The Annex Reviews, August 1997

8/6/97 -- The Knife, Parts 1 and 2 (Plague); The Audition (author22); Here's a Story (JR); Sibling Rivalry (Richard Lewis); HypnoTV: Power Rangers (MS4EVER321); Book Notes: "Internet Dreams" by Mark Stefik

8/10/97 "Medievalworld" -- Nottamun Town, Parts 1 and 2 (Mr.Spraycan); Prize Pig (Cobalt Jade); Field of Dreams (The Erotic Pen); Enlan Roz (BJ1054); Black Magic (s.a.m); Website Review: Satyrican au go go (JRidler)

8/22/97 -- Hot Teen Sex (Johnny D); Cheating Heart (Ann Douglas); And Then I Fucked Her (Mike Hunt); A Wet Camera (jdlawson); Kristen's Collection (Kristen); Website Review: Elf Sternberg

8/30/97 "Biting Back at Spam" -- True Story My 1st Time Parts 1 and 2 (Corinne); Blizzard (Mathis B. Rogers); Computer Games on a Sunday (Kim); Night of the Camel (DG); House (Dierdre); The Absolutely Astounding Adventures of Angelica Ahsmacker (Tom Bombadil); Lori's London Vacation (Anonymous); Comfort Boys - December, 1941 (Bill)

8/31/97 -- Stud Slaves in Training ("M"); Tammi (Anonymous); Too Close (Chucktie); Kelly & Brandon - Night One (Robb 42); Website Review: The Mouse that Roared (Mousette)

8/6/97

Whoops. Hee hee. It has come to my attention that the address I've been giving out to my website is wrong. It should be http://users.aol.com/ladycyrrh, NOT fttp. Obviously a typo. Yes, Lady Cyrrh is a schmuck. Laugh at her. Throw rotten tomatoes. Let it rip. Just remember she's a thin yet extremely tensile piece of cardboard for an author and social commentator who wishes to remain nameless.

The Knife, Parts 1 [B] and 2 [A]
When posted: 7/23/97, 7/25/97
Where posted: ASS, ASSG
Author: Plague
Address: uplague@usa.net
Homepage: http://people.delphi.com/theplague/

The author classified this as "Gothic Horror and Action."

The narrator is a bisexual goth, a "freak soldier" who works in military intelligence on an army or air force base. The author must have been in the military at some point because he knows about boot blousers. These are like oversized elastic ponytail holders you slip over your pant legs to keep them tucked perfectly inside your boots. However, I'm not sure military intelligence lets its recruits wear seven earrings and a nose ring or approve of them filing their canine teeth. (The issue of the fangs was brought up, but not resolved.) Anyway, the narrator goes to a club called Blaupunk one night (a funny take-off on Blaupunkt stereos) and is kidnapped. He's taken to a strange place where he's treated like a slave and jerked around on a collar, and at the end of Part 2 we find out he's going to be forced to fight other slaves who are held captive there in a sort of real life "American Gladiators." The rest of the story is available at the author's website.

The goth refs here--jet black hair, noserings, industrial music--were unusual for an ASS story (but not for a *mainstream*--read published-- sex/horror story) as was the narcissistic bisexual element. (The narrator loves masturbating himself even when in mortal danger--it's the secret weapon he uses to distract his enemies.) For that I like it; it stood out from the run-of-the-mill. Part 2 was more coherent than Part 1. I didn't know if the hero's name was Braun, Jack or Charon in Part 1, and he took a confusing leap from dressing to go to work, then talking to someone while someone else makes kissy faces at him, then undressing to go to a club...I couldn't figure out what was going on for a while. And each line of dialogue should have gotten its own paragraph. But overall the story was good...with just the right mixture of goth, adventure, and sex.

If you like black eyeliner, Nitzer Ebb, and spy thrillers, check this out.

The Audition [A]
When posted: 7/25/97
Where posted: ASS, ASSG, ASM (alt.sex.masturbation), ASFT (alt.sex.first- time)
Author: author22
Address: author22@ix.netcom.com

This story was an excerpt from the author's novel "My Teenage Heart" which can be downloaded, free of charge via a link on the author's home page: http://www.netcom.com/~author22/small.html. It was more of a continuing story flavored with sexual adventures than a hardcore porn vignette.

The narrator flies into Baton Rouge, Louisiana to put together a band to play some country western tunes. I'm not sure if he's a teenager or not, but he's first attracted to a cute teenage busboy at his hotel, then a young waiter. He winds up having sex with both of them. The sex was moderately erotic (one act begins with a backrub) and no one was unduly forced or coerced. The wishes of the young men involved were respected and everyone had a good time. No pulsing love-meat here, which was a relief. I can only take so much pulsing love-meat in a week. In sum, the story was very readable, and I'd say it's worth making a trip to this sight to see what came before, and what comes (sorry for the pun) after.

Note to the author: I think I remember you from AOL. Did you switch providers?

Here's a Story [C-]
When posted: 7/26/97
Where posted: ASSM
Author: "JR"
Address: twoztop@gte.net

A guy goes home on his lunch hour and has sex with his girlfriend. That's it. There's nothing wrong with having sex like this, except the writing was pretty lame. It wavers between past and present tense. The point of view switches from guy to gal to invisible observer. There are spelling and punctuation errors. Teeth are "clinched." There's a "love box." Though there was nothing in this to offend anyone, there was nothing to grab them, either.

