Captive Prince

Captive Prince is an original slash series by C. S. Pacat consisting of three novels (Captive Prince, Prince's Gambit, and Kings Rising) and some short stories in the same universe. The series centers around the relationship between Damen of Akielos and Laurent of Vere, the machinations for the thrones of their respective kingdoms, and deals heavily with sexual slavery. 
The first book, Captive Prince, was originally posted as a WIP on LiveJournal under the username freece, beginning May 2008. Book two, Prince's Gambit, was also posted on the account, and was completed in May 2012. Both books were taken down from LJ and released commercially for the first time in 2013. The final book, Kings Rising, was released for the first time in 2016.
Extra materials such as bonus chapter and short stories were published between the years 2016 and 2018, either as online material or exclusively as part of the published US editions. On October 20, 2020, The Summer Palace was released, compiling some of these extras.
==Summary==
Author summary: Damen is the true heir to the throne, but when his half brother seizes power, Damen is captured, stripped of his identity and sent to serve the Prince of a rival nation as a pleasure slave.
Some fans have thought this short summary is somewhat misleading.trobadora , 24 October 2009. (Accessed 24 January 2010) It describes the basic premise but in no way gives away that the book is actually a deliciously plotted novel with a lot of political intrigue and a main character who is thrust into the middle of a power game between Laurent, the rightful heir to the throne, and his uncle.
The author’s summary also does not include warnings that the first few chapters of Captive Prince include noncon and are often violent, including a brutal flogging scene.
It's also not indicative of the amount of UST there is: although there is explicit sex throughout the series, it takes a long, long time before Damen and Laurent actually do the do."they just finally had makeouts in the last chapter, so progress is being made." from a thread at the LiveJournal community reviewsanon, 21 Nov 2011 (Accessed 12 Dec 2011); archive link; screencap.
==Publication History==
*On Livejournal: Captive Prince and Prince's Gambit were written and posted as a work in progress to the author's Livejournal under the username freece from 2008 to 2012. The first chapter of Book 1 was published in May 2008freece. Captive Prince Prologue, 05 May 2008. (Accessed 24 January 2010); and the final chapter of Prince's Gambit was posted in May 2012.freece. Captive Prince Book Two Chapter Twenty One, 22 May 2012. (Accessed 6 May 2015); It was beta-read by bop_radar. 
*First commercial edition: The first two books were released as paperbacks and ebook versions on February 4th, 2013, published by Gatto.freece. Captive Prince available for pre-order!, 18 January 2013. (Accessed 19 January 2013); 
*Second commercial edition: In May 2013, Pacat announced that the rights to the Captive Prince trilogy had been acquired by Penguin.freece. Huge Captive Prince News!, 23 May 2013. (Accessed 6 May 2015); Captive Prince was published by Penguin in April 2015 and Prince’s Gambit in July 2015. Kings Rising was released on February 2, 2016.
*Short stories: Pacat announced in January 2016 that she would be releasing three extra short stories in the Captive Prince universe; cspacat.com, January 26, 2016; These are available for purchase as of March 2018 via Amazon or the CSPacat/books web page
**Green but for a Season: Published Sept 20, 2016 by Gatto, set during Prince's Gambit, Jord/Aimeric. 
** The Summer Palace: Published Jan 5, 2017 by Gatto, set after the trilogy, Damen/Laurent. 
** The Adventures of Charls, the Veretian Cloth Merchant: Published May 3, 2017 by Gatto, set after the trilogy, Damen/Laurent
* in September 2016 Pacat announced there would actually be another story. @cspacat, , Pet: Published Jan 6, 2018 by Gatto, set during Captive Prince. 
* in October 2018 a collection of the four short stories (Green but for Season, The Summer Palace, The Adventures of Charls, the Veretian Cloth Merchant and Pet) was published by Gatto as one volume.
===Differences between editions===
* The first publication ebooks contained two story extras: in Volume One, a 5,000 short story titled The Training of Erasmus which expanded on pre-book events and introduced new characters. In Volume Two, Chapter Nineteen and a Half at the end of the book expands on Chapter 19 (in which UST between the main characters is finally resolved). Those extras were not included in the paperback versions due to extra cost.freece. Captive Prince ebook and paperback FAQ, 19 January 2013. (Accessed 19 January 2013); 
* Conversely, a map of the story's world only appears in the paperbacks, not in the ebooks.
* Some notable details (like the name of Laurent's homeland: from "Rabat" to "Vere") were changed in the transition from web to book.
* The story extras and map are available in the Penguin print editions, but not the ebooks.
==Reception==
Since its original posting, Captive Prince has enjoyed a steadily growing readership as word of mouth spreads through fandom.Sabeth. "I just started reading Captive Prince today after seeing it recced for, like, the seven millionth time. =3".comment. 23 January 2010. (Accessed 24 January 2010) yourlibrarian. "Not that this story really needs my rec since it seems to be enormously and justifiably well known." What does fanfic leave out?. 11 December 2011. Accessed 13 December 2011. 
