Like a Sacred Desire: Tales of Sex Magick

Edited by Jennifer Williams

Book Review by Lisabet Sarai

Sex is fun. Erotic fiction frequently focuses on this, celebrating sexual pleasure and the way it binds partners together.  However, many of us know that desire and its consummation sometimes have deeper roots. Sex has power to open our eyes, to change us, to literally transform reality.

Sex has mingled with ritual and reverence since before recorded history.  Consecrated whores have made fucking a form of worship. For millenia, witches, mages and shamans have used sexual energy to drive their enchantments and shape the outcomes. Like a Sacred Desire springs from these traditions, exploring the relationship between sex and magick. Editor Jennifer William presents  seven short stories that approach the theme in different ways.

In “Unquiet Ghosts” by Jana Denardo, a priestess struggles to heal the psychic wounds of a warrior turned into the catamite of a cruel master.  In Elizabeth Schecter's “The Hand You're Dealt”, a warlock Dom allows the cast of a Tarot deck to determine how he plays with his blind submissive lover.  “The Birthright” by Renato Garcia is set amongst political turmoil in Haiti, where young revolutionary discovers she has inherited the power to seduce and to shape perception from her grandmother.  D.L.King's “Perhaps a Worthy Offering” presents a cruel Mistress who tortures and teases her devoted male slave in order to summon a dark and terrible Goddess. “Wood” by David Sklar is a remarkable tale of a crone using sex to take her revenge on the philanderer who has impregnated her grand daughter. Angela Caperton's “St. Nicolas'  Eve” confronts a modern woman employed as an elf serving a department store Santa with the ancient magic (and mischief) of the season. Finally, “Opening” by Raven Caldera highlights the gender ambiguity associated with magical powers in many cultures, beautifully capturing the parallel inner and outer journeys in sexual ritual.

The relationship between sex and magick has always fascinated me. Hence, I was excited to have the opportunity to read and review this volume. Unfortunately both the quality of the tales in Like a Sacred Desire and their relevance to the theme vary widely. I will not embarrass individual authors by indicating which stories I found wanting. However, I was dismayed by flaws in both conception and craft in some of the tales. On the other hand, several of the contributions are outstanding.

Because the book contains only seven stories, the weaker tales are more obvious. Circlet Press seems to have settled on this mini-anthology format for its recent ebooks, but as I've commented in other reviews, I personally would prefer longer collections.  The publisher has great ideas for anthology themes. However, a length of hundred pages, more or less, is insufficient, in my opinion, to explore these ideas in any breadth. 

Lisabet Sarai
October 2010

Like a Sacred Desire: Tales of Sex Magick
(Circlet Press, July 2010; ISBN B003U8AG30)
Available at: Amazon (Kindle Edition)| Amazon UK (Kindle Edition)

_____
© 2010 Lisabet Sarai. All rights reserved. Content may not be copied or used in whole or part without written permission from the author.

About the Reviewer: More than a decade ago LISABET SARAI experienced a seredipitous fusion of her love of writing and her fascination with sex. Since then she has published six erotic novels including the BDSM classic RAW SILK, two short story collections, several novellas, and many individual stories in both print and ebook anthologies. She has also edited two multi-author print collections and is now the editor for the single-author charitable erotica series Coming Together Presents.  Lisabet also reviews erotica and romance books for the Erotica Readers and Writers Association and Erotica Revealed.  Lisabet lives in Southeast Asia with her husband and felines. She believes that imagination is the ultimate aphrodisiac.
- Visit her website, Lisabet Sarai's Fantasy Factory for more information and samples of her writing.
- Drop by her blog Beyond Romance to learn about her latest antics.
- Join Lisabet's List on Yahoo for exciting chat, contests, and up-to-date information on publications and events: lisabets_list-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

  E-mail this page

Copyright © 1996 and on, Erotica Readers Association, Inc.
All Rights Reserved World Wide. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or
medium without express written permission is prohibited.