Sibling Rivalry [A+]
When posted: 7/31/97
Where posted: ASS, ASSM
Author: Richard Lewis
Address: rlewis@xsite.net
Story site: www.xsite.net/~rlewis

The juvenile narrator of this short story has an ongoing rivalry with his sister Louise, who's 18 months older than he is. She's a goody two- shoes that always tattles on him when he does wrong. One day he goes too far, and his mama whups him with his father's big black utility belt. Louise fakes some sympathy for him to egg mama on. Afterwards, Dad feels sorry for the little tyke and rubs cream on his bottom.

This story wasn't as "sexy" or exploitive as some corporeal punishment stories...if more plot were added, it could easily be at home in a mainstream publication. In fact, if it wasn't on ASS, I wouldn't have called it porn at all. It read more like a personal memoir in a folksy Garrison Keillor style. The writing was very good, porn or non-porn.

HypnoTV: Power Rangers [A]
When posted: 7/27/97
Where posted: ASS, ASSM
Author: MAW
Address: MS4EVER321@aol.com

"HypnoTV" is a series of stories about what happens when characters in various TV series are hynotized to commit sexual acts against their will. If the stories were a real TV series like the ones they spoof they would be called "high concept." This makes them either lighthearted or juvenile, depending on your point of view.

This story was about the Power Rangers. For those not in the know, The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers is a children's show about five color- coordinated teenagers with super powers who constantly do battle against evil villains that are trying to take over the world. To get to the plot, the nephew of Divatox, a villainess, kidnaps the present and former Pink Rangers and teleports them to his aunt's hideout as a birthday present for her. They have been hypnotized and readily do Divatox's bidding, which is to have sex with her and with each other. Much of the enjoyment you'd get out of this story depends on how much you know about the show, as the fun comes from the way the TV characters' quirks impact their sex lives: Divatox has a yard-long tongue, for example. The stories are also amusing in what they contrast, like putting the two naive, pretty Pink Rangers in leather-strapped B/D gear. As I've mentioned in these electronic pages before, it's easy to write and read about characters and situations that already exist, because we already carry half the work of the story in our heads (that is, if we watch that particular TV show.) HypnoTV stories occupy a point somewhere between loving homage and parody. The author is very skillful at setting up these particular situations and exploiting them. For the unique niche these stories occupy (television and mind control fantasies) they're quite good.

The Power Rangers have inspired two other series of sex fiction stories that I know of. Cheryl Roberts has written romantic teen sex stories about the characters, and a month back I saw a gay version by another writer on ASSG. As the target audience for the Power Rangers consists of nine-year-old children, the authors' choice of subject matter surprises me. Are the writers moms and dads who watch this show over their kids' shoulders and can't resist spoofing it? Are they people so hooked on TV they'll watch anything? Or is there some fabulous, fetish- like sexual secret about the Power Rangers that I just don't get?

Book Notes: Take a look at "Internet Dreams" (1996, The MIT Press) by Mark Stefik, especially if you're on the net a lot. Most of the book consists of heavy essays only information junkies would be interested in, but read "Excerpt from Mudding: Social Phenomena in Text-Based Virtual Realities" for some thoughts about human social behavior in cyberspace--and substitute alt.sex.stories for multi-user dungeon. Then check out "A Rape in Cyberspace: How an Evil Clown, a Haitian Trickster Spirit, Two Wizards, and a Cast of Dozens Turned a Database into a Society" for more thought-provoking thoughts on MUDs.

8/10/97

In the early 1970s a nifty movie called "Westworld" came out. It was about a Disneyland for grownups where consenting adults acted out their fantasies of sex and violence, with humanoid robots serving as the victims/fucktoys. The theme park was split into three different "worlds," each having a different sexual draw. In Westworld it was dance hall girls and cathouses; in Romanworld, orgies; in Medievalworld, nubile maidens, courtly love, magic, and dungeons. Today we are going to visit Medievalworld.

Nottamun Town, Parts 1 and 2 [A+]
When posted: 7/15/97
Where posted: ASS, ASSM
Author: Mr.Spraycan
Address: mrspraycan@mailanon.com

Medievalworld, though a mythical place, has a strong affiliation with the late 1960s. Think about it. Rock stars dressed in silk and velvet, with long flowing capes. Acid. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings." The electric folk music of Dylan, the Byrds, and Fairport Convention, which figures strongly in this story.

The narrator of this story wakes up a nude, disoriented wreck in the middle of London (?) in 1966. He tells us his story. At a wild party, while the Conventions' "Nottamun Town" is playing, he falls into a drugged stupor and is transported to a fantastic land of picturesque hamlets, enchanted frogs, and evil wizards, with much of the fun coming from his culture shock. The common folk aren't permitted to wear clothes in this land, and the first person he meets--a nude wench--assumes he's a sorcerer because he's dressed. He goes back with her to her cottage where they have sex like crazy until the day he discovers she's really a sorceress...after which he sets out for the gates of mythical Nottamun Town. But the place is ruled by an evil wizard-tyrant who makes the bare-bummed (that is, naked) townsfolk work for their living by participating in various spankings and canings for their coin. (This would be a hot vacation spot if it really existed.) Anyway, the narrator confronts the evil king and his henchwoman, defeats them with the power of music, and is whisked back to his own world. Where he's left to wonder, Did it really happen?

