From Celeste Reviews #312, December 22, 1998            
Review by Apuleius (apuleius@poboxes.com)

The opening quote from this story - "Push!... CMON!...PUSH!!!!,"
suggests an event that should be far more commonly described in a.s.s.
stories, considering the wealth of procreational activities described
therein. But I digress.

The real recipient of these orders is one Kenton Darian, involved in the
far more mundane activity of weightlifting, and encouraged in his
efforts by a personal trainer. Kent was making large amounts of money as
a securities trader, but became disillusioned with the competitive work
environment and the toll taken on his health. He therefore decided to
give up his job and become, of all things, a teacher. His first
appointment is at Canyon High School, teaching algebra to seniors while
their normal teacher is away.

In his class are Jenna and Emily, two supposed friends with completely
different personalities. While Jenna is a flirt, wearing revealing
outfits and dating rich-but-dumb boys, Emily keeps to herself and is
outwardly not interested in anything but school and her great love,
photography. This ambitious (230K) story concerns how the lives of these
characters become intertwined.

In any longer story, the challenge for the author is to maintain the
reader's interest, while ensuring that the plot proceeds in a believable
way. Sundance fully succeeds with the first requirement, and almost
succeeds with the second. While the plot structure is generally
convincing, there are one or two threads which seem to remain
undeveloped, and a few examples of inconsistent character depiction,
particularly of Emily. There is very little evidence provided of a
friendship between Jenna and Emily beyond the statement of the fact. 

Occasionally the dialogue could do with some work; it is generally
effective but sometimes leaves one with the impression that one is
reading a sitcom script:

>"But where do you get off being the wise one?  I'm the teacher and you're the
>student, remember?"
>
>"Oh, you're the teacher alright.  And what a teacher you are."
>They both laughed.

Moments like these can seem jarring in what is predominantly a serious,
emotional story.

Technical quality is very good, the only slips being infrequent lapses
in spelling.

These, however, are minor concerns in what is overall an above-average,
highly accomplished story. There are moments of real tenderness and
concern between Kent and Emily, and the account of their relationship is
far from the typical sleazy teacher/student material found in ASS/M (and
suggested, unfortunately, by this story's title). Their difference in
age (17 vs. 35) does provide a possible squick factor.

One thing that particularly impressed me about this story was the
superbly described sex scenes. Sundance's prose, particularly in
romantic encounters, becomes rich, opulent, and very effective. It is
clearly something the author has taken great care with. This aspect
alone would endear this story to a great many newsgroup readers, yet
these scenes occur (for the most part) within the context of a proper
plot, opening the story to even more serious consideration.

This is a very good story, and a highly rewarding and enjoyable read.

Invoking my own erotic muses:

~> Pandora (story codes/genre): mf Mf (late teen) rom / Vanilla
~> Dr. Johnson (technical quality): 10
~> Scheherazade (plot and character development): 9
~> Apuleius (appeal to reviewer): 9