Path: newsfeed.direct.ca!news1.io.org!winternet.com!news3.mr.net!mr.net!www.nntp.primenet.com!nntp.primenet.com!feed1.news.erols.com!howland.erols.net!news.bbnplanet.com!cam-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!uunet!in1.uu.net!newstf01.news.aol.com!newsbf02.news.aol.com!not-for-mail From: celeste801@aol.com (Celeste801) Newsgroups: alt.sex.stories Subject: Celestial Reviews 131 - Nov 2 (1/2) Date: 2 Nov 1996 17:38:51 -0500 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Lines: 447 Sender: root@newsbf02.news.aol.com Message-ID: <55gihr$fkt@newsbf02.news.aol.com> Reply-To: celeste801@aol.com (Celeste801) NNTP-Posting-Host: newsbf02.mail.aol.com Status: N Celestial Reviews 131 - Nov 2, 1996 (1/2) Note: The story "First Love", which I praised so highly in my review, has just recently been reposted with the title line "Celestially praised: FIRST LOVE (mf teen, story, love) Ch. 1-14." Two other postings (with similar title lines) contain the rest of the chapters in the story. I rated this my Top Story for October; and so if you missed the review, you can find it under "Celeste's Top 15 Stories - Oct 1996." Both the story and the review can also be accessed through the Deja News search engine. This story is also available from The BackDrop Club. Order it in two parts as"1stlovga.zip" and "1stlovgb.zip". The BackDrop Club offers a service of helping people who are looking for a specific file, story, or a chapter or section of a story. If you are an adult and know the name of the file you wish to receive, send a request using the following format: TO: file.archives@backdrop.com SUBJECT: (the name of the file you wish as a single word) I HAVE used this service myself, and it is my opinion that it is NOT a rip-off. If you need more information, contact robin@backdrop.com. The BackDrop Club also has a Web Page at http://www.fantasies.com. - Celeste "Masks - A Horror Story" by Tom Bombadil (Halloween) 10, 10, 10 "I Promise" by Tom Bombadil (romance) 10, 9, 10 "Cobbler's Bench" by Dafney Dewitt (Truth or Dare) 10, 10, 10 "Rollo and Jeanette Are Dead" by PleaseCain (death &) depression) 10, 7, 6 "Dessert" by DJ (romance, voyeurism, & exhibitionism) 10, 9, 9 "Nancy Delivers" by Robotdoll (hypnosis & zombie sex) 10, 9, 6 "The Prize" by Ann Douglas (romantic threesome) 10, 10, 10 "Prenatal" by Mark Aster (pregnant thoughts) 10, 9.5, 10 "Nextdoor" by Friar Dave (surprise!) 10, 10, 10 "Hot for Hillary" by B. Traven (political intrigue & sex) 8, 7, 7 Note: Someone is reposting Deirdre's stories. I got a little behind with the special Halloween Issue. I am trying to catch up by reposting these reviews: * "Basement" by Deirdre (whipping) 10, 8, 8 * "Beach" by Deirdre (nudity and romance in the dark) 10, 9, 8 * "Bet" by Deirdre (submission and slavery) 10, 8, 8 * "Big" by Deirdre (Breast fetish) 9, 6, 6 * "Birthday" by Deirdre (mf bondage & anal sex) 10, 10, 10 * "Bracelet" by Deirdre (spanking English teachers) 10, 8, 8 * "Bride" by Deirdre (sex at wedding reception) 9, 7, 6 * "Bridesmaid" by Deirdre (training for marriage) 10, 10, 10 * "Brother" by Deirdre (fantasy about brother) 10, 8, 8 * "Cabin" by Deirdre (Hypnotism and sex) 9, 8, 8 * "Camp" by Deirdre (seduction & sex slavery) 10, 8, 7 * "Checkup" by Deirdre (Physical examination) 9, 6, 6 * "Cheerleader" by Deirdre (anal sex) 9.5, 9, 8.5 * "Chest" by Deirdre (Breast fetish) 10, 6, 6 * "Clean" by Deirdre (Sexy Housecleaning) 10, 9, 8 * "Clique" by Deirdre (bondage & dominance) 9, 6, 5 * "Closet" by Deirdre (D&s, whipping, etc.) 10, 8, 8 * "Coffee" by Deirdre (voyeurism and spanking) 10, 10, 10 * "Compensation" by Deirdre (anal sex) 9, 8, 7 * "Company" by Deirdre (breasts & bondage) 10, 10, 10 * "Convention" by Deirdre (bondage & anal sex) 10, 10, 10 * "Couch" by deirdre (Voyeurism) 10, 8, 8 * "Cousin" by Deirdre (mild ff dom) 10, 9, 9 * "Cozy" by Deirdre (anal sex and light D&s) 10, 9, 9 * Repost of a previous review (because the story has recently been reposted). "Masks - A Horror Story" by Tom Bombadil (stbush@iglou.com). This story arrived the day after I posted my Halloween Special Issue of Celestial Reviews; but better late than never! The story begins with a John contemplating his imminent demise - that is, he is waiting to be killed as part of some kind of ritual that evening, after being held in chains for a year since last Halloween. We don't initially know the complete rationale, but it sure sounds spooky - and morbid. In stark contrast, this first plot alternates with another in which Wally and Jennifer are participating in a festive soiree being conducted by some student athletes on the eve of All Saints Day - that is, some football players are having a Halloween beer bash. A vampire countess and a beautiful witch crash the Halloween party. Needless to say, these two are the real McCoy. The connection between the two plots is that the party crashers are recruiting for their next cycle of human sacrifices. This story is certainly vivid and well written; but it's not for the weak of heart - or stomach. Don't say I didn't warn you! Ratings for "Masks" Athena (technical quality): 10 Venus (plot & character): 10 Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10 "I Promise" by Tom Bombadil (stbush@iglou.com). This is a very difficult story for me to write a review about. Especially in the case of a really good story, I like to summarize the plot without ruining its potential interest and also to discuss important ideas or techniques that may arise. The problem with this story is that it depends very heavily and successfully on releasing ideas a few at a time; and so I can't tell you much about story without releasing those ideas and ruining the story for you. {Incidentally, this story is a good example of when NOT to use the alphabet soup abbreviations. They would ruin the story by eliminating all surprise from the plot.