There was much more going on in the story than I can tell here--it was multilayered, with a multitude of different meanings--but the author did an excellent job of keeping everything tied together by using the framing device of the song. For those of you born after 1970, 60s music WAS a trip, a siren song to another time and place. I defy the Chemical Brothers to come up with anything as meaningful.

The story also had lots of snappy, tart dialogue like an X-rated Piers Anthony, a talking cat as a traveling companion, and a vicious dominatrix. What more could you ask for from Medievalworld? Tour reservations are booking now!

Prize Pig [A+]
When posted: 8/7/97
Where posted: ASS, ASSM
Author: Cobalt Jade
Address: Cobaltjade@aol.com

This story also touches on the 1960s, but this time the peace-love generation is represented by the attendees of a modern-day Medieval fair in the Pacific Northwest. As in the previous story, it acknowledges the power of music and the lure of a mythical bygone time.

Two teenage boys go on vacation and have various sexual entanglements in this pseudo-Middle Ages setting, including a wench who flashes them, a tumble in the hay (literally), nude swimming in the bay, a gay fantasy, and a spanking in the woods followed by masturbation. The main plot concerns 16-year-old Brent, the younger of the two, as he steals a piglet destined to be the centerpiece for a Medieval feast. He surprises a group of girls who are conducting a pagan ritual in the woods. The pig gets free and all hell breaks loose; the ringleader of the girls, a nasty cheerleader, ties him to a tree and whips his butt for revenge. He's saved by a plainer, more sensible girl who kicks the cheerleader's ass with kung fu, and they run off together and eventually have sex. YAAAY! Meanwhile, older brother Reed pursues an affair with a girl in the fair's riding competition, and he discovers he might be gay.

I found the story a fast-moving, entertaining read, even though I don't normally like stories about teenagers. The author had some barbed points to throw at aging hippy types, New Age pagans, AND animal rights activists. The writing had zing and snap. I particularly liked the three-way between boy, girl and cello during a concert of Medieval music and the fact the cockteasing, bitchy cheerleader eventually gets kicked in the crotch, though I don't quite believe a teenage girl would enact lesbian goddess-worshipping rituals in the woods. But on the whole the teenagers acted like teenagers, walking around with perpetual hard-ons from all the exposed bosoms. (They were better behaved than the kid in "Walls Have Ears" but then, they were more upscale.) All in all the story was a clever take on Medieval cliches that also managed to spoof present-day attitudes toward them. Also noteworthy was the responsible use of condoms, something all too rare in ASS fiction.

I wish I'd known kids like this in high school.

Field of Dreams [B+]
When posted: 7/31/97
Where posted: ASS, ASSM
Author: The Erotic Pen
Address: sarlim@aol.com

This story also concerns the adventures of a couple at a Medieval Fair, a Society of Creative Anachronism gathering in fact. The narrator gives some good reasons for all the hanky-panky going on at such events: homemade wine, sweaty well-muscled torsos swinging swords, and pretending to be someone else than what you are...plus being out in the wilderness around a burning fire watching shooting stars.

All of this makes the wife in the piece horny, so she and her husband sneak off to be by themselves. Unfortunately, he falls asleep. But she awakens him with a blow job, then mounts him, noting with a thrill they're within sight of her friends by the fire but invisible because of the dark. Though this was more of a memoir than a story, I found it well-done for what it was, and romantic without being gushy. It makes a good case for SCA membership.

Enlan Roz [B]
When posted: 8/6/97
Where posted: ASSG
Author: bj1054
Address: bj1054@aol.com

This story was the beginning of a sword and sorcery epic in the tradition of Conan, Kull, and Thongor. A warrior comes upon the destruction of a village. On his way home he stops in a guardtower and has sex with a young guard.

The writing and sex wasn't bad, but the background needs more work, and I'd say a whack at carving out a plot is in order. What is the hero searching for? Who are his enemies? What obstacles does he have to overcome? I realize that sex acts are the emphasis here and not your typical fantasy quest, but as this is a multi-part story, we need some continuation of action, and cliffhangers both sexual and action- oriented, to whet our appetites and carry us chapter to chapter. But I'll be looking for Part 2.

Black Magic [B/A]
When posted: 8/6/97
Where posted: ASS, ASSM
Author: s.a.m
Address: s.a.m@usa.net
Website: http://www4.xoom.com/csax/s.a.m/s.a.m.html

This story wasn't Medieval in setting, but it did feature magic.

A teenage boy is heartsick because his girl has been flirting with a football hunk. On Halloween night, he performs some magic to try and get her back. It doesn't seem to work at first, but later on he is visited by a female spirit in a long white gown, who offers him sexual solace...

