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"Eternal Youth" by Drow Elf (unending sex) 10, 7, 5
"Eternal Youth" by Drow Elf (from the Bookman Archives). Review by Stephen Peters (Sxjames@aol.com). One of the interesting things about being a reviewer is that I get drafted to read stories I would never have bothered with on my own. Take this tale for example. The story codes read (Mm, MF, historical), and to those I would add "spank" and "magic(?)". Not exactly my cup of tea -- but I charged in anyway, hoping for a pleasant surprise. Well....not this time. Eternal Youth is the first two parts of what was supposed to be a series detailing the sexual adventures of (you guessed it) a man who is immortal. Of course, when he becomes immortal he is 18 and beautiful, in the prime of his health and attracts the gaze of both men and women. (Why *both*, I'm not sure. Perhaps being immortal means that one requires a larger variety in sex partners than a single gender will provide. They say that variety is the spice of life, and I would imagine that being immortal must get awfully old after a while The first chapter opens with the narrator working as a serving boy in the Troll's Nose Tavern, circa 1716. Three travelers arrive, and the head of this group quickly casts his eye upon our hero. After a bit of corporal punishment for spilling the wine, the head traveler negotiates with the tavern owner to 'buy' the young man for the evening. And, as luck would have it, the traveler possesses a magic potion that both heals the boys bottom and (mixed with his blood) makes him immortal. How the young man gets the blood I'll leave to the readers imagination. To the author's credit the first part of the story did hold my interest. The language seemed appropriate for the period, and the characters (drunken tavern keeper, his kind wife, the rough travelers) were believable (if somewhat stereotypical). The sex was actually rather gentle (at least compared to most male/male stories I've run across), but I was disappointed that there was no explanation whatsoever of the magic potion's origin or how the traveler came to possess it. That would have been interesting. Unfortunately, that is this story's downfall...not enough depth and plot to keep me going. By the time the second chapter comes along (after a really, really boring spiel on the joys(?) of being immortal) I was loosing interest. The historical aspect was wearing thin, there was NO plot or hook that linked the two chapters, and even a reasonably described male/female sex scene (between him and a prostitute) was not enough to raise my blood pressure. Understand, I don't think this is a *bad* story, and the idea behind it is solid enough. It's just that it was formula all the way. Try as I might I could not connect with the narrator, or his adventure. Oh well, better luck next time. -- Numbers mean nothing without context, read the review -- Ratings for "Eternal Youth" Athena (technical quality): 10 (no problem here) Venus (plot & character): 7 (nice idea) Stephen (appeal to reviewer): 5 |