Genre: Sci-Fi, Erotica
LGBTQ+ Category: Bi, Gay, Lesbian, Non-Binary, Poly, Trans MTF
Reviewer: Lucy
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About The Book
Fealty and Falsehoods
As shadows of a repressive piety movement spread across the system’s free worlds, the Lady Cassandra and her slaves must flee their home. Exiled to the desert, the Dominatrix contacts her only hope for salvation—Spyder, captain of the spaceship Trouble.
Spyder ignores threats from the powerful criminal whose cargo fills Trouble’s hold, as well as the anger of his influential and overdue passenger. Risking his life, his spaceship, and his crew he rescues his owner, the Lady Cassandra from imminent danger.
Pursued both by the law and the lawless, Spyder sets Trouble’s course for the only planet in the system out of reach of criminals and cops alike.
A BDSM erotica space opera, Spyder’s Trouble pairs dramatic adventures on worlds light years away in a far-distant future with the age-old battle between purity and pleasure—and those who use one as a weapon against the other.
This is NOT a romance.
The Review
Spyder’s Trouble (The Lady & The Spyder Book 1) is definitely not a romance. Instead, it is a very well-written BDSM erotica space opera that does not scrimp on the storytelling in lieu of the (very hot) sex. The Lady Cassandra is a BDSM Dominatrix who finds herself in the crosshairs of an extremist, purist cult who is systematically taking over the governments of the inhabited planets in the solar system. Once in power, the Pietists outlaw anything related to sex, pleasure, or non-heterosexuality. Lady Cassandra calls on one of her BDSM slaves, Spyder, to rescue her and her other slaves from dire straits.
This excellent story takes the ‘band of misfits fighting for a cause’ trope and adds the spice of BDSM. Spyder and the crew of his ship Trouble fly to the Lady Cassandra’s rescue and then become the core of resistors who fight against the Purist Pietist’s chokehold on freedom. While not a romance, the story does explore the vast variety of human relationships: sexual, in all its forms; platonic; friendships; found-family; loyalty; and of course, the many facets love can take within those relationships. Spyder and his crew learn that there was much about each other, and themselves, of which they were unaware.
This is BDSM erotica, so there are many BDSM dynamics at work in the sex scenes, which are explicit. But all sexual situations are among consensual adults. Some of the most prevalent situations are orgasm denial and corporal punishment, such as paddling and whipping.
There is also on-page violence as Spyder and his crew fight the oppression of the Purist Pietists, but it is of the variety you would expect in an armed-forces fighting context, not gratuitous gore.
The author, Korin I. Dushayl has created a fascinating world in the outer regions of space and populated it with complex, intriguing characters. We learn enough of the character’s backstories to understand their current situations and motivations, without slogging the story down with unnecessary details. This is a fast-paced story with lots of action, peppered with BDSM dynamics and well-written sex scenes.
Spyder’s Trouble is the first in The Lady & The Spyder Series so there’s no worry about reading the books out of order, but it is so enjoyable, you will definitely be looking forward to each of the subsequent books as they become available.
The Reviewer
I’m an avid reader who loves pretty much all genres except math textbooks. As a kid, my parents exposed me to everything from fairies, hobbits, and dragons to the biographies of interesting people around the world, interspersed with poetry, plays, and music. Into adulthood, I spent a lot of years with my nose buried in various textbooks. Now, I read whatever grabs my fancy.