For those who have read the intro I wrote to his book, you’ll understand just how much I love this review Lochai put together:
Hmmmmmmm…….
Graydancer disgusts me…
At first listen I was taken by how easy it was to just settle in & listen to the story. Many times it is only an author who is able to really get across the emotions & inflections of the characters because they created them but in this case it goes much further than that. Graydancer is Brian & Brian is Graydancer, it’s just that simple. During my first “readthru†of chapter one I was not only listening to a narrative of the main character of Brian but it felt like I was sitting with a good friend listening to his exploits of the night before. I didn’t get the sense that I needed to “suspend belief†as is needed in many bdsm oriented tales but to just follow along with a great storytellers tale.
Now yes, I have to admit that I personally know Graydancer & this is only one of the reasons I can just sit back & listen to him spin his yarn but if you have any idea of who this man is, you will be able to do the same. If you do not know him beforehand, you will think that you do by the end of chapter two. His voice is one of comfort food, it warns the soul & brings you home.
Another wonderful aspect of Nawashi is that it is different from most “fetish fantasy†tales. It is not based on a man’s fantasy at all but on experiences that have lived in the mind of a great storyteller. Many of the antics of our hero just might also be based on life experiences. They just seem too “real†and lifelike to not have been tested before put to paper. This is a story of a man who is strong & knows who he is at the start. He opens himself up to exploration & a deeper understanding of where he is going but at least he has a foundation to stand on.
Is this a stroker book? For some maybe… Others, not. For me, it’s an affirmation that yes, people do have these feelings & many of them actually carry out their desires.
I really like the honesty that Graydancer puts into his character Brian & this is what makes it enjoyable. It’s a tale of desire, sex, kink & of course bondage told by a man who knows… His voice not only conveys what he wants his characters to convey to their audience but it conveys who the author is. A great man with a desire to bare his soul and a story to tell.
The reason he disgusts me is that for a number of years I have been looking for a reason to dislike Gray… this story just makes it all the more difficult.