Message-ID: <23602asstr$955257051@assm.asstr-mirror.org> From: LadyCyrrh@aol.com X-Original-Message-ID: <8a.24ccf70.262112a4@aol.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: {ASSM} {REVIEW} The Annex Reviews, 4/8/00 Date: Sun, 9 Apr 2000 01:10:53 -0400 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: dennyw, apuleius The Annex Reviews, 4/10/00 by Lady Cyrrh (ladycyrrh@aol.com) Website: http://members.aol.com/ladycyrrh OR http://home.aol.com/ladycyrrh Hi y'all. I've been doing some spring cleaning on my site lately as regards checking links, and I've come across several good websites that are MIA. Does anyone know the new URLs for Lord Malinov, Dean Lidster, Giffstein Productions, November Tuesday, Uther Pendragon, Sneakley's Pages of Peril, Superheroines in Bondage, or Nova's The Secret Logs of Mistress Janeway? If so, please let me know. I am almost all done checking the others, and they should be all in place and updated a day or so after I post this. Also, acting on a suggestion a reader made, I will be mailing out copies of these reviews to the writers of those stories who have received an A, A+, or A- rating. As to why I won't do this with everyone, well, I'd rather not get shot as the bearer of bad news; but if an author asks for feedback as part of their review request, I will give it to them, unadulterated, as it appears here. And remember, if you get A+, you are eligible for my award. FANFIC REPORT - April 2000 I have neglected to give my 1999 Annual Report for a number of reasons, chief among them that I wasn't on the net that much last year, and so had nothing to say; but I intend to remedy that now, partly, after two weeks of intensive web searching on the topic "fanfic." Fanfic, in case you don't know, is any kind of fiction written by fans, for fans, of a particular TV show, movie, cartoon (generally known as 'toons), anime/manga, comic, or, increasingly, musical group. Before the net these stories used to be self-published in 'zines. With the growth of the webm however, they have entered a truly colossal period of growth, with literally hundreds, perhaps thousands, of sites, and hundreds of thousands of stories. Why should the average reader of the ASS newsgroups care about this? Because many of the sites and stories offer truly excellent erotica, much of it gay and lesbian, with varying degrees of kinkiness and angst. When I first began writing these reviews in 1997 there were plenty of sites out there, but most of them stuck to the major Fandoms -- which were at the time Star Trek, Highlander, Sentinel, JAG, Xena/Herc, and the X-Files. Well, fanfic writers are nothing if not an artistically fickle bunch, and as one show is creatively overmined (or goes off the air) their loyalties switch to the newer, better models, and new Fandoms spring up. For example, the Highlander and JAG Fandoms seem to running out of steam, with fewer stories and sites each month, while last years' Star Wars: The Phantom Menace movie has spawned innumerable slashy (M/M) fanfic stories, most of them dealing with the relationship between Qui-Gonn Jin and young Obi-Wan. On the same note, Todd Hayes' eminently "slashable" glam-rock movie Velvet Goldmine has inspired at least ten sites, and I've also seen many stories for the Matrix. (The key to the latter three, I think, is the sexual appeal of these movies' leading men on the mainly female writers.) Other Fandoms have crawled out of the woodwork in recent months. I have seen sites and stories for 1970s shows like Emergency! and a good number on the rock groups Savage Garden, the Cure, the Monkees, N'Sync, and the Backstreet Boys. Video game fanfic is increasing every day, but it is only the little brother of the rapidly growing Fandom anime, which, like a many-tentacled Power Rangers monster, offers everything from lemon (explicit) and lime (romantic) yaoi (slash) to hentai (kink) from hundreds of different shows, most of which are available in America only at specialized video stores. Anime fanfic writers have a specialized lexicon of their own by which they rate and class their stories that is so opaque it baffles even oldtime anime fans like myself. So watch that sucker; it's getting cancerous. But, there are also growing Fandoms for daytime soaps and nightime WB fare; ones for BBC fare such as Inspector Lovejoy and BlackAdder, and a small but notable showing for "literate" genres in the form of Les Miserables and The Jewel in the Crown stories. In sum, it's a feast now more than ever. If you haven't tried fanfic before, give it a taste now. The stories: GI Joe Sexual Missions #1: Scarlett's Training (jzelger): F/M+, comic DeLaurio's Bar: A New Conception (Alexis Wilder): M/F, voyr, SF Praying Mantis: Black Window (Lotuseater): F/F, radio serial spoof Fuad's Hareem (Frenchy the III): M/F, sex slavery, pierce, oral, anal, thriller