The first half of this story was average, nothing special; I gave it a B. But I liked the second half, which concerns sex with the spirit, enough for an A, even though it came in one long single-sentence paragraph. It had a sad, erotic sweetness that made it unique. There was nothing perverse or obscene about the "black magic" of the title...the events were more wish fulfillment than the outcome of a dangerous rite. Though romance is not my favorite genre I liked this. It was heartfelt.

Satyricon au go go is a website maintained by JRiddler which specializes in slash fiction based on popular TV shows. To see the review of it which appeared in this original posting, click here.

8/22/97

Sorry I haven't posted for a while. It was a combination of woes, among them hot weather and an infected foot...I spent most of the weekend of 8/16 limping, getting drunk, and watching old Elvis movies.

I've noticed that lately spam is reaching epidemic proportions. On a recent trip through alt.sex.stories.bondage, the proportion of stories to spam was about 100 to 1. On alt.sex.femdom it's worse. In 300 postings, I didn't see any stories at all. More and more writers and readers are deserting these newsgroups. There's even been talk of writers and readers deserting the Usenet altogether. ATTENTION ADVERTISERS! You are ruining us with your short-sighted stupidity and greed. The more shit you post, the less people will be inclined to visit the newsgroups and read them. The newsgroups will sink under the weight of all your spam, leading to cancellations, the evaporation of your market, and no return for the time and money you spend!

I also noticed that the input of stories to Eli's group (alt.sex.stories.moderated) has increased exponentially. In just two days, there've been something like 30 or 40 entries. Back in March, there were maybe 3 or 4 a day.

Are we all on to something here?

I'll be saying more about this later.

And now, on to a story about the effects of that spam...

Hot Teen Sex [A+]
When posted: 7/28/97
Where posted: ASS, ASSM
Author: Johnny D
Address: JohnnyD@cryogen.com

This one took a while to get to. But it was worth it, and it's worth your while to look it up.

We're back in the sex-saturated fantasies of teenage boys. A young man is masturbating as he calls up image after image of naked girls on his Netscape browser, culminating in a live-action view of "Hot Teen Sex" set in a teen girl's bedroom. As the 16-year-old girl and 19-year-old guy go at it (with all the choreographed kisses, strokes and sighs) his modem explodes. In a frenzy of lust, he tries to rape his twin sister, then roars outside and rapes a virgin he pulls off the street. The story ends with him proclaiming, "What have I DONE?"

In his foreword, the author says, "I anticipate being flamed by all the perverts on the net for peddling a "pornography turns you into a rapist" message - *please* go back and read the story again before you do. That is *not* the message." Well, I couldn't see any other message in there, except perhaps pornography shouldn't be made available to teenage boys. But whatever the message was, the writing was excellent--the story moved along and pulled you into the enraged, frustrated mind of a horny boy whose only sexual experiences have been with his hand and pixels on a screen. I don't know if anyone would consider this story sexy--that is, in the sense of getting turned on by it and then wanting to imitate the sex it portrayed--but as a story *about* online sex services, and the effects they have on minors, it was very good. I hope to see more from this author.

Cheating Heart [B-]
When posted: 8/8/97
Where posted: ASS, ASSM
Author: Anne Douglas
Address: Anndouglas@aol.com

A lesbian aerobics instructor whose lover is away on a trip meets a fascinating Japanese reporter in one of her classes. They have dinner together, then go home and have sex. The absent partner then calls to say she is coming home from her trip early, and the two new lovers have a bittersweet parting. This was the first Ann Douglas story I've read, and frankly I was very surprised at the many typos and grammatical errors it contained, as I've heard lots of praise about this writer. It seemed to have been written very quickly, with no time set aside to refine things. On the plus side, the sex was good, and the characterizations were consistent and true to life...the people involved acted in ways normal people might act.

But. While realistic in some ways, things weren't quite "real" enough...the dialogue in particular sounded awkward in places, and while the story is told from the teacher's point of view, in several places we go into the Japanese reporter's. It's also annoying that, although she is named Keiko early on in the story, she is referred to by other monikers like "dark-haired woman" "Oriental" "Japanese woman" and "golden-skinned woman" throughout the story. OK, she's Japanese. Got it.

My overall feeling is that the author should take more care with her craft, but as I've said, she's got a good reputation among readers and writers, she produces a lot, and she maintains a website, too. Maybe she was having a bad hair day or something.

And Then I Fucked Her [A]
When posted: 8/15/97
Where posted: ASS, ASSM
Author: Mike Hunt
Address: MrM1KE@aol.com

Of all the occupations in the arts, writers have the biggest egos. They are rivaled only by rock musicians. However, writers have the advantage in that they have the power of the written word to defame and insult, whereas all your typical head-banger can do is yell, "Fuck off, asshole!"

This story--which is more of an open letter to ASS readers and writers--finds Mike Hunt in top racing form as he goes after Michael Smith, the author of "How to Write Sex Stories" with a stick. I do love me a good rag, and Hunt doesn't dissapoint. He weaves a tale of a slippery cinema handjob (with the guy's crotch hidden by a popcorn bucket, and the girl's hand oozing with salty, greasy butter...well, I imagined it was) and intersperses it with his own curmudgeonly comments on the aforementioned how-to advice. Now, there are some who might say this wasn't a very nice thing for one writer to do to another. I myself haven't read any of Smith's fiction, so I can't tell if he deserves the drubbing or not. But I do know this: after reading this story, a lot more people will be looking for Michael Smith stories to see if the criticism was deserved, which adds up to free "publicity" if you will, for both writers.

