Review: A Frank Discussion About Sex
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 07 22, 2012
This review contains two sections.  The first is an evaluation of the story itself.  The second focuses on the sexual content in this book.When the last book, Knight of the Realm ended, Tor has just escaped another harrowing attempt on his life.  Ambassador (The Young Ancients series book four) initially deals with the aftermath of this crisis.  Soon enough, the author gets down to business and explains why Torrance Baker is the way he is, with autistic like tendencies of brilliance in his field of work, coupled with an absolute lack of social awareness.Further along, trouble continues to follow Tor, and the readers get to see our hero in action once more to protect his friends and kingdom.  By the end of the book, P.S. Power has molded Torrance Baker into a semi-sophisticated noble, possessing a great deal of honor and integrity as well as nobleness.That being said, I feel I must address the big elephant in the room: the sexual content of Ambassador (as well as the previous book).  I will begin the discussion by pulling a specific passage from the book, involving a sexual act.  If you are not comfortable with the topic, PLEASE STOP READING THIS REVIEW!!!+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++From Location 656 in the book: "It would make this all so much more convenient if nothing else.  Tor found her sex with his mouth gently at first, hitting with rapid flicks of his tongue the little nib that he'd been told about, shown really, by her, come to think of it.  Even with her on top of him he could see a lot more of her now than he had ever before.  It was fascinating, the pink and light tan skin folds in the mound of golden blond hair.  It was soft, and did get in his mouth as he worked on her, but he ignored it.  If this gave her any pleasure at all, it was worth a little hair, right?"My problem with this passage is not the fact that a sex scene is included.  My concern, rather, is with HOW SPECIFIC and GRAPHIC the scene is.  Can anyone deny, with a straight face, that this is EROTICA?  This passage took place 8% into the book.  In other words, this is just the mere appetizer for the pages and pages of sexual acts that the author included in the rest of this book.My question is why?  Why would P.S. Power need to include SO MUCH and SO GRAPHIC sexual content into this book?  Perhaps he felt that sales of the previous book was flagging, and more sex translates to more sales?  Perhaps he threw in these scenes as a way to thumb his nose at people who complained about the sexual content in previous books?  Perhaps he was running out of ideas to fill out the rest of the book?I obviously don't know the answer.  But I do have two certainties.  First, P.S. Power lost readership over the excessive sexual content.  After all, my impression upon reading The Builder was that The Young Ancients is a Young Adult Fantasy series.  Instead we are getting more and more nauseating and wince-inducing, graphic erotica. Second, P.S. Power has damaged his credibility as a serious fantasy writer.  After this debacle, will a young reader take a chance and read the next fantasy series by P.S. Power?  I highly doubt it.For Amazon reviewers who discounted this excessive sexual content as merely "going over the line," I personally think this phrases diminishes the severity and egregiousness of the author's conduct.  Consequently, while the story in Ambassador rates five stars, I feel I must reduce it by one star to account for the excessive sexual content.Without a doubt, P.S. Power is an immensely talented writer.  He is a literary gardener who plants the initial seeds of a plot in The Builder, and grooms and trims and prods them into a beautiful and mesmerizing literary garden.  His creativity and imagination compares favorably to a J.K. Rowling.  Sadly though, I cannot recommend this overly sex-crazed fantasy series to Harry Potter fans.  That is a shame.