} I guess I can tell you that Chris and Di are an interracial (black and white) couple planning to get married shortly after Di graduates from high. Not many people are exactly enthusiastic about the relationship; but Chris's family seems resigned to the idea that they will at least live together. The two are deeply devoted to each other, engage in a lot of kissy-kissy, and look forward to having a family - although they are not sure their community will accept them. My summary makes the story sound blah; but the details make it much more interesting as the plot unfolds. I gave the story a 9 for "plot and character." That's because the story frequently confused me, and I had to dock the author somewhere for this confusion. The problem is that almost all of the story consists of dialogue, and I often had trouble figuring out who was talking and who was listening. Sometimes even when I went back and checked from the beginning of a section I couldn't figure out whether an emotion being expressed belonged to Chris or to Di. Some of this confusion, I discovered later, was deliberate - that is, things weren't what they seemed to be, and the author probably wanted me to feel that ambivalence. The author wanted to keep me confused so that he could spring surprises on me; but some of the confusion was inappropriate. The author tried to help by putting clues into the dialogue (e.g., if the speaker says "honeychile", that must be Chris); but some of these clues worked for me only in retrospect. However, it's easier to point out this problem than to solve it. I have to give the author credit for at least trying an interesting approach. And it IS a very good story. Ratings for "I Promise" Athena (technical quality): 10 Venus (plot & character): 9 Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10 "The Cobbler's Bench" by Dafney Dewitt. The four female friends have gathered and Jackie's house to play Truth or Dare. It will be a night for telling stories. The rules of the game are simple. Each of the women will try to tell the scariest, sexiest story that she can. The others have to guess if the story is True or just a Daring Lie. Whoever tells the scariest, sexiest story that is believed to be true will win. The only other rule is that there are no other rules. Everything is fair game. The winner can do anything to win. The other important element of the story is that Jackie tells her friends that her daughter's pet ferret has escaped. Of course, ferrets like to burrow into very small dark holes. If you pull on their tails, they may bite. Many pet owners have had their fingers bitten to the bone and nearly amputated. The Japanese are reputed to have used ferrets to torture prisoners. I wonder what role the ferret will play in this story! This was a thoroughly enjoyable story! Ratings for "The Cobbler's Bench" Athena (technical quality): 10 Venus (plot & character): 10 Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10 "Rollo and Jeanette Are Dead" by PleaseCain (pleasecain@aol.com). The narrator is sad because two people (apparently his brother and sister) have died. His twin sister joins him for the funeral. This story is all emotion with no plot. If you want to feel depressed for a while, take a look at this story. Ratings for "Rollo and Jeanette Are Dead" Athena (technical quality): 10 Venus (plot & character): 7 Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 6 "Dessert" by DJ (103666.3074@CompuServe.COM). John is a dirty young man whose thoughts seem to run almost entirely to sex. His wife, Dana, is capable of non-sexual thoughts, but she adjusts to John pretty well. In this story they flirt, eavesdrop on another couple doing it on the beach, and then make love themselves in the restaurant. I was initially kind of bored with this story, but the last part caught my full attention. Ratings for "Dessert" Athena (technical quality): 10 Venus (plot & character): 9 Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 9 "Nancy Delivers" by Robotdoll (robotdol@pipeline.com). Nancy has been a bad girl. She is a con artist- a flim-flam lady who has advertised some kind of sexy tape and has simply pocketed the fees sent by the eager hordes of kindly men who wanted to purchase the artistic wares she had advertised. But now the time has come to pay the piper. A dissatisfied customer has taken her into custody and has bound her in his hi-tech lab, where he is going to get his money's worth from her. The author of this story is the keeper of the alt.sex.fetish.robots movie FAQ. The members of that newsgroup enjoy films, pictures, and stories of women acting like robots, androids, mannequins, dolls, wind-up toys and hypnotized/mechanical sex zombies. During sexual