Jena Cryer

My fourth story by Cryer. And first in a long time. It's another one of those short little serial type stories. One of those I always feel vaguely like I should become enraged at any moment, but don't.

Not sure why, specifically, I like these type of stories, but I do. Don't get me wrong, I don't mean to imply that I always like these types of stories. There's a reason why I mentioned rage. Didn't even feel the glimmer of it this time. Though did feel a thought of 'oh yeah, one of these types of stories.' Cryer tends to keep relatively safely on the side of exciting little tidbit of story, and not slide over the cliff to boring, and/or enraging.

A young woman of twenty flees to England after breaking up with her fiancee. There's some story there that's hinted at but never fully explained. Apparently Mathew, the name of the man, had 'done something' that caused Julia to feel betrayed and or that her trust had been broken. So, as noted, she fled to England. Judging to some side comments barely touched upon, she fled there to go to school.

She meet a man there, a man named Brandon. A fellow American. Living in England. Their relationship was kind of not deeply explained/examined, but the idea that comes across is that Brandon is helping Julia see and experience 'real' England. And, later when her visa is about to expire, help her find a way to stay longer in England.

Brandon suggests one Lord James Ashe as someone likely to be of help. She's driven to Lord Ashe's place. Presented to him. Comments flow back and forth, and before you know it, she's signed a service contract for one week. So that she can stay in England. She's then lead into a barn, whereupon she finds out what exactly this 'service' actually consists of.

It's no real secret. I mean, it's right there in the title. 'The Initiation'. Wait, no, the 'Milked by Royalty' part.

I liked the story. Probably more than I should. Just had two problems with it. One - I realized going in that it was a serial, or a part of a story, but the story either ended too late or too early. I mean, some scenes occurred, then the next day begins. She's to be trained. Is handed over to someone else, begins to . . . story ends. Should have ended before she meets her 'trainer', or ended . . . hmms, not sure where, but some shortish distance past where it did end. Two - bloody thing fooled me. I'm at 59% of the story and . . the end. Rest of the file were excerpts and stuff like that. I don't really mind a short story/serial pat. But . . . I hate when my normal method of knowing how long a story is is played with like that. Especially when the little text that began after the story began with something like "I hoped you liked Milked by Thrall" or whichever story was mentioned. The rest of the stuff was actually for a different series. Well, some of it might have been for the rest of this series, but I didn't read the excerpt, or move past it to see what was there.… (mais)

The title of this publication is well chosen. A little over half of he estimated 47 pages contain the actual short story called 'A Calling to Thrall'. The remainder offers the three beginning chapter(s) of 'His Black Pearl', which apparently is a novel-length work set on the planet Thrall as well. This Amazon freeby (at the time of writing) must be meant as an appetizer then, to induce readers to get the full-length novel.

The story introduces the reader to life on planet Thrall, and Master sums up its 'culture' very adequately in the beginning of the novel:
"Thrall was founded on the principles of male dominance. Our women are here for our pleasure and our pleasure alone. They have no rights, no voice, and no power. If you're offended by that notion, I'm afraid our business is over."
The girl Leeta, who is Master's house pet, is considered well trained and enthousiastic and at peace with her 'true place'.
There's bits and pieces of possible plot development in this short story, and a long section on how Leeta got to be on planet Thrall (abduction and abuse). In that sense this appetizer short story resembles a selection taken from a salad bar, little bit of this, bit more of that, and voila.

The writing is polished and very readable.

The appetizer chapters to 'His Black Pearl' introduces us to Adair Bartlett, who is given a magically crafted black pearl by a shopkeeper. The pearl is a representation of 'what makes her happy' and is suspended on a leather neckband. This is just the beginning of intoxication by seemingly magic potion, more restraints and a placement in a crate, presumably to transport the girl to... let's see, could it be Thrall?… (mais)