The Annex Reviews, September 2002
9/8/02 F*U*C*K Radio (Writerzblocked); Panic Attack (Dryad); Freedom in the New World (Bradley Stoke); Website Review: Gromet's Self Bondage, Mummification, and Latex Plaza 9/29/02 Punished for My Sins (Suzy Suburbanite); The Bra That Got Away (Faibhar); An Open-minded Discussion (J. Darksong); Hilary's Muse (Kelly Adams)
9/2/02
Three young women employed by an English riding school receive the
shock of their lives when their workplace is invaded by a group of
masked activists from The League Against Blood Sports, who take
objection to the school's involvement in that quintessential English
upper-crust sport, fox hunting. They force the three to strip and
perform humiliating acts on them with the saddles and tack, taking
pictures (for later tabloid publication) all the while to send a 'message' to
other proponents of the sport. If you like that premise you will like this
story, which is a well-written, detailed, and frighteningly plausible
account of their experience through one girl's eyes, which is
uncomfortable and humiliating for her, but not too terribly brutal.
Sandra's reaction was a surprise. After she'd been double sucked a few
times she was giggling like a drunken tart. As for Melissa, she sounded
like a cow that badly needed milking as she bounced up and down on her
saddle and the hand squeezed in between it and her. She looked over at
me and gave a kind of 'what-the-hell-else-can-we-do' look. I'd never
seen her eyes so bright -- or her face so flushed either.
Yes, the victims do wind up enjoying it somewhat, even as the action moves on to sucking, fucking, and motorized sex toys. In sum, I found this an excellently written story that had a distinct British flavor; hot in the shame/forced-sex arena, though perhaps too literary and complicated to act as stroke on the first read (and it did require more than one read.) If you have a fetish about women in tall boots and horseback riding gear, you will probably like it too.
The Pony Princess [A]
Leviticus writes literate bondage stories set for the most part in the modern world, but in sheltered, secret communities where BDSM practitioners can give full rein to their pleasures. In this story, however, he turns to myth, telling us about a faraway kingdom, a curse laid on the land, and the king's daughter, who has been turned into a ponygirl as part of that curse. Her task is to find the one man who can release her from her bondage, otherwise the inhabitants of whole kingdom will be turned into horses. She finally does find a candidate who goes about it in a unique way (though not so surprising to regular readers of ponygirl/boy literature.) The story was short and spare as a good fairy tale should be, with the storytelling conventions of it; I found no fault with the writing. (Though I do think the angry wizard, the progenitor of the curse, was somewhat petty.) It combined two favorite genres of mine, fantasy and ponygirl, into something unique, and for that I recommend it; the author clearly has a lot of love for his fetish community, and it shows. I found that sweet -- as sweet as the story was, in its final conclusion.
Outback [A+]
Sometimes you have to take the things you read on ASSM with a grain of
salt. Like this story, narrated by an Australian guy who talks about his,
and his sister's, sexual relations with his three sheep herding dogs. In
detail. Well, you can either choose to take it as fact and be squicked (or
turned on, if you're into dogs), or take it as a barbed, extended joke aimed
at The Crocodile Hunter and other TV hosts of his ilk, which I did.
What can I say? You either are amused or you aren't. This just might win best bestiality story of the year.
The Khyromicon: Prologue [A-]
In this fantasy story Meryn, a young priest, prepares to go out into the world to seek five orphans who hold the fate of the world in balance. To prove himself fit, he must match himself physically and mentally in the rites of Bhaeris with the guidance of his ex-lover and tutor Brynn. The story being a pseudo-mystical fantasy many things were left unsaid, a convention of the genre, I guess. Nevertheless there was a good first time experience between the priest and his tutor, and some imaginative descriptions of the five humanoid children the priest must find (they correspond to the underground, desert, forest, sea, and normal - urban - environments) and I would guess that in later chapters they will be grown up enough to have sexual adventures of their own, with or without their mentor. An interesting start for something longer, but I do criticize the stodginess of the tone. Though it was literate and 'professional' it read too derivatively, despite the sex, of commercial adolescent fantasy -- the Dragonlance and Drizzt kind. I'd to see more craziness and personal fire from the writer, some more sloppy, unfettered imagination. Come on. I know you can do it.
The Fellatorium [B/B-]
A young bride-to-be undergoes a special rite in this brief tale, which could be described as magic realism erotica, or a daffy off-the-wall fantasy. It's a decidedly unglamorous ritual: the girl dresses in sweatpants, a t-shirt, and kneels on a shower room floor, which leads me to think the "my country" mentioned in the text is in a decaying Soviet- block nation somewhere. She prepares herself by gargling with oysters, egg whites, and salt water before orally servicing seven naked men: "#6 Ordered me to orally clean the mess the previous man had made. Then he masturbated and ordered me to suckle his testicles. His semen landed in my hair." Inexplicably, this humiliating treatment makes her eager to service her own husband. The story was interesting in a weird alternate-universe way -- shades of Daphne Xu's "Teen Blowjob Tournament" -- but was much less developed, without the dry sense of humor the former story had. It wasn't very sexy, either, unless you like reading about a young woman's clinical, uncomfortable sexual initiation; it might have been improved by telling us more about what the protagonist feels, instead of what happens to her.
