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The Forever Books #4
Sold!
On his first Peace Corps mission to Africa, Winston Martsolf is captured by gunmen working for slavers. In captivity, he is sexually nullified and sold on the auction block and eventually becomes the sex slave of an oil sheikh. After two years in captivity he still dreams of escape, wondering if his boyfriend Clancey will still want him after all he’s been through. Due to a freak storm, the sailboat on which he was being held by his owner is damaged, and Winston is eventually rescued. He is overjoyed to learn that Clancey still wants him, despite what’s been done to him, and they settle down to live their lives while waiting for those responsible to be brought to justice.
360 pages, Paperback
First published May 31, 2012
38 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
January 8, 2015
A top class what-the-fuckery book! It has provided me the best eye excise ever - I have to roll them until the end of the book. Phew! what a taxing feat.
What you will be in for if you decide to pick this up:-
Emotionless Characters: Delayed normal human responses - robotic characters. Even an A.I. has more feelings.
The main character thanked his years of yoga practice and his natural stoic attitude or so he says, over and over again to conveniently excuse his lack of expression. And he got through his non-consensual sexual nullification by practicing yoga breathing technique so that he could remain unaffected - oh boy, did he excel with flying colors!
Slaver: “That is an excellent attitude—I’m somewhat amazed at your resignation.”Come on! your precious dick and balls are missing and you are in much pain after the procedure. You are ENTITLED to throw a tantrum and be vocal in anyway you want and be forgiven for it. No?
The MC aka victim: “My boyfriend and I spent several years studying yoga, and the mental discipline combined with my naturally stoic nature has gotten me through much of this.”
The MC was the most dispassionate character I have ever read. The disconnected way he talks about himself was way too peculiar, it's like he is seeing himself from the other side of the glass case.
Streams of Repetitions: Be ready for endless streams of repetitions that could even bored a senile to tears - so frustrating, I felt like chucking the book out the window if it's not on my phone or laptop (yes, I am reading via both devices). Some of these repetitions are almost verbatim too.
I mean, you really do not need to continuously remind your readers what you have already mentioned before. Twice is already risking it but forth or fifth round?
Irrelevant rambles: Too much talks about the sky, moon and weather - let's see... we get to know in detail what sort of toiletries the characters uses, all the restaurants names plus the food names and even its history. Then irrelevant people's background, irrelevant events and gossips. There's even detailed description on the process of getting in and out of a car, taking a shower, and all the rest of those general daily stuff. All that was just the tip of the iceberg. Mind you, all these goes in a never-ending loop.
WTF out-of-this-world non story related plot: I can't openly disclose it here since some might still wanna give this story a go for whatever reasons, therefore I think it is best just wrap it in a spoiler tag...
Mayday! Plot holes in abundance: There are quite a number of inconsistency in the plots that could drive you crazy - usually followed by some beeping swears.
One fine example to illustrate my point is this - (just a minor spoiler, safe to click especially if you are not going to attempt to tackle this story).
There are also a few minor things that doesn't jive too well, like for example, why does the filthy rich rescuers not have domestic help to clean up after themselves? Or at least a butler to manage the big house? And where are the chauffeur and bodyguards? They seem to be driving themselves around town without both essential staff around. Even picking up guests from the airport on their own. Also, why would they need to fret over sleeping quarters arrangements for their guests and worry over insufficient bedding?
All in, there's just too many illogical goings-on and contradictions in the plots.
I really feel the itch to strike out all of those ramblings and compress it into a fascinating novella as it does have an interesting premise and concept.
Sigh.... if only the story could stay in focus with its main plot, this would have been a wonderful read. What a waste of a good promising story. Most of the time, I feel like I am reading a bloody itinerary of someone's daily routine - wake up, bathroom, breakfast, then some events followed by lunch then dinner, lastly bedtime - all in detailed description. Even a daily log/diary wouldn't be so dry.
How ironic that I've found the best phrase to sum up this book was via a short passage within it :
In the midst of our hard work, I actually began to work on a chronicle of my experiences at the hands of the slavers. I even went so far as to send a couple of chapters to Philip along with a cover e-mail asking for his advice. I didn’t have to wait long to hear from him, and his answer took me by surprise. His e-mail said that I was on the right track, but rather than make it a dry narrative of events, I’d be better served to make it a work of fiction. His exact words were, “Remember what I told you when you were in Atlanta—Make it up close and personal and don’t downplay the sex and violence. You could have a best-seller on your hands.”Yes, this book is just a dry narrative of events. That's the whole experience I've received from reading it.
