Celestial Reviews 56 - Jan 27, 1996
Note: After I posted my review of "Churche House" by unknown author,
someone contacted me and told me that the actual author was Amanda
Somebody. I have lost the message and would like to get the author
right. I would appreciate it if that person would contact me again.
Second Note: The proofreading service is in full operation, and people
are reporting successful use of it. IF YOU WANT FREE HELP AND FEEDBACK
BEFORE POSTING A STORY, contact me, and I'll match you up with some of
the reviewers. Please note, however, that this proofreading service is
loosely organized. I think the proofreaders are doing a good job; but
if you get a proofreader that seems to have forgotten that you exist -
or if you get an assignment to proofread for someone who never
corresponds with you - either be patient or contact me for a new
arrangement.
Third note: I have had so many complaints about people not finding the
postings of either my reviews or of other stories that I am going to
make it a policy to repost all of my reviews at least once. This week
I am reposting CR 55.
- Celeste
"Swap" by Deirdre (swinging) 7
"Sweet" by Deirdre (anal sex & domination) 9
"Tape" by Deirdre (blackmail & anal sex) 8
"Erotic Compass" by Wavesong (Masturbation) 10
"Master Raven" by Kat's Master (Torture) 3
"Attack of the 100 meter Dom and the 94 meter
Submissive" by Kat's Master (sci fi) 4
"Carol & Tom" by Nom de Plume (emerging sexuality) 10
"Dark Nights 1" by Unknown Author (rape) 10
"Dark Nights 2" by Unknown Author (control) 10
"Swap" by Deirdre. The narrator and his wife become interested in the
idea of swinging, and they spot a couple with whom they would like to
switch spouses. After some brief preliminaries, the other couple
agrees, but only under the conditions that the man and his wife first
strip naked and do whatever they are told to do. This may sound fair;
but if anyone ever makes this offer to you and your significant other,
you should factor into your decision the possible consequences of
becoming sex slaves. (Rating: 7)
"Sweet" by Deirdre. Two of her friends show up at the door, saying
they are there to go swimming with the man's girlfriend. When he tells
them that she'll not be home for an hour, they say they'll wait in the
living room. When he goes to take his shower, he finds them both
joining him. What does a good host do in this situation, and what does
this have to do with the title of the story? Now, there's a creativity
exercise for you! You probably think that the title means that he'll
fuck both of the visitors plus his girlfriend in their asses within the
next hour or so and that his girlfriend will leave him to move in with
one of the visitors while the other continues to live with him. That's
what happens, but you'll have to read the story to find out how it got
that title. (Rating: 9)
"Tape" by Deirdre. As I approached this story my main uncertainty was
whether the title referred to a videotape that would be used to
blackmail the protagonists or to duct tape with which someone would be
bound for the purpose of sexual exploitation and amusement. The story
begins with a man drinking too much, flirting with another woman, and
being caught in the act by his wife, who promptly leaves him. He begs
and grovels. Soon he makes the fatal but inevitable promise in a
Deirdre story: "I'll do anything if you'll come back." At this point,
either type of tape was still a good possibility; but when the woman
bound the guy with rope and gagged him with a rag, I knew a videotape
was involved. I don't want to give away the ending; but I will say
that I was basically right about the videotapes and blackmail, and
there's a muscular guy and a lot of anal sex in this story. If you'll
pardon the pun, everything works out all right in the end - I think.
(Rating: 8)
"Erotic Compass" by Wavesong (voxmail@aol.com). The narrator possesses
an erotic compass; that is, he somehow finds himself led to situations
where he is able to enjoy watching others masturbate. He describes a
few voyeuristic occasions, including his first experience observing the
girl next door masturbate with a friend while they plotted over how
they would like to turn on a guy on the swim team. (Incidentally, I
assumed Boston University would have separate swim teams for guys and
girls; but maybe they practice together - or at least have their orgies
together.) This is a well-written story with vivid descriptions of
mild and pleasant sexual activities. It also explains the secret of
true love: "No one can ever do you as well as you can do yourself."
Actually, that's not true; I happen to know that I can do my husband
better than he can do himself. (Rating: 10)
"Master Raven" by Kat's Master. As I read this story, I was confused.