Kelly's Transformation (mark_la688): M/F, mc, sex slavery Fighting Words, Parts 1 and 2 (Trilby Else): F/F mc, M/F rape GI Joe Sexual Missions #1: Scarlett's Training [A] Where posted: ASSM When posted: 3/23/00 Author: jzelger Address: jzelger@yahoo.com The author says, "This story is based on the Marvel Comics version of G.I. Joe." That is news to me, for the last time I encountered GI Joe, he was being blown to bits by black cats in the dirt-hill forts of the little neighborhood boys I grew up with. Childhood memories aside, Joe's had a second plastic reincarnation in the Reaganistic 80s as a special op of sorts, followed by an animated series in the early 90s. I guess comics weren't so far behind, and following them, a Fandom (note the capitol F) tailor-made for adult content. In fact I was rather pleased to see him get a sex life. In this story, though, the "Joe" refers to an elite group of paramilitary professionals, and Scarlett is their new hand-to-hand combat trainer. Yes, she has long red hair, and she quickly whups all the men's asses, winning their grudging admiration for her skills (they already had it for her body.) Afterwards, she notes the session has made her more than a little turned on: For the first time, as Scarlett looked at all these men, she noticed that they all were at least kind of attractive. Maybe it was the workout, but she was feeling flush and her whole body was hot. She unconsciously licked her lips. "Good to know," she said. She glanced around and saw that the other Joes' uniforms were quite clingy, too. And many of them had obviously raging erections. As she stood their nearly naked before them, she decided she was feeling very aroused. Having all these men so close to her as she tried to catch her breath... Their heavy breathing filled the room, but otherwise there was an awkward silence. All these men... all so hot and bothered... So she takes on all of them, barking orders all the time. I liked this story; it was unique (for a male-oriented comic story that is) in that the female lust object was neither a victim nor a slut but a very strong, very self-confident, very horny woman capable of being the controlling party in a gangbang, and enjoying it. Despite the machismo of its title, I strongly recommend it to female readers, as a way to share in the main character's adventures without feeling demeaned. Preying Mantis - Black Widow [A] Where posted: ASSM When posted: 3/23/00 Author: Lotuseater Address: kim_lotuseater@hotmail.com Radio plays have gone the way of the rotary telephone these days, but there once was a time (so my mother told me) when families gathered together to hear the tales of the Shadow or the Lone Ranger. As that form of drama is now dead or dying, I give Lotuseater high marks for attempting a loving spoof of one of those 1940s serials complete with sound effects, outrageous accents, and "stings" (a burst of music, or jarring chord, inserted in the play to heighten the dramatic effect.) As this is a sex story, the altar ego of the heroic Preying Mantis, Kitt Meade, a socialite, is surprised in her office by the Black Widow, a French criminal who proceeds to work her over: FX: Zipper Kitt: "What - what are you -- hey - mmmmm! Mmmmm! Mm!" Arachne: "Ahh, what divine treasures you 'ide beneath all zose confining clothes! Anuzzer kiss, I think?" Kitt: (gasping) "You...you...have me at a disadvantage, Black Widow. I'll give you just two hours to stop that..." Arachne: "Zen we've lots of time. First I slide your skirt down like so...my, your legs are quite shapely... I see you like to shave down zere as do I...hmmmm... your titons, zey are very nice as well, n'est ce-pas?" Kitt: (moaning) "Uhh...your...tongue...is...extremely... talented...Widow...oh!" The ending comes too soon, and is typical for a sex story; but I encourage the author to attempt more radio-recreations, as this one was quite entertaining. It left quite a bit to the imagination, you see. Dellaurio's Bar: The New Conception [A-] Where posted: ASSM When posted: 3/4/00 Author: Alexis Wilder Address: alexis_wilder@hotmail.com "Dellaurio's was a combination restaurant, rest house, and bar. It was the only place at Luna station offering "all" the services--including the setting for various trysts--that a space hound of any sexual preference might want." This sets the stage for what may be intended to be a new series of voyeurism in an SF setting. The narrator is an A/V aide whose job it is to supervise, and sometimes tape, what goes on in all the various trysting rooms, and for this night, he begins to tape what is a fairly normal romantic encounter in a romantic Terran dining room: He broke their kiss, and planted dozens of kisses all over her face. He kissed his way down her neck and onto her shoulder. She gasped as she felt his warm mouth cover her breast, softly licking