Kal'an by Lyka Bloom (#fantasy #transformation #erotica)

Since I had so much fun with the idea last week, I am continuing with something a little different today, with a series of Lyka Bloom reviews scattered throughout the day. Happy Bloomday!

Both something new and different from the pen of Lyka Bloom, Kal'an is a satisfyingly large 16,000 word novella that gives rise to a new epic saga that is currently planned for at least two more books. This is an erotic epic fantasy unlike anything she has written before, and one that should serve to open up a whole new kind of readership.

When Lyka mentioned that she was working on a story loosely based on John Norman's Gor novels, I was ridiculously excited. I fell in love with that world's sci-fi submission and slavery during my teenage years, rereading the handful of novels written from the Kajira point-of-view over and over, and always wished that he would explore just one transgender character. While it is unlike he will ever fulfill that wish, Lyka has provided the next best thing.

Kal'an opens here, on Earth, with a story of three friends exploring a new tunnel in some subterranean caves. The detail is fantastic, capturing both the awe and the fear of the experience, and their sudden emergence into a new world with twin suns is handled quite nicely, with one brave explorer, one cautious friend, and some unbalanced young man in denial. The arrival of a caravan of cat-like humanoids is played perfectly, with the capture and delivery of the humans taking us deeper into the world.

I hesitate to say too much about that world, but 'Soft Path' offered to captives is both sinister and seductive, described in magical terms, with a sense of ceremony and pageantry to the transformation. We do not get a lot of sexual submission here, more a recounting of nights passed, but what we do get is enough to establish the plight of captives on Kal'an. In, by far, the most plot-driven of all her books, Lyka keeps the story moving with surprises, betrayals, and revelations that continue to expand this new world and add even greater detail. It does end on something of a cliffhanger, but this is a complete story in itself, with the next chapter promising something even bigger and bolder.

If you are a fan of heroic fantasy, sexual slavery, and gender transformation, then Kal'an is pretty much the book you (and I) have been looking for.

Lyka Bloom lives and works in Tennessee as a technical writer. She has always enjoyed the exploration of fantasies, from the mundane to the kinky, generally revolving around hypnosis, mind control and transformation.

http://www.lykabloom.com/
@LykaBloom1

Reviewed by Sally