A BOOK FULL OF ROOMS Reviewed By Jean Roberta

The Reunion (Marketplace, Book 5) by Laura Antoniou (Fairfield, Connecticut: Mystic Rose Books, 2002. ISBN: 0-9645960-7-5.)

This novel, at 634 pages, is a large, elaborate structure like the Irish castle (turned into a hotel) in which it takes place. The plot is a moment-by-moment account of a ten-day event sponsored by an international organization, introduced by the author in her novel The Marketplace, that trains and sells voluntary slaves. A reunion, a Marketplace tradition, is a social event for past and current slaves who are served by others for a change. The guests of honor are temporarily free to rest, enjoy the local sights, form relationships and renew old ones.

This novel could have been a series of interconnected stories like The Academy, Book 4 of the Marketplace series. However, The Reunion is more intricately knit together. While it is partly a series of anecdotes including sex scenes, it is also partly a whodunit.

Two subplots which run through the novel serve to sustain suspense, which mimics sexual tension. One of these plots has to do with a charismatic English lord and his beautiful, computer-savvy American wife, who appear to be mavericks among Marketplace trainers. Or are they? Their game is not revealed until the end of the novel. Even then, they keep a few cards up their sleeves.

The other subplot has to do with the voyeurism of the gutter press, which contrasts with the loyalty and discretion of the Marketplace slaves who are being stalked by a tabloid journalist. The mysterious identity of his "inside source" (disgruntled slave trainee? rebel trainer? appalled or greedy witness?) is revealed in a dramatic reversal of roles in which the spies are unmasked. The weasel on the trail of an "exclusive" proves to be less honest and more pathetic than the "perverts" he hopes to expose. The intrusion of the outside world into the secretive world of the Marketplace invites the reader to consider cases of exposure, harassment and legal persecution which have affected the BDSM community in the actual world.

Two major characters from the earlier novels, slave Robin Cassidy and her trainer, Chris Parker, who is drawn to service on various levels, are stars of The Reunion. Their personal attraction to each other (as distinct from their attraction to dominance and submission) blossoms in a "vacation" setting, but they are temporarily pulled apart by misunderstandings, by the unfolding subplots, and by the needs of the other characters, all of whom star in their own dramas.

Like the other novels in the series, this one seems to include every possible sexual orientation, and a scene for every taste. The cast of characters is so long that it is listed at the beginning of the novel, as in a play. The diversity of the characters and the complexity of events are described in a spare, straightforward style. One technique used to unify the narrative is the uncanny repetition of words (sometimes in dialogue) from one scene to the next.

This suggestion of central planning or directing behind the scenes is as close as the author comes to showing a narrative persona. The generally understated third-person style embodies the qualities that traditional Marketplace trainers try to instill in their trainees: patience, self-control, efficiency, and an ability to glide in and out of rooms without attracting attention. A few grammatical errors pop up regularly, like mildly annoying habits, but they hardly interrupt the storytelling. In a book of this size, it seems rare not to find a wasted word.

One little stylistic affectation is the heading at the beginning of each section of the novel (covering a day of the Reunion). These mini-introductions remind the reader of similar headings in long, realistic Victorian novels, written in a time when reading-matter did not have to compete with movies, television or the Internet. The section headings in The Reunion tease the reader by summarizing the plot, as follows:

"Day Eight - Thursday -- Amy has a plan ~ Farewells and more plans ~ Robin is sneaky ~ Amy has a new friend ~ Mackensie finds she and Trevor have something in common ~ Ryan assumes a philosophical attitude ~ Tequila's radar ~ Azziz is perturbed ~ Ryan needs to think some more ~ Pandemonium reigns ~ Vital decisions are made ~ It all comes together ~ It all falls apart ~ Night brings quiet, sadness, pleasure and visitors ~ Chris reveals his theory ~ Lord Southerby deals ~ Azziz gets an offer he should probably accept ~ A craik in the Oubliette ~ Do not cross the Irish Tourism Board."

The atmosphere of the castle itself, complete with trainee slaves "below stairs," further contrasts Victorian tradition and modern explicitness. This contrast is especially clear in the sex scenes. In a kind of grand-finale scene, Robin is bound and whipped in a luxurious room by three trainers who admire her. Her reactions are described at length:

"Soon, the pain locked between her thighs became razor sharp, sheets of heat which exploded in a new branding sensation with every new whistling strike. She tried desperately to hold still, and was both ashamed and excited by her inability to do so. What seemed like the last part of her rational brain rejoiced. I'm not jaded. I'm not spoiled, not ruined, not over it all. Yes, yes, draw in the pain and surrender to it.

"She closed her eyes, and felt a strange sensation of being lifted out of her bonds, all the strains gone, the minor itches, the tension in her arms and calves, all vanishing, supplanted by the rhythmic cycles of pain, sharp and stinging, warm and glowing. Colors exploded before her tightly closed eyes, red and gold."

Robin is praised by her tormentors for having an unusual depth of responsiveness. All the characters in the novel, however, have depth as well as heat.

The sixth Marketplace novel is already being written, and the series shows no signs of slowing down. Although the author herself seems to have no hope of seeing her work on a screen, the world of the Marketplace has a kind of cult following which is parallel to that of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy in the 1960s, which (for different reasons) was also considered unfilmable at the time. So stay tuned; time will tell. In the meanwhile, the novels make stimulating reading, and their subtle grey covers, featuring pictures of buildings like souvenir postcards, make them easier to carry discreetly in public than, say, the latest issue of Prometheus. Once you begin reading, it's hard to stop.