Thasra is a slave. When I first began to read this, I was afraid that I was reading another Slave of Gor impersonation. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Thasra is a slave in perhaps the most literal sense, dragged from Africa against her will into the clutches of the white devils in the New World. The New World that, ironically, represents freedom and democracy and adventure. That is, if you are white and a landowner it does. If you are black and a woman and constantly afraid of the master’s whip, well, the land of the free isn’t quite the Eden advertised.

 Bradley takes us deep into Thasra’s mind, telling her story, using contrast, sex, and imagery to drive into us the horror of her existence, the inequity of the times. This isn’t a fun story, nor is it meant to be. The caution in the codes is quite correct. But that isn’t to say that the story isn’t worth reading. The commentary and the insights are well worth the effort to read it. While it is disturbing, perhaps we need to be disturbed sometimes. Bradley hits the theme and the topic dead on. While there’s a definite sexual element, the story is not about the sex beyond its use in the story, and doesn’t pretend to be. That’s a good thing.

 I truly enjoyed it.

Rating: [10,10,10,10]

Lady Cyrrh

Lovely Thasra is a slave belonging to the boorish Enoch Evans, who alternately lectures his slaves about American democracy and bangs the hell out of them. It is early in the 19th century, and slavery is still legal in the states. Thasra submits to her master’s attentions while reflecting on the irony.

 Eventually she does something about it.

I’m always a sucker for a historical sex tale, though this wasn’t so much a sex story as a character study, and, as the author explains, a rumination on American freedoms. Still, the sex was handled well, and if it wasn’t exactly arousing (and I hope no one gets aroused by a young black woman’s humiliation) it was interesting to read and felt true to life -- I felt like I was present in the scene and feeling all the protagonist did, the benchmark of any good story.