Sindi in Silk (Nexus) [Mass Market Paperback]

Alright, I will confess, this is really the first book I've read purely in the genre of Erotic Literature. My first experience with something similar was "Justine" by the Marquise de Sade, and maybe this sort of spoiled me and set this genre up to fail in my eyes. Or maybe I'm just not this genres target audience (if in fact this book represents it) and they are after people who aren't nearly as much of an avid reader as myself. However, I do notice that this genre has very poor reviews in describing what the book is about or contains. Maybe there are certain limitations that I don't know about? Be that as it may, I'm going to do an in depth analysis.

I must admit I did not find this book the least bit erotic. It did not play to my specific fantasies, however, I surely cannot give this book a rating of one star based on its lack of arousing me. De Sade didn't really fully arouse me either and I gave that a five. Unfortunately I found the writing in this book to be very inconsistent. Most of the situations the characters are thrust in are stated as a mere matter of fact. You don't really get inside the characters heads to really learn their motivations, so that was a bit of a black mark.

This book focuses mainly on stockings, taking from behind and caning. This was sort of a surprise to me because by the title I rather assumed it would have to do with a whole lingerie outfit of sorts, not domination (though I assumed this from the cover) and punishment. However, throughout the book most girls are not clothed except for garters and stockings, regardless of where they are. This book sort of plays to every possible fantasy, but those three are the top focus throughout the book. It seems like everyone in this fantasy world does these three things. I should warn some that there are scenes involving toilet humiliation, but it stays away from going into coprophagia, which isn't in the book at all. The punishment sequences have all the same tone with the girl being strung up then whipped. Sometimes this happens with a cane or with various kinds of leather whips. Either way, by the end of the book the whipping sequence becomes quite tiresome and not very creative at all. There is also a lot catered to girl on girl, but male on male scenes are steered away from. I did like that the author remained mostly heterosexual, as same sex scenes do not portray my particular interests. There are also no she-male types in this book, though they do have mutants toward the end, which was another very absurd part of this book and I had a hard time following why it would be erotic.

The world the characters are thrust into is almost far too ambitious to be told in a short novel. This is really the whole reason I gave the book two stars rather than just one. The setting seems to be post apocalyptic where nuclear war destroyed our current day civilization and forced humans to flee what they once new. The humans in this setting no longer know much of anything. They don't read books, they don't have cars, they barely know how to make clothes, except for some reason they know how to weave silk. I'm speaking from the general populace level, because the leaders of the areas know quite a bit more. Strangely though, none of this is explained, the reader is just thrust into this bizarre world and told to accept it. I would be happy to accept these abnormalities if it took place on another planet, but this takes place in Madagascar. Maybe there is a previous book by the author that explains this, but the publisher does not make any note of this being a sequel. It would seem global warming has made Antarctica a viable location to live, because that's where our main character, Sindi, is from. However, nothing about this is explained. So she's a princess from Antarctica (or Antarctique in the book) and gets captured and enslaved by this guy in Madagascar. Sounds tragic right? Apparently not, because all girls secretly desire to be enslaved and done by their masters... according to the book at least.

This is where I had major misgivings in the language use, because the author repeatedly uses terms like "vile" or "stench" to describe things which have negative connotations, then a few seconds after the characters are in love with them. This whole universe is driven by this incensed nymphomaniac purpose. The book goes from bizarre to even weirder as it goes on. For some reason juicing a girl has become a regularity for seasoning meals. There's a great focus on food in this book, but what the characters eat is almost repulsive and I wonder why this is an erotic novel. For example, the characters will often suck live eels from "inside" a girl and exclaim how great it is. I'm not sure about most people... but eating an eel raw doesn't sound great. In another instance a girl is consuming a lobster and eats the claw whole... shell and all. People have clearly gone nuts. Maybe this was the whole point of the book, I actually couldn't tell because the language use falls into this vague double standard where I'm unsure of if the characters are supposed to like or dislike it.

