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Subject: {ASSM} {REVIEW} Celestial Reviews 374 -- Nov 4, 2000
Date: Wed, 8 Nov 2000 08:10:03 -0500
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Subject: Celestial Reviews 374 -- Nov 4, 2000
From: Celeste801@aol.com
Celestial Reviews 374 -- Nov 4, 2000
Note: It's been a busy week. I've learned that my best bet is to
"bail out" by just posting what I have, rather than waiting till I
have a more complete issue. So here it is.
THIS WEEK'S JOKE:
"Am I a people?"
"No. You're a chicken."
"Do chickens come from people?"
"No. Chickens come from eggs."
"Do people come from eggs?"
"No. People are born."
"Are eggs born?"
"No----eggs are laid?"
"Are people laid?"
"Some are. Others are chicken."
=====================
Celestial Reviews Index:
=====================
"Lunch Hour" by Backrub (semi-public sex) 10, 10, 10
http://assm.asstr-mirror.org/Year2000/26993
"Damned if you do..." by silkinn (drunken wife watching) 9, 7, 5
http://assm.asstr-mirror.org/Year2000/26981
"Two Out of Three" by Wiseguy (sexual games) 9.5, 9.5, 9.5
http://www.asstr-mirror.org/files/Authors/Wiseguy/www/2of3.htm
"Smooth Talking: Susan At The Restaurant" by The Lycanthrope (mind
control)
10, 9, 9
http://www.asstr-mirror.org/files/Authors/lycanthrope/www/talk_susan.html
"Out of This World" by Spiller (Fm fetish) 10, 8.5, 6
http://assm.asstr-mirror.org/Year2000/27132
http://assm.asstr-mirror.org/Year2000/27206
"Therapy after Surgery" by Red Redman (post-op sex) 8, 8, 6
http://assm.asstr-mirror.org/Year2000/27169
"Lightning in the Night" by Ann Douglas (superheroes in love) 9, 8, 8
http://www.asstr-mirror.org/files/Authors/Ann_Douglas/www/light.htm
"Labors of Claudia " by Shon Richards (romance) 10, 10, 10
http://assm.asstr-mirror.org/Year2000/27088
====================
HALLOWEEN WRAP-UP
====================
"Photographs and Memories" by Desdmona (unfulfilled love) 10, 10, 10
http://assm.asstr-mirror.org/Year2000/27037
"Hell hath no fury..." by Souvie (revenge) 10, 10, 10
http://www.asstr-mirror.org/files/Authors/Souvie/www/fury.html
"One Day A Year" by E.Z. Riter (bewitching sex) 10, 10, 10
http://assm.asstr-mirror.org/Year2000/27166
"Halloween Mischief" by One Gallus (geriatric sex) 10, 9.5, 8
http://assm.asstr-mirror.org/Year2000/27161
"Things That Go Hump in the Night" by Miles Naismith (incubus sex) 10,
9.5,
9
http://assm.asstr-mirror.org/Year2000/27150
====================
REPOSTED REVIEWS:
=====================
* "Hell Hath No Fury" by Satan Penguin (Utopian comic book sex) 10, 9,
9
* "Hell Hath No Fury" by Darkside (transgender) 9, 10, 10
=====================
Guest Reviews:
=====================
"Captivated Cock and The Asian Tease" by Story Knight 2000 (friendly
bondage). Myers {No rating}
"Bosom Buddies" by Phil Phantom (incest). Emily: 8, 5, 5
http://assm.asstr-mirror.org/Year2000/26922
"Waiting to Receive " by Lane Boyd (holiday sex). Nat: 9, 10, 10
http://assm.asstr-mirror.org/Year2000/26566
=====================
Here are the Reviews:
=====================
"Lunch Hour" by Backrub (Bckrub@aol.com).
http://assm.asstr-mirror.org/Year2000/26993
It is good to see this author back in action. Backrub was one of the
first authors to attract me to this newsgroup several years ago.
It's difficult to describe what this story is about. One theory is
that this is a story about a college student masturbating in the
back of a book store while she listens to two people fucking on the
other side of the door, one or two feet away from where she has been
sitting, reading a porn story stashed inside a physics book. Another
theory is that this is a story about a man and a woman having a pre-
prandial quickie before they go out for lunch together. For reasons
that I won't disclose here, the story could also be about "Harry
Potter and the Spurting Cock." Imagine that.
