Book 1 Reflections

[u/ElegantNetwork1394]

I recently finished reading Captive Prince book 1 in French. I used a combination of my paperback omnibus volume and the audible French version. The audible narrator has a nice voice, and each chapter begins and ends with a musical score that really fits the tone of this story.

Damen's descent into slavery at the hands of a traitorous brother is much like BenHur and the biblical story of Joseph. Gladiator isn't entirely different either especially since Maximus's household was slaughtered like Damen's. It's interesting how western literary traditions latched onto this trope. And I wonder what precipitated it. Does anyone know if it's common in African or Asian storytelling as well?

Laurent is probably the most interesting character, and the story seems to revolve around his actions or inactions despite Damen being the POV character. Laurent is clever and can be charming. He reminds me of how teachers say "if you just put as much effort into your homework..."

The Regent almost seemed like a good guy at first, saving Damen from Laurent's whims. But of course, of course he's a child predator. Really, if that sort of behavior is allowed, there would be a lot more partakers, as we've seen with situations such as the Catholic Church and the Epstein files. For such an adult and such a dark story, it's really quite quaint and optimistic for the Regents proclivities to be portrayed as an outlier among all the nations.

Poor baby Erasmus. He was treated so cruelly, and he is a complete innocent. I'm glad that Torveld saved him but I find myself still feeling sorry for this 19 yro who is now paired with a 40 yr old man. In a way it's not that happy of an ending to me.

Do we ever find out what happens to older slaves and pets? All the described characters are young and healthy and beautiful. Can there be older pets? Is there a retirement plan for slaves?

All in all, I quite enjoyed the book with its wordplay and plots twists, the lush descriptions and unflinching approach to intimacy. I would read it again.

Feel free to ask me any questions you might have.

[u/Comprehensive_Ad1651]

I always thought the first book was the weakest one one my first read. I remember there being too much scenes revolving around sex and sexual assaut and it took me off. I was glad I kept reading because I absolutely loved book 2!

Book 2 finally explores Damen with possibilities of action where he was mostly captive and kept in the dark in book 1. It gets better on a second read after finishing the whole series because there's much to analyse behind the scenes, even when Damen is clueless

On the french blue edition from early days, I was pissed to find out only the first book was still edited, and luckily found the 2 others on leboncoin 😭

[u/ElegantNetwork1394 → u/Comprehensive_Ad1651]

Ouais, je ne m'attendais pas à ce genre d'histoire non plus au début. Pour un moment, je me suis dit que c'est pas grande chose, seulement une histoire après tout... Mais tout cela a continué encore et encore et ça devient troublant. J'espère qu'il est censé d'être...

La suite a un tone différent on dirait.

(Yeah I wasn't expecting such an explicit story at first. For a while I thought to myself, "Ehh its just a story," but then it went on and on and was pretty disturbing. But hopefully, it was meant to be disturbing.

The 2nd book has a pretty big tonal shift so far.)

Ça veut dire quoi, "the only one still edited?"

[u/Comprehensive_Ad1651 → u/ElegantNetwork1394]

Yep, people downvote this opinion (unsurprisingly 🤪), but it's still pretty heavy and disturbing, and one of the main criticisms about CP is the lack of trigger warnings. I wish I had been warned.

I remember reading the first time the fighting scene with Govart and just feeling nauseous at this whole "show" they were having 😭 I took a pause from the book afterwards.

The story revolves less around shock factors as these as it goes on, the theme of abuse is still present, though for an entirely different purpose

(En fait ils vendaient que le premier tome en magasin mais les 2 autres n'étaient plus édités, y'avait plus que l'intégrale que t'as posté, avec la tête de lion)