REVIEW: Recommendation of Manna Francis's "Control."
Manna Francis: Control. (Author's Website.) The fourth volume in the Administration series, about a pathological torturer and his lover, who despises torture but loves SM. ¶ Male homoerotic fiction, male/female friendship fiction, BDSM fiction, employer/employee fiction, erotic fiction, mental illness themes, mysteries, prisoner fiction, science fiction. ¶ Online fiction and online samples of fiction books. ¶ On-screen sex. On-screen violence. ¶ Archive of my reviews: Buried Treasure.
The scary thing about Manna Francis's Administration series is that it's possible to get used to the people in it.
You'll be reading along, and Toreth will be attempting the delicate task of working with a cranky boss, and Sara will be carefully checking computer documents in an efficient manner, and Chevil will be complaining about how much more money he would make if he held a corporate position, and it will all begin to seem very familiar - just a group of white-collar workers doing their jobs under difficult circumstances . . .
And then you'll reach page 85, and you'll be forcefully reminded that you're reading a series about a psycopath who works as a judicial torturer.
Toreth - the psychopath, who works as a para-investigator, investigating crimes and torturing suspects - is, in certain ways, the least scary character in the Administration series. It makes sense that someone as mentally ill as him would do what he does. Far more scary are the other members of the Investigation and Interrogation Division, such as Barret-Connor, an investigator working for Toreth. He is a quiet, competent, nice man who is capable of making the following statement:
"I could never be a para. I've done the introductory interrogation courses, the ones that qualify you for level one and two verbal interrogations, although I got abysmal marks at level two. I've done the interrogation habituation course, and I've chucked up along with everyone else, and been called a gutless wimp by the instructors. I've sat through a few high-level interrogations, and seen recordings and transcripts. I don't like it, at all, but that's not my job. My job is to find the suspects and put them into the interrogation room with enough solid facts to get the waiver the Para or the interrogator in there with them needs to do their job."
The banality of evil has rarely been so well depicted.
Barret-Connor's statement is made in "Coming from America," a previously unreleased novella that takes a few well-placed jabs at Americans, while not letting Europeans off the hook. Barret-Connor's matter-of-fact commentary on how he helped with the Administration's latest atrocity is the darkest story in the book. The story "Helen" shines by comparison, showing the self-doubts afflicting Warrick, who heartily dislikes torture, yet continues to carry on an SM affair with Toreth.
The title novella "Control" is a page-turning thriller; I read it late at night, planning to stop after a few scenes, but that plan was discarded when I reached the scene that began with the words: "Handcuffed to the wall in near darkness, Toreth had plenty of time to reflect on what an idiot he had been."
The crown of this eight-story collection, though, is "Caged," which I consider to be the most moving story in the series. Although far less action-oriented than "Control," it is more hard-hitting, because it probes deeper into the dark recesses of evil than Barret-Connor would ever dare to do.
Though, really, none of us would want to miss Barret-Connor's entertaining account in "Coming to America" of what happened when he was stoned at a party.
The scary thing about Manna Francis's Administration series is that it's possible to get used to the people in it.
You'll be reading along, and Toreth will be attempting the delicate task of working with a cranky boss, and Sara will be carefully checking computer documents in an efficient manner, and Chevil will be complaining about how much more money he would make if he held a corporate position, and it will all begin to seem very familiar - just a group of white-collar workers doing their jobs under difficult circumstances . . .
And then you'll reach page 85, and you'll be forcefully reminded that you're reading a series about a psycopath who works as a judicial torturer.
Toreth - the psychopath, who works as a para-investigator, investigating crimes and torturing suspects - is, in certain ways, the least scary character in the Administration series. It makes sense that someone as mentally ill as him would do what he does. Far more scary are the other members of the Investigation and Interrogation Division, such as Barret-Connor, an investigator working for Toreth. He is a quiet, competent, nice man who is capable of making the following statement:
"I could never be a para. I've done the introductory interrogation courses, the ones that qualify you for level one and two verbal interrogations, although I got abysmal marks at level two. I've done the interrogation habituation course, and I've chucked up along with everyone else, and been called a gutless wimp by the instructors. I've sat through a few high-level interrogations, and seen recordings and transcripts. I don't like it, at all, but that's not my job. My job is to find the suspects and put them into the interrogation room with enough solid facts to get the waiver the Para or the interrogator in there with them needs to do their job."
The banality of evil has rarely been so well depicted.
Barret-Connor's statement is made in "Coming from America," a previously unreleased novella that takes a few well-placed jabs at Americans, while not letting Europeans off the hook. Barret-Connor's matter-of-fact commentary on how he helped with the Administration's latest atrocity is the darkest story in the book. The story "Helen" shines by comparison, showing the self-doubts afflicting Warrick, who heartily dislikes torture, yet continues to carry on an SM affair with Toreth.
The title novella "Control" is a page-turning thriller; I read it late at night, planning to stop after a few scenes, but that plan was discarded when I reached the scene that began with the words: "Handcuffed to the wall in near darkness, Toreth had plenty of time to reflect on what an idiot he had been."
The crown of this eight-story collection, though, is "Caged," which I consider to be the most moving story in the series. Although far less action-oriented than "Control," it is more hard-hitting, because it probes deeper into the dark recesses of evil than Barret-Connor would ever dare to do.
Though, really, none of us would want to miss Barret-Connor's entertaining account in "Coming to America" of what happened when he was stoned at a party.
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