On the plus side of things, I got to learn about 'Phantom Erections' from an extreme case of Sexual Nullification. *tongue-in-cheek* I also spend a long time trying to figure out where the piss hole is located after the modification. I got lost a little there then things cleared up after his first ejaculation was described.
For your info, this book cost USD5.99, you can fill up the blank on whether you should get it. I mean who knows, you might love it to bits? *shrug*
August 1, 2012
I enjoyed the first 80 pages of this book, mostly because the story pushed all my buttons - kidnapping, sexual slavery, abuse, potential revenge. By page 100 I was bored and I stayed bored the rest of the way. I would’ve given this story 4 stars for the first 80 pages, but the other 220 pages were soooo painful that the weight of it dragged down any good feelings from early on.
I’ll start with the things...um thing..I liked about this book. The narrating of the actual kidnapping was pretty good, even if told in flashbacks. If this book had been reduced to only those flashbacks, it would have made a pretty good 40-page short story.
Three things that killed this book for me:
1. There was no tension in the plot. You have a plot involving kidnapping, a slave ring, a villainous father, and quest for revenge, and it should have had lots of tension. But it was had none. Zero. The kidnapping and slavery are told through flashbacks, and once Winston is rescued (p15), it’s basically all over - his rescuers happen to be amazingly powerful and well-connected people who take care of his every need, from getting him his revenge and ending the slave ring, to introducing him to the best tailor and tax attorney. In fact, the last 220 pages of this 300 page book are just about the well-connected rescuers herding him from one to the other, and I could barely skim the final 80 pages or so, it was so badly and blandly written.
2. There is no realism in the MC’s reactions. He calmly accepts being kidnapped, castrated and raped and becomes a model slave. Then when he is rescued, he calmly reunites with his boyfriend, gets a dildo, testifies against his kidnappers and writes a bestselling book. There is no trauma, no therapy, no recovery, no relationship angst - nothing beyond a brief mention of nightmares. Worse, the author tries to explain writing Winston as such a flat character by attributing his unrealistic calm to yoga lessons.
3. Repetition and the throwing in of superfluous information not at all relevant to the story. Why does every character and his friend have to recount the same facts in their own words, except it never felt like their own words, but just the author recapping the events yet again?
I thought maybe my increasing annoyance was leading me to exaggerate the repetitiousness, so I did a search for one of the annoying repetitions and this is what I found:
Dani: “Look at that manacle and chain on his leg.”
Stravos: “I’ll bet my next paycheck from il Duca that he was manacled to the mast of that sailboat.”
Marco: “Stavros thinks that the manacle around his leg may have been used to chain him to the mast of the sailboat we found him in.”
Charles: “and based on the manacles around one leg, they figured that he’d been chained to the mast…”
Marco (again): “You were manacled and chained to the mast of a sailboat in the open ocean.”
Frank (FBI): “The fact that there were manacles on one of his legs, complete with attached chain, led them to determine that he’d been chained to the mast.”
Marco (again!): “There was a manacle around one of his lower legs with a long chain locked to it, and the captain surmised that he’d probably been chained to the mast of the sailboat.”
Why are we told that Winston’s rescuers, obviously characters from this author’s other works, are practically immortal? That gets stated at the start and then dropped. Why are we told the names of every restaurant they ate at and what they ordered? And many many other irrelevant details.
All in all, I wouldn’t recommend this book unless you like your stories stripped of all emotion and narrated with lots of repetition and superfluous facts.
I’ll start with the things...um thing..I liked about this book. The narrating of the actual kidnapping was pretty good, even if told in flashbacks. If this book had been reduced to only those flashbacks, it would have made a pretty good 40-page short story.
Three things that killed this book for me:
1. There was no tension in the plot. You have a plot involving kidnapping, a slave ring, a villainous father, and quest for revenge, and it should have had lots of tension. But it was had none. Zero. The kidnapping and slavery are told through flashbacks, and once Winston is rescued (p15), it’s basically all over - his rescuers happen to be amazingly powerful and well-connected people who take care of his every need, from getting him his revenge and ending the slave ring, to introducing him to the best tailor and tax attorney. In fact, the last 220 pages of this 300 page book are just about the well-connected rescuers herding him from one to the other, and I could barely skim the final 80 pages or so, it was so badly and blandly written.
