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Sacred Exchange
Much has been written about the physical aspects of dominance and submission, including the use of such paraphernalia as whips and bonds, but the literature does not fully explain the compelling attraction many have to S/M experiences. Through stories of ritual, communion, telepathy, devotion, dreams, commitment, and personal transformation, Sacred Exchange portrays how the bonds of trust between dominant and submissive might lead to emotional and spiritual revelations. This is an exciting collection of fiction that delves into an often misunderstood realm.
272 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2003
28 people want to read
About the author
Lisabet Sarai
180 books216 followersTwo decades ago LISABET SARAI experienced a serendipitous fusion of her love of writing and her fascination with sex. Since then she has published nearly one hundred erotic titles, including the classic RAW SILK. She edited the acclaimed anthologies SACRED EXCHANGE and CREAM and is currently responsible for the altruistic erotica series COMING TOGETHER PRESENTS.
Lisabet holds more degrees than anyone needs from prestigious universities who would no doubt be embarrassed by her chosen genre. She loves to travel and currently lives in Southeast Asia with her highly tolerant husband and two cosmopolitan felines. For more information on Lisabet and her writing visit Lisabet Sarai's Fantasy Factory (http://www.lisabetsarai.com) or her blog Beyond Romance http://lisabetsarai.blogspot.com). Join her VIP email list here: https://btn.ymlp.com/xgjjhmhugmgh
Lisabet holds more degrees than anyone needs from prestigious universities who would no doubt be embarrassed by her chosen genre. She loves to travel and currently lives in Southeast Asia with her highly tolerant husband and two cosmopolitan felines. For more information on Lisabet and her writing visit Lisabet Sarai's Fantasy Factory (http://www.lisabetsarai.com) or her blog Beyond Romance http://lisabetsarai.blogspot.com). Join her VIP email list here: https://btn.ymlp.com/xgjjhmhugmgh
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 30, 2019
According to the description on the back of this unusual collection of stories,
The difference is in the atmosphere. This collection emphasizes what most other BDSM fiction only implies or mentions in passing: the part that is hardest to capture in words. There are whips, restraints and various sex toys in these stories, not to mention attractive bodies, but there are no real fetishes here. Physical things are presented as means of achieving transcendent states in much the same way that communion wine (or in some cases, other substances) enables believers to bond with their Savior as they conceive of Him.
Extrasensory communication and superhuman powers are featured in several of these stories. In Ghost of a Chance, a woman goes to a very unusual job interview and is fascinated by a man she once rejected. In Living in Hell, a beautiful male from another planet becomes spiritually bonded for life with a "homluk," his contemptuous term for a male earthling. Both characters must come to terms with their frightening, unbreakable empathy with a member of another species. In another space fantasy, Free Falling, a submissive female junior officer on a spacecraft must confront her fear of falling to her death when her dominant male lover devises a series of tests for her. In The Cold Heart, an ancient race of beings, the Fey, have moved into the heart of a human city, where humans seek them out at their own risk, knowing that the Fey can invade human minds.
The power of the natural world is an important element in this and several other stories. (The "Fey" or fairy-folk have traditionally been associated with wild places.) In Return to Wildwood, the new mistress of an English estate discovers her hereditary role as mistress (in a sexual sense) of the Green Man, a tree-spirit who takes his strength from her. In White Coyote, a dominant male takes on the persona of an animal totem to give his female partner what she needs, including a new name formed from "light and dark."
Since this collection is about magic and mystery, the appearance of fairies, extraterrestrials, elemental spirits and ghosts in some of the stories is not surprising. In others, however, the mystery of intense mutual attraction and understanding (often mixed with fear or repulsion) appears in a gritty context of mundane reality. In Fuckwise, a man recklessly drives from Florida to Seattle without stopping because he wants to meet the submissive woman he met in cyberspace. Once he arrives, he must deal with his own motivations, which are complex and less than noble, as well as those of his new companion. In Thresholds, a woman writer enters the foreign territory of a men's lavatory and meets a man who can give her what she has only imagined before. In I Am Road Kill, a transgendered man makes a journey with Angel, the woman who seems capable of leading him from hell to heaven, in a kind of condensed modern version of Dante's The Divine Comedy.