"There goes a woman with a mission."
The story has some irritating typos and grammar errors; but once
these are overcome, we have an interesting story of unusual events
in a very normal environment, observed from the viewpoint of several
different people --including BookGrrl, about whom I have told you
nothing.
Ratings for "Lunch Hour"
Athena (plot & character): 9.5
Venus (technical quality): 10
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10
"Damned if you do..." by silkinn (silkinn@chickmail.com).
http://assm.asstr-mirror.org/Year2000/26981
While the husband is working, the wife goes off to a bar with her
friend. The husband is supposed to pick her up at the end of the
evening, but he quits early and spies on her while she gets drunk
and flirts outrageously with a stranger, who eventually fucks her
under the table.
Getting really, really drunk is not something that I enjoy. Nor is
it a major fantasy for me to have a stranger manipulate me for his
pleasure while my husband looks on. Therefore, it was up to the
author to convince me that this would be enjoyable. That didn't
really happen. I suppose this story might have more appeal to people
who are already sold on the virtues of getting really bombed in a
noisy room before having sex or who are already convinced that
watching a spouse get humped must certainly be a lot of fun; but a
lot of this went right past me.
Ratings for "Damned if you do..."
Athena (plot & character): 9
Venus (technical quality): 7
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 5
"Two Out of Three" by Wiseguy.
http://www.asstr-mirror.org/files/Authors/Wiseguy/www/2of3.htm
When our narrator and Audrey argue over something, they solve the
problem interactively -- not by discussing the matter and reasoning
about it, but rather by a form of wrestling. Essentially, they get
down and dirty, and whoever makes the other person have an orgasm
gets one point. The first person to acquire two points gets the
issue settled in his/her way.
It's a very sexy strategy, and it has a tendency to generate good
losers. Imagine that.
Ratings for "Two Out of Three"
Athena (plot & character): 9.5
Venus (technical quality): 9.5
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 9.5
"Smooth Talking: Susan at The Restaurant" by The Lycanthrope
(lycanthrope@WriterMail.com).
http://www.asstr-mirror.org/files/Authors/lycanthrope/www/talk_susan.html
Our narrator (Jeff) finds an interesting waitress in the restaurant,
over-tips her to get her interest, and then seduces her through mind
control techniques.
Jeff uses the "pleasure touch" technique. Basically, Jeff gets Susan
real comfortable and hypnotizes her by talking to her, and then he
uses his fingers and other parts of his skin to make her feel really
good. I can think of worse ways to be wrongfully manipulated.
Jeff's approach to mind control is relatively non-manipulative, and
I like that. All he does is make Susan fell really, really good; and
that makes her feel really, really appreciative. The rest is up to
her. This is really a very nice story.
Ratings for "Smooth Talking"
Athena (plot & character): 10
Venus (technical quality): 9
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 9
"Out of This World" by Spiller (xxspillerxx@my-deja.com).
http://assm.asstr-mirror.org/Year2000/27132
http://assm.asstr-mirror.org/Year2000/27206
The husband and wife go to a party. He's the designated driver; and
so while she gets horny in the back of the camper, he drives the
vehicle. Eventually he joins her, and they exchange fantasies and
kinky sex. In the course of these events, she promises to become his
sex slave forever, if only he will supply her with an opportunity
for sex with a fifteen-year-old boy.
My problem with the story was its main fetish. I just can't get high
on the thought of being fucked by a 15-year-old kid with a tiny
dick, even if he is Danish, and even if I imagine the child to be my
own son. I guess maybe I just am the victim of too many Victorian
taboos or the beneficiary of a larger cock. However, I found that if
I approached the story as humor, then the very silliness of the idea
salvaged some value for the story.
The story is clearly written, and I suppose if you share this
fetish, you might enjoy this story.
The author says that it's legal to have sex with 15-year-old boys in
Denmark. I'm not sure how I would verify that. My online almanac
didn't have an entry on that topic, and writing to the Danish
Ministry of Education just didn't seem proper.