2. There is no realism in the MC’s reactions. He calmly accepts being kidnapped, castrated and raped and becomes a model slave. Then when he is rescued, he calmly reunites with his boyfriend, gets a dildo, testifies against his kidnappers and writes a bestselling book. There is no trauma, no therapy, no recovery, no relationship angst - nothing beyond a brief mention of nightmares. Worse, the author tries to explain writing Winston as such a flat character by attributing his unrealistic calm to yoga lessons.
3. Repetition and the throwing in of superfluous information not at all relevant to the story. Why does every character and his friend have to recount the same facts in their own words, except it never felt like their own words, but just the author recapping the events yet again?
I thought maybe my increasing annoyance was leading me to exaggerate the repetitiousness, so I did a search for one of the annoying repetitions and this is what I found:
Dani: “Look at that manacle and chain on his leg.”
Stravos: “I’ll bet my next paycheck from il Duca that he was manacled to the mast of that sailboat.”
Marco: “Stavros thinks that the manacle around his leg may have been used to chain him to the mast of the sailboat we found him in.”
Charles: “and based on the manacles around one leg, they figured that he’d been chained to the mast…”
Marco (again): “You were manacled and chained to the mast of a sailboat in the open ocean.”
Frank (FBI): “The fact that there were manacles on one of his legs, complete with attached chain, led them to determine that he’d been chained to the mast.”
Marco (again!): “There was a manacle around one of his lower legs with a long chain locked to it, and the captain surmised that he’d probably been chained to the mast of the sailboat.”
Why are we told that Winston’s rescuers, obviously characters from this author’s other works, are practically immortal? That gets stated at the start and then dropped. Why are we told the names of every restaurant they ate at and what they ordered? And many many other irrelevant details.
All in all, I wouldn’t recommend this book unless you like your stories stripped of all emotion and narrated with lots of repetition and superfluous facts.
September 5, 2015
Disturbing...I hate giving a bad review but I found what happened to Winston, both physically and mentally very disturbing and found it hard to believe his attitude after being rescued. I'm sorry to say that I skimmed through half the book because I found it some what tedious and boring and only finished to see how it ended.
January 21, 2013
One thing that has made me love this writer all the more is his no holds barred approach to his writing. This is one reason why among all of the LGBT writers around, Etienne tops my list. This is also why many have read his work have become wary of them, not because of his lack in technique, but due to his straightforwardness.
The first time I read Etienne it was the Avondale book Curiosity Satisfied. This made me hunt for the rest of the series until eventually I became addicted to his work. The last books I read were, funnily enough, his Forever series.
Etienne's characters are too real, not the Hollywood stereotypes nor the gay paranormal/romance novels out there where most of the contents are almost uniformly equal in terms of plot, characterization and sexual activities. A friend I introduced his works to commented that the heat rating was almost zero. And that is, for me, exactly the whole point of Etienne. It is not the acrobatics done within the privacy of the bedroom that matters in a great story, it is the plot, the development of the characters, the realism of the story. His works make you think hours or even days after reading them.
In the case of Winston Martsolf who was captured by gunmen, thrown at the mercy of slavers who then categorically sexually nullify him and then sold off on the auction block, many readers who have no medical background would find the plot scary.
When I was reading this I would consult with my husband (yes, he's a doctor) and I would ask him about the specifics of sexual nullification, and he said that Etienne, as an author, was lacking. I was flabbergasted - Etienne??? Lacking?? And then my husband continued, reality is worse, this author skimmed over the truth. And that is when it hit me: if Etienne's words describing the sexual nullification was a skimmed off version, how much worse could it be? (Note: I won't bother relating the truth as my husband told and showed me as it is too horrifying to know, much else imagine.)
I have seen commentaries on Sold! and understand the hesitation of many readers. I can only imagine what they must have felt when they read the straightforward approach to the surgical techniques described within the novel. However, it is this book, Sold! that finally convinced me that Etienne is a writer who will not hesitate to write the truth of what is not openly discussed: sexual slavery.
Bravo! Etienne. You have, for me, confirmed what I already knew: you are a writer extraordinaire and I look forward to the third installment of your Forever Series: Children of Forever hopefully to be published within 2013.
The first time I read Etienne it was the Avondale book Curiosity Satisfied. This made me hunt for the rest of the series until eventually I became addicted to his work. The last books I read were, funnily enough, his Forever series.
