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"The Sundial: the Hour of Beginnings" by Thomas M.
Carvett (Timely Sex) 10, 10, 10
"The Sundial: the Hour of Beginnings" by Thomas M. Carvett (tcarvett@earthlink.net). The author's archive is located at (sandman@bitsmart.com). Time is a funny thing, especially if you deal with it at a quantum level. Fortunately this story has nothing to do with the physical strangeness of time, but rather touches on the emotional aspects. Physicists are still awed by the fact that time bends like space, speeding up or slowing down around the curves in space. The author, and perhaps the reader of this story is awed by the fact that while time marches steadily forward through the ages threads of permanence that defy the steady progress of time can emerge. "The Sundial: The Hour of Beginnings" is actually two separate (yet linked) stories which may themselves be just the beginnings of eleven more stories from the author. This story, however, stands very well on its own. We begin in a time before memory, a time where the earth still existed on a turtle's back, a time when the sun still moved around the earth. A time where a young girl is making cloth for her dowry. Alas the sun moves too quickly for the cloth and dyes to dry and she is frustrated. She wishes the sun would move slower and a rooster appears and helps her capture the sun. She extracts a promise from the sun that he move slower, but also not burn so hot so he won't harm the young flowers. The sun falls in love with her and grants her this wish. The sun also takes human form and gives her a golden skinned son. The story then fast forwards to the modern era where Tom and Julie are practicing Tai Chi within the sundial. They make love and Julie's future son will have light gold skin. The sex in this story is not overpowering; there's no urgency, no immediacy. What's there is a bit dreamy, like the story itself. What I found was a story that's a very rare find on ASS. It's a story that transcends sex, transcends even the story itself and approaches art. Even as I write this review I'm not terribly sure that I've uncovered everything the story has to say. To do that I shall have to read it again, and again, and yet again. And perhaps I shall. This is beyond any doubt a triple ten story, but I'm going to warn the readers of the CR that it may not be a triple ten story for everyone. I found this story a full five days before Celeste sent me a copy for review. I read a bit into it then dropped it. It wasn't because I disliked it, I just realized the story would demand more of me than I was willing to give it at the time. I was looking for a fun, uncomplicated story and this didn't fit that mold. This is not stroke or one-handed fiction as some people call it. But it is an extraordinarily good story and I'm more than grateful that the author decided to share it with us. If you're in the mood for a simple sex story, look elsewhere. But if you were going to curl up with a good book for a while, I'd strongly recommend you curl up with this story instead. Read it, read it again, linger over it like you would let your eye linger over a good painting and discover all over again that the more things change the more they really stay the same. Ratings for "The Sundial: the Hour of Beginnings." Athena (technical quality): 10 Venus (plot & character): 10 Sandman (appeal to reviewer): 10 |