If it’s the one I’m thinking of by Anne McCaffrey that would be Restoree.
The main character is a farm girl who went to the big city and is kidnapped by aliens when they come to earth. She just remembers being herded like cattle into the ship before she wakes up as a nurse to some guy in a psychiatric hospital of some kind. He’s wearing the straight jacket and she basically pulls him along on a leash for walks and feeds him from the blue bowl. After she comes to herself, she overhears conversations to find out that this guy is some lord or kinda king or something like that who is being kept there and drugged, so she works up a plan to get him undrugged and they escape.
They then have to break into the palace, to talk to this guy’s younger brother. Hijinks ensue, she ends up with the brother in the palace though the plan was for her to stay behind and she has to try and hide what she is. Eventually the guy who is doing all the drugging of the king and the secret experiments is removed from his post but he knows that she is a Restoree*, which she must hide from all the world though she is now the guy who is the ruler’s wife and he goes off to find earth.
*The aliens who kidnapped her were other aliens and they eat us. The aliens she ended up with fight them and take the ships, so they found one of the slaughter ships and the guy doing experiments is putting people back together ala frankenstein only with much better stitching but up until this point he has not been able to wake anyone up from their stupor and is only able to use them like a kind of droid. She knows something is wrong cuz her huge nose is now petite and cute, and her scars are gone.
Evil Captor, it just occurred to me that that might be from the Gor series. Unpacked a whole lot of those at the bookstore. Read about 50 pages from one, and what you said sounds familiar.
Recap for those lucky enough never to have encountered this shite: Gor is like Earth, but 180° around the Sun, with spacefarers, untamed giant monsters, and a quasi-medieval society. In this one, hot chick is kidnapped, one of many, and assigned to Gorean harem service, where she learns to like her manly master. Or not, I didn’t read that far. No way am I looking this up.
I really had some qualms about quoting from this. I knew immediately that I would not be covering the book in my column. I have little enough space to devote to good books that I can recommend to readers; the chances that my readers are going to pick up such a minor book by an unknown author in a more-or-less niche market – though the market for gay erotica is growing – are not significant enough that I should spend time and space warning them away from this.
But I didn’t use the author’s name or book title, and that’s because he’s just a kid. I’m 99% certain the book is autobiographical; the guy had a one-night stand, his first sexual experience, and somehow thinks he’s a good writer. His friends probably tell him he’s a good writer. So he thought he’d go for it. And either nobody gave him any serious criticism or, more likely, he’s so convinced of his talent that he won’t listen.
The author’s bio says he’s a student, but not of what. It can’t be of writing, because a teacher would have beaten this out of him. He has a very impressive web site, so maybe that’s what he’s studying. Among the reviews he’s posted is one with so much alliteration that it’s clear to me he’s written it himself.
Have you seen the thread called, “What are you paranoid about?” I’m now paranoid that this guy is a Doper and I’ve just ruined his life. B., if you’re out there, don’t try so hard. Don’t write with a thesaurus in your pocket. Just talk like you talk. Take writing classes and listen.
I was thinking “The Thorns of Barevi,” first story (and the only one I’ve read) of the Catteni Series, a rape-glorifying tale which McCaffrey cheerfully admitted she wrote in 1970 to cash in on the “soft porn” market. (And this was just as feminism was starting to emerge.)
If you haven’t read Atlanta Nights, you really should. It’s one of the funniest books I’ve ever read, and I haven’t even read the romance novels it spoofs.
No, I think he’s probably about 19-20. He’s in college. His picture’s on the book and on his web site. His high-school English teachers probably thought his precocious prose was positively precious!
OK, checking out Atlanta Nights now. Oh, yes, I know alllll about PublishAmerica. And others like them.
OK, now I see why I shouldn’t have done this. I apologize. Why should he be protected? Because he needs constructive criticism, and this thread is not about constructive criticism. He needs time and experience, neither of which he has, because he’s a kid. He may improve. The other people whose works have been ridiculed here are full-time writers whose books are found in drugstores and supermarkets. This is an enterprising, if unenlightened, young man who doesn’t have a knack for writing.
I am sorry I brought the whole thing up. I don’t have any kids, but if this kid was mine, I’d hate me.
If he’s a big enough boy to publish a novel, he’s a big enough boy to have it criticized. He’s not a child, he doesn’t have some kind of special entitlement to nurturing and protection and he’s not asking for anonymity, so the effort to shield him is patronizing and unwarranted.
Speaking as someone who edits on the side, a lot of writers never develop that thick skin because they willfully choose to ignore criticism. It’s a bizarre thing, but I’ve seen it happen several times now: Somebody makes it out of the slush pile, they get an actual response. They are told–quite nicely, usually–that some small change needs to be made before it’s published.
And then we never hear from the author again.
Presumably, the more savvy ones will run off to self-publish, which is what this kid appears to have done. He is the only author to have a book published by PANIC Press on Amazon, which implies he made his own “publishing house.” Don’t feel bad, because you can’t possibly injure this guy. He’s chosen to insulate himself from the real publishing world and anyone who criticizes him is just a philistine as far as he’s concerned.