One factor for its success is that freece combines popular fannish tropes and clichés with a delightfully plotty approach.lenora_rose."(M/M that starts with a scenario that looks like it will be all bodice-ripperish and cheesy, and rapidly gets more complex and fascinating, and contains a lot more politics than romance or sex. And written to a professional level." untitled. 4 January 2010. (Accessed 24 January 2010) Another factor is freece's open and friendly engagement with her readers, her readiness to answer questions and provide abundant details about her world (as long as they do not contain story spoilers).freece. DVD commentary: Chapter 8. 4 April 2009. (Accessed 24 January 2010)freece. Worldbuilding FAQ. 20 November 2008. (Accessed 24 January 2010) 
Recs will often point out that the novel is both well-written and well-balanced.Sparrow. Rec ID 01821. Unknown date. (Accessed 24 January 2010) Readers highlight aspects such as its intriguing main charactersprincessofg. "i cannot overstate my love for the characterization of the protagonists in this story or the skill with which we see laurent so clearly despite damen's role as unreliable narrator." comment 22 January 2010. (Accessed 24 January 2010) and its careful and intelligent plottingtmelange. "This is exactly why I think so highly of this story. At the beginning, the reader can easily think that it's impossible to realistically move past the awful things that are happening...and yet, here we are. And everything has been so completely, intricately plausible". comment. 30 August 2009. (Accessed 24 January 2010), along with its deftly handled UST.raincitygirl. "All the sexiness is happening in the conversations, and the looking at each other. Go figure. The slashiest slash story that ever slashed, and the protagonists are living like Jane Austen characters." comment. 5 September 2009. (Accessed 24 January 2010)
Some selected reviews:
Since the publication of book 1 and 2, another set of (overwhelmingly positive, as of Feb. 2013) reviews can be found on the retailer platforms, e.g. amazon.
The Daily Dot published an article about the Captive Prince on February 15, 2013: Behind "Captive Prince," S.U. Pacat's bestselling work of slave erotica by Aja Romano.
Reception has not been entirely positive. There are concerns about racism, as the story involves a white character enslaving and abusing a brown/black character.
Mixed reviews of the series were dicussed in the fail fandomanon thread "Was it decided that Captive Prince is bad, after all?"Date: 2018-09-26 04:11 am (UTC):
==Fannish Activity==
*LiveJournal: After a chapter was posted to Livejournal, the comments section usually exploded with mini-reviews and plot speculations. In fact, the discussions between the fans of the story reflect the common fannish engagement with a well-written source like a TV series with a strong story arc where everyone wants to know where it is going and what happens next. As a result this novel turned into a small fandom. In between chapters, the speculation continues in private journalspetit_baobab. Captive Prince "facts". 24 October 2009. (Accessed 24 January 2010)tmelange, dm_wyatt, skig. comment thread. August 31 2009. (Accessed 24 January 2010) as well as the fan community Captive Princes that was founded in May 2009, almost exactly a year after the first chapter was posted.
*tumblr: Much squee, fanart, fanfic, and discussion can be found under the Captive Prince tag.
===Discussion===
In a Q&A session at the_slash_pile in March 2011, fans had the opportunity to ask Pacat questions about the story, her writing process and everything about writing Captive Prince as long as it wasn't a spoiler.freece in the_slash_pile. Q&A with Freece, 09 March 2011. (10 March 2011). 
As per fan request, Pacat has also posted DVD commentaries for some chapters, and has posted about her techniques for crafting the much-praised tension in a Dec. 2012 blog post. freece/Cat in Anna Cowan's blog. tension, 12 December 2012. (Accessed 8 February 2013). 
===One Kingdom===
One Kingdom was a 2016 Captive Prince charity zine. All proceeds went to the Australian Childhood Foundation. captiveprincezine faq page on tumblr. , July 21 2016. (Accessed Feb 13 2018).
==Example Fanworks==
===Common Tropes===
*Laurent's hair: despite being talked about often and at length in the books, no one actually knows how long Laurent's hair is, leaving fan artists or fic writers to decide for themselves.
*Bottom!Damen: Since the canon does not show this aspect of the main pairing's dynamic, fanworks often depict the first time Damen is the receiving partner during intercourse. 
*Auguste: A number of fanworks explore the relationship between Laurent and his brother Auguste, including fix-it scenarios where Auguste is alive. 
===Main Pairings===
Per AO3's sidebar, most fanworks focused on canon relationships. Indeed, out of 902 works posted under the fandom's tag as of March 2017 (Reflecting how its popularity grew, there are 4,230 fics in February 2024): 
* 706 works were tagged Damen/Laurent, the clear juggernaut pairing ()
* 35 works were tagged Aimeric/Jord
* 28 works were tagged Jord/Nikandros (the most common fanon pairing)
* 24 works were each tagged Erasmus/Torveld or Lazar/Pallas respectively
Other minor pairings include Erasmus/Kallias and Damen/Jokaste. Later, Ancel/Berenger also became more popular, and there is a small group of Auguste/Laurent shippers
===Fanart===
*A Merry Chase by JessKat83, an inked and coloured illustration commissioned by iconmaichan808 for the help_japan charity auction. ()
* and , two pieces by by daunt. 
* by shiroi_ten for Roga. 
* on theopteryx's Tumblr, including many Laurent portraits.
===Fanfiction===
Captive Prince AO3 tag
*Lines on Palms series by Fahye (35k, Damen/Laurent, AU). Part 1 was posted as part of yuletide 2013. 
*Something Good by wendlaa (14k, Damen/Laurent, AU where Auguste Lives). 
*An Arranged Marriage by Josselin (17k, Damen/Laurent and Damen/Jokaste, AU where Auguste Lives). 
*A Better Side of You to Admire by yekoc (3,7k, Damen/Laurent PWP, Damen bottoms for the first time). 
===Podfic===
Captive Prince podfic AO3 tag 
*Captive Prince Tumblr Ficlet: First Anniversary by Fahye (Podfic) by Rhea314
*(Podfic) A Collection of Captive Prince Podfics - 5 Tumblr ficlets written by Fahye by greedydancer
*(Podfic) the most Melbourne bakery AU ever to exist, possibly by lunchee
=== Zines ===
* Learn It Slowly
==Further Reading/Meta==
* (June 11, 2016)
==Notes==
==References==
Category:Captive Prince
Category:Fandoms by Source Text
Category:Books & Literature