Me? I liked this piece; it was a slick, amusing diatribe that rubs against the lacy undie-and-sighs school of porn writing. It's common knowledge that anyone who sets themselves up as an expert in anything is also setting themselves up for ridicule. Including myself.

Anyway, there is some important advice in here about always putting warning labels on one's site and on one's stories. And here's another piece of advice: if you do run a site, request that people DO NOT link to any of the material within except through the front gate, the index.html page your 18-and-under warning appears on, because it's entirely possible for minors to surf in the back door through other links. It doesn't eliminate the possibility, of course, but at least you asked.

A Wet Camera [B?]
When posted: August
Where posted: ASS, ASSM?
Author: jdlawson
Address: jdlawson@cybrtyme.com

The author sent me this one; it's the shortest story I've ever seen, clocking in at a mere 250 words.

Because it was so short, it's hard to talk about it without giving away the trick ending, but, basically, a nature buff is walking on the beach and happens upon a frenzied couple who are fucking. But are they human?

I really liked the idea of this--it gets the Marlin Perkins stamp of approval--but it was just too short...therefore I'm kind of puzzled at what to rate it. I'd like to see a longer version with a bit more sex, definitely.

Kristen's Collection: Dreamsex [B+] and Callie [B+]
When posted: August
Where posted: ASS, ASSM?
Author: Various, with "Kathy"
Poster: Kristen
Address: kristen78@aol.com

Kristen has been posting a lot of stories from her archives lately and has sent me a collection of them to give an overview. All are pretty straight--not vanilla, because hearts n' flowers don't come into the picture--and dealt mainly with m/f or f/f consensual sex in realistic situations with realistic people it is fairly easy to identify with: sisters, coeds, teenagers, and the like. Some of the stories weren't too fleshed out, and like many ASS postings didn't really have a plot, characters, conflict, or conclusion (save for orgasm) to speak of. But sometimes this is nice to read instead of heavier fare...like those little "Sent by our Readers" stories you might see in Reader's Digest. The tone is colloquial too, the sort coworkers might use when talking to one another over a lunchroom table (I think some authors of "I" stories go wild with naughty language they wouldn't EVER dare use in front of another sentient being.) Some stories were in third person, like "Earthquake," which had more of a plot (a couple gets stuck in an elevator during a tremblor). Kristen says she wrote some of the stories in this collection, and as all of them list "Kathy" as one of the authors, I'm guessing this is her pen name.

I picked two stories for a formal review. "Dreamsex" was about a man who fantasizes about having sex with a beautiful ice skater (complete with frost in her hair) while "Callie" was about a sorority sister who sets a fraternity of guys up for blackmail on "morals charges" by gang-banging five of them in front of a hidden video camera. I also noticed there was another ice-skating story in here called "Nanako" which may have been inspired by Midori Ito (have you skated professionally, Kristen?) I found "Callie" the more intriguing of the two; the coed's five-man gangbang read realistically and didn't go overboard on the squishiness of the sex act. I will also be reading "Earthquake" later; it seemed pretty exciting from the first paragraphs. On the whole, the collection offers easy entertainment that probably won't rock your world, but it still give an extra swing to your step.

Click here to see Website Review: Elf Sternberg

Note to readers: What has happened to Maryanne Mohanraj's homepage? I want to do a review, but every time I try to access, it's unavailable. Has she packed up shop for good? Moved to another server? This is the address I have: www.iam.com.maryanne, which is the same one on Elf's page, I believe.

8/30/97

A week ago I pointed out the increasing traffic in Spam on the usenet sex newsgroups. Here are some things you can if you're getting unwanted spam at your personal address:

1. Use more than one address, if you can. Use one for posting, and include the other in the body of the message for people to send comments to you.

2. Use filters if your service supplies you with these. Some providers don't, however. Celeste has already given a good explanation of how to use filters.

3. Use an email address associated with a forwarding service such as http://pobox.com. These offer antispam filters as part of their annual fee. I've always why there were so many pobox addresses on ASS. I believe hotmail is another.

4. Remove your name and email address from membership directories, such as those found on AOL and Compuserve.

5. Write to your congressional representatives to pass a law banning junk email.

6. Never buy anything from a junk emailer. Don't even open up those on the newsgroups, either.

7. If you want to get really nasty, figure out who sent you the junk email and register a complaint with the Attorney General's Office of your state.

I'll be saying more on this later.

On to the stories.

True Story My 1st Time Parts 1 and 2 [B+]
When posted: 8/22/97
Where posted: ASSG, ASSM
Author: Corinne
Address: lifebgood@aol.com

I sometimes wonder about the validity of sexual experiences told in first person ("I") voice. Did these things really happen to the writer, or is it just an authorial device? This being ASS, I take such things with a grain of salt, as everyone--male, female, gay, straight--is prone to locker room exaggerations in the name of entertainment.