at her nipple. She arched her back, trying to get more of it into his mouth. He licked and sucked, getting both nipples completely wet. He didn't stop until both nipples were extremely hard and sensitive. This is pretty standard fare for most readers here, I'd guess, and I continued to read on, waiting for the SF element to pop up -- that one of the partners is an alien, or something. But the romantic encounter soon turns into stroke, as the modest, romantic lovebirds suddenly break into language the likes of "Oh, God, I have all your stud meat. I want all of it. I want your cum in my pussy. I've never had a cock so deep before," and "Jeez, Laurie, the waves of pleasure are washing over me, as you rub my jewels," as if they've been reading one too many bad ASS stories, or had swallowed a thesaurus of sexual lexicon. Now, I've got nothing against dirty language in bed; I like it myself. But cliched dirty language out of the blue, and out of character for the two people we've just been introduced too, is just lazy writing. Not only that, but the story ends on a rather lame revelation that had nothing to do with SF. Why go to the trouble of creating this otherworldly environment, if you don't introduce otherworldly elements into it? That said, I can't knock *too* many points off the story for the above issues, as it was well written otherwise, and delivered the sexual goods. But for me, it turned out to be a disappointment. Fuad's Hareem [A] Where posted: ASSM When posted: 3/2/00 Author: Frenchy the Third Address: FrenchyIII@hotmail.com This novella-length story is a cross between a political thriller and a captive slave girl/BDSM piece. The narrator has been tricked into served as a security aide to General Abdel-Kerim Fuad of Iraq, and part of his job is preparing kidnapped American girls for his "hareem," which the General shares with his favorite officers. So there's plenty of bondage, training, D/s, and piercing; but there's also an espionage subplot in that China is planning to attack the General's bunker in revenge for holding some Chinese scientists against their will. All the James Bond action made an excellent backdrop for the slave scenes in this story, which were by turns humorous (in a dark vein), detailed, arousing, and frighteningly plausible. But more than that, the story had good characterization. From the egomaniac anti-American General ("When we win the war, I shall own a grand whorehouse outside of Las Vegas. I will permit you to run it for me. All that American women are good for is to be whores. We will stock it with the most beautiful survivors.") to the chauvinistic dim bulb narrator ("I do remember true love number one insisting that since she was swallowing my come and letting me fuck her in the ass, when she wasn't even having a period, I shouldn't be seeing any other women. How was I to know I was supposed to take a comment like that seriously. Women! Go figure!") and, the most well-drawn of all, Charlotte, once a down-home southern girl, now the General's favorite slave. Here she gives the other girls a description of what they are to do at one of his parties: "Okay, now y'all are the fluffers for the boys coming up next. If'n they pick a red ping pong ball with her number on it, they're gonna fuck her mouth. If'n they get a white ball, they're gonna do her pussy and I guess y'all can figger where it goes if'n they pull out a black ball. If it ain't red, they're gonna come up ta y'all fer a blowjob first, afore they stick it ta the girls. Y'all stay kneelin behind yer girl the entire time and maybe even help 'em get it in the hole that goes with the ping pong ball. While their humpin' away, y'all just face away from the action and stay on yer knees. Patty, honey, remember: y'all gotta keep yer knees spread wide. They wanna see yer pretty pussy. Arighty?" What set this story apart from the run-of-the-mill slave factory is the sense of sympathy shown for the slaves, most of whom have been sexually exploited or damaged even before they became a slave. It's an interesting tone for a torture sex story, which by its nature is out to exploit and dehumanize its victims. The author has stated in his forward: "I apologize to the A.S.S newsgroup that this should have been a much longer story, but I ran out of willingness to keep going "back into the bunker" to finish it. It was some sort of a mental escape from what had become a rather depressing story, in some parts at least. " Well, that's as maybe, but it's still an excellent piece of work. Kelly's Transformation [C] Where posted: ASSM When posted: 3/13/00 Author: mark_la688 Address: mark_la688@hotmail.com Many of the sluts I read about in sex stories have the first name of Kelly. I often wonder why this is so. Why is Kelly so closely interconnected with slutness, and not Kristy or Karen? Whatever, this was one of those magical transformation stories where an average young woman receives a strange drug/item/medical treatment/brainwashing that causes her to gradually metamorphosize into a Slut. (To make us aware of the importance of this, slut is capitalized throughout the story.) As Kelly works for a computer company, the means comes through a flashing email message. The transformation starts with high spike heals, short skirts, and see- through blouses, and progresses through clit piercings (with a bell attached), tongue extensions, and breast implants that squirt whole milk from the right and chocolate milk from the left, with a tattoo on each that says "TITTS," our gal's new name as the official company fluffer. (Boy, I love that word "fluffer!" Not only does it imply a certain irrelevancy and disposableness, but it's the same word my English riding teacher used when instructing us how to give "leg" to our mount.) If all this sounds batty, it is; but I admit I'm fond of this kind of junk, and I enjoyed it, the same way I enjoy an earnestly cheesy, overproduced movies such as, oh, Dino de Laurentiis's "Flash Gordon." Even the writing, though atrocious, had a certain charm in its typos and mistakes, and a lot of the entertainment I got from the piece came from gleaning them out. Here are a few of them for you: "After a couple of minuets she brings herself to orgasm." "Kelly takes it off and puts on a thin white shit" "Kelly's boss came to Kelly' desk "Hay Slut, Aren't you supposed to be leaving for a weeks leave a noon." "Hello! I'm TITTS the company sex slut, can I offer you my pussy, ass, mouth or tong?" "She new that she had been turned into a wonton 14 year old sex slut. " [I'd love to see an illustration of *that.*] It all only got worse towards the end, as if the author was by then too sexually excited to keep his or her hands on the keyboard. I should also note they had no idea how to use quotation marks properly. In sum, if you want a good laugh, read this; but as it wasn't intended to be humorous, I'm forced to give a C, for the general low quality. Fighting Words, Parts 1 and 2 [A+] Where archived: The Mind Control Archive Address: http://www.mcstories.com/FightingWords/index.html Author: Trilby Else Address: trilelse@mail.anonymizer.com The author sent me a note requesting that I review this. I've been slow in doing personal requests, but now I'm going to try to do one per ish. Wendy is a young woman taking a self-defense class to start a new career as a bodyguard. She begins to experience a strange attraction toward her teacher, Bonnie, who uses hypnosis techniques to help her female students relax: It's just a dream, [Wendy] told herself. No reason to look around; I'm still with Bonnie on the practice floor while she hypnotizes me to help me meditate. She found a gap in the tarps and turned to step through, into a little room. Two other women, nude like her and with the same shiny collars, stood motionless at attention, staring ahead of them. As Wendy looked at them, she felt herself moistening. They were both pretty enough, but what was sending Wendy gently over the edge was the way they stood as if under a powerful command, the way they stared as if their minds were transfixed by a single idea that had flattened any other thought and feeling, the way they were naked and exposed, wearing only someone else's badge of ownership. What a strange and arousing wet dream Bonnie was letting her have, as she murmured too quietly for Wendy to hear. As time goes on Wendy suspects she is having more than just dreams, and decides to investigate. It's a tribute to this writer's skill that I was truly disturbed by what happens next. The author states in the beginning, "It's more about mind control than sex. I'm a fetishist: point isn't using MC to get sex, it's sex being something interesting to do with MC. " I disagree; I thought the story was very erotic, and if it wasn't quite the pumping organs of stroke, it evoked a sensual, sinister mood equal to the best psychological horror and suspense. The story also made good use of a number of contrasts, such as the one between the womens' wish to defend themselves against rape and "take control of their lives" and their eventual mass- hypnotized fates. It was also a raring good short story as regards plot, character, development, and build-up -- is Wendy having erotic daydreams, or is her kindly teacher up to something sinister? -- that kept me hooked. Lastly, the author had one of the best writing techniques I've seen for depicting the conscious/unconscious actions of a hypnosis victim. All aspiring MC authors should take a look at this for a good example how it's done, and done well. ___________________________________________________ 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. | +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+