Celestial Reviews 153 - January 29, 1997
Note: Good news! Mark Aster is back. He says he has a new backlog and
should post a story a week for a month or so. In addition, he is
reposting some of his best stories.
In addition, I have discovered that there are some stories by Mary Anne
Mohanraj that I have not yet reviewed. I'll review one or two each
week, and she'll repost them when my reviews appear.
And finally, it looks like Mat Twassel has gone on a bit of a writing
binge. He also is reposting some of his old stories.
What all three of these authors have in common is that while their
stories are often extremely erotic, they are also just plain good
stories in their own right. I hope you enjoy both the reviews and the
stories.
- Celeste
"Heather Investigates" by Unknown Author (sex for science)
9, 9, 10
"Out in the Woods" by William Bloom (outdoor sex) 8, 7, 8
"Sailor Moon - Anniversary" by nomad (Japanese cartoon
pastiche) 9, 8, 4
"The Coaches Wife" by Taylor Norton (boy fucks woman)
4, 5, 5
"The Conquest" by Mystery Girl (late-night rendezvous)
9.5, 10, 10
"Clean White Linen" by Mark Aster (exotic romance) 10, 9, 9
"The Devouring Night" by Mary Anne A. Mohanraj (exotic
romance) 10, 10, 10
"Wineskin" by Mat Twassel (surrealistic sex) 10, 10, 9
"Snowed In" by Dulcinea (really cool sex) 10, 10, 10
"Hazy Shade of Winter" by Hawkeye (youthful romance)
10, 10, 10
"One Lucky Girl" by Ed Richards (romance) 9, 8, 8
"Heather Investigates" by Unknown Author (MCG@bartra.demon.co.uk).
Heather is very attractive, so attractive that she has always been
getting more than her share of attention from men, ever since she was 15
years old. She is now 29, and the years have only added to her physical
splendor. She'd rather buy shoes, she has told herself many times, than
get laid. But not today. Today she is taking part in an experiment -
actually a study, but she calls it an experiment. It's a study to
determine the intensity and duration of female orgasms. The study is not
that bad a deal, unless a girl objects to being blindfolded and gently
bound while hungry hands, mouths, and cocks stimulate her to sexual
rapture. Eventually our blindfolded beauty has a cock in her pussy,
another in her anus, and the head researcher <g> in her mouth, while she
jerks off two young lab assistants. And then Mary goes to work on her
breasts. Anything for science!
"Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!" says Heather, as
she registers an 11-minute orgasm. Two more minutes and she would have
set the record. Better luck tomorrow!
Ratings for "Heather Investigates"
Athena (technical quality): 9
Venus (plot & character): 9
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10
"Out in the Woods" by William Bloom (Red Dragon Repost). On senior
ditch day, the kids head for the park. Billy's ex-girlfriend Alice asks
him to follow along behind her friend Ellen to make sure nothing happens
to her. He watches, and eventually Ellen takes a swim and then
sunbathes in the nude. Then "something" happens to her, and April joins
in the fun with Billy and Ellen.
One of the mistakes this author makes is convoluted verb tense. For
example, at the very beginning of the story the narrator says, " I think
it was because she (April) has this prudish hang-up about only having
sex in the missionary position." At the time he's telling the story -
after the orgy in the woods - he knows that April has no such hangup.
He should have said, " I THOUGHT it was because she had this prudish
hang-up about only having sex in the missionary position." Problems
like this are annoying, but it's still a sexy story.
Ratings for "Out in the Woods"
Athena (technical quality): 8
Venus (plot & character): 7
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 8
"Sailor Moon - Anniversary" by nomad (nomad@cyberverse.com). My
understanding is that the "Sailor Moon" stories are based on the
Japanese cartoon Sailor Moon. I am not familiar with the cartoon
series, but I was told that there is enough information about the series
within the text to make it intelligible to a reader who is unfamiliar
with the series. Despite the fact that the show is concerned with the
adventures of fourteen year old girls, the present story takes place
several years later, after the characters have matured sexually.
As I understand it, the Sailor Scouts possess mystical powers that
enable them to exercise unusual control over their bodies. I assume
there are other stories in which Sailor Moon and her friends engage in
ordinary, non-sexual activities. Therefore, Sailor Moon fans will
perhaps find this pastiche to be interesting because it applies the
familiar characteristics of these girls to sexual settings.
As an outsider, however, I found the story to be vaguely interesting but
generally boring. Little aspects of magic that I didn't care about kept
popping up. For a fan these aspects might make the story really
interesting, but they simply drove me to distraction - largely because I
could not decide whether each episode was supposed to be funny or
romantic or whatever.
Ratings for "Sailor Moon - Anniversary"
Athena (technical quality): 9
Venus (plot & character): 8
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 4
"The Coaches Wife" by Taylor Norton (jocon@tiac.net). Bill has been the
hero in the Big Game; but instead of celebrating with the guys by gang-
banging Tina the cheerleader, he has a rendezvous with the coach's wife.
It seems that Bill's parents are moving out of the district, and the
coach has asked his wife to keep the kid happy so that he'll be willing
to move in with them and stay in the district, so that they'll have
another good basketball season.
I become suspicious when an author misspells the title of a story, and
in this case my misgivings were verified. The grammar is extremely
confusing. In this case, the incoherence of the grammar really does
detract from the overall quality of the story. I reviewed another story
("A Night Out") by this author, and that one was far, far better than
this one. I hope this author gets back on track.
