Message-ID: <3276eli$9708231906@qz.little-neck.ny.us> X-Archived-At: From: LadyCyrrh@aol.com Subject: The Annex Reviews 8/22/97 Newsgroups: alt.sex.stories.d,alt.sex.stories.moderated,alt.sex.stories Followup-To: alt.sex.stories.d Path: qz!not-for-mail Organization: The Committee To Thwart Spam Approved: X-Moderator-Contact: Eli the Bearded X-Story-Submission: X-Original-Message-ID: <970823133529_-1470177679@emout08.mail.aol.com> X-Is-Review: yes Sorry I haven't posted for a while. It was a combination of woes, among them hot weather and an infected foot...I spent most of the weekend of 8/16 limping, getting drunk, and watching old Elvis movies. I've noticed that lately spam is reaching epidemic proportions. On a recent trip through alt.sex.stories.bondage, the proportion of stories to spam was about 100 to 1. On alt.sex.femdom it's worse. In 300 postings, I didn't see any stories at all. More and more writers and readers are deserting these newsgroups. There's even been talk of writers and readers deserting the Usenet altogether. ATTENTION ADVERTISERS! You are ruining us with your short-sighted stupidity and greed. The more shit you post, the less people will be inclined to visit the newsgroups and read them. The newsgroups will sink under the weight of all your spam, leading to cancellations, the evaporation of your market, and no return for the time and money you spend! I also noticed that the input of stories to Eli's group (alt.sex.stories.moderated) has increased exponentially. In just two days, there've been something like 30 or 40 entries. Back in March, there were maybe 3 or 4 a day. Are we all on to something here? I'll be saying more about this later. And now, on to a story about the effects of that spam... Hot Teen Sex [A+] When posted: 7/28/97 Where posted: ASS, ASSM Author: Johnny D Address: JohnnyD@cryogen.com This one took a while to get to. But it was worth it, and it's worth your while to look it up. We're back in the sex-saturated fantasies of teenage boys. A young man is masturbating as he calls up image after image of naked girls on his Netscape browser, culminating in a live-action view of "Hot Teen Sex" set in a teen girl's bedroom. As the 16-year-old girl and 19-year-old guy go at it (with all the choreographed kisses, strokes and sighs) his modem explodes. In a frenzy of lust, he tries to rape his twin sister, then roars outside and rapes a virgin he pulls off the street. The story ends with him proclaiming, "What have I DONE?" In his foreword, the author says, "I anticipate being flamed by all the perverts on the net for peddling a "pornography turns you into a rapist" message - *please* go back and read the story again before you do. That is *not* the message." Well, I couldn't see any other message in there, except perhaps pornography shouldn't be made available to teenage boys. But whatever the message was, the writing was excellent--the story moved along and pulled you into the enraged, frustrated mind of a horny boy whose only sexual experiences have been with his hand and pixels on a screen. I don't know if anyone would consider this story sexy--that is, in the sense of getting turned on by it and then wanting to imitate the sex it portrayed--but as a story *about* online sex services, and the effects they have on minors, it was very good. I hope to see more from this author. Cheating Heart [B-] When posted: 8/8/97 Where posted: ASS, ASSM Author: Anne Douglas Address: Anndouglas@aol.com A lesbian aerobics instructor whose lover is away on a trip meets a fascinating Japanese reporter in one of her classes. They have dinner together, then go home and have sex. The absent partner then calls to say she is coming home from her trip early, and the two new lovers have a bittersweet parting. This was the first Ann Douglas story I've read, and frankly I was very surprised at the many typos and grammatical errors it contained, as I've heard lots of praise about this writer. It seemed to have been written very quickly, with no time set aside to refine things. On the plus side, the sex was good, and the characterizations were consistent and true to life...the people involved acted in ways normal people might act. But. While realistic in some ways, things weren't quite "real" enough...the dialogue in particular sounded awkward in places, and while the story is told from the teacher's point of view, in several places we go into the Japanese reporter's. It's also annoying that, although she is named Keiko early on in the story, she is referred to by other monikers like "dark-haired woman" "Oriental" "Japanese woman" and "golden-skinned woman" throughout the story. OK, she's Japanese. Got