Ratings "Out of This World"
Athena (plot & character): 10
Venus (technical quality): 8.5
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 6
"Therapy after Surgery" by Red Redman (redman@seductive.com).
http://assm.asstr-mirror.org/Year2000/27169
The woman has had a hysterectomy, and her husband is gently trying
to help her get back in the groove afterwards. They don't have
active sex; they just share fantasies. My problem with personal
preference for this story was that the fantasies were more of a
turn-off than a turn-on to me.
In addition, this author has displayed better writing style in other
stories. For example, in the present case, the verb tenses are
frequently and irritably confusing.
Ratings "Therapy after Surgery"
Athena (plot & character): 8
Venus (technical quality): 8
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 6
"Lightning in the Night" by Ann Douglas (ann_douglas@hotmail.com).
http://www.asstr-mirror.org/files/Authors/Ann_Douglas/www/light.htm
Mary Bromfield and Linda Danvers meet when they are interviewing
for a television journalist job that goes to another applicant.
Unbeknownst to Mary, Linda is actually Kara Zor-El, better known as
Supergirl, a woman of great beauty and strength, who loves dolphins.
Shortly after our story begins, the Maid of Might first saves San
Pablo from destruction and then mentally relives her sexual
relationships and seeks counseling from Batgirl before a dinner date
with her new friend, whom she discovers to be Mary Marvel, a wench
whose power is equal to Supergirl's. They get along just fine. In
fact, they even make love.
In spite of what I found to be excessive attention to comic-book
details, this is a good story.
Ratings "Lightning in the Night"
Athena (plot & character): 9
Venus (technical quality): 8
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 8
"Labors of Claudia " by Shon Richards (lordshon@aol.com).
The woman removes -- one by one -- each of her lover's senses from
the act of lovemaking. First she blindfolds him, then she cuts off
his sense of smell, etc; and he still loves her, because his love
for her is not based on any single feature or set of features but
rather on her whole personality.
The story isn't exactly stroke material, nor does it have an
exciting plot; but it drives home a nice point simply and nicely.
Ratings "Lightning in the Night"
Athena (plot & character): 10
Venus (technical quality): 10
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10
====================
HALLOWEEN WRAP-UP
====================
Here are a final few Halloween stories that I obtained too late for
last week's Special Issue:
"Photographs and Memories" by Desdmona.
http://assm.asstr-mirror.org/Year2000/27037
Here we have a tale of unfulfilled love. The two young people were
in love, but they never consummated it. After they drifted apart, he
died, with their love still unconsummated. Their love still exists
in photographs and in dreams and in memories; and some of those
memories are vivid recollections of the fulfillment of that
unconsummated love.
This is a really beautiful, sentimental, romantic story. I guess
someone could argue that there's not much sex in it; but that really
depends on what you mean by sex.
Ratings for "Photographs and Memories"
Athena (plot & character): 10
Venus (technical quality): 10
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10
"Hell hath no fury..." by Souvie.
http://www.asstr-mirror.org/files/Authors/Souvie/www/fury.html
The full aphorism is, "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned."
Cassandra is a paleontologist away at a dig in Greece. Her husband
is at home, scorning her by fucking the lewd and lascivious Gina. By
incredible coincidence, Cassandra discovers an incantation that
enables her to evoke the spirit of Megaera, who is one of the
Erinyes, who are known in Roman mythology as the Furies. Hence the
title, and hence her husband's ass is grass.
This is a sexy story with a coherent plot and accurate allusions to
classical mythology. It's the sort of thing that warms my scholarly
heart.
There are two other stories with this same title, both of them
almost as good as this one. I'll repost the reviews and links.
Ratings for "Hell hath no fury..."
Athena (plot & character): 10
Venus (technical quality): 10
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10
"One Day A Year" by E.Z. Riter (ezriter@pdq.net).
http://assm.asstr-mirror.org/Year2000/27166
I know in a recent review I said that real witches behaved exactly
the way the author described them in that story. Well, I lied. Real
witches behave exactly the way the author describes them in THIS
story. Or maybe they behave exactly the way the authors describe
them in BOTH stories. How should I know? The witches whom I actually
know don't even claim any powers more magical than those claimed by
the nuns who taught me in elementary school.
