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"Raping Helena" By E. Z. Riter (rape) 10, 10, - {Not archived yet} "Raping Helena" By E. Z. Riter (ezriter@hotmail.com). This review is the personal opinion of Kim, who can be contacted at ghost@nym.alias.net. . {Not archived yet} This is a hasty rewrite of "Winning Denver", a story that Celeste very recently gave an 8, 5, 5 score to. I can't comment on that story as I haven't read it. Celeste didn't seem to like the last version much, and I'm afraid to say I didn't like this one much either. With such a title I wouldn't even have contemplated reading it, had Celeste not sent it to me. I have absolutely no complaints about the writing skills in display, I have no beef with the author, but I find the story repellent, the main first-person narrator, Dan, obnoxious, and the main victim, Helena, depressingly believable. Which leaves me in yet another awkward position. I've already declined to review one story this last week, due to its pedo content, so should I decline this one also? It might be fairer to the author, I suppose, but as I'm not going to give a score for personal appeal, as it didn't have any for me, just take it for granted that if you're a rape story fan then it would have got a ten. The story involves a gambler, up on his luck, offered the chance to pay off a newlywed couple's gambling debts by an unscrupulous casino boss. The deal is that the wife will submit to the gambler for the rest of their stay in Las Vegas, if he pays her debts. For that he can do what he likes to her. If she fails to comply with his wishes, she will be gang-raped. Quite how that would recover the money is unclear, but still. There follows a protracted, slow-motion rape of the woman, who's suffering terribly having discovered that her husband had set her up deliberately for this, as the thought of his wife being raped and humiliated turns him on. This story is peopled by such nice folks, don'tchya think? I said at the beginning that I had no beef with the author. Well, I guess that's not true. The thing that slammed the final nail in the coffin for me, was the unforgivable concept that over and above all the trauma the women, so lovingly detailed, suffers, her final comment is "Please. Don't stop." Un- fuckin'-believable . Had the author had the courage to finish as he started, with the hyper- realistic devastation the wretched woman suffers, at least it would have retained some sort of integrity for me. Ratings for "Raping Helena" Athena (technical quality): 10 (no denying, it was very well written) Venus (plot & character): 10 (a sordid plot doesn't make it a bad plot) Kim (appeal to reviewer): - (or 10 if you're a rape fan. Surprisingly enough, I'm not)