Steven Allen’s Reviews > Forged By Fire > Status Update

Reunited with her lover Jotan, Zarq is on the run from Temple and her former supporter who no longer believes that she is the Skykeeper's Daughter.

More lesbian sex, bestiality, and a few unexpected character deaths. As the story comes to a close it will be interesting to discover what happens to Zarq. She realizes her addiction to venom but will she succumb or be triumphant?

The lesbian sex and bestiality continue. If you are offended by slavery, and the before mentioned things I suggest you skip this book. I read Tanith Lee as well, and Cross has nothing on Lee for perverse subject matter in her books.

Poor Zarq, her situation just gets worse the more pages I read. Little better than a slave on her dragon estate, she finds herself subjected to all the same -isms as before - sexism, classism, and racism. The lords being able to ride through a village and take women for their pleasure reminds me of Iraq under Saddam. Saddam Hussein's sons were famous for raping women much like in this book.

I grabbed the Dragon Temple Trilogy on a whim. I found the third book at my local used book store and figured I should read the first two first. A good enough read but not enough to keep in my personal library. Caution: these books are dark fantasy containing rampant bestiality, female circumcision, some lesbian sex (meh - I've read better), and slavery.