Hero's Torch

by 19

Fear and faith are indivisible on the Republic of Earth. Privacy is nonexistent, creativity is a crime, and intelligence is a heresy. Leander Schaiden has spent his young life in a battle against the Church, seeking any freedom he can steal. The Septarch is immortal and all-powerful, far beyond the control of the Republic. Leander considers him a tale told to frighten children. Leander is wrong.

Words: 107,190 complete

Genres: Science Fiction, Horror, Dark, M M Romance, Abuse, BDSM, Dystopia

322 pages, ebook

First published December 20, 2014

About the author

Pseud: 19

I write transgressive gay fiction. Horror to some, erotica to others. Addictive and probably not at all good for your sanity or your immortal soul. Nothing about me is ever safe for work.

When I am not busy making you pretty nightmares I am playing with pointy things and spending time with my beloved family: a few zombies, a collection of poisonous plants, and two black cats.

http://darkmaestro19.tumblr.com/
http://archiveofourown.org/users/XIX
https://www.facebook.com/darkmaestro19

Reviews

[LenaRibka · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found a wonderful quote by Kafka about books, and couldn't resist posting it here, because it describes exactly the works of XIX.

I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us. If the book we’re reading doesn’t wake us up with a blow on the head, what are we reading it for? [...] We need the books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us. That is my belief.


Franz Kafka

3,5 stars

WARNING: graphic depictions of violence, rape, child abduction, cannibalism, murder, drugs, blasphemy, sadism.



There are two things I 'd like to mention before I start to talk about this book:

1**. I would have never read it if I hadn't read Schadenfreude.
(Not my genre and blah-blah)

2**. I don't know how my reaction to this book would have been if I hadn't read Schadenfreude
(Not my genre and blah-blah)

Means: ** I'll ALWAYS connect the name of the author with his Schadenfreude. Even if he wins the National Book Awards in the future for whatever, he'll be in the first place an author of Schadenfreude for me.
(Hats off!)


Means: ** While reading Hero's Torch I couldn't stop to comparing it to Schadenfreude. My rating here and now only shows HOW MUCH MORE I liked Schadenfreude.(A row diamond. A masterpiece.)

I discovered this author OCCASIONALLY. (How happy I am for it!) It's my third and the last book that has been published by XIX. I am a bit sad, because I wish that all writers who have such unique writing skills could be able to make writing to their full-time work and be able to devote themselves fully to writing. I NEED URGENTLY MORE OF THIS KIND OF BOOK.(politically incorrect? NO--> HONEST. REAL. F***G AWESOME).
On the other side I'm not sure that a replete and satisfied artist/painter/writer can make something such unusual, provocative, compelling and creative without fearing of a loss of reputation.
So...VIVA LA VIDA(?) and thank you, dear author, for not be afraid to write WHAT you WANT and the way you DO IT.

Be aware, my friends - it is not a mainstream novel, not your usual candy f*g story. DON'T READ IT if you're too vanilla. Make a huge detour around it in this case.


Hero's Torch is one of XIX's early work, almost his first written novel, and even if many readers see the parallels between the MCs and the plots here and in Schadenfreude, I have to admit, that in spite of my continuously COMPARING, I don't actually consider those two books similar. In this case all romance books are similar and actually about the same- two humans(or not humans-in a paranormal genre) meet, fall in love and live HEA, right?
No no no, Schadenfreude und Hero's Torch ARE different. Starting from the genre, the characters themselves, the dynamic of their relationship and the ending! These two books are different. IMO.

Back to HT.

The plot:

In the post-apocalyptic future there is only one State on Earth- The Republic of Earth, where everything rules by the State and the Church. Where privacy is non-existent, creativity is a crime, and intelligence is a terrible curse. Leander is 14 year old INTELLIGENT boy, who has enough of skills to be hated for by the government and mediocrity, who silently expresses his protest against THEM(big brothers) in his own way blowing things up.

An immortal monster, The Emperor of All Things Unseen, Oberon, who lives thousands light years away from Earth but who has state-of-the-art technology that allows him to reach it pretty quickly, comes to the planet to pick up his next victims (they are always kids) for playing his sadistic games. (An immortal life could be very boring sometimes).

This time it is Leander who is chosen, or better to say, Leander is someone who uncontrollably forces Oberon to chose HIM. WHY? And how can a boy feels this inexplicable strong attachment to the worst monster of all the times like Oberon?

