it at first seeing as it was nothing but sex... I even wondered why would the author sit and writes more than 500 pages worth of porn. But since I was bored, and had nothing to do, I decided to read it just to kill time.
I attempted on giving up this book more than I can count, however every time I remembered I have nothing better to do, I force myself to read it. It felt like I was watching Tom and Jerry... Like an ever ending cat and mouse game, it was hilarious. I laughed at Riki's stupidity and all. But then we get to the part were they start introducing the characters, I became genuinely interested, the short living drama and angst, the comedy, the romance, and of course the never ending fuck.
Well for any new readers, you should know that the first 20 long percent of the book is all sex. then the plot came afterward. If you give it a chance you might finding yourself appreciating it.
August 20, 2013
Pretty good fanfiction.
October 31, 2013
belum apa-apa koq jadi sedih begini ya.......:(!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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