Mind Fuck by Manna Francis (The Administration #1)

Synopsis:
There are no bad guys or good guys. There are only better guys and worse guys. One of the worse guys is Val Toreth. In a world in which torture is a legitimate part of the investigative process, he works for the Investigation and Interrogation Division, where his colleagues can be more dangerous than the criminals he investigates. One of the better guys is Keir Warrick. His small corporation, SimTech, is developing a "sim" system that places users in a fully immersive virtual reality. A minnow in a murky and dangerous pond, he is only beginning to discover how many compromises may be required for success. 

Their home is the dark future dystopia of New London. A totalitarian bureaucracy controls the European Administration, sharing political power with the corporations. The government uses violence and the many divisions of the feared Department of Internal Security to maintain control and crush resistance. The corporations fight among themselves, using lethal force under the euphemism of "corporate sabotage," uniting only to resist attempts by the Administration to extend its influence over them. Toreth and Warrick are more natural enemies than allies. But mutual attraction and the fight for survival can create unlikely bonds

I thought about giving this book five stars.

As the days and weeks went by and I failed to write a proper review, I realised I’d made the right decision. Mind Fuck is a really good book but it’s not extraordinary.

In the dystopic future there’s the Administration. There aren’t really any nations, just regional Administrations and corporations that control people’s lives. This is a world where everything is monitored unless it’s not—to protect business secrets—and where torture is legalised.

That’s where Toreth works: In Investigation and Interrogation, I&I. He goes through mountains of paperwork, adjusts drug dosages and on an occasion handles the more precise tools of the trade. He also has irregular one-night stands under assumed names in hotel rooms he charges his employer for.

All in all, it’s a good life. Then he meets Warrick.

Just as Toreth has sold his life to the Administration, Warrick has tied himself to the corporations. He’s brilliant and just as emotionally challenged as Toreth is, albeit in his own way. These two men, they get under each other’s skin and can’t quite get rid of one another. Logic and life experience dictates that they must, but a convenient murder mystery ensures they can’t.

Mind Fuck is as light on the erotica and BDSM as it is on the world building. Still, I got the feeling everything had been thought through and that the author is asking the reader to trust her while she properly introduces the characters. Looking at the long list of The Administration series novellas and novels there’s a lot left to explore. Still, I wouldn’t recommend this to the fans of pure dystopia as much as to the fans of slow-burn m/m. The world and the predictable mystery only serve as a pale background to the characters.

And the characters are wonderful. They’re neither perfectly healthy, normal, or anyone I’d want to know in real life, but they are interesting. Their relationship is interesting. Their struggle to discern reality from the artificial and will to survive their circumstances is interesting. This story is interesting

If you don’t mind a narrative where the third person limited voice occasionally slips into first or that the story draggs from time to time, this is a book worth reading.

Rameau's Review Archive: Counterpunch (Belonging #2) by Aleksandr Voinov

Originally posted on Goodreads on Feburary 8th 2013.

Synopsis:
Fight like a man, or die like a slave.

Brooklyn Marshall used to be a policeman in London, with a wife and a promising future ahead of him. Then he accidentally killed a rioter whose father was a Member of Parliament and had him convicted of murder. To ease the burden on the overcrowded prison system, Brooklyn was sold into slavery rather than incarcerated. Now, he's the "Mean Machine", a boxer on the slave prizefighting circuit, pummelling other slaves for the entertainment of freemen and being rented out for the sexual service of his wealthier fans.

When Nathaniel Bishop purchases Brooklyn's services for a night, it seems like any other assignation. But the pair form an unexpected bond that grows into something more. Brooklyn hesitates to call it "love"—such things do not exist between freemen and slaves—but when Nathaniel reveals that he wants to help get Brooklyn's conviction overturned, he dares to hope. Then, an accident in the ring sends Brooklyn on the run, jeopardizing everything he has worked so hard to achieve and sending him into the most important fight of all—the fight for freedom.


Counterpunch by Aleksandr Voinov

This review can also be found on Book Girl of Mur-y-Castell-blog.

Imagine a modern Britain where at least two or three decades ago the politicians gave up on trying to keep up with the ever-growing prison population, chucked the fourth article of the Universal Declaration of Human rights, and started to commute life sentences into slavery. Now people are both born and condemned to it. And it’s not just in Britain, it’s all around the world.

