This is a collection of Dusk Peterson’s stories in the Master and Servant’s universe; the first book in the series, The Abolitionist, is still on going, and so there is only an excerpt, and excerpt that is very promising.
My favourite (until I will have not the change to read The Abolitionist) is The True Master, the story about Master Celadon and his slave Brun, a Master/slave relationship that will test the common customs, a tricky balance on birth role and inclination; Celadon is born a Master, but his birth right doesn’t match his true desires. And as in a perfect opposite piece, he meets his match in Brun, a slave that has no inclination in serving, but more in dominating. Truth be told, I was fearing their love story had no chance at all, but here intervenes that “unexpected” romance.
As The Abolitionist was set in a fantasy 1962 and then The True Master jump back in 1317, the third one, Unmarked, goes back to 1962 with the same character, Carruthers, and the Master/slave Meredith (Meredith is a man, even if the name is one of those names you can find for both men and women in the past, and now more for women). This story is maybe a little less romantic than the previous one, but it then takes a nice parallelism with The True Master, so that in the end, I enjoyed more the second part. It’s also way longer that The True Master, so that there is more space for evolution and deepness of characterization, so much that I had the feeling The True Master was a preamble for the real story, Unmarked.
On a closing note, the Historical Note and Acknowledgments are so interesting that they are almost a story on their own, I strongly suggest you to read through them, also to appreciated the work of research the author did, a job that is clear in the would building of the stories.
For Dusk Peterson's e-books, online fiction and nonfiction, series resources, and
contact information, please visit: duskpeterson.com
http://duskpeterson.com/#watermanomnibus
Amazon Kindle: Waterman Omnibus 2010
Publisher: Love in Dark Settings Press (September 8, 2010)
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
