Reset Password
Reset Link Sent
| Blogs > juicyslut2001 > The Book Blog |
|
"Captive" audience? At different times and places over the years I often heard mention of the series of "Captive" novels written by Richard Manton. This year my Master placed a thick omnibus, consisting of three volumes of The Captive, into my hands for me to read - and what a disappointment! Over time I think I must have built an expectation - perhaps thinking that luxuriant words and erotic scenes would pour off the pages to complement the lush tropical setting of these stories - but it was not to be. I found the tales to be drab, repetitive and - horror of horrors - downright boring! Is it because I enjoy variety in my sadism? Is it because I think there's more to the female anatomy than just one's derriere? Is it because I find interaction and mental play between two people to be stimulating? Perhaps so and, sad to say, that stimulation - in fact stimulation of almost any kind - is sadly lacking in Manton's writing. To my eye and mind every episode read as if Richard Manton has only one single sadistic scene in his head and he regurgitates that single item again and again, page after page. He doesn't even seem to try to dress it up or disguise it as anything else, merely indulges himself in his obsessive repetition of punishing the bottoms of waif-like creatures who never engage one's imagination. Perhaps because they are more "non-characters" in that they never seem to participate in the scenes he tries to set forth. Arse after arse laid bare (or clothed) before us - but in such lacklustre ways that they are never active on the page and might aswell be sacks of potatoes, his repeated descriptions so trite as to be meaningless. It's like peering down the wrong end of a telescope at just one single tiny thing while ignoring the myriad possibilities flitting by. Where is the luscious tit flesh? What about rounded bellies and plump tender arms? Or soft lips and cheeks waiting to be bruised by cruel fingers and teeth? Manton has a schoolboy like obsession with the bum - and not even an imaginative obsession at that! Discounting the repetitive bums on display I must say that the descriptions of the beatings and punishments are also totally unreal. Not unbelievable in the level of sadsim but, to me at least, totally unbelievable in their realism. Don't get me wrong - I can get off on sadism yes, but the true enjoyment of an erotic novel for me is when it is believable enough that I can project my own tender flesh into the described scenario, perhaps imagining what that discipline or harsh sexual use would feel like in person. And in that department these tales sadly fall short. In fact I would go so far as to say it would not surprise me one iota to find that Richard Manton is actually a wannabe and has never had the sadistic pleasure of actually applying cane to flesh in the flesh, as it were. I read a lot, in many different genres - both for personal pleasure and for my work - and it isn't often that I don't finish a book even if I dislike it. But this marathon of monotonous uninteresting prose did me in, and I actually ended up skimming through the last third of the book. I struggled properly through the first two volumes, thinking that it must get better and couldn't possibly just be more of the same old same old, but I was wrong - it was! So then: - If you have a bum cheek obsession and want to repeatedly read about them being caned/whipped to levels beyond reality then perhaps you might enjoy one of the Captive books. But you'll need to also enjoy stilted writing that never allows the erotic to flower on the page. - and if you've read one of the Captive books and you're thinking maybe you should try another because they can't possible all be that stultifying ... don't waste your money or your time - they are! Mason Colley says ^^ Reading gives us somewhere to go when you have to stay where you are ^^ ... ... but in the case of Manton’s “Captive” series you are definitely better off staying where you are and not going there! ~juicyslut~ ~juicyslut~ |
|||
|
Rhody, Your comment of "... that isn't descriptive and fills the imagination" just triggered me to realise that is a huge issue for me in Manton's writings - you can't imagine anything because he (literally) beats his single sexual thought to death again and again. So there's nothing for one to imagine because one always knows how the chapter (scene) will read. ~juicyslut~
|
 |
 |
 |
| Become a member to comment on this blog | ||
 |
×
×