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The Torturer's Apprentice
Author: von Hentzau
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(Added on Jan 27, 2004)
(This month 69331 readers) (Total 106148 readers) |
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Every Prince should learn a practical trade, like for instance, learning out to be an Inquisitor. |
Ratings and Reviews: |
Number
of Ratings: 9 |
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11% |
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Weighed
Average (?): (7.5/10) |
Average
Rating: (7.5/10) |
Highest
Rating: (9/10) |
Lowest
Rating: (2/10) |
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Reviewer:
obulus
(Edit) |
Rating: |
Jul 27, 2004 |
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A fine build-up from a very accomplished writer: rich with historic detail and intimate knowledge of the psychological labyrinths of humiliation, dominance and degradation! I can only hope that the author takes up his thread again -- more please! (9/10)
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Reviewer:
lex ludite
(Edit) |
Rating: |
Mar 20, 2004 |
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This is a very sophisticated writer who appears to know his subject well. The prologue has certainly set the stage for what must inevitably follow, I hope. My only quibble and it is minor, "boiling oil on his primatives"? That's a new one on this reader. My initial rating will be modified as the story develops from its excellent base. Based on the additional chapter it's obvious to this reader that the story deserves more than my initial rating. (8/10)
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Reviewer:
Wyn
(Edit) |
Rating: |
Feb 3, 2004 |
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Great introduction and foundation. I'm looking forward to following installments. (8/10)
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Reviewer:
Mothbrad
(Edit) |
Rating: |
Feb 3, 2004 |
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I'm really looking forward to the next episodes - beautiful, cruel introduction! I'm biased towards interrogation stories, but I also like stories that have the potential to go in many different directions. I also like the fact that the girl doesn't have anything of importance to give up, and that she's rather bewildered at first. If the story goes where I think it will, I will have to upgrade from an 8 to a 9 or 10 ... here's hoping! (8/10)
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Reviewer:
Faibhar
(Edit) |
Rating: |
Jan 29, 2004 |
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Richly entertaining and well worth the reading of many. Too bad further progression was not included in this first installment. We shall just have to wait... (8/10)
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Reviewer:
bisarah
(Edit) |
Rating: |
Jan 27, 2004 |
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not a very exciting story to me! (2/10)
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- Replied by:
lex ludite
(Edit) (Jan 28, 2004)
- I think that you are doing a grave injustice to the author with this shallow "review". He is merely setting the stage for what will come. It would have been wiser on your part to adopt a wait and see attitude before pronouncing his work to be a piece of dreck, which is what you have done. Fie on you!
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Reviewer:
e.e. norcod
(Edit) |
Rating: |
Jan 27, 2004 |
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As with lex and boccaccio I expect to revise my rating upwards if the story developes as I expect it will. But at this point I like the story for the reasons that boccaccio dislikes it. I always enjoy a clever twist and a bit of whimsy. The capriciousness of the prince and his mentor give the piece novelty and flavor that sets it apart from the run of the mill 'put the suspected witch on the rack' story. Additionally I love a story that build slowly. I consider a writer to be masterful who does not have the buxom maid stripped and on the rack by the second paragraph. She has fainted once already and they haven't even touched her let alone flogged her bared fulsome bosom till her crotch was dripping with mucinous twat juice. God knows this story could even develop a sense of humor. (8/10)
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Reviewer:
bdsmbill
(Edit) |
Rating: |
Jan 27, 2004 |
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Well, it is only really started, but has promise. An interesting problem for the young lady, being forced to protect a secret she knows has no importance. Oh, and to correct an earlier reviewer, it was boiling wax, not oil. (7/10)
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- Replied by:
lex ludite
(Edit) (Jan 28, 2004)
- I stand corrected.
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Reviewer:
boccaccio2000g
(Edit) |
Rating: |
Jan 27, 2004 |
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Actually, like Lex, I expect to revise this review upward in time as Von Hentzau ranks among my two or three favorite authors. Only an eight at this point for two reasons -- the author might have given us a second, more action-filled, chapter in this opening installment to whet our interest. /// The other drawback is that the premise (the secret which the young girl must protect) is rather artificial and contrived, which illustrates a great problem for all writers of "torture chamber" stories -- how does one create a setting in which the torturer is using all of his or her wiles to extract something from his victim, and yet make it credible for the victim to withhold that information under the most extreme duress? /// Personally I think the best answers to this conundrum are to give the torturer a personal animus -- a reason to hate the victim -- rather than to leave him solely in an information-extracting mode. Or to make it so that the torturer is wrongly convinced that the victim has the information that he wishes to extract. But even then, after subjecting his luscious young beauty to a number of torments, a credible torturer must begin to wonder if perhaps his original notion was wrong. //// All of that said, I'm confident that our very talented author has an extensive and entertaining bag of tricks in store for his pretty peasant girl. Looking forward to the succeeding chapters with great interest. (8/10)
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