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From: Antheros <antheros@gREMOVEmail.com>
Newsgroups: alt.sex.stories.d
Subject: {ASSD} Anthero's reviews
Date: Thu, 01 Sep 2005 20:17:40 -0300
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===================
Given the recent revival attempt #219 (and counting;) of a.s.s.d., I decided to
begin posting reviews of what I read online. I hope to do this on a semi-regular
basis.
I'm not going to grade the stories. I find grades too subjective, and it's hard
to be consistent over time. I find words much better than numbers to be
subjective. And I don't intend to write reviews just to tell how much a certain
story sucks.
I picked a few of the stories I read in the last couple weeks or so to start
with. I'd love to get suggestions of good stories. So let me start with a
standard disclaimer and let the flames begin.
#####
These reviews are only opinions, which I supposedly held for as long as I was
writing them. I try to be constructive and keep the sarcasm level low, and I
will only review stories which interest me somehow (so no extreme codes and
writers who write long sentences like this one who do not know what is a comma),
and I'm sure I'll be biased towards stories that are more to my taste. If you
want to submit your story for review, email me, but remember I'm doing this as a
hobby. I welcome people commenting the reviews, particularly if they disagree
with me. If you find yourself reviewed, please do not hesitate to take your
revenge and review my own stories. Well, as M1ke Hunt said, "These standard
disclaimers are really boring." So go read the reviews.
###
"Intemperance" by Al Steiner
URL: http://storiesonline.net/story/45236:i
Fine, it's been online for a while, and fine, you probably already know it's
been out for a while and have read it already, but a new chapter was released
recently (i.e., I only had time to read it now), and maybe someone around here
has been living in a cave or something. There's not much to say about Al
Steiner---at least, I don't judge myself worth of saying it. "All over again,"
despite inspiring other good stories like "Rewind" and "Once more with
feelings," is in my opinion still the best back-in-time-to-my-own-body story
around (and, AFAIK, the first one of its kind in a.s.s.*). I didn't want to
start these reviews with a digression, but I wonder why nobody wrote a very dark
back-in-time story (or maybe I've missed it?), in which the main character goes
into a major existential crisis and finds himself depressed, questioning life
and reality, noticing how much of what's going on around him he missed the first
time (relationships with other people, addictions and habits, secrets which now
he can see through), constantly failing to behave as his old self and missing
things that he was used to (hello, how many of you would be cool without
Internet?) or the people who he loved in the future; not that this was not
touched, but the characters seem to end being comfortable again in their young
bodies too easily. Perhaps the main character could be a female. End of digression.
Intemperance tells about a rock band in the 80's, from its dawn to some point
which Al has not reached yet, but which we anxious to find out. Original theme,
with characters nicely developed and a great background story. In fact, my only
wish is that the story could have been more detailed to make it last longer, but
I guess there's much more to come. Oh, yeah, and that I could download their mp3s.
In short: go read it.
###
"Professional Confessional" by Rod O'Steele
URL: http://storiesonline.net/story/45997
http://www.asstr.org/~osteele/family/confessional1.html
Here is an original way to tell a story and, furthermore, one that transcends
the usual stories found around here. A psychologist is visited by a couple, who
proceeds to tell their story to him. There's a nice alternation of what happened
to them and the appointment, and the clash of their story and the psychologist's
point of view make this way more than the usual brother-sister story.
One of the best stories I read online this month. It could have been just yet
another story, lost over the tens of thousands online, if the part of the
psychologist had not been written, but it completes the story perfectly. I'm
looking forward to Rod's next story.
I can't help but making a small comment regarding the end. It's not a spoiler,
and it won't even make sense until you read the story: Mindy, unlike Alan, is
not troubled by her "problem," and there seem to be no blind horses to come or
anything of the sort. The terrible proved to be harmless---as much as you could
their relationship harmless, of course. It matters very little, because she is
fine by herself; it's the psychologist who is torn. In the end we are all in the
dark, and the darkness that enfolds Dysart and the psychologist is the
same---their own.
