The Administration
Pairings: Toreth/Warrick. And I could list all the pairings, but it’s not like you’d recognize any of the names, since this is original.
Warnings: Holy crap, where to start? BDSM, slash, graphic sex, underage sex, issues of consent, some character death, torture, massive amounts of infidelity, and I probably missed something
Summary: In a dystopia, two men live as well as they might. A sociopath who works as a professional investigator/torturer for the despotic Administration turns out to be surprisingly compatible with a corporate director.
Comments: One of my weaknesses is two very formidable men, in a very strange relationship that nevertheless manages to work. This is a collection of three novels, three novellas, and 27 short stories (I started Thursday night, and just finished today. This is solely responsible for the paucity of reviews.) It’s wonderfully written - I enjoy well done dystopias, and this one is recognizably one we might have in the future. It isn’t the focus of the story, but that might be what adds to the effect, since there aren’t too many novels about people living ordinary lives in a dystopia. Even rarer is somewhat sympathetic view of one of the dystopia’s torturers. But the author doesn’t shield us from Toreth’s flaws. He lies, he compulsively cheats on Warrick (the aforementioned corporate director), he is possessive as all hell, he tortures people to death and views everyone but Warrick and his admin as tools and not quite real, but he’s nonetheless fascinating. And the author can do interesting, interesting plots, as well as some really hot sex. And she even makes Warrick a BDSM sub while keeping him formidable, to say the least, outside the bedroom. I have a weakness for really well done BDSM dynamics that don’t pull the 24/7 crap. (Yes, I know it exists, but that is the one thing that squicks me, and it’s surprisingly common in BDSM fiction). And I liked the novel on the revolution, “First Against the Wall”, but I wouldn’t suggest reading that until you’d read everything else.
Collection of novels, novellas, and one-shots, all complete.