The Fortress

By S.A. Jones

Jonathon Bridge’s arrival at the Fortress – a society run and populated by women – begins with a recitation of the conditions of his stay: he is forbidden to ask questions, to raise his hand in anger, and to refuse sex.

Jonathon has offered himself as a supplicant in the Fortress after his pregnant wife discovered the ugly sexual violence pervading his top-tier firm. She has agreed to continue their fractured relationship on the condition he enter the Fortress for one year.

Jonathon is utterly unprepared for what will happen to him over the course of the year – not only to his body, but his mind and his heart.

The Fortress offers a fascinating, timely, and often challenging, alternative to patriarchal society. The Fortress itself is many things – a self-sustaining city-state run by women, a space to atone for toxic corporate masculinity, and the site of male sexual submission. But it’s also a meticulously wrought and beautifully depicted parallel universe of rolling hills, crashing waves, gardens lush with herbs and flowers, storms and sunshine. This is much more than a novel of ideas – it’s a beautifully crafted, warm and entertaining work by an author at the peak of her powers. To step into the Fortress is to be altered forever.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Echo
• Release date: Apr 1, 2018
• ISBN: 9781760407957

S.A. Jones

S.A. Jones is a prolific Australian writer, her work has been featured in The Age, Crickey, Kill Your Darlings, and more. In 2013 she was named one of Australia's '100 Women of Influence' by the Australian Financial Review and Westpac for her work in publ

Reviews for The Fortress

[bostonbibliophile · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Didactic but well written and just compelling *enough* to keep me turning the pages. The transition between before and after for the main character is unclear like another reviewer has said. "Oh look, I'm woke now!" with no clear indicator of HOW he got there. But there are definitely a lot of readers who will groove on this very validating look at rape culture and fragile masculinity.

[janarose1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

After being caught cheating by his wife, Jonathon, a high powered professional, will do whatever it takes to win her back. Even giving up a year of his life to live in the Fortress. The Vaik, a society ran and populated entirely by women, are in charge of the Fortress. The Vaik believe primarily in four tenants - work, history, sex, and justice. Within, they demand complete and unyielding obedience from the supplicants. This was an absolutely fascinating book. I found the Vaik and their culture to be particular interesting. I wish the author had went into more detail about their existence, but perhaps that is grounds for a sequel. Overall, I enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more from this author.

[mzonderm · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Jonathon is deeply in love with his wife. Truly, he thinks she's amazing and the best thing that ever happened to him. But that doesn't stop him from participating in what amounts to a rape culture in his high-powered corporate world. Did he himself ever actually rape one of the "poodles" (as female junior analysts are called) in his office? It doesn't seem so, but he certainly engaged in activity where "consent" was not exactly voluntarily given. And, as is pointed out to him, he doesn't do anything to stop other women from being raped either, even though he's fully aware of what's going on around him. When his wife finds out, she kicks him out and agrees to take him back only if he does a year as a supplicant at The Fortress, a nation-state ruled by the all-female Vaik.The Vaik play by their own rules, the most important of which seems to be that the men who live with them can never say no, to any of them, about anything. Shockingly, Jonathon doesn't find it hard to "submit" to their will when they slip out of their diaphanous gowns, although he does struggle with the rule against asking any questions. Somehow, the rules, and the hard physical labor are supposed to reform him into being the kind of man who doesn't objectify every woman he sees. How that's supposed to happen when women are propositioning him regularly is unclear, but the system does make him submissive, even to the point of doing things that violate his own moral code, which may not be exactly what his wife had in mind.Where this book really fails, though, is in helping the reader understand how these changes happen, or even how they're supposed to happen. Jonathon moves rocks to learn to control his emotions, yes, and is able to move rocks in his mind to simulate the control even when there are no actual rocks to hand, and he wears a technically advanced piece of clothing that fits him like a glove and, we are told repeatedly, leaves very little to the imagination. But the remainder of the Vaik's program is left to the reader's imagination. We are told that it works, not shown how it works, which makes the results not entirely believable.I wish I could recommend this book. The premise is really interesting, which is why I read it in the first place. Unfortunately, the execution leaves a lot to be desired.

[bookwyrmm_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Some of the plot points are not the easiest to read, but this story feels like the male version of The Handmaid's Tale.

[milliehennessy · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I'm not quite sure what to make of this book. It has some very relevant and important commentary on the power dynamic between men and women in the workplace, fidelity, and consent. I thought the idea of the fortress - a place where women are in complete control and living sort of sequestered in their own community, with male supplicants, servants, and sometimes prisoners - was an intriguing one. It's definitely an interesting perspective on how a society like that could function, especially co-exist with a large city nearby. I can't imagine a place like that being untouched in today's climate in the U.S. That felt like the sci-fi element - the sort of imagining of an alternate form of society. That and the technology of the robes the men wear that sort of move on their own and form to the body and protect them from the cold and stuff.But I never liked the main character. I'm not sure if I was supposed to? I think this is a sort of, man leans his lesson tale, but I wasn't convinced by the end. I wasn't super bothered by that though because I was more interested in the viewpoint of how this society works and what they are trying to teach the men, even if I don't think the main character was really redeemed. Maybe I'm not even supposed to think that. It's possible this book has some higher themes that I'm just not grasping. If it sounds interesting to you, give it a whirl - it was a pretty quick read for me. But I'm not going to run around singing it's praises.Of note, I did buy this because it's written by a woman (per the bio) - it was important to me when I was reading the blurb because, honestly, I'm tired and would not have wanted to read this book from a male perspective at this particular time.