The Seduction of the Desert Prince

Fanfiction
Title:	The Seduction of the Desert Prince
Author(s):	The Krell - Killa, Rachael Sabotini, elynross
Date(s):	09.07.1998 - 09.03.2014
Length:	220,000
Genre(s):	slavefic, AU
Fandom(s):	Highlander
Relationship(s):
External Links:	original archive on Lair of the Krell complete version on AO3
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

The Seduction of the Desert Prince is a Highlander story written by Killa, Rachael Sabotini, and elynross. It was started in 1998, and the final five chapters were added in 2014 (after an eight-year pause.)

Related works

• Passion by astolat is a Constructed Reality vid made of the story (circa 2002, according to DP_Announce list.)

Recs and Reviews

First, I want to assure you that this is the only WIP that will ever be recced in this community and to warn you that this WIP will probably never be completed. If you're like me and infinitely bothered by a story without an end, run away! On the other hand, you have over thirty chapters that are completed, with smut galore, so it's a pretty satisfying read even without an ending.

The Seduction of the Desert Prince is a round robin between three of the best writers in the Highlander fandom, started all the way back in 1998. Apparently the goal was to write a Harlequinesque slave AU with no redeeming plot and mountains of sex, but after thirty chapters a plot got in there anyway (otherwise, this story probably wouldn't be recced).

General premise: A couple of hundred years go, Methos goes off to market and buys a pretty immortal slave with a charming Scottish accent. He then offers to let said slave buy back his freedom with copious amounts of sex. I think you can work out how the rest of the story goes. Shamelessly smutty, full of all of your favorite cliches, and basically a giant fanfic puff pastry (which is what makes it so good:)

One page, called Slash Fiction Online (http://slash.virtualave.net/) is an example of the most useful kind of site in the ringworld-those that offer glossaries and meta-critiques of fan writing so that the reader can go directly to stories that have impressed at least one other reviewer in the circle. At this site there are 82 current listings of reviewed stories written by 55 separate authors. I visited about ten percent of these websites and discovered that each one had dozens of stories, either by the author of the story listed, or by additional authors who share the site-another indication of the extent of the phenomenon.

An excellent example of "slash " fiction that illustrates both the quality and the conventions of this genre is by a group of three women who jointly call themselves The Krell. ( http://www.mediafans.org/krelldom/desert/prince1.htm). The Seduction of the Desert Prince is an illustrated novel of nineteen chapters based on the television show The Highlander and its primary character Duncan MacLeod, but is set in an "alternative universe," i.e. a setting other than that provided by the creators of the television series. The story centers on the intimate relationship between Duncan MacLeod and a desert prince who has bought him as a slave. Typical of slash fiction, there are extended sex scenes, but they are few in number, relative to male-authored gay erotica, and they are embedded in a plausible and suspenseful plot. The characters are well developed, and they ring true to the original series, which is a primary criterion of success in fan fiction.

In email exchanges with the authors of this novel, I asked what motivated them to write, since it was clearly not financial gain or commercial success. One author who responded said that writing is a hobby and an avocation and that "doing it professionally would add levels of stress…and personal expectation that I don't have with my fan fiction" (elynross). Another of the authors told me that she wrote what she wanted to read since erotica in bookstores is focused on sex and not relationships: "I write erotic stories because I like to explore the themes of emotional intimacy, and I write fan fiction because it lets me do that with characters that already interest me" (Killasdra). This is a perfect summation of slash fiction-erotica that occurs only in the context of emotional relationships, involving familiar and favorite characters.

When asked if they would have written erotica if they had not found fansites on the net and audiences who responded positively, the authors stated that they would not. "I do think I would have written regardless, " says one, "but whether I would have written pure erotica? I doubt it. Not without the community of other women out there reading it and responding to it." (Killasdra).