The curiosity which leads the characters in these stories into strange places is shown to be fueled by an ageless, persistent human desire to go beyond the ordinary, the bland and conventional. For better and worse, what passes for the "real world" is shown to be a thin veil between the human seeker and a realm which is more compelling and more real in a sense. For this reason, the harshness of the medieval world in Communion (last story in the collection) seems modified by the suggestion that even death is not a final ending or separation.
The motif of a road-trip as spiritual journey is combined with the motif of music in Come for Me, Dark Man, a kind of southern blues song about a travelin' man who rescues a lonely widow from the living death of her respectable life. Music also features in Discordance, a fantasy set in a society in which emotions are "performed" for an audience as musical notes, harmonious or otherwise. Music is at the heart of the appeal of the diva in Sentry, in which her bodyguard willingly risks his life to protect hers, and recognizes a similar compulsion in the stalker who threatens her. As the art form which is least physical (and arguably most spiritual), music seems fitting in these stories. In some sense, every character has a theme song.
This symphony of stories is pansexual or "post modern" (a term used by Carol Queen to define sexuality that crosses boundaries) as well as being a mixture of styles and genres. Human heterosexuality is shown to be only one option among many, and even the simplest response to a simple command (as in the wittily-named story, Moving) is shown to have life-changing potential. The stories can be read in any order, and they are accessible to a variety of readers, from novices to seasoned veterans. If you feel that you are in danger of becoming jaded (at least as a reader), either because of the excesses of your own life or those of the characters in the kind of current sexual fiction which is promoted as outrageous, perverse and over-the-edge (yawn), try this book. So far, it seems to be one of a kind.
"Sacred Exchange is an anthology of original erotic fiction that explores the transcendent, spiritual, or magical aspects of the power exchange in Dominance and Submission."SM as "sexual magic"? So how are these stories different from other erotic stories with a leather or BDSM flavor?
The difference is in the atmosphere. This collection emphasizes what most other BDSM fiction only implies or mentions in passing: the part that is hardest to capture in words. There are whips, restraints and various sex toys in these stories, not to mention attractive bodies, but there are no real fetishes here. Physical things are presented as means of achieving transcendent states in much the same way that communion wine (or in some cases, other substances) enables believers to bond with their Savior as they conceive of Him.
Extrasensory communication and superhuman powers are featured in several of these stories. In Ghost of a Chance, a woman goes to a very unusual job interview and is fascinated by a man she once rejected. In Living in Hell, a beautiful male from another planet becomes spiritually bonded for life with a "homluk," his contemptuous term for a male earthling. Both characters must come to terms with their frightening, unbreakable empathy with a member of another species. In another space fantasy, Free Falling, a submissive female junior officer on a spacecraft must confront her fear of falling to her death when her dominant male lover devises a series of tests for her. In The Cold Heart, an ancient race of beings, the Fey, have moved into the heart of a human city, where humans seek them out at their own risk, knowing that the Fey can invade human minds.
The power of the natural world is an important element in this and several other stories. (The "Fey" or fairy-folk have traditionally been associated with wild places.) In Return to Wildwood, the new mistress of an English estate discovers her hereditary role as mistress (in a sexual sense) of the Green Man, a tree-spirit who takes his strength from her. In White Coyote, a dominant male takes on the persona of an animal totem to give his female partner what she needs, including a new name formed from "light and dark."