What happens next is not always easy to read, it is disturbing and pretty ugly on pages. Check the warning before you decide to give it a try. Be ready to be shocked and be ready to face a darkness.

Though I can only repeat myself---> Don't be afraid to step out of your comfort zone, you could be rewarded with a powerful unique prose from one of the most talented writers that you don't come across normally too often in your life (IMO) a totally new reading experience.

And it's worth a try.


P.S. Buddy read with Sofia. I wish I had had more time to talk about while reading!!! RL.

[Sofia · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Disturbing read

With parts I definitely did NOT want to read

It was the other parts that held me........



I think what I found most disturbing was the fact that I read it anyway, I kept on reading eventhough I did not enjoy the dark bits because the connection XIX created between Oberon and Leander pulled me in. The Italians have a saying 'anime gemelle' which mean 'twin souls' and it was this that he wrote, very darkly so, but still this.

This is my second XIX read, I read The Kingdom of Heaven and although I liked that more, I still noted that the writing goes down well with me plus I admire his ability with imagery.

a slow read with Lena - well I tried to read as slow as possible.

[Steelwhisper · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was seriously underwhelmed by this story. Going by all the reviews and glowing comments I at the very least expected a well-written, well-plotted work of good prose and sound psychology. As you can see from my rating this was not the case. It may have ended as 2* except for a few additional issues I'll address behind spoiler tags

Spoilers ahead...

The prose and writing were banal, as was the development of the characters. Constant helter-skelter POV changes, mid-sentence at times, and the attempt at strewing the oeuvre with a wide array of references (most little more than single words) which try to project being well-read and researched in matters of religion, satanism and other spiritual concepts, alongside a rough stream of consciousness makes this a very exhausting, often downright boring read. Most of the psychology displayed was at best a haphazard approach, not much steeped in or deducted from actual human behaviour and pathology.

The goal of this book appears to be as shocking as possible, tabling as many objets de resistance as feasible in such a constricted format, and to provide the readers with a "made it through" and "look what I read!" kind of experience: paedophilia, rape, vivisection, cannibalism, severe torture, you name it, it's probably here or there in this tapestry of gore.

Alas, none of this is done well enough to leave a lasting impression, or even just some major reaction. I point to the other paragraph--I found the gore boring and the strained attempt to shock me, well, not shocking, just very--strained.

The story itself tried to sell me the romance of a 14-year-old boy and an over 200-year-old immortal, both of whom are pathological psychopaths and sadists. One budding, the other already well-expressed. It's here that the psychology goes completely batshit, this story truly needs a bit more research in that department. I've no idea whether the attempt at depicting something approaching Stockholm Syndrome was done on purpose or not. Let it suffice to state that no, it really doesn't work like that either.

I might have still given this 2* for effort and a couple of nicely written scenes, if there hadn't been some really enervating factors: if you write torture, please do get the physiology right. Then, please do keep the bloody religion out of it. Yes, I got it, you base your dystopia on this, sorry, I do not only not believe in such a turn, I was enervated by this constant preachiness. The torture was not very compelling or horrible or original. Try Val McDermid for this!

I'm astonished at the positive ratings and reactions. This is not in the league of a Clive Barker, not to speak of a Lovecraft or Kafka.

[Danny Tyran · Rating 4 out of 5]

The script is the same than Schadenfreude's:
Once upon a time, there was a young boy who met a monster who tortured him. But the youth fell deeply in love with the monster because they complemented and they had common interests. People tried to separate them and nearly destroyed their relationship. But the youth and the monster ended up together again and they lived happily ever after. And they had (and ate) many children. Cruel fairy tales. lolll

The main difference between the two books is that Hero's Torch is SF; the other could be call a historical novel.