The witches in this story are delightfully depraved. I like that in
a witch.
Normally, I go to great lengths to avoid giving away the ending,
because that would usually ruin the story for my readers. However,
in the present case, I think I can simply give you the ending
without any of the rest of the story. Basically, the narrator gets
to have two eager and loving women all the time throughout his life
in exchange for being under witches' spells on Halloween. That's not
really a bad deal. After all, Halloween's only one day a year. And
the spells are good spells -- if you look at them in the right way.
Ratings for "One Day A Year"
Athena (plot & character): 10
Venus (technical quality): 10
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10
"Things That Go Hump in the Night" by Miles Naismith
(mnaismith@hotmail.com).
http://assm.asstr-mirror.org/Year2000/27150
In order to accommodate his adolescent rape fantasy, the woman
agrees to let her husband ravish her, disguised as an intruding
burglar on Halloween night. Unfortunately, he fails to show up, but
the show goes on without him.
At the end of the story is an interesting note by Lisala, in which
she discusses the history of incubi in popular culture.
It's a nice combination.
Ratings for "Things That Go Hump in the Night"
Athena (plot & character): 10
Venus (technical quality): 9.5
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 9
"Halloween Mischief" by One Gallus (onegallus@yahoo.com).
http://assm.asstr-mirror.org/Year2000/27161
It really is difficult to predict what will show up in a Halloween
sex story. Were I not already convinced of that fact, this story
would have supplied the proof. It's about a "young" man who visits
his elderly mother in the nursing home, where her roommate develops
a fondness for him and he feels pressured to fulfill her sexual
needs. As I read the story, I found myself muttering, "This crap is
disgusting." Then there was an interesting twist at the end, and I
said to myself, "What the hell! It's a Halloween story."
This is not a sexy story. It belongs more in the Odd Sex Story
category.
Ratings for "Halloween Mischief"
Athena (plot & character): 10
Venus (technical quality): 9.5
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 8
"The Trick and the Treat" by T.S. Fesseln (fesseln1@aol.com).
This story has numerous grammatical gaffes that should have been
corrected, and there are gaps in the plot that keep it from making
perfect sense. Combine that with the fact that I usually don't enjoy
bondage stories, and the Celestial rating of "7" for this story
should tell you that it has considerable potential.
The basic plot is that the husband surprises the wife at the
Halloween party by adding handcuffs and turning the evening into a
bondage game. The bondage is playful and sexy, and with a little
work this could turn into a really good story.
Ratings for "The Trick and the Treat"
Athena (plot & character): 7
Venus (technical quality): 8
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 7
====================
GUEST REVIEWS:
=====================
"Captivated Cock and The Asian Tease" by Story Knight 2000 (
Story_Knight@hotmail.com). Guest review by Dave Myers.
This vignette is well told, but marred by a few grammatical/spelling
errors and overuse of some cliches. This is a scene that should
appeal even to those without an interest in bondage, I would think,
because there is no torture, and the emphasis is on Tease and not
Captive/Captivated.
A man who meets a tease in a club gets her alone only to be tied up
himself, and pleasured in a very calculated way. It's all pretty
simple, and that's what's good about it- there's not much wasted
space in the story. I like that the dialogue is kept minimal, and
we're not forced to worry about exactly what transitional events
took place between the point of pick-up line and the gag winding up
in his mouth. In a story like this, I'm glad for the leap of faith,
because it'd spoil some of the mystery otherwise.
If it could be improved, I'd suggest (after cleaning up the errors)
removing some of the cliche material, especially near the beginning,
in the club. The image the author has of this nymph is caught in his
mind as an all-too-standard pin-up poster picture of an Asian club-
tease. She's a little too cardboard-cutout because of it.
{No rating -- Because the reviewer prefers not to give numerical
ratings.}
"Bosom Buddies" by: Phil Phantom.
http://assm.asstr-mirror.org/Year2000/26922
Take (a) one 15-year-old son who's an erection on legs. Take (b) one
mum who's also a hot babe despite (gasp) being middle-aged. Find a
plot device that inserts (a) into (b), repeatedly. Then declare that
everyone lived happily ever after.
