A thrilling story about bloody combat to the death, modern day slave gladiators and lot and lots of sizzling hot sex, “Blood and Lust” by Zach is a chilling yet erotic page turner that fully lives up to its title.
The story starts with Clint, an ex-military young man now without any career, down on his knees, trading sex for money. From this erotic beginning, Clint’s life swiftly takes on a nightmarish experience as he is kidnapped and taken to an unknown location. Here he, and other freshly captured men are told to fight other similar prisoners to the death. The entire operation is a huge secretive business for providing thrills to a few ultra-rich who enjoy these fights. Most of the new gladiators’ lives are brief, since the cold-blooded captors weed them out mercilessly, using their deaths as lessons to the rest. Only a select few survive and are given training that the captors think could provide more entertainment to the viewers of the bouts.
Clint is one of these lucky few as his ex-military body and relative youth give him an advantage during the blood-filled first few days. He is trained in lethal combat. At the end of the day, the prisoners are confined, and here Clint finds a few quick mindless sexual encounters. Friendships between prisoners are prevalent, as everyone realises they might be ordered to kill their friend the very next day. Sex between the gladiators is a bit more frequent, but its’ merely a way of reaffirming that they are alive for one more day. The gladiators, from the very unexperienced to the fully trained are all sure that they will be in confinement for the rest of their lives, no matter how short it will prove to be. Clint, however, is the exception He strikes up a conversation, leading to sex, with an experienced American gladiator, Lazer. This matures to grudging mutual respect between the two, and Clint plans his escape.
The book has numerous drawings scattered through the pages, a few innocuous, and most scorchingly explicit. Each one of which is placed strategically at the right corresponding point in the story, thereby enhancing the impact of the story exponentially. For those of us who decry the prevalent double standard of society, permitting full female frontal nudity everywhere in movies, art and so one while decrying any hint of masculine nudity, this glorification of the male body in all its virility is refreshing and welcome.
“Blood and Lust” is set in London, England. An odd choice, one would think, England in these days is hardly the place associated with violence. Europe may have the mafia and the USA ubiquitous guns, but this is peaceful England, where not even the London cops are perceived as carrying guns. However this may be deliberate, the intent being to convey the chilling thought that if such acts of insane cruelty are present hidden under the surface in the apparently safe England, what place on Earth could be free?
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