Subject:      Celestial Reviews 123 - Oct 5
From:         celeste801@aol.com (Celeste801)
Date:         1996/10/05
Message-Id:   <5364g5$63n@newsbf02.news.aol.com>
Sender:       root@newsbf02.news.aol.com
Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364)
Reply-To:     celeste801@aol.com (Celeste801)
Newsgroups:   alt.sex.stories

Celestial Reviews 123 - October 5, 1996

Note: A reader recently wrote to ask me if I ever heard of a story called
"First Love," with characters named Matt, Jen, and Ryan.  Somebody sent me
the story, and it really DOES look good.  However, I don't know the name
of the author.  Can someone please send me the name of this author, so
that I can give proper credit when I review it?

- Celeste

      "Trances" by Michael K. Smith (mind control & romance)
            10, 10, 10
      "Extra Effort" by RC (ff mind control)
      "Hotel" by Mark (bdsm) 10, 10, 10
      "Impossible Dream" by ButtBytr (wet dream) 8, 5, 3
      "Her Third Confession" by Jul 4 1944 (depressing sex)
            6, 1, 1
      "Trinity Trilogy Novel 13/14" by Tom Trinity
            (miscellaneous orgies) 10, 10, 10
      "Modern Exchange" by Fin Haddie (sex with exchange
            studs) 9, 7, 7

"Trances" by Michael K. Smith (mksmith@metronet.com).  When he was a
freshman in college, the narrator learned from his friend Edward how to
hypnotize people.  As his first conquest, he hypnotized Edward's kid
sister Sharon - making her believe that the licorice her gave her was
chocolate candy.  When he eventually turned to more prurient
possibilities, he hypnotized a schoolmate named Kathy not to give him a
blowjob, but rather to fall in love with him and to do everything possible
to make him reciprocate.  After many good times together, he realized he
had laid the foundation poorly and he released Kathy to have a happy life
of her own.

And so it goes with other "experiments."  The narrator is a sort of benign
dictator with Power to control other people, but he generally uses this in
only the most constructive ways.  With girls and women this usually means
freeing them from their inhibitions and enabling them to do (with him)
those things that they would secretly like to do anyway.  The story has
two major components: (1) the flashbacks induced by hypnosis, during which
his clients describe in very sexy terms their own previous sexual
experiences, and (2) the narrator's current sexual activities with these
partners.  The author skillfully joins these complementary components into
an interesting plot.

I found this story to be an excellent blend of mind control and romance.
Mind control stories in which the main characters simply make other people
do dirty things for them have always seemed a bit uncreative to me.  In
this story, however, the mind control, though still an essential part of
the story, is more subtle.  The narrator's sexual partners act freely,
even though they are under his control.

Of course, as I have said before, I personally consider mind control
stories to be essentially balderdash.  {That's strange; I've never used
that word before.}  The notion that people can go into a college library
and learn how to control the minds of other people is bunk.  If mind
control really worked, surely someone would figure out a way to do it
through cyberspace.  If this were possible, then an incredibly sexy man
could have his way with, say, an equally sexy English teacher and then top
it off by having her spend a major part of her life writing extensive
reviews of stories for a Usenet newsgroup and get consistently high
reviews for his own stories.  Such an idea is clearly impossible.

Ratings for "Trances"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 10
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10

"Extra Effort" by RC (74734.271@CompuServe.COM).  As soon as Linda saw
her, she knew she wanted her. There were only two problems. She was her
professor in her advanced psych class, and Linda was about half her age.
Oh - and since the prof was not known to be a lesbian, she might have a
hard time accepting Linda's advances.  These obstacles, it turns out, are
not insurmountable.  As is commonly the case, the student simply looks
into the teacher's eyes, says the magic words, and poof! She's in a trance
and easily becomes a sex slave.

Then we shift focus to the prof's point of view.  Ms. Richards knew she
had somehow allowed herself to fall under the spell of one of her
students. She had never really thought about other women in a sexual
context, much less one of her own students, and now here is a young woman
who has the power to make her do her bidding.  But what the hell; if it
feels good, do it!

Everything works so well that readers might wonder why more people don't
just read a book on hypnotism and get all the sex they want.  Maybe it's
because there's a pervert out there who is hypnotizing people to resist
hypnotism.  Or aliens.  It could be aliens.  Maybe really sexy aliens are
hard to hypnotize, and there are more of them around us than we think.  Or
maybe it could be English teachers.  Perhaps once people have been
subjected to the incredibly hypnotic power of a really boring English
teacher they become impervious to other forms of mind control.

This is a very good story.  Of the two mind control stories that I have
reviewed back-to-back, I personally liked "Trances" better.  It's hard to
put a finger on the exact difference; maybe it's just that Smith has a
natural knack for really excellent writing.  Then again, I think maybe the
difference is that Smith managed to integrate mind control into a really
interesting romantic plot and thereby made it less difficult for me to
suspend my disbelief.  Anyway, as I said, this is a good story; and I
suggest you take a look at it.

Ratings for "Extra Effort"
Athena (technical quality): 9.5
Venus (plot & character): 10
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10

"Hotel" by Mark (MarkB@aboy.demon.co.uk).  Tragically, this is the last of
the Alphabet Stories currently available from this author.  He says he's
open to suggestion for new titles.  I recommend "Isometrics" and "Jugular"
for his next two titles.