activity, I rarely meet any of the aforesaid specifications; and hence, I would have enjoyed the story more had there been less zombification. The story is actually well written; it held my interest all the way to the end. I just found myself waiting for something really interesting to happen. People who are into this fetish will probably enjoy this story more than I did. Ratings for "Nancy Delivers" Athena (technical quality): 10 Venus (plot & character): 9 Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 6 "The Prize" by Ann Douglas (annd@pop.tiac.net). While vacationing in a tropical paradise, Alyssia has won a race against her fiance, Stephen; and for her prize she expects some tender lovemaking. Since she's a bit of an exhibitionist, she would like to make love outdoors; and so she is disappointed when Stephen invites her inside for a shower, with a promise that the prize will come later. While they are in the shower, there is a knock at the door. Stephen leaves the shower, and a moment later announces that the prize has arrived. The prize, it seems, will be a massage from the masseuse who has just arrived. Alyssia is disappointed. Certainly she likes it when Stephen gives her a massage, but doesn't Stephen realize that what she loves most about his massages is that they inevitably end with a hot lovemaking session? Well, yes, he does; and that's the rest of the story. Ratings for "The Prize" Athena (technical quality): 10 Venus (plot & character): 10 Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10 "Prenatal" by Mark Aster (MyFrThAl@aol.com). Pat is very heavy with child. The story consists of her quiet thoughts while she gently plays with herself in the minutes after she awakens. Her reflections include her own activities with her lover the night before, her sister's sexy relationship with her lover, and her own anticipation of things that might be. All of this blends with the feelings and hormones that are so often prevalent around the time of childbirth. This is a very nice, quiet, but sensuous story. Ratings for "Prenatal" Athena (technical quality): 10 Venus (plot & character): 9.5 Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10 "Nextdoor" by Friar Dave (friar.dave@teamhbbs.com). The single father comes home from work early and discovers his only child Jan, who is 12-years-old, in the shower with Marty, the much older physical fitness instructor who lives next door. Eavesdropping briefly, the father concludes that the activities in the shower include anal intercourse. Since he doesn't want to traumatize his child, the father decides to wait until they're finished and confront them. As I read this story, I grew suspicious. Friar Dave is a good, creative author, and this story bordered on the banal. I began to consider the possibility that maybe there was a punch line - maybe things weren't what they seemed to be. Maybe the father had jumped to the wrong conclusion and taken me with him- maybe the child and friend were just giving the dog a bath or something. So I tried to read the story with possible innocent meanings in mind. I was right. Things weren't what I thought they were. But I still missed the surprise ending. Maybe you'll have better luck. It was an enjoyable story. Ratings for "Nextdoor" Athena (technical quality): 10 Venus (plot & character): 10 Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10 "Hot for Hillary" by B. Traven (political intrigue & sex). With the American presidential election fast upon us, it's important to have all the information that we can get in order to make decisions of monumental importance. As this review goes to press, I just noticed that a new version of this story has been posted with Hot Bonus Pics; but I don't have time to check those out. This is probably not a serious omission, since "bonus" is almost certainly a misspelling of "bogus" in this case. This story, purportedly taken from the files of a noted psychiatrist, reveals the sexual anomalies behind White House politics. To put it concisely, Hillary is a dominating woman - too much for feeble and egotistical Bill to control by himself. The author may have a point here. I've watched Bill Clinton on TV, and he's no Ross Perot. Anyway, Bill tricks a secret service agent into breaking Hillary for him. Then everyone lives happily ever after. This story fascinated me. I assume the author is an anti-Clinton enthusiast, who would like to believe that this story will serve as a sort of old-fashioned broadside to subvert the president's attempt to get re-elected. The irony, of course, is that people who read this story are likely to mumble things like, "Way to go, Bill!" or "That Hillary really got what she deserved!" Overall, the story is not really good political satire. I know it didn't change my opinion of the real Hillary. I know I still plan to vote for her for president. Ratings for "Hot for Hillary" Athena (technical quality): 8 Venus (plot & character): 7 Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 7 * "Basement" by Deirdre. In this story the man and his wife have secretly admitted to each other that although they would not like to be whipped themselves, they would both like to beat a woman for a sexual thrill. Then one day the guy comes home to find a woman bound in his basement and his