The heart of the story is the relationship between Leander, a 14-year-old Terran, and Oberon, the immortal Septarch (sort of King), of an alien planet. Oberon is a true monster. His favorite pleasure is to torture and eat children. He needs children to go on with his "pastime". So he comes to Earth to find new ones.
The Earth is controlled by hyper Christians who do not tolerate the littlest differences (homophobia is one of their leitmotiv, masturbation is not tolerated and so on). Leander is a brilliant, talented but rebellious teen who has been sent to reconditioning. That means that he was tortured--by supposedly good psychologists--to be as Christians and respectful of the laws as everybody else. He has much enough of that prison of a planet that Earth has become since the last war (dystopia).
Then Oberon comes to Earth. Leander is one of the teenagers and children among whom Oberon is going to choose his next victims. But Oberon, having looked at all the children and teenagers, wants to leave without taking anyone because none seems to him rather interesting, until Leandre shouts him "Wait".
EVERYBODY is absolutely frightened by Oberon (with very good reasons). This is the first time someone dares to look him in the eyes and tell him something, certainly not "wait". But Leandre is made to become the accomplice of Oberon. It seems to him that he has always known the Septarch, that he finds beautiful.
And this is the story of the beginning of their relationship. An extremely cruel relationship.
Yes, there are unbearable scenes (children raped and eviscerated or dismembered, and finally devoured, people impaled, and so on), but the author focuses on their relationship. At the end, we come to want Leander to kill his own father. That is to say how much the author managed to make us understand the point of view of Leandre.
The author says that predators are the best of the human species and that they have every right to be what they are. This story made me think about which are acceptable behaviors and which are not. How much can we be repressive to feel safe? Should we not let the nature take care of deciding who should survive and who should die? Who are we to decide that we are better than nature or god (as some call it) to decide?
At the beginning of the last century, everybody thought that homosexuality was an illness and that we could and should cure it. Some therapists even used electroshocks to cure those who were considered as "sick." Now, people who practice D/s and BDSM are considered sick, so they dare not “come out”. In the future, our prejudices and our desires to heal by any means those who are different will fall on who? What will be their new “sickness”?

A few sentences from the book:

*I'd rather be weird than stupid.
*Aren't you tired of being...safe?
*Life imitates arts.
*He had learned the trick of suffering was to yield, to stop resisting, and that the sensations that followed were indescribable, addictive.
*Speaking of God, Oberon asks a woman: "Don't you think you're a little old to have an imaginary friend?"

[S.M. Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Damn. Each book I read by XIX immediately becomes my favorite. The writing "voice," the way he uses language to tell you a story... just draws me in and holds me captive. I can almost hear him saying, "Let me tell you a nightmare, little girl..." He gives life and imagery to ideas that have long resided in my own dark corners, and I just adore him for it.

Hero's Torch opens in dystopian future Earth, where religion and government have become a twisted mindfuck... either you embrace the mindset of the borg, or suffer months of reconditioning.

Our protagonist, Leander Schaiden, is a bright and creative teen who cannot buy into the societal collective beliefs (Christianity-based) of post-apocalyptic Earth. He's been reconditioned once already, and it didn't work.

When he's passed over by the Septarch, (in a ritualized child-reaping process that I'm not even going to try to simplify into a brief explanation)... Leander speaks out, "Wait," to the horror of his parents and everyone else. Being passed over is a relief, cause for joy. Calling attention to oneself, unheard of.

Leander, the first to dare to speak to the Septarch in 200 years.

And so Leander is taken, destined for a future of rape, torture, and death. But it's got to be better (and more honest) than spending the rest of his life on Earth being forced to worship a god he doesn't believe in.

This work is gruesome and graphic, explicit, and unpretty. And that's a beautiful thing. Really.

What I found most powerful in this story was the depiction of parental love, how Leander's father will go to any length to "rescue" Leander, to put Leander back into the borg-box where he "belongs," even if being in the box is the death of everything that makes Leander Leander.

Powerful stuff, boys and girls. Take a risk. Enjoy the darkness.

[Dreamer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a dark, dark fiction featuring the torture and rape of children. Fourteen year old anarchist schoolboy Leander is taken from a dystopian Earth where he does not fit in. He finds a soulmate in Oberon the Septarch, Emperor of All Things Unseen. This is a horrifying story but a compelling read for all that.

"You know what this place is?" he said, finally, gesturing at the entire cell block. "This is hell. He has rooms full of stuff you would not believe. They took a serial killer and gave him his own fucking planet."

[Jewel · Rating 4 out of 5]

19's Schadenfruede is a near flawless novel, in my opinion. I can't say the same about Hero's Torch, though it had a lot of truly incredible five star moments.

Again, 19 pushed my boundaries on what I thought I could handle while reading. Lots of dark stuff going on in this book. It's an unrepentant gore fest. The two main characters who fall in love are complete sociopaths. Oberon, however, knows his true nature. Leander does not, and this book is basically watching him come to terms and embrace his own depravity, while Oberon learns to be tender toward his new lover.

I loved the main characters interactions. They were such a memorable couple, and their total power exchange dynamic was completely flipped midway through so that the submissive became a bit of a dominant, which was a very interesting turn of events. In real life, I'd want to strangle Oberon, who is truly an evil, evil person, really pushing my limits despite the fact that I love villains in books. But his love for Leander was real, and that made me able to connect with him.