it. My overall feeling is that the author should take more care with her craft, but as I've said, she's got a good reputation among readers and writers, she produces a lot, and she maintains a website, too. Maybe she was having a bad hair day or something. And Then I Fucked Her [A] When posted: 8/15/97 Where posted: ASS, ASSM Author: Mike Hunt Address: MrM1KE@aol.com Of all the occupations in the arts, writers have the biggest egos. They are rivaled only by rock musicians. However, writers have the advantage in that they have the power of the written word to defame and insult, whereas all your typical head-banger can do is yell, "Fuck off, asshole!" This story--which is more of an open letter to ASS readers and writers-- finds Mike Hunt in top racing form as he goes after Michael Smith, the author of "How to Write Sex Stories" with a stick. I do love me a good rag, and Hunt doesn't dissapoint. He weaves a tale of a slippery cinema handjob (with the guy's crotch hidden by a popcorn bucket, and the girl's hand oozing with salty, greasy butter...well, I imagined it was) and intersperses it with his own curmudgeonly comments on the aforementioned how-to advice. Now, there are some who might say this wasn't a very nice thing for one writer to do to another. I myself haven't read any of Smith's fiction, so I can't tell if he deserves the drubbing or not. But I do know this: after reading this story, a lot more people will be looking for Michael Smith stories to see if the criticism was deserved, which adds up to free "publicity" if you will, for both writers. Me? I liked this piece; it was a slick, amusing diatribe that rubs against the lacy undie-and-sighs school of porn writing. It's common knowledge that anyone who sets themselves up as an expert in anything is also setting themselves up for ridicule. Including myself. Anyway, there is some important advice in here about always putting warning labels on one's site and on one's stories. And here's another piece of advice: if you do run a site, request that people DO NOT link to any of the material within except through the front gate, the index.html page your 18-and-under warning appears on, because it's entirely possible for minors to surf in the back door through other links. It doesn't eliminate the possibility, of course, but at least you asked. A Wet Camera [B?] When posted: August Where posted: ASS, ASSM? Author: jdlawson Address: jdlawson@cybrtyme.com The author sent me this one; it's the shortest story I've ever seen, clocking in at a mere 250 words. Because it was so short, it's hard to talk about it without giving away the trick ending, but, basically, a nature buff is walking on the beach and happens upon a frenzied couple who are fucking. But are they human? I really liked the idea of this--it gets the Marlin Perkins stamp of approval--but it was just too short...therefore I'm kind of puzzled at what to rate it. I'd like to see a longer version with a bit more sex, definitely. Kristen's Collection: Dreamsex [B+] and Callie [B+] When posted: August Where posted: ASS, ASSM? Author: Various, with "Kathy" Poster: Kristen Address: kristen78@aol.com Kristen has been posting a lot of stories from her archives lately and has sent me a collection of them to give an overview. All are pretty straight- -not vanilla, because hearts n' flowers don't come into the picture--and dealt mainly with m/f or f/f consensual sex in realistic situations with realistic people it is fairly easy to identify with: sisters, coeds, teenagers, and the like. Some of the stories weren't too fleshed out, and like many ASS postings didn't really have a plot, characters, conflict, or conclusion (save for orgasm) to speak of. But sometimes this is nice to read instead of heavier fare...like those little "Sent by our Readers" stories you might see in Reader's Digest. The tone is colloquial too, the sort coworkers might use when talking to one another over a lunchroom table (I think some authors of "I" stories go wild with naughty language they wouldn't EVER dare use in front of another sentient being.) Some stories were in third person, like "Earthquake," which had more of a plot (a couple gets stuck in an elevator during a tremblor). Kristen says she wrote some of the stories in this collection, and as all of them list "Kathy" as one of the authors, I'm guessing this is her pen name. I picked two stories for a formal review. "Dreamsex" was about a man who fantasizes about having sex with a beautiful ice skater (complete with frost in her hair) while "Callie" was about a sorority sister who sets a fraternity of guys up for blackmail on "morals charges" by gang- banging five of them in front