Back into fantasy for the most recent audiobook, with a slightly unexpected sidestep into porn.
This is set in an alternative America, in which a cataclysmic experiment during the second World War heavily twisted the ecosystem. The centre of the United States is now "The Wastes", and populated by "wasters", a wide range of fantasy creatures. Roll a D100 and look at the relevant page of the Monster Manual, and what you find is probably in here.
Our hero is Vince, a Ranger, who is employed by the Ranger's Guild to wander about in the wastes, either bounty hunting, escorting travellers, taking out monsters or generally killing people. He's not entirely human either, with a slight propensity of taking on the characteristics of anything he eats. So certain element of enhanced human capabilities, such as super senses, speed and power, and a bit of mind-reading that sneaks into mind control when the plot needs it.
He's also apparently sufficiently charismatic that over the course of the book he can acquire about nine women, all of whom are happy to share. There is an incredibly quick line early in the book that indicates that the more "evolved" communities have a higher proportion of female leaders than male because women outnumber men in the world (though the numbers are slowly equalising). This appears to be thrown in to justify the male to female ratio that develops over the book, but there's never any real evidence of this power structure.
You should probably make sure you're happy with maledom before you pick this up. Still, it does a reasonably job of working its way through the various different types of sub. You've got the orc alpha sub, the high formal sub, the humiliation slut dryad, and a various range of others as needed for a particular scene. This is definitely in the wish-fulfillment genre. That's not necessarily a criticism, but don't expect much by way of personal sacrifice in conflict to the need for erotic moments.
The book does tend to swing back and forth between the porn and plot in a slightly uneven manner, with sex scenes occasionally running a litte too long (especially the orgy), which is a particular problem when the prose gets repetitive. You can only really hear about someone "filling her up with his seed" so many times. Especially when halfway through there's a dryad involved, and you start thinking about a birdfeeder.
Still, when we get a bit more plot development, it's decently done. The Wasters tend to be captured and enslaved, and there's a second Civil War brewing over the ownership of slaves. Since Vince has been collecting and freeing Wasters (and having really quite a lot of sex with them) he's on the front line of the conflict, and there's a nice bit of politics going on. It's just a shame that it's not fleshed out more. This is definitely primarily erotica. It does a good job of that, at least. The sex scenes are just depraved enough, and not awkward, barring the previously mentioned repetition.
Finally, impressed with the narrator, Andrea Parsneau. Did quite an impressive range of different voices, and managed a reasonably breathy tone where needed for the dirtier bits.
Tagged: Book Erotica Monster girl Novel Audio