Celestial Reviews 60 - Feb 10, 1996

Note:  The proofreading service is in full operation, and people are 
reporting successful use of it.  At least one of the stories posted 
today has benefited from that process.  If you want someone to read and 
comment on your story before you post it, contact me.  Do NOT send me 
the entire story; I'll assign one or two proofreaders to your story, and 
you can communicate directly with them.

- Celeste

      "Wife" by Deirdre (spouse watching) 7
      "Work" by Deirdre (birthday surprise) 7
      "Cindy's New Career" by Robot Doll (mannequin sex) 9
      "Tammy in Trouble" by Backrub (detective spoof) 9
      "No Names" by Jordan Shelbourne (tawdry sex) 10
      "Kitty" by Elf Sternberg (science fiction) 10
      "A Birthday Doll" by Robotdoll (robot doll sex). 5
      "The Stars are Full of Light" by DVS (college romance) 8
      "Snowbound" by A. Van Peebles (lustful longings for
             a lovely little lady) 10
      "Appleseed" by Wollstonecraft (forced seduction) 10.
      "Barfly" by DYS (bar pickup) 10

"Wife" by Deirdre.  A coworker's wife invites the narrator out to lunch 
and mentions that she'd like to watch her husband make it with another 
woman and that the narrator would do just nicely.  The woman is taken by 
surprise, but she gives the proposal some thought and before long 
agrees.  Then she promises to do exactly what the wife tells her to do.  
Why do people in Deirdre's stories say yes to such all-encompassing 
conditions?  Well, anyway, everything works out all right in the end; 
but I didn't quite see the logic of this story.  (Rating: 7)

"Work" by Deirdre.  The woman has told her husband that for his birthday 
she would do anything he wanted for 24 hours.  She describes in detail 
to her coworker what she has done for him so far.  Why is she revealing 
all this to her colleague?  It turns out that his orders that morning 
were to go get a woman and bring her back to him.  (Rating: 7)

"Cindy's New Career" by Robot Doll (robotdoll@aol.com).  Cindy is 
looking in a window, marveling at how happy the mannequins look.  Maybe 
it’s something about the way the men lovingly smoothe the clothes over 
the plastic legs, or maybe the pleased look on the girls' painted faces; 
but she is incredibly attracted to the scene.  Of course, the guys 
invite Cindy inside and turn her into a mannequin too.  Actually, it's 
not that simple.  First the two men invite Cindy to stay with them in 
their apartment, which is attached to the department store and which is 
full of the mannequins, technically known as Prettygirls.  Cindy 
discovers that the guys have a magic box; when the mannequins are placed 
into it - poof! they come alive; and of course, there’s another 
uncomplicated procedure to turn people into mannequins.

Once you buy into the theory that Prettygirls can go back and forth 
between mannequin and human life, some theoretical problems arise.  For 
example, are the dolls slaves?  No, of course not; the men have had many 
of their girls leave over the years, and they’ve gone on to happy, 
productive lives.  Do Prettygirls have pussies?  Sure, but you have to 
push the right buttons to make them appear.  And so forth.  Part of the 
fun in science fiction is learning the ground rules; and the author does 
a good job of letting the reader discover how Prettygirls work.

Note that there is a difference between a mannequin and a dummy. A 
dummies are little puppets that usually have someone's hand up their 
ass.  Mannequins are what this story is about.  (Rating: 9)

"Tammy in Trouble" by Backrub (bckrub@aol.com).  As you possibly already 
know, Backrub is a former CIA operative who now works as a P.I. to 
support himself while he writes short stories for this newsgroup.  In 
this story we see him as a veteran, working with Tammy Ng, who is an 
expert in martial arts and marksmanship but sadly lacking in the street 
skills necessary for dealing with slimeballs like the Bolizi brothers, 
whose goons, as we approach the middle of the story, have the nubile 
Tammy bound naked in an abandoned gymnasium, while the wily and gallant 
Backrub is creeping toward her rescue.  There is a distinct possibility 
that Sean may eat her pussy one more time before the less intelligent 
Biloxi ends Tammy's life of orgasms.  Backrub swings down on a vine, 
immobilizes the Biloxis and their goons, and makes passionate love to 
Tammy.  The bad guys go to jail, and our heroes go back to Tammy's 
place, where Tammy puts on leather chaps, cowgirl boots and a hat that 
looks like it comes off the cover of a Ruby Montana catalog - but 
nothing else - and rewards her champion.  We don't know exactly what 
happens next.  (Rating: 9)

"No Names" by Jordan Shelbourne (jordan@u36.kwnet.on.ca).  This is a 
story about cheap and tawdry sex between two strangers who meet in a 
bar.  The guy is on the rebound from his girlfriend, and the woman just 
wants to be fucked - no kissing or romantic crap.  This is an excellent 
description of sex that is cheap and tacky; but the story is also 
poignant and romantic.  It includes the poetic image of the week: "She 
was so wet his cock met no resistance; he might have been fucking 
steam."  I found this story to be quite enjoyable.  (Rating: 10)

"Kitty" by Elf Sternberg (elf@halcyon.com).  This is a story about Ken 
fucking Kitty, who had been raped a long time ago and therefore needed a 
very gentle treatment to re-introduce her to her sexual self.  The 
author has a wonderful sense of the right word to use to convey images 
and emotions, and he writes vividly.  A potentially negative aspect of 
this story is that it is a journal segment yanked from a much broader 
context; there were constant references to things I did not understand, 
because I have read only two segments of this journal.  As I have often 
stated, an important part of good science fiction is enabling the reader 
to discover the ground rules of the world in which the characters 
function.  Here I learned only tidbits:  Ken and Kitty fucked pretty 
much like normal human beings, but with less inhibition; the "castle" 
was somehow protected by a "person" named Dave, who was apparently some 
form of artificial intelligence; etc.  I had to make calculated guesses 
about several other elements or simply resign myself to being 
unenlightened about aspects of the story.  I was willing to make this 
effort, but many readers will be annoyed that they often do not 
completely know what is happening.  