of a hidden video camera. I also noticed there was another ice-skating story in here called "Nanako" which may have been inspired by Midori Ito (have you skated professionally, Kristen?) I found "Callie" the more intriguing of the two; the coed's five- man gangbang read realistically and didn't go overboard on the squishiness of the sex act. I will also be reading "Earthquake" later; it seemed pretty exciting from the first paragraphs. On the whole, the collection offers easy entertainment that probably won't rock your world, but it still give an extra swing to your step. Website Review: Science Fiction, Libertarianism, and BDSM Site Name: Elf Sternberg/Journals Address: http://www.halcyon.com/elf/journals Owner: Elf Sternberg Elf Sternberg has been writing erotic fiction since 1989. That's a long time. Almost 10 years' worth of fiction has been uploaded to this website, the equivalent of two 360-page paperbacks a year...putting him in the ranks of the most prolific writers I've seen. The website has been well organized and engineered (he's a coding maven) to showcase his work, setting, in my opinion, the standard by which other sites should be judged. The layout of the site is clean and readable, easily navigated no matter what browser you're in. There is no extraneous garbage like flashing lights, noisy applets, or useless pull downs. (The cookie that used to be there seems to be gone. What's a cookie? If you don't know, don't worry.) Plus he has lots of cool links and a list of resources for BDSM players in the Seattle area. Not only that, but he has the balls to include a nearly- full length pic of himself, so if you're ever in Seattle you can quiz him personally about the hankie codes he's also posted. (Side note: he's married. Damn!) In addition to the above features, there is some advice about what to do if you are arrested, presumably for running a pornographic website ("You and the Police"), a statement of how to save Usenet from spam, and the technical notes he used to create his page. Everything is neatly confined within a background of a white-paged spiral-bound notebook. Personally, I prefer the old design, with his name in neo-Celtic lettering and the large pic of himself on the main page; the notebook idea is a little schoolbooky and I noticed some problems with the text running into the spirals. But it had no effect on the final grade I gave the site, and everyone running similar websites should read his ACLU advice, because it might save you some grief. The stories. Well, if you like fantasy and science fiction, you'll be like a kid in a candy store. There's at least 100 stories in "The Journal Entries of Kennet R'yal Shardik," the main attraction, and they are all of professional or near-professional quality. The fantasy fiction consists of the novel "Aimee" and there's also a small group of miscellaneous stories. Although I've read stuff of his before, for this review I picked out three Journals stories at random, the first three chapters of "Aimee" and a Thundercats spoof. The stories ranged from A+ to A. From what Elf says in his page, I gather a major influence on his writing has been SF author Larry Niven and role-playing games, but I also see echoes of John Varley, late-model Robert Heinlein, Poul Anderson, Piers Anthony, and Star Trek in his work. The sex ranges from BDSM "scenes" to romance, is character and situation-driven, and is described matter-of-factly without magic words like "torrential jets of creamy white cum"--which probably reflects the author's base in hard SF, which is, by its nature, is somewhat scientific and precise. Not that it wasn't "hot" but if you're expecting Dulcinea-like warblings or the more traditional porn style of Andrew Roller you'll be disappointed. As most of Elf's cast of characters are aliens, the sex gets bizarre at times, but it's loads of fun and always winsome...even when things get kinky. No one was brutalized, devastated, or unduly disturbed by the sex they have (at least in the stuff I've read)...it's all positive and rather uplifting. "The Journal Entries" is a very long series of stories (about 100) dealing with the sexual adventures of Commander Kennet R'yal Shardik in a world of many alien races, virtual immortality, gene splicing, and masters and slaves who play sexual games together. I don't quite understand what he is the commander of, not having read the whole series in order, but there is a continuing storyline in here somewhere. In "Starlight, Starbright, First Star I See My Life" the Commander has sex with a man for the first time in celebration of the fact he's caused stars to appear in the night sky. In "Wings over Rhysh" he