Well, it's a pretty simple recipe, but a never-endingly popular one.
Obviously the brew that mixes up motherly familial love with sexual
love, so you get a bargain two loves for the price of one, is
irresistible. So the main trick to bring life to this micro-genre is
the plot device where boy gets to mount mum. Will it be the bedroom
door left open? Will it be getting drunk and leaving yourself
partially disrobed and available for tampering? Well, refreshingly,
this story passing up on the trite domestic opportunities for
illicit intimacy, and drives itself into a nastier neighbourhood of
gang rape and mum-son humiliation. Which is good. But the chance to
go at break-neck speed through the twisting bends of sexual cruelty
is sadly passed up. You never have any sense of danger, or
humiliation, or pain or indeed any major emotion. Of course, this is
because the characters are merely vehicles for carrying genitals
around: mum is 36DD, son is 7", the three rapists are black men
with, rather unusually, huge cocks. No one has a name, except for
the son. (When will writers realise that no major erotic character
can ever be called Greg.) Which is all a great pity, because the
set-up was there to take you on an extreme sexual adventure. But in
the end, the "nasty" wasn't evil enough, and the "nice" wasn't
tender enough. And the opportunities for humiliation and depravity,
such as a son urinating in his mother's mouth, are pissed away in a
throwaway line with no attempt to linger on the loving details and
the interior thoughts that could have brought the whole thing to
life.
Athena (technical quality): 8
Venus (plot & character): 5
Emily (appeal to reviewer): 5
"Waiting to Receive" by Lane Boyd (laneboyd@newsguy.com)
(http://www.asstr-mirror.org/files/Collections/Alt.Sex.Stories.Moderated/Year2000/26566)
http://assm.asstr-mirror.org/Year2000/26566
I wonder what it is about Queensland that it produces all these
talented writers. Maybe it's something in the water. If "Waiting
to Receive" had come my way without author attribution I would have
said that it was a DrSpin story. In case you're wondering, that
means it's good.
Jonathon and Marjory MacArthur are holidaying away from Sleet City
in Northern Queensland. Jonathon strongly fancies Anna Kournikova
and thinks that getting back in touch with each other means having a
lot more sex than usual, preferably outdoors. Marjory thinks that a
holiday is for relaxing by the pool and doing crosswords. That is to
say, he's a man and she's a woman, and they've been married for
twenty years. Luckily for both of them, the acne-ridden girl with
braces who is running the resort newsagent stall during her bad hair
year shows signs of wanting a knock-up. Take it from there.
When reading "Waiting to Receive" I felt impelled to say, "I want to
draw your attention to the emergence of a new writer at the upper
end of the spectrum". Afraid that saying so might insult a well-
established writer whom I ought to know already, I did some homework
at ASSTR to see what else Lane Boyd has offered. I found no web-site
or ftp site and only one earlier story that appeared on ASSM on 15th
September 2000. This is "The Anti-Climax -- a first story by Lane
Boyd"
(http://www.asstr-mirror.org/files/Collections/Alt.Sex.Stories.Moderated/Year2000/26347).
It's an off-the-wall prostitute humour story that got 9, 9, 9 from
Celeste Herself in Celestial Reviews 368 of 23rd September 2000
(http://www.asstr-mirror.org/files/Collections/Alt.Sex.Stories.Moderated/Year2000/26495).
Reassured, I now say, "I want to draw your attention to the
emergence of a new writer at the upper end of the spectrum."
Lane Boyd is a mature writer who knows more than a thing or two
about men and women, and how they think and feel and act, and
deploys this knowledge in a gently sardonic fashion that is right up
my alley, even unto obeying the "leave 'em wanting more" rule. There
is plot, there are fully-developed, well-written three-dimensional,
real characters. Oh, yes. And sex.
If I had edited this piece I would have said that it went through
one cycle too few in the proofing and editing. That is to say, the
technical quality is pretty good but could be better. Not-quite-
good-enough is not good enough for writers of this calibre. There
are a few capitalisation and punctuation quibbles that might have
been easily sorted out, there is a cliched climb up the corporate
ladder and there were a few infelicities such as Marjory's muscular
breasts and Anna's beautifully neat vagina.