The Legjob [A]
I felt the brunette's thighs and went back to feeling her legs as I
pumped. A leg job was a new experience.
A paddling with a hairbrush follows for one of the "nasty boys who squirt on a woman's legs." All in good fun, of course. A short tale, quick to read, but effective; if you want a friendly introduction to enema, pumping, and bondage fic, look no further.
9/8/02
A married woman is feeling overwhelmed by the events of everyday life (picking up the kids from daycare, worrying about losing her job, etc.) and is running around frantically looking for her car keys. Her husband suggests she blow off her meeting and slow down a bit. To reinforce the suggestion he begins to undress her and forces her to take a candlelit bath to the dulcet strains of Enya. Oral sex on his part follows. This was a quick, romantic tale, though somewhat misrepresented as the "panic attack" of the title was really no more than a workaday conniption fit. I've seen real panic attacks, and they ain't pretty; to bring a loved one out of one by using oral sex would have been a real challenge for the writer, and made a more unusual and distinctive story. This was, in fact, what I was expecting to see, though the interlude was pleasant enough. Nice, but not really distinctive.
F*U*C*K Radio [A-]
If the above story might have read too blandly, this story goes in the opposite direction, using one writer's very distinctive voice, characters, and settings. The narrator is a DA who's best friends with an ex-hippy lawyer named Bubbles who has a flair for using mind control techniques on her clients, or those who cross her -- not maliciously, but mischievously. The story concerns what happens when they decide to take down a local right-wing radio personality in a spectacular way, Bubbles calling in and using her voice to force Mrs. Limbaugh to have an on-the-air orgasm. Distinctive, no? But that distinctiveness came with a swamp of clever details and snappy dialogue, so many offhand smirks and witty repartees, in fact, that I found myself getting befuddled. Granted, the characters were part of another story series where their backgrounds and powers would have been explained. But even considering that, the story wasn't very user-friendly; I felt more like I was eavesdropping on the author, not invited into the story circle. And though the story concerned sex and sexual mind control it really wasn't very sexy -- the plot was more like an extended prank pulled by a Ken Kesey counterculture sort. I found myself actually feeling sorry for the victim and questioning the characters' maturity, something one usually doesn't do when reading erotic fiction of a fantastic nature. Also, the payoff -- the victim's humiliation -- was too brief and undetailed for all the buildup it got beforehand. In sum, I'd say this was an amusing satire about unusual characters, but not really erotic mind control.
Freedom in the New World [A]
Lovely Thasra is a slave belonging to the boorish Enoch Evans, who
alternately lectures his slaves about American democracy and bangs the
hell out of them. It is early in the 19th century, and slavery is still legal
in the states. Thasra submits to her master's attentions while reflecting
on their irony:
Eventually she does something about it. I'm always a sucker for a historical sex tale, though this wasn't so much a sex story as a character study, and, as the author explains, a rumination on American freedoms. Still, the sex was handled well, and if it wasn't exactly arousing (and I hope no one gets aroused by a young black woman's humiliation) it was interesting to read and felt true to life -- I felt like I was present in the scene and feeling all the protagonist did, the benchmark of any good story. I do think, though, that it could have used more development. It read like it had been written quickly in the heat of the moment without much research, and polished later. For example, at one point the slave thinks about the zebra, antelope, and lions of her village grasslands, which implies East Africa; yet most of the New World/Old World slave trade took place on Africa's western coast. Unless the slave coffle had a trek of some months, this doesn't seen possible to me. Of course, I'm no history expert, but it was one of those things that just stood out.
Click here to read my review of Gromet's Self Bondage, Mummification, and Latex Plaza
9/29/02
Poor Maureen is a Naval conscript stationed in Nowheresville, Canada,
thousands of miles from her boyfriend and the cock she knows and
loves. Lonely, oversexed, and aggressively heterosexual, she has nightly
"cum sessions" with her vibrator and engages in phone sex to keep the
fires of passion strong. But then she meets Shiandra ("a very big black
woman: big butt, big boobs, big legs...the woman was big, not fat, but
very big") a fellow soldier who turns out to be a lesbian, and who comes
on to her persistently:
I was very shocked to say the least, 'Lisa was right after all,' I realized.
"Shi, I'm not gay," I tried to explain.
"I didn't say you were baby. I'm not asking you to suck my twat. I just
want to taste your pretty white pussy. Nobody will ever know baby. All
the white girls say I do it best baby. It'll be just between you and me."
