Message-ID: <22996asstr$951721803@assm.asstr-mirror.org> From: LadyCyrrh@aol.com X-Original-Message-ID: <3a.1dbe2a7.25eb5400@aol.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: {ASSM} {REVIEW} The Annex Reviews, 2/29/00 Date: Mon, 28 Feb 2000 02:10:03 -0500 Path: assm.asstr-mirror.org!not-for-mail X-Is-Review: yes Approved: Newsgroups: alt.sex.stories.moderated,alt.sex.stories,alt.sex.stories.d Followup-To: alt.sex.stories.d X-Archived-At: X-Moderator-Contact: ASSTR ASSM moderation X-Story-Submission: X-Moderator-ID: gill-bates, apuleius, dennyw The Annex Reviews, 2/29/00 by Lady Cyrrh (ladycyrrh@aol.com) Website: http://members.aol.com/ladycyrrh OR http://home.aol.com/ladycyrrh Hah! I fooled everyone, coming out with two reviews this month. Hopefully I can keep up the pace. The stories: Help Desk (Chew Toy): M/? mc, hyp, mast The Tickleopps Tourist Attraction (Orestes): M/F, bond, tickling Ciphering (Lawdron): M/m, rape Life Cycle of the Kaelen (Artie): M/F, SF A Smart Girl (Orestes): M/F, D/s Website Review: The ASSTR Archive Help Desk [A] Where posted: ASSM When posted: 2/24/00 Author: Chew Toy Author address: wellgnawed@hotmail.com Poster: Caeser Poster address: caesarSPAM@asstrFREE.org Poster website: http://www.asstr-mirror.org/~CAS/ The late, great Chew Toy contributes this brief story, which is told entirely in dialogue. A confused person (who may be either male or female, there are no tags) calls a software help desk to solve an email problem. The exchanges are banal at first -- "What sort of trouble?" "My email won't work" -- but changes as a spiral-shaped loading cursor appears on the screen (think Netscap's spinning globe) which hypnotizes the victim and gets him, as it transpires, in the mood for some phone sex: "Are you hard for me?" "Yes..." "Good. Pull your cock out so it sticks straight out in the air for me. I love to see a hard naked cock poking out in the air. And I love to watch a guy jack off, knowing that he's thinking about me. I want you to come for me soon. Can you do that?" The story ends with the hint this strange power of the technician lets him or her get their way in other areas of life, too. Chew Toy has written a very enjoyable piece here, almost perfect in its brevity and shift from the mundane to the fantastic, and I was a little surprised because the last Chew Toy tale I read didn't impress me much. A big plus to this story is that, aside from the clueless computer user's comment that the technician has a "low, sexy voice" the technician could be either male or female, as could his/her next victim Sasha, as men usually don't compliment other men for their sexy voices, even if they are gay. However, I admit could be wrong about this. Can any gay readers enlighten me? I also humorously suggest the writer adopt "Brokensqueaker" as an email moniker rather than "Wellgnawed." It's a little more evocative. The Tickleopps Tourist Attraction [A+] Where posted: ASSM When posted: 2/15/00 Author: Zawackyj Address: zawackyj_1@hotmail.com Website: http://ZawackyjStories.web1000.com Two travel agents, Briget and Mark, meet at a conference. Mark specializes in "special" tours of the kinky sort and tells her so (in veiled language) then invites her up to his room. When the door is locked, Briget finds herself naked and bound on the bed, the apprehensive yet willing future victim of one of Mark's clients, who has booked a night to tickle a naked, bound female to the point of hysteria. This was a fun and very well-written story, and I enjoyed it immensely. In tone it was soft-core and naughty rather than explicit, yet the softness somehow made it more kinky than a lot of hard-core BDSM I've read, because the characters were so shocked (yet turned on) by their naughtiness. The writer also comes up with a couple of sexually philosophical passages, such as this one (Briget is lying trussed on the bed): There was a pinkness about her feet which was highly alluring to him. It suggested not merely a cleanliness about her, but was a clear sign of her wariness about having them handled in any way. He cupped the big toe of her right foot in his hand just to feel it's form in his hand. He held it for a second, twisting it gently to force Briget's foot into a position where he could see the subdued red gloss on her toes. He congratulated himself silently for having been accurate with his first impression of Briget. The nails were neatly trimmed and the application of the red polish revealed things about her he knew she probably didn't even realize herself. He didn't have to imagine her sitting in her room earlier in the day, rubber spacers holding her toes widely spread while she applied the gloss, being thoroughly careful to paint it on evenly and without spillage on her toes. He knew she was too innocent yet to understand, but the ritual of painting her nails, especially in making her toes attractive, was a manifest sign of a desire to have them tickled and caressed. It was also true, Mark knew well, that a girl who'll let you touch her feet will let you touch her anywhere. The above was the most erotic passage about feet I've ever read. Who knew toenail polish conveyed so much. Ciphering [B] Where posted: ASSGM When posted: 2/21/00 Author: Lawdron Address: lawdronNOlaSPAM@yahoo.com.invalid The author calls this "a perverse little morality tale." A teenage boy living with his single mom discovers his mother's boyfriend is a recovering pedophile. Oddly, mom doesn't mind one bit. The boyfriend then tells her an old acquaintance of his who is also a pedophile is coming over to visit. No sweat, says mom, asserting her 14-year-old son can handle the sticky situation himself. Right, mom. The conjunction of the two chickenhawks brings out the teen's own budding (gay) sexuality, and he soon winds up seducing his erstwhile "stepfather" who later commits suicide over what he has done. The old acquaintance then turns up to enact a revenge on the boy. The author's ambition was in the right place here -- he was obviously trying for a psychological suspense tale with gay overtones, of the kind Michael Gouda does so well -- but it fell flat in execution. It wasn't the writing that was bad, but the plausibility of it all. What mother would blow off a lover's confession of child molestation, even if the narrator admits "I don't hate my mother: I simply