Slave Masters

by Susan Wright

Book Overview

After escaping from her depraved alien masters, human slave Rose Rico and her fellow captives steal a spaceship and launch a desperate strike against their former masters, but Rose once again finds... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0739439693
• ISBN13: 9780739439692
• Release Date: January 2004
• Publisher: Pocket Star
• Length: 358 Pages
• Weight: 1.01 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A great read...

Slave Masters is a very good space opera, one of the better new SF novels I've read in months. It's actually a sequel to another book called "Slave Trade", although you'd never know it from the cover. Or from the writing. The events of the previous novel, which I've not read, are merely minor plot developments, adding to the richness of this book. Nicely handled. In fact, this appears to be the middle of a trilogy, but that is not all that important to appreciating this book. How refreshing! The basic plot here involves a race that enslaves other spacefaring races (and a particular species, the Qin, who, along with some humans) are fighting against them. The descriptions above and on the cover of the novel bear no resemblance to the actual plot. The sexual peccadillos of the enslaving race are a theme, to be sure, but not necessarily the main theme. The kidnapping from Earth, etc., appears to be the plot of Slave Trade and has *nothing* to do with this book. Kind of weird. But... the big deal here are the characters, who are brightly drawn. I enjoyed the somewhat intricate interplay between the various characters. There are a few downsides. The space battles, etc., are not realistic and somewhat hackneyed. The alien races aren't very alien--they're just slightly funny looking people. Nonetheless, this is a thoroughly enjoyable read. I'm looking forward to others in this series and to other works by this author.

better than the first

There is less "sex" in this book but the characters are further developed. It still jumps around a lot from one viewpoint to another but less so than the first book. In a way, the characters get free a bit too easily and I wish there were more details about their lives as slaves to make us feel more for them. Perhaps the publishers watned it toned down -- if that's the case, there is too much fear in this world.

I couldn't put it down...

and now I can't wait for Part 3 of this amazing trilogy!Susan Wright's Slave Masters is even better than Slave Trade. The characters are brilliantly drawn. Even the decadent Alpha clones from the Fleet are fascinating. They have a great sense of duty, purpose, and a touching allegiance to their respective lines. But my favorite element of Slave Masters is the way the sex lives of all the different alien species are so fascinating. Wright's knowledge of sexual relationships is stunning. She incorporates countless different sexual lifestyles into these characters.The earthlings, or solians, are prized throughout the galaxies because they are able to copulate anytime, anywhere, anyway. They've been given full polymorphous freedom both physically and psychologically. It's as if in this far distant time in the future, all the puritanical moralizers have finally fallen away and left us in peace.These slaves are bisexual-trisexual-omnisexuals, who under the passionate leadership of Rose Ricco are bound to conquer the fleet someday (hopefully in Part 3).Another thing I love about Slave Masters is Wright's wonderfully feminist view of life in the future. Women here are just as powerful as men, and just as apt to be ferocious warriors and leaders. There are at least as many female Alphas in command as men, and no hint of a patriarchy anywhere.I didn't want the book to end because even with a dangerous war going on, I was so enjoying life in the Wright universe!

No sophomore slump

Slave Masters, the second installment of Susan Wright's Slave Trade series, ups the stakes, already high, from part 1. The narrative is tighter, the characters are better defined, and, best of all, it is lustier.The premise of the trilogy is that sometime in the future, Earth's corrupt leaders will sell off portions of its population as sex slaves to a race known only as the Alphas in exchange for advanced technology. The Alphas, for all their sophistication and power, pass through periods of undeniable lust, a lust that they must take out either on another Alpha, or, preferably a human sex slave. Among the Alpha who run the interstellar empire, someone that they can use and then eliminate after lust subsides is often preferable. Less messy entanglements.Rose Rico, a human who is shipped off for slave work, leads a small rebellion and against great odds and no small amount of good luck manages to free a band of humans, only to then find themselves on the wrong side of the universe, with a a major rebellion fomenting behind them and the Alpha Empire girding for war in front of them.Rose and her crew must run this dangerous gantlet, knowing that if they are ever caught again they face either death or, perhaps worse, a return to sex slavery. Their adventures are at the heart of this second installment. At the same time though, Wright weaves a number of subplots all of which could be central stories in their own right. Different aspects of the slave/master relationship are explored (there is a Beta, the captain of a ship who loves and is loved by her long time slave, there is a high ranking Alpha who needs to be degraded by her slaves to get get off). By the way, gender matters little in these couplings. male male, male female, female female, trios, all combinations are represented.Through her delicate balancing act all the stories converge on a great climactic escape by Rose and her crew, a worthwhile payoff for all the building tension. Excellent handling of a technically difficult task.One of the factors that let Wright concentrate more on the intricate plot of shifting alliances is that she so well established the universe in book one that she no longer has to go to lengths to explain the actions of the various species that populate her worlds. The characters, both human and not are fleshed out. Rose becomes more complex as she balances her instinct to just respond aggressively with her new found responsibility for her crew. Ash, a genetically altered hermaphrodite bred to be an expensive sex toy allows Wright the darkest effects of the life of a sex slave on a sensitive soul. She suffers the most while at the same time being the most attractive to a series of particularly vicious Alphas. Wright handles Ash's story with delicacy while never pulling any punches. Which brings us to the sex. I'll just say that Wright writes good sex.I strongly recommend this book. It is head and shoulders above the average mass paperback, and will take you away to a