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From: LadyCyrrh@aol.com
Subject: The Annex Reviews, 8/30/98
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Hi there. Here's another batch of reviews. As I said, I'm sticking 
to the thrice-monthly schedule, so if I haven't reviewed your 
story yet, please be patient.

The stories:

Bondage Slave Girls, 1, 2, 3, 4 by kilogram22 (title says it all)
Kiko 1, 2, 3, by Shon Richards (M/F, M/M, anal, mast, humor)
Dracokin Wanderers, by David Farr (fur, mast)
Summoning, by Lizard (M/F, horror/fantasy)
The Gift of the Balloon, by Rapture (M/F pain)
The Deer Hunter, by Misty (M/F rape)
Unmasked, by Jordan Shelbourne (M/F, con bondage, superhero)
Grabbing the Brass Ring, by Frank McCoy (F/m, teen, SF)
Movie Notes

Bondage Slave Girls [D]
Where posted: ASS
When posted: 8/8/98
Author: Kilogram22
Address: Kilogram22@aol.com

I received an email recently, in reference to my carpal tunnel 
syndrome, that suggested I not waste my precious reviewing time 
on truly bad stories. I have a reply to that. I review the bad 
stories because they're so much fun to make fun of.

This multipart serial did not disappoint. It read like the author 
digested too many John Norman Gor books and then OD'd on 
lesbian bondage mags--or lesbian bondage websites--springing 
to life this fevered, sweaty-palmed creation from the addled halls 
of his or her brain. The story's premise is that in the far future 
civilization has gone into decline and humanity has mutated into 
a race of porn star look-alikes who are constantly enslaving each 
other. I think. It never was made clear. Anyway, men have 
virtually disappeared leaving Amazons to make the lucrative 
slave-girl runs, and most of the action consists of the slave girls 
being dressed in various skimpy outfits and spanked, and their 
chief occupation is giving other women head and kissing them 
with their tongues extended. Guess they've watched too many 
cheesy porn videos. 

This story was very bad. It was poorly written, poorly plotted, and 
poorly conceived. It made absolutely no sense. The author also 
had the annoying habit of interrupting the story with comments 
in parenthesis, like:

(Okay, so the black did not match the rest of attire. It would match 
certain bondage accessories the woman intended to add.  More 
important, it insured that anyone who saw shiny, black, knew 
they saw her panties.  Andrea knew that too.  She would assume 
that anyone looking at her was admiring her panties.  Of course, 
there were other reasons for putting panties on a slave girl, but 
the blonde was too concerned about sucking the dildo clean to 
think of them.)

I mean, what can I say about the above passage? To be fair, the 
story did have some naive, sleazy thrills--the same kind available 
from a retarded hooker--but it was only enough to boost it from a 
D- to a D.


Kiko 1, 2, 3 [A+]
Where posted: ASS, ASSM
When posted: 7/30/98
Author: Lord Shon
Address: lordshon@aol.com
Website: http://members.aol.com/GntlShon/kikotemp.html

Kiko is a silicon-enhanced ninja groomed as a high-kicking sex 
weapon by her scientist father. In this humorous story she helps 
an archaeologist regain the Emerald Rod of Might from the lost 
temple of the Sodomites...and yes, you can guess what bodily 
appendage the foot-long crystal resembles. Along the way there’s 
Indiana Jones style perils like marble statues that shoot their 
dicks off and a cave entrance that resembles a giant buttcrack. (I 
don’t think we’ll see this in Disneyland.) There’s also a gymnastic 
pole-dancing sequence that appears to have been inspired by a 
scene in the "Aeon Flux" cartoon series.

This was a very funny story, just a tiny bit rough around the 
edges, but the sheer imagination and silliness involved pushes 
this one up to an A+. Will Kiko return for more adventures? Time 
will tell.


Summoning [B+]
Where posted: ASS, ASSM
When posted: 8/15/98
Author: The Lizard
Address: red.lizard@USA.net

A sorceress summons a demon to serve her, discovering, too late, 
that she has carnal desires for it, and falls in love with the very 
thing she created.

This could have been a very sexy tale if it was shorter. The author 
can write well, but most of the story consisted of the same thing 
said three or four different ways, and all the repetition doesn't 
exactly move the action forward. Still, I liked the interplay 
between witch and demon, which was erotic without being overly 
porny.


Dracokin: Wanderers 1 [A]
Where posted: ASS, ASSM
When posted: 8/13/98
Author: David Farr
Address: djfarr@ihug.co.nz
Website: http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~djfarr/

Fur gets a nice workout in this story, which takes place in a 
science fiction universe reminiscent of C.J. Cherryh's "Union and 
Alliance" space opera novels. All the characters are humanoids 
with genetically engineered animal features. Cherat, a wolf-
woman, is the captain of a shuttle ferrying passengers to the far 
edges of the galaxy, and they include a skunk girl, a cute-as-a-
button Siamese cat girl, a fox woman, and a tiger woman. 
Naturally, they run into trouble and wind up on a planet of real 
humans (Earth in the Middle Ages?) where they are alarmed to 
wind up as sex slaves.

The science fiction in the this story got more emphasis than the 
sex, but it was otherwise very well written, in the style of 
paperback SF these days. More chapters are promised, and there's 
also a website.