I had to think harder than I wanted in the category of Australian
tennis stars of yesteryear. Homework suggests that Bewdy Newk is
now running a tennis ranch cum conference centre cum Waltzing
Matilda Dining Room in--would you believe?--Texas. I bet you didn't
know that either. The juxtaposition of Venus Williams and the
goddess Venus didn't quite come off. And regular readers of ASSM
are inevitably distracted by wondering what a Rebound Ace surface
might be. Sorry, Lane: just one of those things. Liked the story,
though. Recommended.
Ratings for "Waiting to Receive"
Athena (technical quality): 9
Venus (plot & character): 10
Nat (appeal to reviewer): 10
====================
REPOSTED REVIEWS:
=====================
* "Hell Hath No Fury" by Satan Penguin
(spenguin@freenet.edmonton.ab.ca).
Shakespeare based most of his plays on the tales and legends with
which his audiences were already familiar. To accomplish this, he
must have had a prodigious knowledge of the classics and of folk
legends. The present author likewise bases this story on
information with which he expects his audience to be familiar. In
other words, he displays a prodigious knowledge of the Archie series
of comic books and newspaper cartoons.
Stan, the protagonist of this story, comes from a planet called
Elad-Revir, H'trae. This planet is a close parallel to earth, and
the city is closely parallel to Riverdale, the home of Archie,
Veronica, Betty, Jughead, and their comic book friends. If you
haven't made the association yet, you may want to read Elad-Revir,
H'trae backwards and see if you can notice its relationship to
Riverdale, Earth. If you can see no connection, you are not smart
enough to read this story.
This could be described as a Utopian -- or anti-Utopian -- story.
It combines comic book characters with a focus on adolescent sex to
deal with concepts that Orwell dealt with in "1984 "and Skinner
dealt with in "Walden II": what is the best way to run a perfect
society -- to get individuals to contribute willingly to the good
of the greater society? Stan is the quintessential Renaissance man,
modern scientist and engineer, and sexual aficionado all rolled up
into one. He's almost too good to be true- which is OK, because,
after all, this is a comic book episode.
As I neared the completion of Chapter IV (which is all there is
right now), I paused and pondered the title. I had assumed it was
excerpted from the expression "Health hath no fury like a woman
scorned." But no woman had been scorned, and the prospects for
scorning were low. Maybe the title was a simple description of the
lack of overt hostility in hell. The Church Lady would certainly
notice that Stan himself was one vowel short of Satan; could that be
relevant?
I really don't know where the story is going. There are numerous
unresolved subplots -- none of which have any apparent relation to
hell or its fury. Reggie has been plotting to seize a share of
Stan's wealth. One of the sex slaves is developing a genuine (non-
slavelike) attraction for Stan. Sabrina is trying to integrate her
witch essence with her human existence. Veronica and Betty have
discovered the joys of hedonistic sex with each other and with other
lovely ladies. All the members of the gang (especially the genius
Dilbert) have started getting in a little over their heads with sex
with sex; and who knows what to make of the lovely ladies whom Stan
has so adeptly trained to service himself and his friends? And
there's much more. I am impressed with the overall quality of the
writing and with the attempt to merge the consistent Archie story
line with more complex sexual idea, but I am also a bit disappointed
that I have read this far and don't yet know where the story is
going. I guess I'll have to wait and see what happens next. Its
sort of like reading the funny pages!
Ratings for "Hell Hath No Fury"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 9
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 9
"Hell Hath No Fury" (a complete, three part novel, long), by Darkside.
(Darkside@nym.alias.net).
http://www.asstr-mirror.org/files/Authors/Darkside/furybook1.txt
http://www.asstr-mirror.org/files/Authors/Darkside/furybook2.txt
http://www.asstr-mirror.org/files/Authors/Darkside/furybook3.txt
{The following guest review of Part One was written by Green Onions,
who has posted several stories on this newsgroup. (This review was
posted in Celestial Reviews 196, July 5 1997) See Vickie Tern below
for how Part One relates to the whole novel as finally completed.}
* "Hell Hath No Fury" [novella] by Darkside. A driver has a flat
tire on a lonely road. Spare to change? Sorry, none in the trunk.
Night falls on the man without a plan.