acts as sub to a dom who outfits him not as a pony but a PEGASUS (!) then makes him pull a magic carpet through the air and have sex with a similarly equipped pegasus pony mare, and in "Paying for Your Pleasures" he spends an evening at home cooking dinner for his two alien bondmates and gives one a blowjob flavored with horseradish. The overall sense I get from this series is a sort of Baron Munchausen effect, or a visit to John Varley's Gaia where the odd coexists with details of normal life. If these stories have a fault...and keep in mind I still like them even if they do...it's that the narrator is too clinical; in some ways they retread K/S territory (see my review of Satyricon au go go) but without the intense emotional conflicts. There were no deep hesitancies, no doubts, no painful awkwardness...everyone got exactly what they wanted, which is perhaps even more of a fantasy than the cat-people and castles. (Note to the author: it would be nice if you included an overview of the series so readers don't go "huh?") "A Night on Thundera" is about the Thundercats, the kid's syndicated cartoon of the mid-80s. They are humanoid aliens with feline characteristics (fur, tails, slanted eyes, etc.) that are reflected in their names: Panthro, Cheetara, Liono, Tigra, Wileykit and Wileycat. This story is typical of TV spoofs in that the main characters behave in the ways we've come to know and love, but also have explicit sex. Tigra and Panthro whip Cheetara, then jointly doink her; Wileykit and Wileycat, brother and sister twins, engage in mutual incestuous fellatio; and Liono and Snarf (a strange creature who's like a servant to the T-cats) share a tender buttfuck together. The author called this a spoof, but it was really more of a homage; there may be a tongue in Elf's cheek here, but it's very gentle. The story also reveals his predilection for furry stories. I liked "Aimee" the most. As a fantasy, it had the elegant, historic tone of Ellis Peters, Mary Stewart or Mary Renault rather than the clashing swords of Conan and company. It finds Elf in a different mood: pensive and romantic. As with the others, it was primarily a sex story set in a fantasy or SF universe rather than a fantasy or SF story with a sexual theme. The plot is this: Archmage Darynn begins to teach a young indentured servant girl, Aimee, the mysteries of sex magic (that is, working magical spells harnessing the energy of one's sexuality) at a request from her master. The master intends to eventually pimp her. But Darynn hopes that by teaching Aimee all he knows she will develop the power to break out from under his thumb. These first three chapters consisted of the gay Archmage telling her his sexual adventures, first with a group of satyrs in the wood, then with a dragon-man, in the hopes of getting her worked up enough to start awakening her magical ability. I found the mage's history more compelling than the story occurring in present time, but that's me. This novel was very well written and seemed to function as a breath of fresh air after the final episodes of the Journals stories. And yes, the philosophies of sex magic and the enchanted phalluses and dildii (The Lord of the Dildii?) were a definite turn-on. Granted, if you don't like fantasy or science fiction you probably won't like any of these; you may find them incomprehensible, silly, or boring. But they are very well done, so I'd encourage anyone who has even a passing interest in the genre to look up this site. You will be very entertained. Another laudable thing about this site is that the creator doesn't go overboard telling you about himself. Not that Elf isn't an interesting person, but it's the content of the site that's the drawing card...and it's the content that speaks the loudest about the site's creator. Information is the commodity, not personality. If you are a dull person who has a dull intellectual life you will have a dull site, no matter how many sound bites, animated gifs, and radio buttons you put on it. Interface: A+ Content: A+ Will I visit again: Yes. Note to readers: What has happened to Maryanne Mohanraj's homepage? I want to do a review, but every time I try to access, it's unavailable. Has she packed up shop for good? Moved to another server? This is the address I have: www.iam.com.maryanne, which is the same one on Elf's page, I believe. Comments to: ladycyrrh@aol.com Website---> http://users.aol.com/ladycyrrh -- +--------------' Story submission `-+-' Moderator contact `------------+ | story-submit@qz.little-neck.ny.us | story-admin@qz.little-neck.ny.us | | Archive site +--------------------+------------------+ Newsgroup FAQ | \ .../assm/faq.html> /