The Gift of the Balloon [A]
Where posted: SSBB
When posted: 8/10/98
Author: Rapture
Address: Rapture@mailbag.com

Note: This story was posted from an organization known as 
"Kubrick's Kink Emporium and Espresso Bar." Can anyone tell me 
about this establishment? Readers?

In a run-down carnival a barker admires a pretty young balloon 
seller. She admires him, too, and they decide to get together. But 
the barker (not Bob Barker) has a kink: he likes knives. The 
sharper the better, especially when they're wielded by attractive 
females. The balloon dancer figures out a way to oblige him 
without hurting him. It has something to do with the balloons, 
but I won't give it away.

This mild fetish story had no sex in it but it was very original, the 
sort that gets an "A" in college creative writing classes, and that's 
what I gave it, for the elegance of its conception. The writing 
could have used work--it suffered from beginning writer over-
earnestness ("It was late morning on one of those hot days near 
the end of July when time stops and it feels like mid-afternoon on 
a dog day in early fall.") but it flowed well in spite of the 
wordiness. Look this one up if you're tired of the usual.


The Deer Hunter [A]
Where posted: ASS
When posted: 8/7/98
Author: Misty
Address: purfect9@aol.com
Website: http://members.aol.com/purfect9

Here's another unusual story, which the author says was inspired 
by legendary motor city madman Ted Nugent, a long proponent of 
hunting (though with a bow the last I heard.) 

A hunter going after a prize buck builds himself a concrete 
bunker to camp out in, and furnishes the immediate area with 
cheap surveillance cameras from a pawn shop so he won't miss 
his big moment. One morning, those cameras record not the buck 
but the rape of a female jogger. Later it's hinted the rapist is the 
hunter who eventually bags the prize buck out from under the 
hero's nose.

The characterization and hunting aspects of this story were done 
well, but I wonder if it was really meant to be porn or not. Porn 
glorifies and plays up the sexual element, but in this story the sex 
serves as an element of horror and suspense. The way in which it 
was used reminded me of Uther Pendragon's "Duty" which is 
probably the better story. It certainly straddled the 
porn/nonporn line with more confidence. But "The Deer Hunter" 
was entertaining too, just needing some more reflection of the 
part of the narrator to be something just as good. 


Unmasked [A+]
When received: 8/13/98
Author: Misty
Address: jordan@u36.com
Website: http://www.u36.com/jordan/

Jordan Shelbourne gives the superhero subgenre a new spin 
with this story, which, without the sex, works as a Donald 
Barthelme-type satire. In a slightly skewed alternate world 
normal working people feel compelled to become home-grown 
superheroes, sewing their own costumes and making up their 
own utility belts. Apparently, like being a goth or a punk, it's a 
common stage all young people pass through. The story is about 
what happens when a man and woman who are about to marry 
share some secrets about their superhero pasts.

The author stated that "Superheroes are essentially about power 
relationships...." but I didn't see power issues in the story; it was 
more about the trust involved with the revelation of one's true 
self. And also the revelation of ones' fantasies, which the story 
treats as allegory; very ironic and insightful considering all 
the superhero porn that's out there. Anyway, the cleverness and 
inventiveness of the story's premise overshadowed its 
sexual/emotional components, at least for me. But that's also why 
I gave it an A+.


Grabbing the Brass Ring [A]
When received: 8/1/98
Author: Frank McCoy
Address: mccoyf@millcomm.com

This story, which received a drubbing from Celeste in July, marks 
a sort of turning point for Frank McCoy. Incest is prominently 
featured, but there's a science fiction rationale for it. The 
narrator of the story, a middle-aged woman living in a small 
town, is empathic, which means she picks up on the strongly felt 
emotions of others and feels compelled to act on them. 
Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your point of view), 
this means having a sex with a lot of angst-ridden teenage boys. 
While the narrator enjoys the sex, she can't deal with the other 
emotions, which are painful for her. The tone is delicate and 
wistful, the plot taking a backseat to the feelings experienced.

I found the story a well-written depiction of how someone with 
empathic abilities would deal with her life, but, I warn you, most 
of it was pretty sad, dealing with feelings of alienation, loss, and 
rejection. You may or may not want this level of depth in a sex 
story. It was pretty obvious to me that the narrator was empathic 
because I've read a lot of SF; but I'd recommend an explanation 
somewhere in the first few paragraphs of the story to spell out 
the situation for those in the dark, something like, "I've always 
known I was empathic, which means I pick up on the emotions of 
others." Otherwise, I think Celeste must have lost her dentures 
that day or something, because there was nothing in this story 
that called for the level of critical abuse she gave it.


Movie Notes: "Heavenly Creatures," now available on video, 
contains a non-explicit yet steamy sexual encounter between two 
teenage girls. The rest of the movie is excellent too, though 
"Armageddon" and "Bridges of Madison County" lovers would find 
it on the bizarre and cerebral side, dealing as it does with the 
fantasy life (NON-sexual fantasy life, if you please) of two bored 
schoolgirls in 1950s New Zealand. They eventually murder their 
mum, and yes, it's pretty bloody. Anyway, five stars ***** and 
worth it if you also like Quentin Tarantino, Neil Jordan, and David 
Lynch.

Comments to: ladycyrrh@aol.com
Website--->  http://members.aol.com/ladycyrrh





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