This is all very amusing, until she gives into temptation, and Shiandra winds up mopping the floor with her in butch-femme D/s sessions that include canings, BDSM, and verbal and sexual humiliation, mostly centering on how easily a big black "Daddy" can dominate a "stupid white pussy." The story goes that far and then farther, as the heroine decides she enjoys the abuse. Whether you like this or not is up to you; but for what it was, it was an intense, engaging read. I finished it to the very end, though I wasn't comfortable with the violence or racial aspects of the story -- I found the horny female soldier-in-the-boonies more interesting, and frankly more believable, as it was never fully explained exactly why the heroine decided to give in to Shiandra's persistence, especially as she kept insisted she wasn't that attracted. On the other hand, the aspects of her submission were handled well: "I needed the punishment--the pain and the hurt--in order to enjoy the pleasure without guilt. I needed her degradation and defilement to reinforce her dominance over me. My will was not my own, but a plaything for this woman who is, at once, the most sensual, sexual lover I've ever encountered and within the same breath, the most vicious and cruel personality I would ever dare meet." The submissions leads her, later, to accept even hospitalization and a demeaning gang-rape pregnancy from her lover; this I questioned, as the heroine seemed to prefer being punished than to come to terms with her attraction to females. But up to then, it was a worthy ride.
The Bra that Got Away [A+]
This story was one those in the 'last line' Sapphic Festival category. Mel
and Jennifer are two young San Francisco lesbians who are into risky
sex, and in this case risky means gaining access to a broadcast tower on
the edge of town and having sex at its apex in the wind and the sun. Mel
is the tough, leather-clad butch (she rides a motorcycle) and Jennifer
the whimpering femme, and the sex, though mutual at first, takes a D/s
turn when they get to the top:
Mel looked back at Jennifer. Maybe this girl from the sticks knew
more than she had suspected. There was one way to find out. "Take off
your parka."
The baby's sweatshirt hid many charms Mel thought as she watched
Jennifer reluctantly shed what warmth her coat offered. Mel pointedly
glared down at the thin gym shorts riding high above the long pale
legs. "Those too."
Jennifer started to protest when Mel swung her arm. The blow
knocked a stunned Jennifer back into the corner. Long thin fingers
covered a cheek that already was blossoming red. Mel leaned toward
her and her victim cowered more.
Mel grabbed a shock of the raven hair and yanked its owner close to
her face. She savaged the plump lips until she felt them again relax.
Satisfied, she let the hair go and went back to her bag. "You heard me.
Drop 'em."
As Mel is black and Jennifer white, the roughness had stereotypical racial overtones of dominance similar to those evinced by the previous story, and it made me uncomfortable. (Are only black dykes truly butch? And are they butch only as long as the non-minority dykes -- the white ones -- allow it?) Interesting questions, these. But the writing here was excellent, and the way the last line was worked in was truly clever.
An Open-minded Discussion [A]
Straight Beth has never entertained the possibility that she might be
gay, even as she accepts an invitation from Sharon, an openly gay co-
worker, for a night out in a club. It turns out to be a lesbian club, and
Sharon's intentions soon becoming clear: she uses her voice and rather
confusing sense of logic to bring Beth around to her way of thinking in
a scene that, while it wasn't tagged as mind control, was as hypnotic as
you could get in a sex story:
"I think what a part of you, way down deep, knew all along what it is
you sought. You want more than just sex, Beth. Sex is only physical
pleasure." Her hand slid under the table, caressing my silk encased leg,
sending goose bumps across my flesh. "What you've been seeking, the
thing you've been missing, Beth, is more spiritual in nature." Her hand
circled my thigh, causing me to whimper, making my sex begin to
moisten. "You seek someone who can fill you with pleasure, joy,
happiness, contentment, and security all at once. You want someone
who can fill that void in your life, fill you to the brim, and beyond, until
the sheer pleasure within is overflowing."
She winds up submitting, of course. Couldn't you guess? Though not categorized as mind control, this was definitely mind control; the author has a knack for it, and should write some longer fantasies in the same vein. This author has also written other stories in different categories for the festival which are worth checking out.
Hilary's Muse [A]
One co-ed prepares another to seduce her girlfriend in this story, and
the seduction entails dressing up as a muse -- Erato, the muse of
Romantic poetry, which I guess includes erotic poetry as well:
Hilary giggled.
"What?" Jo asked sharply.
"You said 'bosom,'" Hilary said.
"I'm trying to get into the spirit of things."
"But I don't think you're chesty enough to have a 'bosom,'" Hilary
explained.
Jo gave Hilary's ass a short spank. "Just shut up and suck my tits then."
"Okay." Hilary moved her mouth down to Jo's breasts and began to
lick her nipples. Jo felt her arousal grow as Hilary's tongue
circled her sensitive nubs.
The story was short, but that one section was very funny, dealing as it does with a neo-Classical way of speaking (as freshmen who first encounter Classic Lit 101 might parody it) as well as the Lesbos/Sappho aspect (her island was a sort of school for young girls, I gather) and combined with 'Greek' aspect of collegiate life, it all fit very neatly together. Nice, very nice.
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