I’m not afraid to tell you: this is a bit of a weird one.

A while back I was sent an advance copy of Kyle Cicero’s newest story, the Conquest of Zantar for review and while I’m always glad to read dirty stories, I had no idea what I was really in for here.

Zantar is a story told in several parts, across an undefined stretch of time, involving a rebel prince of sorts (the Zantar of the header image/title/impending conquesting) and a leader who has usurped power in some sort of unjust way (the wherefore and why are mostly left unsaid). Zantar spends some pre-story time causing problems for the ruler, and fucking the residents of the castle in his spare time. The antagonist of the story is mostly referred to as “the tyrant” or “the autocrat,” so that’s what we’ll call him here, too. The tyrant decides that he’s had enough of the trouble Zantar is causing and hatches a really really complicated plan to end his freedom and essentially reduce him to a sex slave.

The bulk of the story involves the elaborate acting out of this plan, and the various punishments, tortures, and masturbatory shame sessions that are inflicted upon poor Zantar, combined with lengthy descriptions of the flawlessness of his physique and the mental anguish that certain sexual behaviors have wrought within him.

It’s worth pointing out that this is likely not a story I ever would have come across of my own accord. It doesn’t have any of the hallmarks of what I normally hunt for in my erotic literature – incest, celebrities, fraternity, gym saunas – and I rarely get my jack books from Amazon anyway.

That said, this was a fascinating read. The dynamics here are not ones that I ordinarily look for in sexual interaction; humiliation, shame, degradation, conquering – these aren’t really in my sexual vocabulary. I know enough about them to spot them when I encounter them. But I don’t really understand their appeal or how they play out. Zantar spends a tremendous amount of time (the meat of the story, really) feeling ashamed of his body and his inability to control his (chemically enhanced) libido.  He is restrained and repeatedly raped by his oppressor and by a masseur who is endlessly described as effeminate and lowly.

It is interesting to see fantasy sexual interaction from such an angle and through such a tightly focused lens. It would simply not occur to me that Zantar’s desire to masturbate his restrained penis against his chains in search of relief would be something he found deeply shameful, even before he discovered he was being covertly watched. Nor would it occur to me that the mincing massage therapist’s penetration of Zantar with what is described as an enormous penis would be degrading to Zantar and cause him to see himself as less of a man.

It’s possible I am too optimistic or just too wholesome in my understanding of male sex. But for my practices, none of this fantasy is suitable. In direct contrast to that, though, I did find myself on the train towards DC with a prominent and leaking erection, as I thumbed through this story on my kindle. Had I been entirely alone, I would have let that boner take over and lost some seed to Zantar’s tale of woe. As it was, I crammed my free hand down my pants and massaged my manhood as well as I could in mixed (however distracted) company.

I encourage you to check out Zantar on Amazon. It’s only a buck 25 (or free if you’ve got Kindle Unlimited!) and if extreme dominance is your bag, I think you’ll pull something good out of it. As a teaser, here’s some of the original art created for Zantar that didn’t make it into the published version. All created by Herodotus:

For whatever it’s worth, most of these illustrations are almost exactly how I imagined each of these scenarios playing out. So props to Herodotus for accuracy.

-t