But whether fictional or true, this story was a pretty hot lesbian spa fantasy. A businesswoman goes to Arizona to attend a conference, and while there she and her friend decide to treat themselves to a massage. In a luxuriant private home complete with scenic views and jacuzzis she is slathered with warm cactus flower oil, rubbed, tweaked, patted and stroked, and soon begins to feel relaxed yet horny...and then the enemas begin, followed by the attentions of the two other women. If you ever fantasize about sex in this kind of setting (who hasn't?) then check this out.

Blizzard [A]
When posted: 8/22/97
Where posted: ASSG
Author: Mathis B. Rogers
Address: pixel@mboxes.com

This was a long one (pun intended)--more of a novelette than a short story--but it was very good, a sort of first-person gay gothic romance- mystery about a writer with amnesia. The story begins as the narrator is pulled from his crashed car by a handsome man. He doesn't remember a thing and doesn't know who he is, so the other guy takes him to his nearby cabin in the woods for shelter, as a blizzard is blowing up, and they soon become isolated from the world. The rest of the story is taken up with the writer's efforts to rediscover his identity and understand the attraction he feels towards his rescuer and his repulsion towards another man who claims to be his lover.

There wasn't much sex save for one scene is the middle (in which the police barge in on the gay couple as they ejaculate), but this was more of a mainstream story than porn anyway. The writer was quite skilled in setting up the situation--Is the rescuer all he seems to be? Can anyone he knows be trusted?--and I was eager to resolve the mystery. The denouement was a little bit of a letdown--by the time the final revelations came, I was expecting something really scandalous--but overall the story was entertaining, and excellently written as well.

Computer Games on a Sunday [A]
When posted: 8/23/97
Where posted: ASS, ASSM
Author: Kim
Address: Kim@nym.alias.net

Computers are wonderful things. You can program them to simulate anything. In this story, the female narrator inputs some quick code to randomly generate sex acts for herself and her boyfriend to try, a programming feat I'm sure many computer geeks have tried already. The acts are kinky ones of the dom-sub variety and first concern the narrator play-acting as a job applicant who has to let the manager face- fuck her; then she dresses up her boyfriend in panties, ties him to a chair, and torments him deliciously.

Kim says this is her first story, and it's an auspicious debut. The tone is controlled, dry, and very British, and the descriptions of the sex acts are handled well, too. There's a sense of humor running throughout that lets us know these are games and are treated as such by the couple in question...and a bit of reverse technical sexism in that the woman is the technologically advanced one while the man is computer-illiterate. If I could give any advice, it would be to give each line of dialogue its own paragraph. But that's it, really.

Now, if only someone would create a sexual slant on "Magic the Gathering" Cards...

Night of the Camel [A]
When posted: 8/22/97
Where posted: ASS, ASSM
Author: DG
Address: dionysian1@hotmail.com

Back in the 70s, there was an old Maria Muldaur song that began, "Midnight at the oasis, put your camel to bed..."

The story begins in Rudyard Kipling style as a stuffy Victorian colonel travels to a remote fort in the Indian desert to assume its command. He discovers that his sex-deprived men have been satisfying themselves by using the fort's only camel. Naturally, he assumes the worst of them. But over time, when the isolation and sexual deprivation take their toll on him, he resolves to take the camel (female) out for a night and use her the same way. Read the story for more, as there's a twist at the end.

The author says, "Yeah, I know, it's an old joke. But besides being very funny, I always thought the joke had a certain pathos to it, even when told in just a few sentences." Well, if it is an old joke I haven't heard it; the story seemed fresh and new to me. This one succeeded as good writing and as good humor...a novelization of a joke, if you will--which is no small feat for any writer.

House [A]
When posted: 8/18/97
Where posted: ASS
Author: Dierdre
Reposted by: Story Master
Address: velvet@znet.com

According to Ole Joe's "Alt Sex Stories - A Subculture" Dierdre was a very active writer who produced a lot of material two years ago but has since vanished, leaving her body of work to the collectors, reposters and archivers. "House" is one such story. Told in first person by a middle- aged woman, it begins as she goes to visit her friend, who runs a rooming house for college students. They are all very nice young men...too nice...and willingly do whatever she says, including taking off their clothes and having sex with each other, giving the story a definite "Twilight Zone" flavor. Unfortunately, the piece was cut off before I reached the conclusion, which added to the mystery for me.

Dierdre is not a fancy technical writer. She doesn't create literary fireworks; her characters are somewhere between white bread and vanilla pudding, and the sex doesn't immediately grab you by the organs. But she has a solid sense of story structure and is (or was) a competent story craftsman who knows how to stretch a plot and create tension. Her writing is technically good as well. Other writers should note her effective use of repetition in this story, which adds to the otherworldly effect. I'll be looking for more Dierdre in the future, though I have the feeling this story won't be topped.

The Absolutely Astounding Adventures of Angelica Ahsmacker by Tom Bombadil [A+]
When posted: 8/26/97
Where posted: ASS, ASSM
Author: Tom Bombadil
Address: stbush@iglou.com
Website: http://members.iglou.com/stbush/stories.html

Remember those old-fashioned movie serials from the 1920s like The Perils of Pauline or the Adventures of Pearl White? Remember an even more recent cartoon reincarnation called The Perils of Penelope Pitstop? Well, Tom Bombadil has brought those titillating series to life again for us, complete with breathless narration, alliterative language that dances the Cha-Cha, and some truly awful--but fun--puns.

