Annie Douglass Lima

After only reading 15 pages, I instantly realized this book was going to be a 5 star read. I wished I could give it 6 stars if I could.

The book begins with a pair of paper clippers and a successful escape from a house. Bensin is 14 years old, blond with blue eyes and was born into slavery through no fault of his own or his parents. His ancestral country lost a civil war against invasion from the powerful Krillonian Empire that spans 3 continents (the book reminded me of the brutality seen in that anime Code Geass), and thousands of his people were enslaved as a warning.

Not that history lessons mattered to Bensin at the time. His somewhat ruthless owners are planning on taking his innocent little sister Ellie to have the slave office place her very first metallic collar on her neck, forever branding her as a slave and seemingly impossible to remove without special equipment. His hopes of saving the innocent 5 year old girl from a life of abuse and potential sex slavery were slipping away. He did the only thing any overprotective older sibling could do at the time and it was to escape and send her to a police station under the guise that she is an orphan.

Things don't go very well and both of them are captured by an honest cop named Shigo. While Ellie only gets a warning, Bensin endures another lashing as punishment for a second failed escape. After feeling sorrow for Bensin's good intentions, he reveals to him that his sister's data was set up in the computer system the day she was born and his plan was going to fail anyways.

Devastated that he is going to fail a promise he made to his deceased mother, his owner decides to sell him to a man that is falling under duress. Steene is left nearly penniless from a bitter divorce and wallowing in self pity (not to mention he stepped on a cockroaches among the endless pizza boxes at his new bachelor pad). Horrified that his job gave the employee award of the year and his best martial arts student to his arch rival Markus, he stumbles upon Bensin's classified ad and is stunned that he's skilled in cavvara shil. Curious, he decides to test Bensin's skills in the front lawn and purchases him that very day.

Bensin's life begins to change for the better when he realizes Steene doesn't mistreat him and begins to train him to become a national champion in his beloved sport, but he is depressed that he has been separated from his sister. The clock begins to tick and he needs to make enough money to liberate Ellie before her owners grow tired of her and sell her off.

The book drags you inside this twisted world where an entire nation finds slavery to be both convenient and socially acceptable. People have no qualms that innocent slaves can be framed and given the death penalty. Children are sold to rapists, whipped, mocked and even murdered. Bensin finds the collar dangling on his neck to be inconvenient at times and you can feel his short lived joy when he regains full movement of his neck albeit for a brief moment when the slave office changes the name of his owner on his collar. But he seems to accept this life as depressing as it may seem. Vastly more worrying is the fact that some slaves in the story were born free and due to crimes comitted by their immediate family, they are auctioned themselves.

The story moves at a steady pace and you get to enjoy the personalities of every major character. Some characters are freemen that dislike slavery and would like to improve things in their own little way and we have antagonists that ridicule Bensin such as his arch-nemesis during competitions Jaycee.

The pinnacle of the story kept me reading nonstop until I finished the book almost immediately. It had a fulfilling ending and I will definitely read the sequels very soon. If there is any thing missing in the story, it's the utter lack of romance, but it features a different kind of sibling love that drives the story forward.

Definitely worth your time.… (plus d'informations)

As I often say, I didn’t read the summary for this book before I requested is a review copy or listened. I bring this up here because I feel like the summary somewhat misrepresents what the story is about. While freeing his sister is Bensen’s biggest motivator, the “people closing in on her” is a very minor aspect of the story.

The world doesn’t seem all that different from the United States, possibly other ‘western’ nations. One of the few changes is the legal slavery. I got the distinct impression the made-up kingdom, currency, etc. were used so it wouldn’t seem too similar to any real nation.

The protagonist, Bensin is completely and utterly determined to get what he wants. The fact that he doesn’t give up, not for anything is a trait that I respect. In a world where he’s the underdog and looked down on for being a slave, Bensin never lets that stop him. He makes a name for himself and means the respect of the people around him.

The book ends on a cliffhanger, much to my annoyance. But it didn’t piss me off as much as other books for two reasons. The first was the awesome preview of book 2, which has me excited to listen to it. The second is because it feels like part 2 and not book 2. If you read a few reviews of this book and it sounds like something you’d enjoy, make sure to get both parts. I’ve noticed there’s a part 3 and a novella, but I’ll see how things go with part 2 before I look into obtaining those.

The martial art of the series ‘cavvara shil’ is pretty well fleshed out. I’ve never heard of it but I was seriously starting to wonder if it was a real sport. The combat is very well done and easy to follow, which is what led to me wondering this.

My only other complaint is Bensin and his sister having green eyes, how it’s made note of in the story. Green eyes are rare as hell and not a single other character’s eye color is mentioned, as far as I can remember. I wouldn’t have taken issue with it, but I’ve been reviewing a LOT of books the last couple of months. Authors always seem to point out characters with green eyes, like we’re something exotic. It’s starting to get annoying. I did a search online and found an article talking about this issue, so it’s not just me imagining things either.

The narrator overall does a great job. My only issues with the audiobook are minor. At one point, the audio repeated the same dialogue twice. Which from previous experiences with Audible narration, has nothing to do with the book’s dialogue. The other 2 are a strange echo, likely due to a poor attempt to overlap the dialogue.

I feel this book is worth a read, I enjoyed it and I’m looking forward to at least listening to part 2.

NOTE: This copy was provided to me free of charge as a digital review copy. The opinions stated in this review are mine and mine alone, I was not paid or requested to give this book a certain rating, suggestion, or approval.… (plus d'informations)