Life Prison (Life Prison: Mercy's Prisoner, #1)

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Life Prison (Life Prison: Mercy's Prisoner #1)

by Dusk Peterson (Goodreads Author)

3.67 of 5 stars 3.67 · rating details · 18 ratings · 7 reviews

In the unmerciful world of Mercy Prison, there is no rule but unending pain. For Merrick, the arrival of his new guard provides hope that he may break beyond the boundaries of his life prison. But appearances can be deceptive, and Merrick does not yet recognize the danger this guard poses to his future.

The novella "Life Prison" is the first story in the first volume of the...more

ebook, 110 pages

Published September 29th 2008

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Jul 27, 2011 A.B. Gayle rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-person-pov

This is a story about expectations and preconceptions. If you believe you are nothing, that the system around you is wrong and your fellow inmates no better than you then what hope do you have?

Ever since he arrived in Mercy Prison, Merrick has dreamed and schemed about ways to gain his release, which, for him, is death.

He has long ago decided who he is, his attitude to life and the worth of the people around him. He thinks he knows it all. Then he is put under the charge of Thomas, a man younger...more

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Jun 22, 2010 Pradlee rated it 3 of 5 stars

Seriously confusing, but deep at the same time. The two main characters of the first story (Thomas and Merrick) have some kind of complicated relationship, where one thinks he is manipulating the other, but really he's being manipulated, but HE's being manipulated...

*spoiler*

I disliked the ending a bit. Although it was nice/happy/fulfilling that Merrick became a reformer of treatment of prisoners (despite being a prisoner himself), it was disappointing that his view of life changed so dramatical...more

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Jan 16, 2011 Lisa rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Fans of psychological drama/Prison drama

Shelves: novella, drama, glbt, historical-fiction, m-m, psychological-drama, favorites

Mercy and Compassion — they are life prisons, asylums where the prisoners are dehumanized, where the guards rape and torture their charges at will, and where there are no wardens, only the Keepers of Mercy and Compassion. They are jails without boundaries, not without walls and cells, but without the moral constraints of human kindness. “And soon you will come to discover that a lack of boundaries can mean only one thing: pain, pain, and unending pain.”

The prison names are a perversion, an oxymo...more Mercy and Compassion — they are life prisons, asylums where the prisoners are dehumanized, where the guards rape and torture their charges at will, and where there are no wardens, only the Keepers of Mercy and Compassion. They are jails without boundaries, not without walls and cells, but without the moral constraints of human kindness. “And soon you will come to discover that a lack of boundaries can mean only one thing: pain, pain, and unending pain.”

The prison names are a perversion, an oxymoron of the very definition of the words, a place where the prisoners debate the most dreadful aspects of Mercy and Compassion. Mercy and Compassion are the places from which Death becomes the only means of escape. They are the places where Life itself imprisons far more cruelly than the bricks and mortar that surround their inhabitants.

Mercy and Compassion are places where the desire for self-murder is far exceeded by the capacity to accomplish the act. They are places in which the weapon of excessive torture is the directive that the prisons’ inhabitants will die by natural courses rather than by their own hands or at the hands of the guards who abuse them. The best way for a prisoner to cope is to disentangle himself from useless emotions. They are the places where Merrick, a man who has been sentenced to pass the remainder of his existence for the murder of his three year old niece, has trained himself to ignore the screams and cries of his fellow inmates, to scorn those who have found mercy and compassion in the arms of their fellow prisoners.

Merrick is a man who is both emotionally and physically impotent; he is a man who has, but once in his life, attained any degree of gratification, and it occurred at the moment his knife slipped into the skin of a little girl in the middle of a sun-drenched and flower strewn field. It is a chilling portrait of the loss of innocence and the beauty of the author’s ability to paint the images and moods of the scene with nothing more than words.

Thomas is a new guard to whom Merrick has been assigned. As the son of the Keeper of Compassion, the prison where the guards are particularly sadistic, Merrick fantasizes that he might be capable of manipulating the young man into setting him free — by death or by door, either will be an escape. Merrick’s reputation is one of cold, hostile inhumanity, and Thomas has been assigned to him as punishment for a transgression he’d committed. Merrick coolly and meticulously begins planning his manipulation of the naïve boy. Thomas, however, may very well be more than he appears: “It happens that way sometimes. You discover early on that you’re different from how people expect you to be.”

Thomas is the personification of Mercy and Compassion, a man who exemplifies that the capacity for kindness does not signify an inclination toward weakness. He is the unwitting pawn in Merrick’s machinations…or perhaps it is the pawn who will control the outcome of the dance between predator and prey. It is a dance that will surely change Merrick for the remainder of his days as surely as there is no doubt as to whom was in the lead from the start. The scenario provides a gorgeous bit of irony and leads to the poignant redemption of the seemingly irredeemable.