The stars blink brightly in the clear black sky as his chances of
surviving begin to flicker out. Snow appears. Lost and alone, he
waits for the end of his life in the white darkness.
And yet when all optimism seems to have faded into the freezing
wilderness there emerges (from behind a hidden chorus of weeping
violins) a vision of hope that flies gracefully across the horizon
of his dimming consciousness, singing its mystical song, ready to
deftly snatch the hapless wayfarer from the drooling unflossed Jaws
of Death.
Is it a bird? A plane? An optical illusion? No--it's Florence
Nightingale: _after_ she graduated from medical school.
And so not a moment too soon is the Grim Reaper's task interrupted
by the talents of a skilled, sensitive, tall, brilliant, blue-eyed,
lithe busty rich young female physician with near-perfect abs.
She first asks the nurse to check his insurance. Then she saves his
life.
And so the dream continues. They fall for each other; he proposes to
her. Their engagement progresses like clockwork to the final misty
moment as family, friends, and myriad onlookers gather to witness
the anticipated instant when he will place the golden ring of their
sacred unity upon her willing finger.
It seems that all is right with the world. Surely they will love out
their lives in an era of peace, happiness, hot sex, low taxes, and
white picket fences.
Well, as one of Douglas Adam's characters once said in _The
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy_: "Sorry, wrong universe!"
As the sun beats down on the expectant crowd he explains that he
does not love her and cannot marry her. Her parents are glaring
hatefully, she is sobbing pitifully and he is shrugging
philosophically. Better luck next time.
Or better sense, perhaps. Because the Doctor was a dream and he
needs someone real. Not a vision but a spouse. Not a fantasy, but
flesh and soul. And after two long years he finds and marries her
with little hesitation. The second time is indeed the charm--even if
her stomach isn't quite as flat, she is still young and attractive,
affectionate, smart, tall and slim.
But what of his first love, of the brilliant blue-eyed shapely
svelte angel of the steel table who had saved his life, savored his
love, and was jilted--indeed brutally humiliated--in front of her
friends and family?
Hell, if you thought biblical characters tend to suffer more than
others for spurning the affections of the smooth-faced gender, read
this story and think again!
And what could be a more fitting punishment for an ungrateful
insensitive, thoughtless and callously cruel male jerk than to be
forced to suffer the indignities of _becoming_ a woman? His fate
will not be limited to the experience of being in a female body, but
will also include the transformation of his mind.
Yes, She will have her way with him. She will make his dream into
her nightmare. And in more than one respect.
This is not an ordinary TG (trans-gender) piece, nor is it a classic
sex story or a typical tale of revenge, mystery--yes there is a
murder--cumuppance (gee, did I misspell that?), or even an ironic,
slightly humorous psychological sci-fi erotic thriller. It's all of
those bound together with a tight plot and topped off with a
tempting smorgasbord of diverse sexual blandishments.
In case you thought I might be blowing my load prematurely, I should
also point out that this piece could be even better if the author
diverged from some typical tendencies of erotica and romance writers
(including most a.s.s. contributors). For starters I might
occasionally prefer to see characters in longer stories developed
with a third dimension--the sorts of accents, nuances, habits,
hobbies, mannerisms, peculiarities and idiosyncrasies that we
typically observe in real people. Such details can often be worked
into plots with little effort.
While Darkside's prose is better than most, I also sometimes wish
a.s.s. writers would pause more often to allow their readers to
"smell the roses" (or hear the cadences) of their phrases and the
rhythm of their sentences. Words can do more than convey
information.
And although I am often at odds with the well-worshipped deity who
is hosting this review, she and I agree on one thing: maybe there is
room for protagonists whose bodies are not quite so heavenly. If one
goal of erotica is to help us appreciate love and sexuality, then
perhaps a.s.s. authors could provide us with a few (especially
female) characters now and then who just happen to fall short of
certain popular physical ideals.
Yet I quibble . . . this is an _excellent_ novella. Read it.
Venus (plot & character): 10
Athena (technical quality): 10
Green Onions (appeal to reviewer): 10
<end>
--
Pursuant to the Berne Convention, this work is copyright with all rights
reserved by its author unless explicitly indicated.
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