Angelica Ahsmacker is the purer-than-pure, color-coordinated heroine whose skimpy sundress always covers her completely no matter how thoroughly it is shredded. Tiny Silvertongue is her handsome 6'4 handsome male sidekick. Venoma Tart is the villainess who's captured them both and taken them to the abandoned sawmill that serves as her hideout. Yes, those names mean exactly what you think they do. At the sawmill Angela is tied to a log that's slowly heading towards the spinning blade, while Tiny is bound also and made to watch while Venoma Tart spreads her legs and gleefully masturbates herself at the sight.

I haven't read one of TB's stories yet, and this one was a delight, particularly in the language department. Here the sawmill's conveyer- and-blade apparatus is revealed to have other appendages that disrobe Angelica as she travels down the conveyer:

Those ominous arms were finally removing the last scraps of her scant covering, and were poking and prodding everywhere. Her magnificent mammaries were being dented and deformed. Her perfect, inch-long nipples were being tweaked and twiddled. And worst of all, just below her prim and proper heart-shaped blonde bush, they were trying to penetrate the privacy of her pure pink portal. It was a race between the awful arms of that molestation machine and the terrible teeth of that spinning saw to see which would be the first to delve deep into the defenseless damsel's dampening divinity.

Despite the pain his mouth and lips were enduring from the caustic cream pouring from that polluted pudenda, Tiny continued with his oral onslaught, wiggling the wild woman's corrupt clitoris with the tip of his titillating tongue before delving deep into the disgusting depths of her drooling duct once again.<<

Lori's L... [A-]
When posted: 8/21/97
Where posted: ASSM
Posted by: Anahka
Address: anakha@clara.net
Website: http://home.clara.net/anakha/index.html

The title the author gave this story was "Lori's London Vacation." There was no credit line for the writer. However, I remember when it was posted before, and the information given that time indicates it's been making the rounds of BBSs for years.

Young Lori is a bondage and rubber fetishist. She goes to London to get some new gear in a sex shop and is hoodwinked into serving as their model. But not in the way you think. The fantasy (can't really call it a story) consists of her being corseted, clamped, strapped and buckled in various kink gear configurations, then being enclosed inside one of the shop's mannequins (an iron maiden device of sorts) and put on display in the shop's window, where no one can see her plight, and of course she can't let anyone know how she's been imprisoned, either. The story ends rather abruptly as she's being bound and nailed into a large crate for a trip to an American store, where she'll also be on display. Permanently this time.

This is the best bondage GEAR fantasy I've ever read, though there was no sex and no characterization to speak of. Just pure double enemas, dildoes, electric vacuum-pumped nipple clamps, and catheters. I told you it was extreme. The only thing that could have made it better was a plot.

historical [C]
When posted: 8/21/97
Where posted: ASG
Author: Bill
Address: bill@anon.com

The title the author gave this was "Comfort Boys - December, 1941." He says of this, "My idea for it came from reading newspaper accounts of the practice of the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II of forcing young women, including young teens, into military brothels. Although nearly all of these women(called "comfort women") were Asian, there are a few documented cases of European women (e.g. Dutch after the capture of Indonesia) being forced into this kind of prostitution. I have drawn from these accounts, as well as a bit of the movie "Empire of the Sun" from about 10 years ago, to come up with a scenario of American and European boys in a Japanese internment camp, serving in unit that satisfies the sexual needs of Japanese officers who appreciate the erotic appeal of boys in the 11 to 14 age range."

OK, we know what we have here. My tolerance for different sexualities is pretty high, anyway, and I happily wade through electronic stacks of what other people would call kink, perversity or depravity in the name of good copy. (The exception is incest--I'm not interested in this theme, not do I understand its appeal.) However, this is the first time I've come upon something I object to on moral grounds.

The plot was this: a young American boy is left separated from his parents during the Japanese occupation of Shanghai (an incident that seems to have based on the Steven Spielberg movie "Empire of the Sun" that was in turn based on the JG Ballard novel of the same name) and sent to a relocation camp for foreigners. The young boys are culled out and trained to be sex slaves to the adult Japanese men. As a fantasy, there's nothing wrong with this. I suspect it's quite common. The problem is, this fantasy has been based on real life, and World War II prisoner of war camps were not an erotic playground...they were full of starvation, slow death by cholera or tuberculosis, forced labor, and quick executions. So for me, it's very hard to imagine pleasurable erotic undertones in something so evil and depraved. When writing sexual fantasies, it's always a good idea to locate them somewhere outside of real life, where both the writer and audience know the activities are make- believe. This isn't to say real-life incidents can't be used as the basis for fantasies, but when they are explosive ones like war camps or Serbian rape squads, the writer has to be very, very skilled to pull them off convincingly, which probably excludes 95% of the writers on ASS. No slurs intended, but paid professional writers are paid professional ones for a reason. They write well.