Since this collection is about magic and mystery, the appearance of fairies, extraterrestrials, elemental spirits and ghosts in some of the stories is not surprising. In others, however, the mystery of intense mutual attraction and understanding (often mixed with fear or repulsion) appears in a gritty context of mundane reality. In Fuckwise, a man recklessly drives from Florida to Seattle without stopping because he wants to meet the submissive woman he met in cyberspace. Once he arrives, he must deal with his own motivations, which are complex and less than noble, as well as those of his new companion. In Thresholds, a woman writer enters the foreign territory of a men's lavatory and meets a man who can give her what she has only imagined before. In I Am Road Kill, a transgendered man makes a journey with Angel, the woman who seems capable of leading him from hell to heaven, in a kind of condensed modern version of Dante's The Divine Comedy.
The curiosity which leads the characters in these stories into strange places is shown to be fueled by an ageless, persistent human desire to go beyond the ordinary, the bland and conventional. For better and worse, what passes for the "real world" is shown to be a thin veil between the human seeker and a realm which is more compelling and more real in a sense. For this reason, the harshness of the medieval world in Communion (last story in the collection) seems modified by the suggestion that even death is not a final ending or separation.
The motif of a road-trip as spiritual journey is combined with the motif of music in Come for Me, Dark Man, a kind of southern blues song about a travelin' man who rescues a lonely widow from the living death of her respectable life. Music also features in Discordance, a fantasy set in a society in which emotions are "performed" for an audience as musical notes, harmonious or otherwise. Music is at the heart of the appeal of the diva in Sentry, in which her bodyguard willingly risks his life to protect hers, and recognizes a similar compulsion in the stalker who threatens her. As the art form which is least physical (and arguably most spiritual), music seems fitting in these stories. In some sense, every character has a theme song.
This symphony of stories is pansexual or "post modern" (a term used by Carol Queen to define sexuality that crosses boundaries) as well as being a mixture of styles and genres. Human heterosexuality is shown to be only one option among many, and even the simplest response to a simple command (as in the wittily-named story, Moving) is shown to have life-changing potential. The stories can be read in any order, and they are accessible to a variety of readers, from novices to seasoned veterans. If you feel that you are in danger of becoming jaded (at least as a reader), either because of the excesses of your own life or those of the characters in the kind of current sexual fiction which is promoted as outrageous, perverse and over-the-edge (yawn), try this book. So far, it seems to be one of a kind.
March 31, 2010
Some dominance and submission stories are all about the whips and the bonds and the violence. A quick flick of the wrist or dip of the fingers and the reader moves on with the story leaving as much of an impression as a drive-thru burger.
If that's what you want, browse the web and you'll be happy in minutes.
If you want to understand what it really means to let yourself be hound and helpless, to give yourself over to another entirely so that they can drive you to a place that you need to be but cannot reach alone; or to strap someone to a frame so that her body is stretch and taut and there is a mix of anxiety and hope in her eyes that drives you much harder than the smell of her arousal, then this book should be on your reading list.
Lisabet is one of the best authors of erotic around today. In this anthology she and Seneca Mayfair have brought together some talented people with a common goal of adding an emotional and sometimes spiritual edge to what, at its best, can be a sacred exchange.
If you'd like a sample read my contribution:"Thresholds"
If that's what you want, browse the web and you'll be happy in minutes.
If you want to understand what it really means to let yourself be hound and helpless, to give yourself over to another entirely so that they can drive you to a place that you need to be but cannot reach alone; or to strap someone to a frame so that her body is stretch and taut and there is a mix of anxiety and hope in her eyes that drives you much harder than the smell of her arousal, then this book should be on your reading list.
Lisabet is one of the best authors of erotic around today. In this anthology she and Seneca Mayfair have brought together some talented people with a common goal of adding an emotional and sometimes spiritual edge to what, at its best, can be a sacred exchange.
If you'd like a sample read my contribution:"Thresholds"
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November 6, 2013one of the best erotic collections centering on dominance and submission that i've read. particularly Anne Tourney's "Come for Me Dark Man," Mel Smith's story & a host of others...
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews