War of Desire by G.D. Campbell is such a book. It doesn't hurt that the model looks hot. Here is an excerpt of War of Desire. Enjoy!
Excerpt/Blurb
Raeleen Stewart enjoys nothing more than a new employee. And young Josh Carter is a spectacular addition. Her enterprise, a house of sexual pleasure for female clientele, thrives on fresh offerings. But Josh has an agenda and agrees to the job requirements only to further his role in a plot to destroy Rae and her despicable operation.
Long-time pleasure partner and ex-lover Lu Haverson has his suspicions about this young buck, but there’s so much painful baggage with Rae, he can’t get her to reconsider. So he embarks on his own investigation after watching the kid struggle with taking women to bed. Will Rae learn the truth before it’s too late?
Can Lu get the evidence he needs, or will his tangled past with Rae get in the way? Lives hang in the balance as Josh faces desperate choices between his life-long training and an unexpected world he never wanted to find. Set in the not too distant future when global warming has forced extreme social change, House of Rae is a fast-paced, sensual story of love, personal challenge, and discovery.
Author Comments on War of Desire
War of Desire author comments:Author Denele Campbell observes that some of her most riveting thought experiences have been through science fiction. Whether the classic novels like Orwell’s 1984, Huxley’s Brave New World, or Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, or more recent television and movie adventures like Star Trek and Star Wars, science fiction served up new ideas and a generally hopeful outlook.
“I needed that,” Campbell explains. “Frankly, my childhood reeked of gloom due to the negative religious beliefs of my family. I was looking for bigger answers.”
In War of Desire, Campbell says she attempts to portray a future world that is coping with climate change in a positive way.
“Why can’t human ingenuity create new solutions? We created the problems, so it seems entirely feasible that solutions can come from the same source. It just requires a slightly different mindset.”
Is it possible for old moral strictures to be set aside in order to dedicate shrinking resources toward proactive measures, as Campbell portrays in War of Desire? Other societies have embraced legalized prostitution, Campbell points out. Perhaps not to the extent as in her story, where modern technology and business practices bring the so-called “oldest profession” to its ultimate fruition. And perhaps never in the way Campbell envisions, where the workers providing sexual services aren’t just women in service to men, as most commonly practiced, but also as men (and women) in service to women.
“That’s probably the most radical element in this story, that women would be able to visit a house of pleasure for an hour or an afternoon, pick the pleasure partner she wishes, and indulge in sensual delight where her specific desires are attended. And of course, that’s what the plot hinges on. There will always be people who are fundamentally opposed to any kind of sexual activity outside the boundaries of marriage between a man and a woman. The question is, now that we have methods to manage the production of children and methods to screen for sexually-transmitted disease, do we have to stay locked into the old rule of law, or can we as an advancing society accept a broader framework for what men and women may wish to do?”
“So yes,” Campbell continues, “this is science fiction that doesn’t have space craft or mutant viruses or laser guns. It’s more of a woman’s sci-fi in that regard. And frankly, I think it’s long past due. Science fiction, like most literature, has been—at least through the mid-twentieth century—the province of men. And in general, I think men appreciate certain things—war, weapons, and the machinery of adventure, for example, and that’s reflected in the science fiction they write. I think women, on the other hand, are more interested in the nuances of emotion, interpersonal relationships, and human sexuality. Why not look at a future where the female agenda dictates some of the landscape?”
Campbell says she’s been particularly interested in the male response to her book, which she describes as a bit dismissive. Since the plot and character development of her story hinge on sex, the book contains quite a few sex scenes. Many male readers, she says, aren’t exactly comfortable with long passages of explicit sex.
On the other hand, she observes, many women aren’t really interested in science fiction, perhaps because the tradition of science fiction has been bound in male-oriented interests.
“This is an experiment,” she admits. “Will women read a sensual story even if it’s science fiction? Will men read science fiction, complete with fights and fast action, if the story includes a lot of sex? I don’t know. This was a gamble mainstream publishers weren’t willing to take, leaving me with little option but self-publishing. I’m thankful that option exists, although there is a strong bias against self-publishing in the literary world. Few industry reviewers will touch something that’s self-published, and so readers are left to take their own gamble about what to read.”
War of Desire is the first in what Campbell envisions as a series of stories set in the mid-21st century. The storyline will continue to follow House of Rae enterprises in various locations and will delve deeper into the conflicts that arise between entrenched morality and greater human freedom. Unfortunately, any juicy details about the story line or what characters from War of Desire will be involved would spoil the fun. Campbell hopes to have the second novel out by mid-2014.
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I like Ms. Campbell's take on this science fiction story. It's definitely worth a read. If you want to know more about War of Desire and where you can purchase it, here are some links.
Amazon author page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/
Goodreads page: http://www.goodreads.com/
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/
Book listing on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/War-
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