###
"A Little White Lie" by Cat5
URL: http://storiesonline.net/story/46090
Rick is taking some time off in Key West after getting his master and before
starting his work, and meets Jennie. Jennie had told her sister, Lisa, that she
was there with his boyfriend, but she doesn't have a boyfriend; which would be a
perfectly little white lie, but Lisa decided to stay in Key for a day with her
husband's yacht, as they are going to the Bahamas and the weather is not good
for the trip. From that point on they have to keep the lie going, and it of
course leads to Rick and Jennie growing more intimate.
Cat5 writes well, doses sex and plot nicely and created a pleasant and easy
reading story.
###
The Plump Lvr batch by Plump Lvr
URL: a.s.s.m (28/08/2005)
I was surprised to see a batch of stories (25 just in the first batch, if my
Usenet server didn't miss any, and a lot more later) in a.s.s.m. by an author
who I had not seen before. The titles suggested stroke stories, which are not
usually to my taste, but I decided to read three of them. Maybe I picked his
best, maybe his worst. So don't judge all his stories from my three quick reviews.
The first one I read was "Quick Bet." After a bet that is as slimly described as
possible, a husband gets to take his wife anyway he wants for the weekend. He
does all the usual variations of body parts in a quick succession.
I also read "Mandy and Her Mom." Narrator is dating Mandy, who is described as
"the kinkiest woman" he'd ever seen, for about an year. Narrator is turned on by
Margy, Mandy's mother, who also has big tits and a meaty ass. Mandy tells
Narrator that she is also turned on by her own mother, and the story describes
how the couple finds that Margy may be up for a threesome, and ends with the
threesome itself.
Last was "Family Fun." There's a small mistake with the codes, since there is no
anal in the story. The story is about a mother who tells his teenage son that
she's seen the stains in his sheets, and that he should masturbate instead of
just letting wet dreams empty his balls. Actually the stains come from his own
hands, so to speak :), but he doesn't tell her and she teaches him how to do it.
I guess I'm not spoiling the end by saying that he gets more than a hand job.
All in all, Plump Lvr writes just fine, but it's just not the sort of stories
that I like; I prefer something with more plot and less description. If you do
like short stroke stories, though, check these batch, because you'll find a good
variety of settings. If I missed his good stuff, let me know.
###
"The Lady in Blue" by Wine Maker
URL: http://storiesonline.net/story/46048
I only read the first chapter, though the second is now online; no sex yet, in
fact, almost nothing yet. There's a mysterious lady in blue and caught my
curiosity. Perhaps I'll write a review once I've read more.
###
"Degrees of Intimacy" by Bradley Stoke
URL: http://www.asstr.org/~Bradley_Stoke, also posted to a.s.s.m.
Three chapters already online and five to go (but already published at Ruthie's
Club). I suppose the best way to summarize it is to copy Bradley's own resume:
"Eight characters, eight places, eight degrees of separation, and eight degrees
of intimacy. This novella is inspired by the film La Ronde that similarly
follows a circular trail of lovers, but this time in the twenty-first century
and much more explicit in content. All eight chapters can be read in isolation,
but the whole is greater than the sum of its parts."
I really like the way Bradley describes the settings and the characters' moods.
He manages to convey much of what the characters are feeling through the way
they talk, and the descriptions of the places are carefully chiseled, with a
careful choice of words; his prose is one of the best I've read online. I'm
looking forward for the rest of the story.
###
"Transference" and "Starway to Heaven" by thereisno
URL: http://www.asstr.org/~thereisno/transference.html and
http://www.asstr.org/~thereisno/stairway.html
Now, I must start by saying that I'm a huge fan of thereisno's work, and it was
great to see his resurrection under the new alias and the constant upload of new
stories. thereisno writes my favorite style of stories: short and twisted. This
also makes it difficult to not spoil them when reviewing. So no summaries of his
two most recent stories.
"Transference" is a typical story of his. I like it, but the end is predictable.
It's worth for the agony of the narrator and his behavior; kinda like
"Professional Confessional," what makes it good is more the way it's written
than the idea itself. I preferred "Starway to Heaven," whose main character
proves to be as patient and persistent -- though subtle -- as someone can be.
#####
So that's it for this time. Oh, yeah, I'm looking for an editor for
a couple of long stories I'm writing. If you have some precious moments of
your life to waste, email me.
--
Antheros [antheros A T gmail.com]
http://www.asstr.org/~Antheros/