Etienne's characters are too real, not the Hollywood stereotypes nor the gay paranormal/romance novels out there where most of the contents are almost uniformly equal in terms of plot, characterization and sexual activities. A friend I introduced his works to commented that the heat rating was almost zero. And that is, for me, exactly the whole point of Etienne. It is not the acrobatics done within the privacy of the bedroom that matters in a great story, it is the plot, the development of the characters, the realism of the story. His works make you think hours or even days after reading them.
In the case of Winston Martsolf who was captured by gunmen, thrown at the mercy of slavers who then categorically sexually nullify him and then sold off on the auction block, many readers who have no medical background would find the plot scary.
When I was reading this I would consult with my husband (yes, he's a doctor) and I would ask him about the specifics of sexual nullification, and he said that Etienne, as an author, was lacking. I was flabbergasted - Etienne??? Lacking?? And then my husband continued, reality is worse, this author skimmed over the truth. And that is when it hit me: if Etienne's words describing the sexual nullification was a skimmed off version, how much worse could it be? (Note: I won't bother relating the truth as my husband told and showed me as it is too horrifying to know, much else imagine.)
I have seen commentaries on Sold! and understand the hesitation of many readers. I can only imagine what they must have felt when they read the straightforward approach to the surgical techniques described within the novel. However, it is this book, Sold! that finally convinced me that Etienne is a writer who will not hesitate to write the truth of what is not openly discussed: sexual slavery.
Bravo! Etienne. You have, for me, confirmed what I already knew: you are a writer extraordinaire and I look forward to the third installment of your Forever Series: Children of Forever hopefully to be published within 2013.
May 31, 2012
I've been waiting for this book ever since Etienne had the first few chapters available for preview on his website many months ago, which is why I read it the minute it became available.
This book may well be his best yet. Winston Martsolf joins the Peace Corps immediately upon graduating from college, and his boyfriend of six years joins him. On their first mission in Africa, Winston and two other blond men are captured at gunpoint and taken to an unknown site, where they're told their fates: they are to become sex slaves, but not until their bodies have undergone a certain modification (they are to be sexually nullified).
Winston is ultimately sold on the auction block and begins his life as the sex save of a minor prince. A year later, the price's father is overthrown, and Winston finds himself on the block again. This time his owner is a middle-aged and somewhat cruel man. Eventually, his owner takes him on his yacht in the Mediterannean, where he is required to service his owner and his owner's friends. When the two of them are some distance from the yacht in a small sailboat, a sudden storm blows up and his owner is swept overboard. Winston is left unconscious and adrift in the slowly sinking sailboat.
He is eventually rescued and taken to a hospital in Aragoni, where ultimately a reunion with Clancey, his boyfriend is arranged. Aided by il Duca d'Aragoni and his son Marco, Winston goes home to the USA to testify at his father's trial. His father, as it turns out, was responsible for Winston's capture.
Etienne has very cleverly managed to work several of my favorite characters from other stories into this one, as he so often does to the reader's delight.
I cannot recommend this book too highly.
This book may well be his best yet. Winston Martsolf joins the Peace Corps immediately upon graduating from college, and his boyfriend of six years joins him. On their first mission in Africa, Winston and two other blond men are captured at gunpoint and taken to an unknown site, where they're told their fates: they are to become sex slaves, but not until their bodies have undergone a certain modification (they are to be sexually nullified).
Winston is ultimately sold on the auction block and begins his life as the sex save of a minor prince. A year later, the price's father is overthrown, and Winston finds himself on the block again. This time his owner is a middle-aged and somewhat cruel man. Eventually, his owner takes him on his yacht in the Mediterannean, where he is required to service his owner and his owner's friends. When the two of them are some distance from the yacht in a small sailboat, a sudden storm blows up and his owner is swept overboard. Winston is left unconscious and adrift in the slowly sinking sailboat.
He is eventually rescued and taken to a hospital in Aragoni, where ultimately a reunion with Clancey, his boyfriend is arranged. Aided by il Duca d'Aragoni and his son Marco, Winston goes home to the USA to testify at his father's trial. His father, as it turns out, was responsible for Winston's capture.
Etienne has very cleverly managed to work several of my favorite characters from other stories into this one, as he so often does to the reader's delight.
I cannot recommend this book too highly.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 1, 2012
While tackling a difficult subject, Etienne brought us another great story- one filled with lots of familiar faces. I didn't want it to end.
May 7, 2013
This was a tough book to read. It is hard for me to read about man's inhumanity but the story was really good and the resolution was very satisfying.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews