Rogue Reviews Digest No. 59 - June, 2000

NOTICE: If you are easily offended, not of the required 
legal age, or material of an erotic nature is illegal where 
you are, then do not read what follows.

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COMMENTS

[1] Lately, I have been writing and will continue to write 
reviews of some, but not all, of the stories that I read. If 
I review a story it means that I feel it is a better than 
average story. If I do not review a story then I will 
usually e-mail the author and let him or her know what I 
thought of their story.

Why? Have I capitulated to those of you who dislike negative 
reviews? Have I not been much in the mood for reviewing? 
Have I just been short on time? You make the call.

[2] I have dropped the rating system from my reviews. The 
ratings that I affixed to past reviews will remain in place 
but, unless I change my mind again, from now on I will only 
provide a commentary on the story and not a numerical or 
one-word "analysis" of the story. 

Why? Because I have been shown the folly of my ways! I have 
seen the light and realized how hypocritical I have been. I 
read movie reviews every week, whether I go to the movies or 
rent a video or do neither. I read the movie reviews because 
I want more than just a numerical or one-word "analysis" of 
the movies. It seems inconsistent for me to include a one-
line "analysis" of a story in my reviews when that isn't 
what I am looking for when I read a movie review. Although, 
to be perfectly honest, what got me thinking about this was 
Hecate's response to my review of one of her stories a 
couple months back. Thank you, Hecate.

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SHAMELESS PLUG

Check out my home page for reviews of and links to over 500 
stories of an erotic nature.

    http://www92.pair.com/leevine

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FEEDBACK

The authors of these stories would love to hear from you.  
Whether you have praise or criticism drop them a line after 
reading one of their stories.  If you write your reactions 
in an intelligent manner then they will probably write back 
to you.  Juvenile slobberings and flames are often ignored.

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REVIEWS

  "Making the Grade" by Jack Handee
  "The Challenge" by the Fiery Ermine
  "The Stripping Games Trilogy" by the Frog
  "Problem" by Virtual Scott

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Rogue Review No. 513 - May 9, 2000

TITLE: Making the Grade
AUTHOR: Jack Handee
LENGTH: 7,700 words
MAIN CHARACTER: Female
COMBINATION(S): Threesome (2 Females, 1 Male)
ORIENTATION(S): Heterosexual (Female, Male)
RELATIONSHIP(S): High School Teacher/Student
KINK(S): Exhibitionism
SETTING(S): School
CAUTION(S): --

SUMMARY: Jamie, with some encouragement and direct 
assistance from her friend Tori, convinces one of her 
teachers that there is more to life than academic integrity.

COMMENTARY: Okay, so maybe they don't actually discuss 
academic integrity in this story, but they certainly could 
have, given the setting.

What do I like about this story? I like the fact that Jamie 
isn't deadset on seducing her teacher from the get-go. She 
actually seems quite reluctant and nervous throughout the 
story. In addition, the plot is very well paced. The action 
progresses at a nice clip. I also enjoyed the author's use 
of dialogue, it, as much if not more than the narration, 
made the characters seem realistic.

From a technical point of view, I do not perceive any flaws 
in the story. From a personal point of view, I don't 
perceive any flaws either, although there is a moment in the 
story that made me cringe when I first read it.  
Specifically, about two-thirds of the way in Jamie begins to 
experience serious doubts. Considering what she is actually 
doing, seducing one of her teachers, it doesn't seem all 
that unrealistic. I felt better once I saw how the story 
turns out, but that still doesn't erase my memory of how I 
felt when I first read it.

Do I recommend that you read this story? Yes, I do, provided 
that the idea of eighteen-year-old female high school 
students seducing their thirty-year-old male teacher doesn't 
bother you.

LINK(S): Jack Handee's Website

         - http://www.asstr.org/~jack_handee

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Rogue Review No. 514 - May 10, 2000

TITLE: The Challenge
AUTHOR: The Fiery Ermine
LENGTH: 4,300 words
MAIN CHARACTER: Female
COMBINATION(S): Twosome (2 Females)
ORIENTATION(S): Homosexual (Female)
RELATIONSHIP(S): Friends
KINK(S): Exhibitionism
         Voyeurism
SETTING(S): Home
CAUTION(S): --

SUMMARY: Susan defiantly accepts her lesbian friend's 
challenge: that she can make Susan come, even though Susan 
is heterosexual.

COMMENTARY: What do I like about this story? The author 
focuses first and foremost on the emotions that Susan and 
Leslie, her lesbian friend, are experiencing. [Leslie? 
Lesbian? Hmmm?] The author does devote some time to 
describing exactly what they are doing, but in my opinion 
this was not *the* focus of the story. However, getting back 
to Susan's emotional state as described by the author, it 
isn't just the fact that the author devotes a significant 
portion of the story to *showing* the reader how and what 
she is experiencing emotionally. It is also the fact that it 
takes some time before Susan accepts that it is okay to 
enjoy having sex with Leslie. In other words, Susan is faced 
with a dilemma. I like dilemmas. Dilemmas are good for 
erotic stories, provided that they are convincingly 
portrayed. I, personally, am convinced that Susan 
experiences a real dilemma in this story. Consequently, I am 
very impressed by this author's work, along with being very 
aroused.

Oh, and by the by, I haven't even mentioned the 
exhibitionist and voyeuristic elements in this story, but 
they are there and they also add flavor to the story.

What don't I like about this story? The ending is a bit 
predictable. There are some grammatical errors.

Do I recommend this story? Yes, I strongly recommend that 
you read it, unless of course you do not care for stories 
that involve lesbian sex.

LINK(S): The Challenge

         - http://assm.asstr.org/Year2000/24054

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Rogue Review No. 515 - May 13, 2000

TITLE: The Stripping Games Trilogy
AUTHOR: The Frog
LENGTH: 24,000 words
MAIN CHARACTER: Male
COMBINATION(S): Twosome (1 Female, 1 Male)
ORIENTATION(S): Heterosexual (Female, Male)
RELATIONSHIP(S): Friends
KINK(S): Exhibitionism
         Voyeurism
SETTING(S): Home
CAUTION(S): --

SUMMARY: Mike and Nina play a variety of stripping games 
with their friends, Jack, Lee, Phyllis, and Doug.

COMMENTARY: This story is quite delicious, in my opinion. It 
is rather light in the "actual sex" department, but also 
rather heavy in the "exhibitionism" and "voyeurism" 
departments. This may turn some of you off. This may have 
biased me somewhat towards this story. Still, I have to 
believe that a story that can get me as aroused as this one 
did when for the most part the action consists of characters 
taking their clothes off in the course of a game, has to be 
much better than average.

There is one thing that struck me as a bit weird. The story 
is narrated by Mike, but there are moments when the author 
let's the reader know what the other characters are 
thinking. I don't think that this is a bad thing, but it 
caught me by surprise the first time it happened. There are 
also a few typographical errors, but considering the length 
of the story there are not that many percentage wise.

I feel obliged to mention that there is something in this 
story that made me wince when I read it. I am referring to 
the manner in which the main character sometimes 
characterizes the only non-white character in the story, 
Lee, who happens to be Korean American. It doesn't happen 
all that frequently. It makes Mike look rather naive. I can 
see how some people might read more into his comments than 
that, but I honestly don't think that Mike would knowingly 
think or say such things if he realized that some readers 
would find them offensive. In other words, I can find no 
evidence to indicate that Mike is anything other than 
uninformed.

One recommendation: should you decide to read this story, 
read it in three separate sittings. This should give you the 
opportunity to enjoy each part on its own. This is how I 
read the story and I think it was the right thing to do. 
Each of the three parts is a complete segment of the larger 
story.

Even though this story is narrated by a male character, I 
think that it should appeal to both men and women.

LINK(S): The Stripping Games Trilogy

         Part 1: Strip Poker
                 - http://assm.asstr.org/Year2000/24061

         Part 2: Screw Your Neighbor
                 - http://assm.asstr.org/Year2000/24062

         Part 3: Strip or Dare
                 - http://assm.asstr.org/Year2000/24070

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Rogue Review No. 516 - May 21, 2000

TITLE: Problem
AUTHOR: Virtual Scott
LENGTH: 2,200 words
MAIN CHARACTER: Male
COMBINATION(S): Twosome (1 Female, 1 Male)
ORIENTATION(S): Heterosexual (Female, Male)
RELATIONSHIP(S): High School Student-Teacher
KINK(S): --
SETTING(S): Home
CAUTION(S): --

SUMMARY: Calvin has a problem: his biology teacher, Ms. 
Cortez, is distracting him with the outfits she wears to 
school.

COMMENTARY: This story isn't as straight-forward as my 
summary makes it seem. It is a short but wild ride. It is 
not your typical male-high-school-student-screws-his-
gorgeous-teacher story either. I don't want to say too much 
more for fear of ruining the story for those of you that 
haven't read it. I will say that it certainly has lots of 
twists and turns considering how short it is. I did not find 
it to be predictable in the least bit, and enjoyed just as 
much the second time I read it as I had the first time.

If you are looking for something short and non-vanilla, then 
you may enjoy this story as I much as I did.

LINK(S): Problem

         - http://assm.asstr.org/Year2000/24218