don't give a damn about her. Our relationship is mutual that way?" Some evidence of mental instability should have been shown, or a messy addiction. The story bombed again when the 14-year-old evinces thoughts and behavior that are way too sophisticated for a 14-year-old. At least, show the kid pouring over gay mags, figuring out how such a seduction could be done. He had no absolutely motivation for the act; he doesn't even realize that his sexuality is different. On the other hand, the seduction scene itself was well portrayed, particularly the messy physicality of it (bloody underpants, et. al.) In sum, this was a good idea for a story that was not handled well. If the writing was mediocre, you could blow it off as cheap entertainment. But I think the author meant for it to mean more, and unfortunately, that means more work. Kaelen [A] Where posted: ASSM When posted: 1/22/00 Author: Artie Address: artie@netgate.net Website: http://www.very.net/nikolai/erotica/pheromoa.htm In Part 1 of this 4-part series, a husband-and-wife team of planetary explorers set down on Island, a planet whose culture and inhabitants are reminiscent of Polynesia. The natives share a strange symbiosis with the Kaelen, foot-long, gemlike insects with musical calls, and it is this symbiosis the pair intend to investigate. The first two-thirds of the test are devoted to the explorer's preparation and landing on the planet, in language that would make an anthropologist proud. When they are seemingly settled in, however, the couple starts to experience an increasing amount of horniness, which is tied to the presence of the Kaelen. Thus the mystery is set up. Apart from the talk of probes and AIs, story was more like a textbook anthropology case than an SF tale ("...some may decry the intense sexual content of this report. Indeed, many who knew us closely at Survey may find it difficult to believe") but to me it was readable rather than dense. At the end of the first chapter, I felt I knew the explorers as people and wanted to find out how their adventure winds up. But then, I've always liked reading about intepid encounters with strange tribes in those old textbooks. A Smart Girl [A] Where posted: ASSM When posted: 2/2/00 Author: Orestes Address: orestes007@hotmail.com A well-off college guy at a well-off college hires fellow student Maria to tutor him in algebra. Used to dating WASPs, he doesn't know what to make of her half-Mexican heritage and welfare- class origins. But she is smart, very, very, smart, and passive by nature, so she doesn't resist his boorish frat-boy advances, and serves him sexually in any way he asks without demanding anything for herself. When she asks to move in, he lets her (with the caveat she sleep in the laundry room so his rich blonde dates don't find out) and soon she's doing the housework, handling his finances, cooking, doing all his homework, AND sleeping him with him when he can't get anyone better. The ideal (for the guy) situation continues until he makes the mistake of telling her she must let his friend fuck her in the ass, and pours a can of beer over her head when the act is done. This treatment pushes her to edge, for when the asshole wakes up he's tied to the bed, and Maria is tormenting his balls with her fingers, declaiming: "I love you James, and I'm going to take good care of you. Trust me. I've learned a lot from you. I've learned what kind of power there is in sexual dominance. Even as I served you, and enjoyed being used, I always knew that there would be a day that I would change the balance in our relationship...I already control your bank accounts. With my help, college will be a breeze. All you'll have to do is be a good slave. " Smart, very smart indeed. This was one of those "biter bitten" stories, and the class conflict (rich asshole vs. Miss One-step-from-the-ghetto) lent it extra spice. At the end of the story, Maria gloats that not only will she dominate the narrator (his reactions let us know his body will like it, at least) but his WASPy girlfriend Trinity, too. (Is that a real name, or has the author watched "The Matrix" too many times?). Class revenge has never been so sweet. The only thing that kept the story from perfection for me was the revelation that Maria needed a helper to abet her transformation to domme, namely the pal of the narrator's who brutally fucked her in ass, who is revealed to be a secret master of domination himself. This I don't quite get. How nice it would have been for the "Smart Girl" to one-up the narrator by herself. But this was still a very good story. Website Review: The ASSTR Archive URL: http://www.asstr-mirror.org I've wanted to check out this site ever since the "new" ASSM was launched last November. It didn't disappoint. Very extensive, cleanly designed, and chock- a-block with collectors, writers, FAQs, guides, and other general information, the site bears many repeat visits. First of all, there's the 200+ author listing, some with on-server websites, some with FTP directories, ranging from old favorites like Dulcinea to newer ones like Sidney Durham. The listings for authors are free, with none of that nasty spam we've all gotten used to. Not only that, there are about 20 collector sites, including a mirror for the Nifty Archives site, and the salvaged archives of Ole Joe, Kristen, Caeser, and others. There's also a search function, a necessity in a site this big, and many links to other archives and story sites for you to explore. I found the layout clean and professional with everything divided into neat tables, and if it seems too sterile, the tone of the FAQs and welcome material is warm, congenial, and encouraging. In sum, a must-see site and much-needed resource. Interface: A Content: A+ ___________________________________________________ Comments to: ladycyrrh@aol.com Website---> http://members.aol.com/ladycyrrh -- Pursuant to the Berne Convention, this work is copyright with all rights reserved by its author unless explicitly indicated. +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | alt.sex.stories.moderated ----- send stories to: | | FAQ: Moderator: | +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+ |Archive: Hosted by Alt.Sex.Stories Text Repository | |, an entity supported entirely by donations. | +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+