Kel (the heroine or victim) seemed to enjoy the suffering and
humiliation to which she was subjected; but I could see no reason for
her paradoxical joy - except that maybe I was supposed to know that
this was one of those stories in which women enjoy suffering to please
men with no socially redeeming characteristics except that they like to
see women suffer. To further my confusion, the story was laced with
incomplete sentences - usually participial phrases that stood alone for
no apparent reason.
As I understand it, the woman returns home tired from a hard day's
work. She falls asleep, but is awakened by the villain (or hero, I
suppose) who tortures her for a little while before he goes home,
leaving her bound and gagged in an uncomfortable position. I suppose
there are some people who are more knowledgeable about torture as a
sexual technique, who will react to this story with, "That was really
neat the way he rigged the electric toothbrush to torment her!"
Likewise, there may be some women who will read this and say, "God! I
wish I had someone who cared enough to tie me up in an uncomfortable
position all night so that I could show my love for him!" However, I
just don't see the point in this story.
I also think it's odd that the author ignores the fact that the kind of
activity described in this story is illegal in every part of the
civilized world. Even if a woman has an orgasm as a result of the
activity or even if she "asks for it," a man doing this would be found
guilty of a felony if she pressed charges. In addition, there is
almost no sex in the story, unless you consider the act of attaching
clamps to the woman's nipples to qualify as sexual activity. The
woman's crotch is constantly wet from stimulation, but this is
presented as a purely physiological reaction to stimulation. The story
just isn't a lot of fun. (Rating: 3)
"Attack of the 100 meter Dom and the 94 meter Submissive" by Kat's
Master. Since I had been a bit rough on this author in "Master Raven,"
I decided to give him a chance to redeem himself. Besides, who could
resist a story with natural appeal indicated by this title? I think
the main characters in this story may be the same as those in "Master
Raven," but the author does not state that explicitly.
Here we have a story about a man who is minding his own business on his
"houseboat" in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with his sex slave, when
they are nuked to hell and back as a result of an accidental nuclear
test. However, instead of being incinerated, they undergo mutation;
and these ordinary mortals achieve the significant stature indicated in
the story's title.
They emerge off the coast of Japan and wreak havoc a la Godzilla.
(Interestingly enough, my benevolent spellcheck suggests replacing
Godzilla with Goodwill.) The citizens of the fishing village where
their rampage begins react with a certain sanguine equanimity: "Oooh...
Those are some breasts!" one of them gasps, looking into the immensity
of the rampaging submissive's bosom. This youthful oriental remains
transfixed, his eyes drawn to the massive clit. He finds himself
wishing for a wetsuit for some reason, just before a smooth skinned
foot the size of a bus smashes him into the pavement. These feelings
may seem odd to Westerners; but remember that Japanese children are
forced into school at early ages and are often not allowed to read
alt.sex.stories and that a sexy babe might actually be a welcome relief
in comparison to those weird monsters that often attack fishing
villages before moving on to Tokyo.
To satisfy her master, the woman seizes a train filled with tiny
Japanese businessmen, who continue taking her picture with tiny flash
cameras, before she stimulates herself by shoving the train up her
cunt, her own juices enabling the car to slide in as she sits in the
street, lying back, resting her head on a Kentucky Fried Chicken, the
smells of the 11 herbs and spices rising up to her mammoth nostrils.
(I'm making some of this up - but not much; I don't think the author
will mind. My part fits in pretty well with his.)
I don't want to ruin the story for you. If the above lead-in appeals
to you, then download and read this story. I think there may be more
to come. (Rating: 4)
"Carol & Tom" by Nom de Plume (NomdePl@aol.com). Carol and Tom grew up
as twin brother and sister in a dirt-poor environment of western
Virginia during the American Depression. When they were 15, they both
began masturbating. Since their beds were back-to-back, they each
vaguely knew what the other was doing; but although they wondered a
lot, they said nothing to each other. Eventually they became much more
intimate and then later drifted apart to lead their own lives. Of
course, it would be just plain blind luck that kids experimenting like
this would not find themselves burdened with a really undesirable
pregnancy; and a better (but perhaps less interesting) solution would
have been for the parents to offer some sort of sex education to the
children. However, this story is a well-written, sensitive account of
the early sexual emergence of two young people who had no access to
useful information about human sexuality. (Rating: 10)
"Dark Nights 1" by Unknown Author (reposted by William Gann). When I
downloaded Dark Nights 1 and 2, I assumed I was getting two parts of
one story; and so, when Part 1 ended with the protagonists looking
forward to "Round 2," I loaded the second story, expecting to see the
second part. It turns out that these are two independent stories.