In "Hotel" the Narrator is an Englishman working in a university town in
the Black Forest region of Southern Germany.  He strikes up a friendship
with the workers at the hotel and develops a particular fondness for the
lady who manages the establishment and for one of the beautiful young
maids.  The manager, it turns out, is seriously interested in bdsm; and
since she is naughty, she must be dealt with.  The maid simply craves his
body.  Things could easily get out of hand!  And they do.

Ratings for "Hotel"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 10
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10

"Impossible Dream" by ButtBytr (buttbytr@ix.netcom.com).  Finally!
Something about which I can agree with Jerry Falwell.  The protagonist of
this story smokes in bed.  That's a bad idea.  People should not smoke in
bed.  Actually, I think Walt just DREAMS that he smokes in bed.  Maybe
he's OK after all.

This is a story about Walt, who has lusted after Vonne through cyberspace.
 He has dreamed about her for a long time, but now he holds her in his
arms after a night of passionate lovemaking.  But no; it's only a dream.
Sadly, Walt wakes up to discover that he has just been having a wet dream.

This author has a trademark: whenever he wants to express an antithesis,
he introduces the second alternative with "butt" instead of "but."  This
story has potential, butt it really drags in its present form.

Ratings for "Impossible Dream"
Athena (technical quality): 8
Venus (plot & character): 5
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 3

"Her Third Confession" by Jul 4 1944 (jul41944@aol.com).  This is a story
about a man and woman who might throw chairs at each other on the Gerry
Springer show.  He's a stupid shit, and she's a nasty bitch, and they
don't really get along, but they stay together because they deserve each
other.  At first I thought this story would be a little depressing, butt
that was an understatement.

As I understand it, the reason the guy has stayed with the wife is because
he realizes she could be running around on him like a cheap tramp. The
thought gives him a shiver that is "a strange combination of terror and
jealousy and exhilaration."  As their ironic love has deepened over the
years, she has felt free to reveal more and more about the details of her
sex life with the men that bring sordid comfort to her in his absence.

Good grief!  This dismal story doesn't even have hot sex to redeem it.  I
suspect that this story was posted here by a nun who taught me religion in
my junior year of high school, and whose goal was to make sex sound so bad
that nobody would ever want to engage in it.  She's one of the main
reasons my children have gone to public rather than parochial schools.

Ratings for "Her Third Confession"
Athena (technical quality): 6
Venus (plot & character): 1
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 1

"Trinity Trilogy Novel 13/14" by Tom Trinity (stbush@iglou.com).  After
the last story I needed a pick-me-upper; and so I plunged right into this
week's installment of the Trinity Trilogy Novel.  One of the most frequent
comments I hear about these stories is that they are "happy" or "morally
uplifting" - or "immorally uplifting," as one correspondent put it.  I
agree with that assessment; and I think it's important.  Many of the
stories on this newsgroup are depressing.  Well-written stories about
generally dismal or destructive topics have their place in literature and
on this newsgroup.  They often reflect reality, and the worldview that
"life is a big ashtray and we're all butts in the bottom of it" may even
be valid.  But it's nice to have a source of stories that are optimistic
about life and about sexual activities.  The people in this series have
fun, and nobody gets hurt by their sexual adventures.

I think I offended the editor of these stories a few issues ago by stating
that these characters were fictional.  He steadfastly maintains that they
are real people.  Presumably, this is an edited version of their common
sexual history.  OK!  Whatever he says!  Just don't stop reposting the
stories.  From my own perspective, however, it's not so important that
there are people somewhere in the world who actually did all these things
as that the author presents the stories in a manner that holds my
attention and seems to be authentic.  Too often the writers who claim -
probably honestly - to be telling us "true stories" get bogged down in
details that detract from the story.  The result is a "true" story that
doesn't ring true - that misses its point.  This author skillfully avoids
that pitfall.

As we near the end of our odyssey with the Trinity Gang, sex life
continues pretty much as usual - except that reality intrudes as they grow
older.  Val's husband of 30 years dies, Jennifer reaches the age of
thirteen, and Janie accepts a promotion that means a new job in another
city. Through it all they relax and enjoy life.

A part of this segment that I especially enjoyed was the "Venus Butterfly"
dream sequence.  As an isolated short story, this chapter would not have
worked.  But as a dream sequence that is part of a bigger picture, it
works very well.

Ratings for "Trinity Trilogy Novel 13/14"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 10
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10

"Modern Exchange" by Fin Haddie (sgoodman@primenet.com).  The woman is
married to a guy who no longer cares about sex.  Fortunately, they take in
exchange students who are real studs, and so her unmet needs are
gloriously met by these studious but kindly Latin lovers.

This author asked me in a personal note whether his stories rang true for
women.  For me, "The Plumber" (reviewed last issue) did, but this one
didn't.  I felt that I could identify with the plumbing lady; but this
woman sounds struck me as the kind of woman horny stud wannabes wish for,
rather than a real person.  Within that constraint, it's still pretty hot
stuff.

Ratings for "Modern Exchange"
Athena (technical quality): 9
Venus (plot & character): 7
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 7

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