Brooklyn Marshall was born free and worked hard to build a good life for himself. Then a simple mistake, an accident, at the job took all that away from him. He was made into an example and his life was no longer his own. Now he boxes because it’s better than getting shot at in a war zone, and he fucks and is fucked because he is told to. He is used. He’s chattel that can talk.

”You haven’t resigned yourself to slavery yet, have you?”
“No. And I never will.”

It’s cruel to give hope to a such man, but that’s exactly what Nathaniel Bishop does.

I’m not a fan of romanticising slavery, and I’m not a fan of any relationship that’s based on a severe imbalance of power, but I’m always curious to see if the author can make it work. If those obstacles of differing wealth, social status, and culture can be overcome believably. Realistically. Even in urban fantasy.

It works here because Brooklyn has never accepted his status as anything less than a human being. It works because both Brooklyn and Nathaniel recognise how wrong their situation is, and because both are fighters in their own way.

Much of the story focuses on the boxing—again, something I know nothing about—and how it reflects Brooklyn’s growth as a character. He’ll never see any of the winnings, but the fighting he does is for himself. He’s broken and beaten both in the ring and out, and he is affected by it, but he’s also a survivor. What doesn’t kill him makes him stronger, and the final fights show this vividly.

If I hadn’t struggled with the beginning of the story—it was good but not amazing—the ending would have earned Counterpunch its fifth star. Voinov opted out of the fanciful and kept it realistic.

P.S. The story includes triggers for <spoiler>    rape    </spoiler>.

Review: The Prince (Original Sinners 03) by Tiffany Reisz

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

Keep your friends close and your enemies closer...preferably in bed. That's always been Kingsley Edge's strategy with his associate, the notorious New York dominatrix Nora Sutherlin. But with Nora away in Kentucky, now it's Kingsley's chance to take her place at the feet of the only man he's ever wanted -- Søren, Nora's on-again, off-again lover -- until a new threat from an old enemy forces him to confront his past.

Wes Railey is still the object of Nora's tamest yet most maddening fantasies, and the one man she can't forget. He's young. He's wonderful. He's also thoroughbred royalty and she's in "his" world now. But Nora is no simpering Southern belle, and her dream of fitting into Wesley's world is perpetually at odds with her dear Søren's relentlessly seductive pull.

Two worlds of wealth and passion call to her and whichever one Nora chooses, it will be the hardest decision she will ever have to make... unless someone makes it for her...

My impressions:

It will be an unusual review. If you want to read a real, serious, adult, more or less intelligent critique and know what I roughly think about The Original Sinners books penned by Ms. Reisz, please go to my review of the Angel or The Siren. I feel I told everything I had to tell while writing those two. Now time for some reviewer's fun. I started the book in the appropriate mood, knowing already what I was going to find. Still, as I got it from NetGalley free of charge I felt obliged to read it despite my lack of enthusiasm:

Ok, we get some flashbacks in which the author tells us about Soren and Kingsley's mutual infatuation at that very Catholic school of theirs. It still was the best thread of this story, honestly. But as soon as we returned to "the present" my mood changed dramatically:

When Nora went to Kentucky with Wes, who happened to be a rich, handsome, sweet Prince, no longer just a poor college student with type 1 diabetes my disgust increased :

Couldn't at least one character in this series be actually less than pretty and rather poor? Then there was the whole process of Wesley losing his virginity - yes, he forgot about his faith and moral principles because clearly they never concerned the divine Nora Sutherlin. Acting out of character and going with her to er...more or less bed was roughly as sexy as this beauty:

Then we got that mystery thread (who wants to attack Soren, Nora, Kingsley and destroy their little BDSM kingdom? Who DARES?) which was TRANSPARENT from the very beginning to anybody with 1 brain cell in working order.

Really, that obvious. 

 And finaly the big love between Nora and Wes despite their huge differences in practically anything and the big fat love between Soren and Kingsley despite the fact that Soren is a sadist and Kingsley is...well...French *groan* How come nobody saw anything coming their way?  I would comment it shortly:

The writing style? It made me as nice and cozy as looking at this guy:

The book ends with a big fat cliffhanger. There will be the fourth part coming. Will I continue reading the series? NO.

Final verdict:

Thank you very much for your kind attention. Have a nice day.