Written in the first person, Life Prison is a dark, eloquent, and absorbing psychological tale that delves into the mind of a killer who, perhaps incongruously, manages to evolve into a sympathetic character in spite of the horror of his crime.

The setting of this story is desolate, the atmosphere devoid of hope, yet the ending leaves the reader with the belief in the transformative power of, yes, mercy and compassion.
(less)

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Jun 19, 2011 Dusk Peterson added it · (Review from the author)

Shelves: friendship-fiction-and-gay-fiction, my-own-books, alternative-universe-and-alt-histor, prisoner-fiction, maryland-setting, historical-fantasy, 1890s-setting

[Excerpt.]

When Thomas arrived the next morning – it was my weekly day of rest from work, so I was engaging in a particularly agonizing examination of the walls – I said, before he could speak, "I'm sorry about my bad temper last time. I get out of sorts occasionally."

"Not at all." His reply was cool, as were his eyes, which rested upon me heavily, like a block of ice. It came to me as I watched him that this young man, whatever his flaws might be, had received personal training from Compassion's...more [Excerpt.]

When Thomas arrived the next morning – it was my weekly day of rest from work, so I was engaging in a particularly agonizing examination of the walls – I said, before he could speak, "I'm sorry about my bad temper last time. I get out of sorts occasionally."

"Not at all." His reply was cool, as were his eyes, which rested upon me heavily, like a block of ice. It came to me as I watched him that this young man, whatever his flaws might be, had received personal training from Compassion's Keeper. He could not be quite the fool he appeared to be.

I'm nothing if not flexible, as Sedgewick had pronounced on the day he tried me in a dozen different positions. I let the smile drop from my face and said in my normal voice, "Well? What brings you here?"

The coolness disappeared from his eyes, and he said, "The usual. See to your needs and all that. The dancing girls are on their way, but I'm afraid I couldn't fit the performing elephant into the stairwell."

There was a moment's silence, and then, despite myself, I burst into laughter. Thomas grinned like a boy and moved forward, keeping well away from me and resting his hand on his dagger. He inspected the rubbish hole first, then the water – going so far as to give the wall a lick – and then, satisfied, moved to the other end of the cell. "You're short a blanket," he said. "That's against regulations."

I snorted. "There aren't any regulations in the life prisons, or hadn't you noticed?"

"Well, there are customs." He was inspecting the blankets now, checking them for secreted objects. "Short-tail whip – that's the type used at Mercy. Compassion uses the black whip – longer range, harder to control. Four of the other life prisons use the straight whip – rather like a bamboo rod, but more flexible. The remainder use the bamboo rod alone. . . . Your cell could do with some tidying."

Yes, he'd been trained by a Keeper all right. I wondered whether he thought he was scaring me. "What type of bamboo rod?" I asked. "Imported or domestic? The type that splinter? We had a prisoner last year who came close to dying from the splinters alone."

"Those ought to be banned." He got up from his hands and knees from inspecting under my bed. I had retreated into the corner to allow him to do this without nervousness. As he dusted off his hands on his trousers, he said, "Mind you, if a guard does his work properly, he needn't resort to any of those." He looked over at me.

It was hard to say whether his speech was more effective as an apology or as a threat. I was beginning to think that I might have underestimated this young man.(less)

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Feb 23, 2010 Elisa Ramblings added it

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Jan 09, 2013 Nemesis rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: genre-gay-themed, novellas-word-count-30k-35k, sexcontent-m-m, theme-dark, characters-prisoners, characters-killers, setting-prison, setting-alternate-universe, theme-sexual-abuse-in-prison

3.5 stars
There were some disturbing moments that involved the protagonist of this story. The protagonist himself is not easy to read about, even more how this is told from his point of view. It's a well-written story, but in my opinion too short for the message it tried to deliver.

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Oct 23, 2010 Deanna rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: m-m, ebook

It's haunting, beautiful and confusing. I feel like there are several more layers of meaning beyond my grasp.

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Shelves: daddy-dark-s-baby-warrior-list

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Shelves: kink, m-m

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Shelves: novella

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Shelves: wish-list, mm, dmc

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About Dusk Peterson

Dusk Peterson writes fantasy, historical fantasy, science fiction, and contemporary fiction. Suspense plays an important role in many of the tales; the conflict in those tales is both external and internal. Peterson's stories are often placed in dark settings, such as prisons or wartime locations. The mood of the stories, however, is not one of unrelieved gloominess: friendship, heterosexual love,...more

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Life Prison (Life Prison: Mercy's Prisoner #1)

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