This book struck me wrong in several instances. Taking first the story line speed of the story, it was disappointingly slow and I never did figure out what species Ashamet was, although it was not human. Next with regard to the rape, slavery, condescending attitude toward woman, all of which were all unnecessary pieces of the book and did nothing in my estimation to add any quality to the read, The gay sex and constant allusion to gay sex is not my cup of tea, but again neither added anything nor detracted from the story. I have to say overall I was very disappointed with this book. I contemplated setting it aside, but my everlasting hope that things would get better made me finish the book. It didn't get better. I saw the germ of a sequel here. I certainly hope that Terry can pull victory from, in my opinion, a poor and slow start. ( )

This book fully engaged me with its intriguing character relationship. I enjoyed reading it immensely. It would be even better if there was more in depth about this world that they exist in, though at times it seems like a simply horrible place (rape, treatment of women). As it was, it could get too complicated at time. Since she certainly left it open for a sequel, I really look forward to there being more of these characters in the future. ( )

A story of a dessert prince, Ashamet, who is slowly gaining responsibility and his slave/lover. The story begins a few days before his wedding and he receives a virgin slave, Keril, as a gift. The story goes on to follow Ashamet's life and the twists and turns of various relationships - his father, the priests, his subjects and of course the developing relationship with Keril. He survives a couple assassination attempts with Keri'ls help and is forced to examine if his slave is more than he seems.

I enjoyed the book and the characters with all the political turnings. The plot was interesting and overall a good light read. The only thing that I think detracted from the book was the depiction of female characters (only one was really ever mentioned, but barely described). ( )

Overall I thought that this book was pretty good, and definitely engaging enough to keep my interest for the handful of days that it took me to read it (although if I had just read it normally, rather than taking it as vacation reading, it probably would have gone much faster.) The story follows (and is told from the perspective of) a prince in a desert empire. The world was unique without being completely alien, although the descriptions of the people and animals were vague enough to be slightly baffling. Most of the focus of the book is about the political maneuverings and personal relationships of this prince, Ashamet. These I found to be realistically complicated, and I did like the characters enough to really take an interest in what they were doing, so that was enough to get me through some of the rough patches and things that bothered me about the story.

The lack of female characters was explained as a quirk of genetics, but the few females that did exist were treated more as a commodity than as people, with their families selling year-long "marriages" as breeding privileges to different males. The idea that these women might have other goals or strengths, or even objections to this system, was never mentioned. Additionally, the entire society seemed to be based on an expansive system of slavery. The slaves didn't seem to experience much violence or abuse, but they were omnipresent throughout the story.

End of the day I did enjoy the story, and it reminded me often of some of my favorite fantasy stories by Robin McKinley, but I can see why it would not be everyone's cup of tea. ( )

What could have been an intriguing fantasy fell flat; the world building was uninteresting and the pace was excruciatingly slow. But what prevented me from enjoying this was the rape scene and the attempt to pass it off as something normal - to the point where it's seen as seduction and not assault. I was unable to finish this book. DNF at 55%. ( )