This first story views either a date rape or a spouse rape through the
eyes of the woman. The story, I think, is a realistic portrayal of a
man overpowering a woman sexually. Since I don't believe such actions
are ever justified, I would like to say that I found the story to be
entirely repulsive, but that would not be true true. Quite the
contrary, as I read the story I had the feeling that I could understand
the ambivalent feelings of the woman: hating the man who was forcing
himself on her, feeling a physiological arousal that she simply could
not control, and setting aside her aversion for the man in order to
satisfy her temporary needs.
I don't think this is a realistic portrayal of how ALL abused women
feel while being attacked, but I think it realistically describes the
feelings and perceptions of one victim. What I think is sad is that a
large number of men will read this story and conclude that it's OK to
force themselves on women, because "they'll eventually like it anyway."
Many women and their allies who want to prevent rape would often prefer
that stories like this never appear in print or anywhere else, because
they put into the minds of men and women the idea expressed in the
previous sentence.
I bounced this story off a friend of mine who is a professional
counselor. When she finished reading it, she said it was a disturbing
story. I told her I didn't care; I wanted to know if it was realistic.
She said yes, that many abused women feel this way. I asked her if
reading this story could help me better understand a mutual friend who
had recently moved into a shelter for abused women for the third time.
She said yes - but she added that the story left a lot unstated (and
the author of the story admits this). Clearly there were words and
actions that preceded the rape scene; and even though these actions
never legally or morally justify rape, they would help us understand
the story or our friend more fully. My friend agreed that this was a
good story. (Rating: 10)
"Dark Nights 2" by Unknown Author (reposted by William Gann). Anne is
an author who has finished a chapter of her book, has shoved the
manuscript aside, and has masturbated briefly, fantasizing about what
she has just written. Then her husband (or lover) approaches her and
they begin a real-life sexual encounter, with her trying to gain
control by threatening pain and promising pleasure. He plays the same
game, but he seems to see an advantage in letting her remain mostly in
control. This is a vivid portrayal of some realistic sexual action.
(Rating: 10)
HOW TO FIND GOOD STORIES: More writers than usual have been writing to
me to ask how to find the stories that I review or how to find any good
stories at all. Here is my advice:
(1) Look in the a.s.s. (not a.s.s.d.) postings around the time I post
the reviews. I try to post the reviews within a day or at most a week
of when the authors post the stories.
(2) Services vary considerably in what stories they post and how long
they stay posted. I subscribe to AOL, which (in spite of constant
criticism on this newsgroup and in spite of my own occasional
frustrations) is a pretty good service. It seems to include nearly all
the stories and allows me to retrieve them up to a week later. To find
older stories, however, I have to look deeper into the postings.
(3) Several persons are currently trying to find a way to archive the
stories and make them available to readers. The best ideas have come
from three readers who plan to archive the files and (a) make them
available either by inexpensive snail-mail at $1.00 per diskful of
stories or (b) post the the reviews at a web site and associate them
with the stories. I'll believe these things when I see them. Until
these plans are actually implemented, I am refraining from giving
further information, because it would almost certainly be misleading.
Watch Celestial Reviews for further stories.
(4) Make a list of the authors and stories and watch for them to be
reposted. Since my reviews often stimulate readership, many authors
repost their stories after they see their reviews.
(5) Make a list of all the best authors and download anything they
publish. An author who has written one good story is likely to write
another. One source of good stories and authors is my list of the Top
100 Stories of 1995, which I posted around Dec 28 and which will be
available at a web site within a week or so. Watch AOL for details.
