Selfies Of Success for Authors is delighted to present Sessha Battousai with her book 'Shadow Wolf'.
BIO:
Sessha is a sword carrying Buddhist writer of transgressive homoerotic fiction. Published works include the Shinobi Saga (Geisha, Shadow Wolf and the soon to be released Ripples), and Strength of Will. Her short fiction is collected in the anthology Sex Ray Specs. Her short story The Poetry Game is included in New Sun Rising - Stories for Japan. Her story Tapestry is part of the Written on Skin anthology. Since writing doesn't pay all the bills, she continues to work as a graphic artist, specializing in book covers and trailers.
Shadow Wolf
Will love be sacrificed when duty and honor rule all?
The life of a shinobi is, at its best, a selfless devotion to duty. In modern day Japan, the ninja legends live on in a grim saga of political maneuverings, betrayal, sexual abuse, torture and homoeroticism.
The Shinobi clans lurk in the shadows, performing services that not even the hardened Yakuza will touch. Takahashi Yoshi fulfills his duty with soul-stripping resolve, each assignment driving a nail into a coffin of lost faith. After years of sexual abuse and torture in the name of clan honor, Yoshi must learn to trust, but the man who offers him hope is himself flawed. Sasaki Makoto has spent a career in torture and interrogation, exploring not only the dark secrets of his clan's enemies, but also the darkness within his own heart.
How far must Yoshi run to escape his shame and torment? And what price freedom when fear and self-loathing threaten to upend the hard fought struggle to find meaning and safety in a world fraught with danger.
Yoshi seeks time and space, only to find himself once more at the mercy of power mongers and despots. When Makoto finds him, Yoshi is broken in more than body. Near death, his spirit recedes to find safety within, locking out all who care.
They say time will heal but the path to acceptance is never easy, the roadblocks many, and none will emerge unscathed as Yoshi embarks on a struggle for balance.
Shadow Wolf is transgressive M/M literary fiction. It utilizes adult language and adult situations. It depicts violence, explicit sex and disturbing scenes/images. If you are offended by male/male eroticism, sexual situations, depiction of BDSM elements, and strong language you might not enjoy this work.
REVIEW:
Honor and duty rule a contemporary shadow world where legend clashes with the stark realities of bodies and souls bartered in the name of clan hegemony. In modern day Japan only the ninjas move within the secret circles of power and influence, fulfilling roles not even the Yakusa will touch.
Sessha is a sword carrying Buddhist writer of transgressive homoerotic fiction. Published works include the Shinobi Saga (Geisha, Shadow Wolf and the soon to be released Ripples), and Strength of Will. Her short fiction is collected in the anthology Sex Ray Specs. Her short story The Poetry Game is included in New Sun Rising - Stories for Japan. Her story Tapestry is part of the Written on Skin anthology. Since writing doesn't pay all the bills, she continues to work as a graphic artist, specializing in book covers and trailers.
Shadow Wolf
Will love be sacrificed when duty and honor rule all?
The life of a shinobi is, at its best, a selfless devotion to duty. In modern day Japan, the ninja legends live on in a grim saga of political maneuverings, betrayal, sexual abuse, torture and homoeroticism.
The Shinobi clans lurk in the shadows, performing services that not even the hardened Yakuza will touch. Takahashi Yoshi fulfills his duty with soul-stripping resolve, each assignment driving a nail into a coffin of lost faith. After years of sexual abuse and torture in the name of clan honor, Yoshi must learn to trust, but the man who offers him hope is himself flawed. Sasaki Makoto has spent a career in torture and interrogation, exploring not only the dark secrets of his clan's enemies, but also the darkness within his own heart.
How far must Yoshi run to escape his shame and torment? And what price freedom when fear and self-loathing threaten to upend the hard fought struggle to find meaning and safety in a world fraught with danger.
Yoshi seeks time and space, only to find himself once more at the mercy of power mongers and despots. When Makoto finds him, Yoshi is broken in more than body. Near death, his spirit recedes to find safety within, locking out all who care.
They say time will heal but the path to acceptance is never easy, the roadblocks many, and none will emerge unscathed as Yoshi embarks on a struggle for balance.
Shadow Wolf is transgressive M/M literary fiction. It utilizes adult language and adult situations. It depicts violence, explicit sex and disturbing scenes/images. If you are offended by male/male eroticism, sexual situations, depiction of BDSM elements, and strong language you might not enjoy this work.
REVIEW:
Honor and duty rule a contemporary shadow world where legend clashes with the stark realities of bodies and souls bartered in the name of clan hegemony. In modern day Japan only the ninjas move within the secret circles of power and influence, fulfilling roles not even the Yakusa will touch.
Against this backdrop of manipulation, betrayal and conspiracy, Takahasi Yoshi
willingly fulfills a horrendous mandate to submit to a perverted despot in
service to a clan debt. Groomed to accept abuse as his duty and obligation, the
infamous shadow wolf slowly succumbs to the brutality that marks his existence,
stripping his soul of faith and trust.
Sasaki Makoto is the clan's torture master, wickedly self-contained and
viciously successful at his job. He is a man least likely to extend a hand of
friendship, let alone open his heart to the battered psyche of the broken man
that Yoshi becomes. The question becomes: can a man of darkness penetrate the
barrier of a lost soul and lead them both down the path of redemption and
acceptance of who and what they are.
Shadow Wolf is a saga of faith betrayed, of love denied, all replaced with such
shame and torment that self-loathing becomes the raison d'être of a man's
existence. It is raw. It is cruel. It speaks of unspeakable acts, never holding
back, never allowing the reader to ever once turn away because the only way to
truly 'know' the man is to meet him at his breaking point.
It is heart-wrenching and outside of everything we know to be right and true.
Yoshi stands for us at that point where the basest nature of man is legitimized
and sanctified through the clan's indoctrination and culture of absolute
loyalty and submission to authority.
Make no mistake, this epic tale of homoeroticism, politics and selfless duty
will not be for everyone. It is sensual, it is brutal, it is honest. There's nothing
prurient here. This is the good, the bad and the ugly set against a backdrop
few of us have ever seen, in a legendary culture most of us can scarcely
imagine.
Sessha Batto blends legend and mythology, sensuality and eroticism, in a
startling and mesmerizing way. We sympathize, or hate, or grieve with the many
characters who tread through the 'gates' along Yoshi's journey, hopeful for
resolution but knowing that nothing is writ in stone and a man's freedom oft
times comes at too high a price.
Abuse is ugly, what it does to the body and the mind is nothing compared to
what it does to the soul. The author explores this with gut-wrenching honesty,
pushing our comfort zones and redefining what it means to love and be loved
when the line between pleasure and pain ceases to exist.
As I said, this is male-male erotica, it is intense, it is sensual. And it is
brilliant.
Five stars.
LINK:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CB8I61O?tag=geolinker-20
OTHER LINK:
http://sesshabattousai.com/Shinobi_Saga.html
LINK:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CB8I61O?tag=geolinker-20
OTHER LINK:
http://sesshabattousai.com/Shinobi_Saga.html
