 | | ▪ | RELEASED BY: | | DIGITAL MANGA PUBLISHING | | | ▪ | AUTHOR / ART: | | REIKO YOSHIHARA / KATSUMI MICHIHARA | | | ▪ | FORMAT: | | WESTERN / B&W | | | ▪ | PAGES: | | 174 | | | ▪ | RATING: | | M | | | ▪ | RELEASE DATE: | | 11/04/2008 | | | ▪ | REVIEW DATE: | | 11/20/2008 | | | ▪ | REVIEWED BY: | | HOLLY ELLINGWOOD |
It has been a year since Riki returned to Ceres after his fateful three years as the sex slave of Iason Mink. Thinking himself free, he is unprepared for the trap about to be sprung. Betrayed by one of his own, his best friend and former lover Guy is put on the chopping block. Iason has Guy and he’s willing to use him to get Riki back. It’s either sacrifice himself up again to the man who owns him body and soul, or allow untold horrors, some he knows intimately from his own stay, to occur to his right hand man and childhood friend. Can Riki face himself if he lets his friend suffer the same fate Riki did? Can he face himself, let alone Iason, if he doesn’t? The web Iason has spun is a clever one, but it also reveals his own dilemma. His time with Riki is like a double edged sword. His own reactions to the slum mongrel are not that of the typical Tanaguran and Iason knows it. They each have a hold on each other. Is it lust? Could it be a twisted, tainted love? The obsession runs both ways and it runs deeper than bone. The cost hasn’t only been Riki’s freedom and sense of self, but Iason’s as well. What neither of them realize is that the terrifying feelings they have for one another, the way they react, has set off an untold amount of waves in both the Ceres and Tanaguran communities, making Midas itself a possible pawn in a greater malicious game. Nearly the entire last half of this novel doesn’t involve Riki or Iason. Instead it deals with the domino effect Iason and Riki’s lives have catapulted unknowingly through their actions. Katze ventures into Guardian and more is revealed about the ugly, horrific truth behind Guardian, the organ farm, and the terrible past suffered by the ruling hand of the black market, Katze. It sheds a great deal of insight into his actions and even garners sympathy for what seemed to be an otherwise unconscionable man. Through him we meet the Kuger clan and learn about their part in Guardian and Midas. The heir to the seat is Manon. But he has been so sheltered from the world around him that he would never survive or be a leader in this world of skin trade and death. That’s where Kirie enters, the former Bison who resents Riki and Iason. Peddling his body to get ahead, he uses Manon and learns the shocking truths about the world he thought he knew, and he learns of a way to possibly get at those he blames for his predicament. The road to revenge lies open. The only question is who will reach their destination first. It’s another astonishing exploration of the depths of human depravity and emotions. It seems there is no length that the people of Midas will not go to in order to help themselves, no matter the cost or exploitation of others. The human atrocities are mounting. The cascade effect it is beginning to have is fascinating even while it is unsettling. And Iason and Riki’s destructive relationship seems to be the catalyst for it all.
IN SUMMARY:
Iason’s plans come to an ugly fruition as he springs his trap in the latest novel of one of the most provocative science fiction shonen ai erotica series ever written. |