One other area that really threw me off was the fact that this book has vampires in it. I'm not even sure why they are included in the story. They're not even a traditional vampire and you can turn a girl into one with special training. This training seems to involve eating animals raw... and that's about it. After a little while her skin turns a very pale white, her hair turns black, and then her tongue becomes furry. Now why a furry tongue is a by product of vampirism is way beyond me. This made the least amount of sense in the whole book. Like everything else... there's no background. No explanation. I'm left wondering why something is all the time in this book and that made it very frustrating to read. Towards the end of this I was left wondering if the author could even answer these "why" questions on her own.

However, the economics of the world was pretty interesting and it's really the only part I enjoyed reading because it was interesting but made sense (sort of). Society has redeveloped into a sort of slave society, however, unlike the slavery most people here grow up with (especially in America), it seems just about everyone is a slave in some respect. Predominantly, though, women are sold as slaves and men are the owners. So a lot of the scenes involve male domination. Although, there is a balance and there are many scenes that involve female domination. This is usually female on female and there are very few involving a female on a male, but they are there. Regardless, girls are sold at public auctions and the basis for their purchase is dictated to how well a girl can take a beating. The girls are then sold to the males and they are used for pleasure, cooking, hard labor, and just about everything else. In one section of the land the slave girls make up the army (this seems like a foolish idea). Also it is pointed out for the army training, they are trained not to have camaraderie with their fellow soldiers... again, that makes no sense. A slave's station is apparent because they are not clothed and especially not wearing stockings, for stockings are a sign of status. However, and this is where I had a major logic break down, when a girl is going to be punished and beaten she will have to don stockings. Now why a slave would have to dress like royalty to be shamed is beyond me. I mean maybe there's a perfectly good reason for this, but it's never outlined so the reader never knows why.

Once Sindi is captured she seems to be taken from master to master. At first it is Prince Een, then the Rubber Lord sends Loleelo to steal her, then Gunn the outlaw captures her, then she falls into the hands of Peter the German, then to the Bookbinder, then to Ogpan, and then finally to the Bookbinder again. Each of these captures has the same penchant for punishment and by the time I got to the scenes with Ogpan I was summarily bored with them. Interestingly the stocking commerce, discussed throughout these adventures, was fairly fascinating because the trade between the lands was pretty intricate and each nation produced one essential product. Books did exist, but very few could read them and even less could actually make them.

The weirdest part in the story is when she is in the clutches of Peter the German, who appears to know something about genetics and he is obsessed with books. He wants to take over the Rubber Lords domain so that he may acquire his books. Anyway, Peter also has an interest in creating mutants (Misshapes) and just generally deforming humans. This is probably the more disgusting sequence in the book. People with rotten arms, two heads, double "organs" and so forth. He also creates and controls the silkworms, which are humans who have silk for skin and they shed it regularly. Obviously he makes the stockings. The worst part is by far when Sindi is captured by the Misshapes that were exiled and she is forced to pleasure the heavily warted area on the female leader. This is where I nearly gave up on the book altogether.

I will admit that the end of the novel, when it eventually came, was rather interesting. Sindi falls in lieu with the Bookbinder and decides to follow him because he is clearly the strongest. He mounts an army of girls to take over all of Madagascar, which he does, but it's a shame that this is just in the last twenty pages of the book. You have no idea that this is even happening and then out of the blue Sindi fulfills this prophecy to be Queen of the region. However, the underlying message in this section is pretty interesting. Basically it tells the reader that physical power isn't everything, and the person with knowledge (presumably from books) can have more power than anyone else. See, the Bookbinder had all the books and therefore the most knowledge, so he was truly the most powerful.

Well, that's all I have to say on this particular novel. This was my first foray into this genre, and I thought it was an interesting experience. While I did not enjoy this book thoroughly I'm not going to condemn an entire genre and I plan on reading more of these types of books. Who knows, I may find an author I really enjoy at some point. I realize that people enjoy a vast array of different fantasies and more, so I won't rate it based on the content because someone out there may love this, I am just merely reporting what I read and the problems I found within the book. Remember, knowledge is power.