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"War" by Crimson Dragon (warm ff sex) 10, 8, 6
"War" by Crimson Dragon (dcrimson@yahoo.com). Guest review by Plainman. After I agreed to review this story, I checked Crimson Dragon's DejaNews entry and found out that s/he is one of the most prolific and versatile writers on ASS/M, author of the SM/MC epic "Time out of Time" (now at over 100 chapters and somewhere around about 1.5 MB, with no end in sight!) the gentle adolescent ff love story "Four Seasons," and quite a variety of other stories (mostly with some FF orientation). I hadn't read much of Crimson's work, but a quick sampling (has anyone read all of it?) convinced me that s/he is a very accomplished writer as well, though (for purely subjective reasons) not likely to become one of my favorites. "War" tells how two women, previously straight (at least in deed) and happily married, find pleasure and consolation in each other's bodies as they await imminent death at the hands of ruthless white-clad storm troopers in a war- ravaged world of the near future. The two women don't have much individuality, the sex scene is generic softcore/romance, and the social setting (the nature and cause of the war) is sketchily drawn, so that the particular war that engulfed the heroines stands in for War generally. Once the setting is established, the story has little conflict, few surprises, and no humor - only the (very well delineated) pageant of loving sisterly sex against a background of destructive (and implicitly male) violence. The writing is very good, and the situation carries its own strong emotion with it. Interestingly, the female/love and male/violence stereotypes don't come across as strongly judgmental or anti-male; the women achieve their mutual climax as the light of a bomb explosion enhances the inner flash of orgasm, and a window implodes, cutting them with fine glass particles - the blood and pain and the pleasure go together, a mutually reinforcing gestalt. The total effect is more like that of a poem than a story. By the way, Crimson Dragon's "Time out of Time," though interminable (like a soap opera), is intellectually challenging (like a philosophical work). The device is that the male protagonist can stop time, which allows him to enslave and mistreat women for his pleasure, while in one sense not injuring them - they eventually will be returned unharmed to the point at which time stopped, with no memory of their ordeal. He picks women with masochistic tendencies as his playthings, and they all eventually succumb to Stockholm Syndrome in one way or another. The story challenges the line most of us erotica fans draw between fantasy (which we say hurts no one) and actual conduct (which does), and also the line between consensual and non-consensual SM (make anyone helpless enough and she will "consent.") In a strange way, the story works like a feminist anti-pornography critique, burrowing from within by avoiding preaching and taking pains to skillfully push the turn-on buttons of the sexual sadist that is inside so many of us. The "hero" is an amoral patriarchal God, and at the same time an omnipotent shallowly wanton boy, who makes torture his sport. Anyway, back to "War" for the bottom line. I feel the inadequacy and subjectivity of numerical ratings even more than usual with this one. Ratings for "War" Technical merit: 10 (excellent writing technique) Literary merit: 8 (Some would surely give 10, but I like more story) Personal liking: 6 (for me, a little portentous, and not sexy, but I admire the writing skill) |