Some posting services give more information than others. If your
service gives complete information, you can always see the name of the
author - unless the author writes under one name and posts under
another. AOL and some other services give only the title lines without
the authors. This problem is easy to overcome, if the authors are kind
enough to post their names in the title lines. Many of the best
authors do so (including, in no particular order, Sue, Ann Douglas, the
Ng sisters, Backrub, Delta, Deirdre, the Bear, Delta, Rajah Dodger,
Javahead, Friar Dave, and others.) I encourage ALL authors to do so.
I must have some influence, because an increasing number of authors
have begun doing this.
(6) Use a reposting service on a.s.s. Reposters generally follow a
standard format every time they repost a story; and so it's easy to
spot them. The trouble with reposters is that the quality of the
stories varies considerably. Another problem is that you may find one
chapter of a long series and be unable to find the rest of the story.
In addition, many reposted stories somehow lose the name of the
authors, and I find this to be unfortunate. I personally do not have
time to read and review many of these stories, which tend to be a
little older (perhaps up to five or more years old). I am going to go
out on a limb here and make some comments about a few of the reposters
I have noticed.
William Gann is the best source that I have seen for reposting stories
written by other authors. I have reviewed a few of his repostings, and
they have generally been above 5 on my rating scale. He uses this
format: Repost: BERT1 "Name of Story". He is posting his stories in
alphabetical order, using his personal judgment (which appears to be
pretty good) to eliminate weak stories. I try to review at least one
of Gann's stories a week; and I recommend downloading all of them -
unless it is obvious that some of the parts of a series are missing
(e.g., he posted BANDIT1, 2, 4, and 5; but not 3. Since you'll never
find 3, I would suggest reading something else.)
The THC Archive is reposting a huge number of stories in alphabetical
order. They are easy to recognize, because they all begin with THC
Archive and are posted with short, cryptic titles, like AMBER1.TXT.
Because the titles are so cryptic, it's hard to guess what they're
about. Although there have been some good stories in these postings, I
have stopped checking them, because I have been disappointed so often.
However, if you want something that is likely to be a complete story
with sex in it, this is a viable source. These stories usually fall in
the 3-6 range when I review them.
Red Dragon reposts lots of stories. If your service gives you the name
of the person posting the story, then Red Dragon's are easy to
recognize, because either "Red Dragon" or (****) will appear at the end
of the title line. However, many services (such as AOL) don't do this.
Another way to spot a Red Dragon repost is that he uses all capital
letters for the titles; but so do lots of other authors. Because the
titles are less cryptic than those in the THC Archive, it's a little
easier to guess what they're about. Although there have been some good
stories in these postings, I have stopped checking them, because I have
been disappointed so often. I find it especially annoying that Red
Dragon stories often come without names of authors - even when I can
find the same stories in other sources with the authors names attached.
However, if you want something that is likely to be a complete story
with sex in it, this is a good source. These stories usually fall in
the 3-6 range when I review them.
Mercury reposts some outstanding stories - almost all of them about
gays. Mercury adds introductory commentaries that are sometimes more
enjoyable than the stories themselves. He writes some of the stories
himself; if you read the introductory material carefully you can tell
which are by Mercury and which are by someone else. However, when the
story is written by someone else, it's often impossible to tell who
that someone is. These stories are usually of very high quality. The
ones I have read have been in the 6-10 range on my rating scale.
Lisa's TG library. These are all transgender stories. Most readers
think these are intended only for crossdressers, but this is not the
case. These are often highly creative stories. However, Lisa's main
criterion for inclusion is whether it's TG; and so, although I have
found some excellent stories here, some of the others are pretty lame.
The Louvre is an excellent source - if you know the name of the story
you want. The Louvre mails the stories to you automatically in
response to specific requests. It is necessary to follow specific
instructions to accomplish this. If you are selective, you can get
very good stories from the Louvre. However, if you just order anything
that shows up on the Louvre's vast list, you'll get stories comparable
in quality to those from the THC Archive.
Zip Files are occasionally posted for specific topics or authors. A
zip file is often a compressed package of a whole set of stories. To
read the stories, you have to be capable of unzipping the file. (Many
services, like AOL, do this for you automatically.) If you know what
you're getting, these can be great sources of stories; I got about 50
Deirdre stories and an extensive TG library this way. On the other
hand, some zip files are garbage; and some of them aren't even zipped
correctly.
If readers have additional advice, let me know, and I'll try to pass it
on.