I could have done without the excessive torture, though. And I also could have done without all the characters repeatedly pontificating about how terrible religion is. It became quite tedious after a while (especially considering I've read other works by 19, that do this same exact thing). I get it. You don't like religion. But there's no nuance to the characters opinions about religious people. There's no acknowledgement that some religious people are good and kind, and some use religion as an excuse to be vile. In 19's books, religious people are always horrible authoritarians.

Although the main characters who judge the religious in this book are murderers. So maybe they're meant to come off as a little bit hypocritical? I don't know.

This is just a small complaint. For most of this novel, I was glued to the pages and riveted by the horror mixed with sweet romance. It shouldn't have worked so well, but it did. These two main characters are savages, and can get along with no one but each other. Despite their bloodthirstiness, you end up rooting for them.

I hear this might be a series, and I'm really excited. 19's other novels would be diminished if he wrote anything else about them, but Hero's Touch would only benefit from a sequel. I don't think these characters are quite finished yet.

[Don · Rating 2 out of 5]

Torture porn by an extremely talented writer. Unfortunately, this is an early work of his and it shows. It's rangy and way too full of elements that are intended for shock value only, lending an almost immature twist to the proceedings. It does have it's moments, however. The writing is compelling enough to have kept me going through scene after scene of female cooties before getting down to any gritty M/M torture, of which there is precious little. Yes, the MCs are two males in love who live for and lust after the same kind of torturing, but when all is said and done, this is not M/M literature, per se. It's MfffffM torture porn (upper and lower cases intended). The only saving grace about all of this is that it paved the author's way to the brilliant Schadenfreude. Now that's the book to read!

[Kim BookJunkie ~ Editor & Proofreader · Rating 4 out of 5]

”For the Bible told them so.”

If you’ve read anything by 19, you know how incredible this man’s mind is. You would also know how hard it is to describe how unbelievably intelligent and talented he is. Although he uses words I often didn’t recognize, because he such a skilled storyteller, it was never difficult to keep up with the story. In HERO’S TORCH, 19 has birthed characters and worlds I never could have imagined (and because I am not even 1/4 as talented as 19, I won’t try to describe here). Just know that if you read this book, you will be transported to amazing places and you will read about things that are shocking, beautiful, disgusting, touching and unequivocally, astoundingly unique.

[Hisfreckleswerestars Hisfreckleswerestars · Rating 1 out of 5]

hi I can't recommend an erotica with underage elements and rape. I just can't.

[Rhiannon Pardee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have no idea where to start with this novel because it's so obscure and just- warped and demented. Rebellious misfit boy leander, who refuses to conform on earth gets sent to another planet to be a slave to their vile cruel leader, oberon. Except they end up falling in love with one another. And- yeah that's basically the main point. Doesnt sound too bad. Until you realize oberons favorite thing to do is rape and torture children. "Fitting" them once he gets tired of them by using a device that enables any and all movements killing them by ruptures, starvation or dehydration. That leander, his "lover" is only 14, graphic gay sex scenes between them. Both of them turned on by things like watching a little girl being eaten alive, cutting eachother, licking/tearing out eyeballs, raping a girl with a sex toy adorned with razors, having sex in a pit of biting bugs etc etc. As far as I'm concerned this is a gore fetishism novel. The horror fan in me finds that super unique and it's got the level of shock I WANT in disturbing novels. The settings in this world, the scifi machinery, back stories, its all detailed and imaginative. It's not a BAD story as a whole if you can handle disturbing imagery. But the pedophilia is the main thing that really throws me off. And its blunt about it to the point of being almost appaling. I get that's kinda the point of the story, but theres limits that should really not be passed sometimes even for the sake of shock value. Otherwise I Would've had no issues with the story at all if the characters were of age. So yeah 3 stars I think it's pretty fair.

[Rhiannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was fucking HEINOUS. And that’s not a bad thing. I’m really fond of the few works this author has put out because while I enjoy a more extreme side to horror, I’ve had run ins with splatterpunk and most are trying really hard to be shocking or scary. 19 has a more apathetic (or sociopathic?) style treating suffering/ carnage like it’s a simple game and amusement for the moment. removing the humanity of a victim making them come off as a simple “plaything.” there’s a lot of philosophical exploration in the ways the characters think and their reason for approaching things the way they do. He tries to rationalize and normalize disgusting shit. It makes violence seem like it has purpose, and makes me interested in the character as immoral or horrible as they may be. This is a fantastic horror writer, trying to put you into that cold dark headspace not just be told about some fucked up stuff going on. This novel (much like his others) sexualizes violence. Trying to make it seem more passionate and macabre than just a b horror splatter fest. It is also a love story and so there is also that aspect trying to romanticize things in a poetic way. As far as horror goes, it’s pretty brutal. Live cannibalism of a young child colosseum style. Licking eyeballs. Being eaten alive by bugs. Skewering, cutting, death by dildo adorned with razor blades. Torture devices. Absolutely morbid yet somehow desensitizing at the same time.

[Neyjour · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh wow...this story was absolutely riveting! I've never read anything quite like it before. Just like the authors' other story (Schadenfreude), I could not put this one down. Stayed up all night to read it from start to finish!

Schadenfreude was very dark and disturbing, but this one is even more so. It's extremely violent, bloody, gory, and has a lot of very graphic, disturbing content, so make sure you heed the warnings before you give it a try.

The protags (Oberon and Leander) are not the "good guys". They're sick, twisted, sadistic killers who love to murder, maim and torture...and I loved them! They were both such incredibly fascinating characters, and together they were just so wonderful and perfect for each other...in that sweet, serial killer kind of way. :P Lots of great character development as well, especially in regards to Leander. I loved seeing how he embraced his true nature and became a killer, with Oberon's guidance. The supporting characters were also very interesting and well written.

A major kudos to the author for his amazing skill in making me care about these "evil" characters so much, and having me root for them all the way! And make no mistake...they both have some major traumas in their past (especially Oberon), but that's not what makes them the way they are. They're not "misunderstood" heroes with redeeming qualities, who turn out to be not as bad as we're led to believe. They were born that way, and they remain that way through the entire story...possibly becoming even more bloodthirsty once they connect with each other. They are definitely soulmates, IMO. :)

The only thing I really hated about this story was the kiddie rape/molestation. Now, I'd read the warning in the description, but I didn't think this would apply to the main characters. But Unfortunately, it did. That disturbed me quite a LOT, and it's a line I really wish the author hadn't crossed. (I really wish he'd just had the kids tortured/killed, like everyone else, and left out the sexual stuff). But ultimately, I loved everything else so much that I tried to mentally delete those parts from my brain, and pretend like they didn't exist. If I didn't do that, I would have ended up hating the characters, and giving up on the story. So...5-stars for my personal, mentally-edited version. :P And 4-stars for the original pedophilia version. :(

On a side note...does anyone know if this author has written anything else? And if so, where can it be found?

[Seb · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have mixed feelings about this book, as I have with all of 19's books. On the one hand, it had (and still has, to be honest) a huge emotional impact on me, when I read it in it's infancy, and any time I've read it since. It's one of those books that I will randomly remember at any given time, and think fondly of - but it is also a book that horrifies me in retrospect.
It's erotica/horror, and there's no doubt that it's meant to shock. There are so many unhealthy elements in this book, and I worry about others who might read it, and not be clear about what's horror and what's erotica, because the lines are very blurry. On the other hand - I guess that's also why I personally like it. It's tied together with a certain time in my life, a certain mindset, and it's outrageous and undeniably fucked-up in all possible ways, and completely unashamed of that. It sets up a dichotomy between adhering completely to a totalitarian society's hypocritical morals, or ignoring the concept of morals all together. It is also a queer space opera.
I love it, but I don't like that I love it.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was extremely impressed by this book. It constantly pulled all sorts of emotions out of me, good and bad and I was glued to the screen to find out what happens next, like a rollercoaster; scary but incredibly enjoyable. The main characters were well developed, there were times that they did things I really didn't agree with, and others where I had to pull a smile, no character was set in black and white where I could distinguish whether they were really a 'bad' or 'good' person. I can't speak for everyone when I say this was exactly the story I was looking for, but for me, it certainly was.

[Denise White · Rating 5 out of 5]

AMAZING!!

This book will not be for everyone but it was for me!! The complexity of the characters and the world building was breath taking... I just loved Leander... And Oberstorn as well... Neither are nice our loveable characters but it was a method to their madness which had me hooked... Around 86% of the book I got pissed!! I just didn't understand the turn of events.. But it came together so brilliantly.. I will definitely be reading more from this author!!!