To save his marriage, an egotistical lawyer must become a sexual supplicant in a female-dominated society in the intense psychological novel The Fortress by S.A. Jones.
Jonathon Bridge has a corner office, a bevy of female interns at his sexual disposal and is the envy of his coworkers. He loves his wife, Adalia, but abuses the interns because he can. Adalia is an investigative reporter and nobody's fool. She confronts Jonathon over his indiscretions and kicks him out.
Jonathon vows to do anything to reconcile. Adalia will take him back only if he becomes a supplicant to an all-female race called the Vaik. The Vaik live in an enclosed society but have a symbiotic relationship with the nearby New York City-esque metropolis where Jonathon and Adalia reside. The city's males sign up for selective servitude, so the Vaik can procreate, and in return the Vaik provide the city with healing creams, potions and foods. A supplicant must do whatever the Vaik command, without question; if he disobeys, he will be chained to a post at low tide. He will either drown or be eaten by sharks when tide comes in. Can an alpha male from a male-dominated world enter a female-run society and give in to complete submission?
The novel is part fantasy, part reality and all masterpiece. Jones immerses readers so completely in the fictious world of The Fortress that it's hard to believe the Vaik aren't real. And startling to realize how much a society could benefit from the Vaik. --Paul Dinh-McCrillis, freelance reviewer