So, the misguided use of prison camps was partly what gave the low grade to this one, though the main fault was the writing style. Things were grammatical enough, but the author just didn't know how to tell a good story. There wasn't much dialogue, the characters were wooden, and the danger and tension was underplayed, which was surprising considering the dramatic nature of the situation. A good rule of storytelling is "show, don't tell." which means the readers should be shown characters in action who are doing, thinking and feeling things, not just being told that they do, like "That evening, Jonathan naively mentioned the massage to his father at the dinner table. After only a few question, answered honestly, the man stormed from the room looking for the houseboy." It was also annoying to hear about the boys' cock measurements every time their names were mentioned--it's the gay equivalent of hearing about womens' bra sizes.

But I admit this was a good idea; too bad it wasn't handled better.

Note to Vickie Tern: I haven't forgotten about you, I'm still working on your latest.

8/31/97

I swore to myself I'd send these reviews five times a month, and as August has been a very busy time for me, that means I've got to make things this last weekend. So hence this Review, which is sneaking out only a day after my last one.

Stud Slaves in Training [D+]
When posted: 8/29/97
Where posted: ASS
Author: "M"
Address: slvbycbt@aol.com

This was represented as "Chapter 7" though no mention was made of a larger work. I wouldn't call it a story. It was more like a description of someone's fantasy, like they didn't take the time to order it into narrative--that is, a linear sequence of events that creates the illusion of an event happening in real-life time. (If you're going "Huh?" now, don't worry. This is just another way of saying it stinks.)

Brendan and Cory are two "studs" who are serving a household of three mistresses. They are slaves, and they also come under the thumb of female slaves who torture them as they prepare dinner in the kitchen: "Joy took control of the banana, and fucked him hard with it." All I can say is it must've been very underipe, or else it would have dissolved into puree by the third stroke. These vicious females also "...slap the boys' balls with hot spoons or even poke their nut sac with sharp two prong forks piercing their nuts." Call the ambulance! I don't THINK the author meant someone's scrotum was actually pierced with a fork, leading to great pain, blood loss, and infection, but it's a prime example of the sloppy writing happening here. The whole was mixed with the femdom messages of the superiority of women to men because their sexual arousal is not as evident and is less easily controlled (I say HAH!) and the bondage and humiliation of the men, which comes out dull even for this sort of material.

Tammi.zip [D-]
When posted: August
Where posted: ASSB
Author: Anonymous

Boy was this awful. It was SO bad it had a horrid fascination, like watching a car crash occur in slow motion. Tammi is a 4'6 teenage girl with 34C knockers. Yeah, right. She's also an airhead, demonstrated by how she blithely walks out of the house without her bra and panties, and also is mixed up as to whether she's "I" or "Tammi" as the story wavers between first person and third person narrative...such as this part where Tammi is gagged by a vengeful acquaintance (reproduced exactly as it appeared in the story): "Cindi stuff her t-shirt in her mouth so she can't make so much noise. "Cindi please stop I promise I won't", I was able to finish as she cramed my t-shirt in my mouth."

The plot is a typical revenge one: the other girls are pissed at Tammi for cockteasing all the boys, so they tie her up in front of a video camera and strip her. The boys paid them $5000 to do this. (Where the hell did teenage boys get that kind of money?) The other girls then diddle Tammy, causing her nipples to pop out three inches, and amazingly, even though she's not a mother, milk spurts out as well. Gallons and gallons of it. Then her clit pops out and she gets a 8-inch boner, which they force her to suck (I guess, like Marilyn Manson, she's got no lower ribs.)

Though the numerous fallacies, mistakes, and sheer implausibilities gave this one a certain sleazy charm, I'm not going to waste any more time on it, 'cept to say it's up there with "Plan 9 from Outer Space."

Too Close [B/B-]
When posted: 8/29/97
Where posted: ASS, ASSM
Author: Chucktie
Address: chucktie@aol.com

Told in first person by a professional rapist, this stories details the modus operandi of how he stalks, then rapes, an upper middle class housewife. The writing wasn't bad, but events came off as horrifying rather than arousing. I've got nothing against rape scenarios as a sexual fantasy. I thoroughly enjoyed "The Boss" and "Options" for example. But when they cut too close to the newspaper stories of reality, as in this story, the writer comes off as a psycho I'd rather avoid...right up there with that guy who's always writing about rotting undead corpses raping elven princesses.

Kelly & Brandon - Night One [B+]
When posted: 8/30/97
Where posted: ASS
Author: Robb 42
Address: robb_42@hotmail.com

Kelly and Brandon are a young man and woman who fuck each other. End of story.

The writing here was pretty good, with a mild sense of humor, and the sex realistically believable. However, as with "Stud Slaves" (sorry for the comparison, Robb) it wasn't really a story, as there wasn't any plot, conflict, tension, or character development. There wasn't anything about the couple that was unique or interesting, other than the fact the man works for the gas company and the girl shares a room with her older sister. Writing well is one part of telling a good story; the other part is making it interesting. This author has the basics in place, which is good; all that's left is making things three-dimensional.

One line stuck out in my mind: "Eat me please," she whispered softly. "Lick my cooter." Cooter is what they call turtles in the American south...in reference to the delicious soup they make. I can see eat my pussy...but eat my turtle?

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