The author of this story is reposting a whole series of "journal 
entries."  He is also among the gurus on alt.sex.wizards and is keeper 
of the alt.sex.stories FAQ. He maintains a homepage at 
http://www.halcyon.com:80/elf/journals/index.html, where you can find 
both the FAQ and his stories.  (Rating: 10)

"A Birthday Doll" by Robotdoll (Robotdoll@aol.com).  There is a large, 
white gift box in the middle of the living room.  When the box is opened 
out pops a dollybot - a robot doll that first turns itself on then 
hypnotizes the owner.  The owner himself becomes a doll, a slave to his 
mistress dollybot.  This story is kind of interesting, but it's missing 
something that's needed to make me enjoy it thoroughly.  Readers who are 
already convinced that sex with dolls is fun will probably enjoy this 
story more than I did.  This author maintains a growing list of erotic 
stories involving robots and dolls on his homepage at 
http://users.aol.com/robotdoll/asfr.html.  (Rating: 5)

"The Stars are Full of Light" by DVS (vanslyke@math.ucsb.edu).  In his 
introduction to this story, the author complains about another story he 
says he read from this newsgroup. He felt that that one was a tale about 
animals, not about people.  He had wanted to read about romance made 
physical and found only violence made romantic.  His story, he decided, 
would be different.  And it is.

This is a story about a young woman who meets a boy and a girl slightly 
older than herself at college.  They have fun together and cuddle a lot; 
but you'll find no hot sex in this story.  Really: if you want a raging 
orgasm, look elsewhere.  Nevertheless, I liked the story, because it 
reminded me what it could be like to be young and just learning about 
what it was like to be in love.

At times it seemed as if the author was writing an essay on the true 
meaning of human sexuality and simply using the short story format as a 
framework for his essay.  But it was a good essay.  The story also 
included several Truths about Human Love; for example, "Any time you are 
worried about or thinking too hard about sex means that you're doing 
something you are not ready for."  And fairy tales - there were two 
stories about dragons.  

Actually, I'm not sure why this was posted on alt.sex.stories - except 
perhaps as an antidote to some of what the author found objectionable; 
but I'm glad I read it.  (Rating: 8)

"Snowbound" by A. Van Peebles (an182636@anon.penet.fi).  Planes are 
grounded because of snow; and so the doctor's wife is stuck in a distant 
city, leaving him alone in charge of the slumber party for a boisterous 
band of fifteen-year-olds.  One of the girls (who happens to be his 
favorite) falls and sprains her ankle; and the old peter meter is on the 
rise as the doctor takes her to his bedroom and gives her first aid.  
Afterwards, to avoid doing something "irretrievably stupid," he is faced 
with the choices of a cold shower or masturbation. He prescribes the 
latter for himself, but Allison is vividly in his mind as he jerks off 
in the bathroom.  The sex is hot here, even though it's all in his mind.  
While Doc shovels snow the next morning, the rest of the kids go 
sledding; but the injured Allison stays behind and offers him a massage 
to cure what ails his sore back.  He accepts the rubdown, but will he 
decline to roll over and let her "do the front"?  And what will happen 
when his wife eventually returns home?  You may be surprised!  (Rating: 
10)

"Appleseed" by Wollstonecraft (an285729@anon.penet.fi).  Joey is a rich 
guy who is a generally nasty bastard and whose attitude toward girls is 
not only to "lay 'em and leave 'em" but also to get 'em pregnant in the 
process.  This story describes how he routinely exploits teenage girls 
for this purpose.  The author's style is vivid, and he uses verb tenses 
in such a way as to convince us that while he is vividly describing a 
specific situation he is really describing Joey's typical behavior.

Actually, he's not really Joey; the guy makes up new names and new cover 
stories to suit his particular seductive needs.  He finds it especially 
easy and enjoyable to pick up religious girls at church activities; 
they're invariably extremely gullible.  The only constant is that he is 
an asshole who wants to get young girls pregnant.  He's even scientific 
about his process - in one case seducing a pair of identical twins and 
conducting a seductive experiment with them in a way that a Nazi genetic 
engineer might admire.

Nonconsensual seduction and rape are not funny in the real world.  But 
this story is very well told and extremely enjoyable.  I can't tell you 
more details, because a major part of the enjoyment is watching the 
story unfold.  I strongly recommend this story.  (Rating: 10)

"Barfly" by DYS (dramis@cts.com).  "Like a little company?" "Why?  You 
got one to sell?"  The guy is trying to pick up a beautiful woman in a 
bar.  Lines like that might make my heart melt, but this lady is a 
veteran.  But the guy is successful, and they leave together to retire 
to more private quarters.  To impress her, he takes her to the company 
suite at an expensive hotel.  For a story that begins with such a tawdry 
pickup line, this is a surprisingly hot and creative story.  (Rating: 
10)


