Contains my short, Snow Demon.

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Product Description

The street punk Noah made the mistake of pick-pocketing a crime lord right before he had a meeting with an embassy official. When crime lord Tokihiko can't produce his identification he misses the important meeting. Tokihiko has Noah captured with the intention of torturing him to death. When he sees how beautiful Noah is, he decides to make him his slave instead. Also in this book, a demon has cursed a village with unending winter. A monk has come to destroy the demon, but the demon has other ideas for the beautiful monk.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #299026 in Books
• Published on: 2005-09-20
• Released on: 2005-09-20
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 152 pages

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Customer Reviews

Enslaved by the Dragon- Ok but not great.
I really wanted to like this book more than I did. It's title and description reminded me of Target the Finder. I also would like to see more English Yaoi books. But not if they aren't better than this one. It's nothing like Target the Finder, and almost nothing like Japanese yaoi books. The art and story are very minimal, bare bones. In some panels characters faces aren't even drawn in! I found that distracting and it gave the impression the book wasn't finished before being published. The story and characters aren't developed either, the emotional conflict isn't really explored. As for the sex scenes they aren't that explicit. No members are shown, not even that Japanese-style "ghostly outline." Now the book contains 2 stories, Enslaved by the Dragon and The Snow Demon. The Snow Demon is a big improvement in art style, not so bare and the characters were much more attractively drawn. But the story is little more than a rape. Not cool. In short, go for this book if you've already read all the translated Japanese Yaoi books and really want something, anything, yaoi to tide you over.

A Story You Can Think About...
Is it worth $12.95? Well it's printed well, and it's a sturdy book, so I have no issue in supporting at least $10 of that aspect...but it's a tuff call as I am cheap fen who doesn't want to pay a porn price for something that's not smutty enough - but I will tell you this, I didn't put the book down! I was able to read it from start to finish, which is more than I can do with some of the other crap I've seen floating around with the term "yaoi" attached to it.

The artwork didn't impress me; and the story was marred by its sacrifice of deep characterization in order to form a happy ending. I am not of fan of `Pretty-Woman' type formulas where the bad guy isn't all that bad and the street urchin is really just misunderstood with a tragic past. Some crits will say it's trying to ride off the success of the Finder series, but that's only because they haven't read it, and of the use of a Japanese gangster - which I think hinders the story. IT IS NOTHING like Finder, and it doesn't try to be, yet as I read the Japanese names they just serve as annoying - the crime lord and his minions might have been better off as Westerners, just like Noah. As for Noah, he lacks any real character depth; I'd like to see him dealing with the fact that his sexual servitude to a man like Tokihiko will one day poison his overall outlook on life, but that isn't examined here because he seems to follow the 'heart of gold' uke template a bit to much. Tokihiko comes off as completely robotic, not just by the way he's rendered in the artwork-but his overall personality, but this isn't a bad thing considering the culture he's meant to represent [Yakuza?], yet to see him discussing an old lover in a moment of poignancy with Noah just came off as forced. Does he need to have a human side? I don't think so. Overall this is well done novel-length debut from writer Reimoz, though I'd love to see her illustrate her own works in the future.

If anything from this review you can surmise that you WILL READ THE BOOK and you WILL GET INTO THE BOOK enough to form your own opinion. As stated above, there is so much tripe being licensed right now it's almost incomprehensible to a western reader to expect a decent story they may want to analyze from a western manga. Let's face it, because there is an established fandom and marketing machine in place telling readers what they are supposed to "get" from licensed manga, a majority of Western BL fans engage in talks of pairings and dust jacket designs while only a few cultured fans take the time to grasp the subtlety of what's taking place in any given plot line.

Now the second story is called Snow Demon. I can't give a comprehensive review, because the story was written by me and scripted by my editor Ms. Yamila Abraham. I can tell you it is illustrated by Yishan Li, known for her wispy-stalk bishounen and her delicate tones, so fans of her aesthetic style of art will likely enjoy this one set in Feudal Japan.

A win for Yaoi Press
I enjoy this story more every time I read it. It has a simple drawing style that really pleases my eyes. It has a good amount to sex in it, but I favor the character development of Noah. This is one of my favorite stories by Yaoi Press.