Ratings for "The Coaches Wife"
Athena (technical quality): 4
Venus (plot & character): 5
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 5
"The Conquest" by Mystery Girl (mystery@sentex.net). One of the joys of
reviewing these stories is finding a new author who writes exceptionally
well. This story is marred by some minor grammatical errors, but
overall it is an extremely well-written story.
Alexis is one of those 16-year-olds whom nobody notices. Her personality
and lifestyle seem so unremarkable that not even her family members
wonder what is going on behind those greenish-hazel eyes of hers. In
Part 1 we discover that she is very much in touch with her own
sexuality, and in Part 2 we discover that she often takes part in sexual
adventures that nobody else knows about. The description of her
rendezvous with her cyberlover is a real turn-on.
This is one of those fantasies that might be really stupid in real life
(especially for a 16-year-old), but exploitation and abuse can be absent
in the imaginary world of this newsgroup. I certainly hope this author
has more stories to offer!
Ratings for "The Conquest"
Athena (technical quality): 9.5
Venus (plot & character): 10
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10
"Clean White Linen" by Mark Aster (MyFrThAl@aol.com). This story, set
at a home or hotel on an African coast, describes part of a romance
between a beautiful young woman and a much older man. The story is both
erotic and exotic, but I needed a few more clues to give me a clear
picture of what was happening. It's good to see this author posting
again, and I look forward to seeing more of his stories.
Ratings for "Clean White Linen"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 9
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 9
"The Devouring Night" by Mary Anne A. Mohanraj (mohanraj@mills.edu).
Princess Sharmila is to be married to Gamilah, twelfth prince of that
name, lord of the richest province in all of the country of Ranek, which
seems to be located in the area of the Indian subcontinent. She's not
excited about the prospect, but she will do what is in the best interest
of her country. In fact, she feels a stronger attraction to the poet
who sings her praises at the banquet on her wedding night than to the
prince to whom she is betrothed.
This story certainly is about sex, but it is not exactly wet-dream or
masturbation material. Telling you any more of this story would ruin it
for you, and so I will summarize no further. I'll simply say that this
story is both simple and shocking.
Ratings for "The Devouring Night"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 10
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10
"Wineskin" by Mat Twassel (mmtwassel@aol.com). The narrator and her
husband are invited for an evening at the house of his new boss and his
much younger wife. The wife invites the narrator to go shopping with
her, and either the wife has a kinky approach to sex or the narrator has
a bizarre imagination - or perhaps both. Reality blends so closely with
fantasy in this story that it's difficult to tell what is really
happening; but the author intended it that way. This is a confusing but
interesting story.
Ratings for "Wineskin"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 10
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 9
"Snowed In" by Dulcinea (ImDulcinea@aol.com). "The sun that brief
December day/ Rose cheerless over hills of gray...." Had John Greenleaf
Whittier simply co-authored his poem with Dulcinea, it would certainly
be a lot easier to get teenagers to read "Snow-Bound." I don't see the
problem: fuck rhymes with duck, cunt with hunt, and precum with become.
Whittier goes on for 759 lines; the folks that populate his poem spend
over a week cooped up in a house, and the raunchiest thing they do is
read a novel that they have to "hide from younger eyes."
Like many of Dulcinea's stories, this one celebrates the simple joys of
two people sharing their love and their bodies. In real life, you have
perhaps noticed that teachers often marry other teachers. That's
because they can share their snow days together. Would I kid you about
a thing like that?
Q. What's the definition of a "coolie"?
A. A quickie in the snow.
Ratings for "Snowed In"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 10
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10
"Hazy Shade of Winter" by Hawkeye. This story must have been around for
a while; it's a repost from the THC archive and has a 1993 copyright,
but I have never seen any stories by this author before. This story
read like a short version of a Dirty Dawg story. I mean that as a very
real compliment.
Sam was attracted to Lisa when she flipped into his life; that is, he
thought she was beautiful because of the cute way she flipped her hair
out of her eyes. They became close friends as they worked together,
mopping rancid beer and sharing other intimacies. However, since she
was already committed to another boyfriend, he loved her from afar.
Well, you can guess where this is going, and you'll probably be right;
but you should read this excellent story anyway.
Ratings for "Hazy Shade of Winter"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 10
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10
"One Lucky Girl" by Ed Richards (gnbc@alpha.wcoil.com). Pat has led an
uneventful life, reading alt.sex.stories and posting erotic drawings on
a binaries newsgroup. Chuck has led a similarly uneventful but more
affluent life. They meet on an Internet chat group, and he invites her
to accompany him in his motorhome to the Montana area. To Pat's
surprise, their hormones click; and they copulate enthusiastically as
they travel across the country.
This is a romantic story with good sexual scenes. If the author wants
to improve it, he should stop being quite so concerned about telling a
"true" story and improve the focus on interesting details. Often, the
author seems to be summarizing details rather than telling an
interesting story. Authors often swear that a story is true, and they
think that's important; but most readers enjoy realistic stories more
than true stories. Specifically, I would suggest that this author check
out some of the great stories by SueNH or Ann Douglas and see what he
can learn from their styles. On the other hand, this is already a
pretty good story.
Ratings for "One Lucky Girl"
Athena (technical quality): 9
Venus (plot & character): 8
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 8