wife with a grin on her face. What's going on here? Ratings for "Basement" Athena (technical quality): 10 Venus (plot & character): 8 Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 8 * "Beach" by Deirdre. A man and wife visit another couple who live on the beach. They quickly become persuaded to engage in nudity, which they find to be more exciting than they had expected. Then the home couple takes the guest couple to the beach and leaves them there in the dark, some distance apart, with instructions that they are to find each other but not speak. They do so and make romantic love. The question we are left with is to whom did they really make love in the darkness? Ratings for "Beach" Athena (technical quality): 10 Venus (plot & character): 9 Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 8 * "Bet" by Deirdre. A guy happens to get invited to a party with his wife and friends and loses a bet; and so he and a woman have to serve dinner naked from the belt down. It turns out he likes it, and so do his wife and the other woman. They become more intimately involved; and then the story takes a sudden twist. Ratings for "Beach" Athena (technical quality): 10 Venus (plot & character): 8 Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 8 * "Big" by Deirdre. The narrator of this story is a woman who is sorta the queen of the hill in the office with regard to breast size. A new woman joins the office staff, and suspicion arises that hers may be bigger. They eventually do show and tell and hold regular worship services. This story wasn't quite as plausible to me as most of Deirdre's other stories. Maybe that's because I myself don't have the problem faced by the narrator of this story - being envious of the size of other women's tits; but some people do, I'm told. My problem lies more in the area of comparing my husband's cock size to some of those I read about on this newsgroup! Ratings for "Big" Athena (technical quality): 9 Venus (plot & character): 6 Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 6 * "Birthday" by Deirdre. I guessed the plot of this one! Or at least I think I did. At the end of the story, neither I nor the narrator can say for sure exactly what happened. The female narrator (who has led a pretty straight sex life) decides to let her husband (who has spoken favorably about bondage) do anything she wants to her on his birthday. Since she is embarrassed to bring the topic up to him, she conveys this message to him in a letter, which she types at the office and gives to her secretary to mail; and subsequently she receives a typed reply from him, giving her detailed instructions. "Aha!" says I. "The secretary may have never mailed the letter at all. She may have read it herself and written her own reply. I should be a rocket scientist! The secretary is going to have her way with the boss!" Well, maybe. The woman follows the instructions, and mysterious but sexy things happen to her at the designated time and place. But the husband never brings it up again, and their sex lives remain status quo. So, was it really somebody else - perhaps even a group of ribald fun lovers known only to the secretary? Or was it really the husband who fucked her brains out? Is he playing dumb to make it more fun? What's really great about this story is that even though I read it from the perspective that I thought I had figured out the secret, it's really impossible to tell what actually happened. This impossibility arises not because the story is written in a confusing manner (as is the case with many stories), but because Deirdre has written the details in such a way as to support either theory. This is a very clever and sexy story. Incidentally, as you may recall, I have a theory that Deirdre is really Sherwood Anderson reincarnated in the body of a late 20th century smut writer (perhaps as either a reward or punishment for what he did to the people of Clyde, Ohio). One of my readers has suggested that he sees more O. Henry than Sherwood Anderson in Deirdre's stories. However, this reader's suggestion that I am wrong is misguided. I'll stand by my Sherwood Anderson theory, but I'll admit that there is a distinct possibility of O. Henry's influence - perhaps in Deirdre's maternal ancestry. This story exemplifies that influence. Ratings for "Birthday" Athena (technical quality): 10 Venus (plot & character): 10 Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10 * "Bracelet" by Deirdre. Two college students get called into the English teacher's office; she gets naked; and one of them spanks her. What could be more normal than that? Why is everyone always picking on English teachers? Actually, the circumstances under which the punishment occurs evoke some interesting questions. Ratings for "Bracelet" Athena (technical quality): 10 Venus (plot & character): 8 Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 8 "Bride" by Deirdre. I appreciate a story like this once in a while. It proves that I don't just blindly give perfect ratings to Deirdre. The story is based on an interesting idea - the bride getting it on with someone other than the groom at her wedding reception; but little action or even really hot imaginings actually occur in this story. Ratings for "Bride" Athena (technical quality): 9 Venus (plot & character): 7 Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 6 "Bridesmaid" by Deirdre. Deirdre's stories are just full of little surprises! In this one a woman is getting married, and she meets her bridesmaid (the groom's sister) for the first time the night before the wedding. To her amazement, the bridesmaid informs her that she'll be "training" her for the marriage. You'll have to read the story to learn more about this training regimen. Ratings for "Bridesmaid" Athena (technical quality): 10 Venus (plot & character): 10 Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10 * "Brother" by Deirdre. Many years ago the woman noticed that her brother and sister seemed to be having a sexual relationship. Then the sister told that brother that the woman wanted to have sex with him (which was untrue), and he came to her when she was sleeping one night. This gets confusing to summarize, but it was a short, interesting story. Ratings for "Brother" Athena (technical quality): 10 Venus (plot & character): 8 Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 8 * "Cabin" by Deirdre. Most of Deirdre's stories have a surrealistic tenor; but in this case there's a specific reason for this dreamlike atmosphere. The woman and her husband rent a lakeside cabin, and they join the other happy campers for a party. Somebody suggests that they play games, and they get hypnotized. Sure enough, they find themselves doing sexual things they would never have expected themselves to do. Ratings for "Cabin" Athena (technical quality): 9 Venus (plot & character): 8 Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 8 (Continued in 2/2) Path: newsfeed.direct.ca!op.net!www.nntp.primenet.com!nntp.primenet.com!howland.erols.net!news.bbnplanet.com!cam-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!uunet!in1.uu.net!newstf01.news.aol.com!newsbf02.news.aol.com!not-for-mail From: celeste801@aol.com (Celeste801) Newsgroups: alt.sex.stories Subject: Celestial Reviews 131 - Nov 2 (2/2) Date: 2 Nov 1996 17:45:08 -0500 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Lines: 203 Sender: root@newsbf02.news.aol.com Message-ID: <55gitk$fqs@newsbf02.news.aol.com> Reply-To: celeste801@aol.com (Celeste801) NNTP-Posting-Host: newsbf02.mail.aol.com Status: N Celestial Reviews 131 - Nov 2, 1996 (2/2) (Continued from 1/2) * "Camp" by Deirdre. A woman goes camping with a friend and her daughters. She finds herself attracted to one of the teenage daughters when she undresses in the tent; but she controls her feelings, until the mother starts coming on to her. One really does have to be careful with whom one hangs out in Deirdre's stories. Ratings for "Camp" Athena (technical quality): 10 Venus (plot & character): 8 Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 7 * "Checkup" by Deirdre. A woman goes for a physical checkup at a new place of employment, and the nurse practitioner and the rest of the medical crew have their jollies during the examination. A lot is left to the imagination in this story. Also, I think it lacked realism; no nurse practitioner would be dumb enough to do what this one did in this age of sexual harassment lawsuits. Ratings for "Checkup" Athena (technical quality): 9 Venus (plot & character): 6 Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 6 * "Cheerleader" by Deirdre. The high school kid longs for the cheerleader but can't even get up the nerve to talk to her at the dance. He goes into a dark room, and there she is with him. But the quarterback is also there, and she instructs the guy to let the football player have anal sex with him. And that's the predictable part of the story! Ratings for "Cheerleader" Athena (technical quality): 9.5 Venus (plot & character): 9 Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 8.5 * "Chest" by Deirdre. A woman working in an office is the target of constant put-downs from a coworker who has well endowed breasts. The woman with the mammaries eventually turns the lady with the little tits into a sex slave by letting her lick her big breasts as a reward for services rendered. This was kinda lame for a Deirdre story. I think it must be a forgery - actually written by Francis Bacon or William Shakespeare. Ratings for "Chest" Athena (technical quality): 10 Venus (plot & character): 6 Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 6 * "Clean" by Deirdre. In case you haven't figured this out yet, Deirdre delights in taking extremely mundane situations and turning them into unusual (even bizarre) but believable occasions for sexual adventures. Here we have two young women who are roommates and who decide to hire someone to help with the housecleaning. Sounds harmless; mom would approve. The temporary maid offers to take charge and give orders; the girls agree; and a good time is had by all, as they engage in hitherto taboo activities. And the apartment really did get a good cleaning. Ratings for "Clean" Athena (technical quality): 10 Venus (plot & character): 9 Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 8 * "Clique" by Deirdre. A college freshman is determined to become popular by getting into the social circle of the most popular senior. She feels that this will put her far ahead of her more mundane rival from high school. The senior invites her to a party at which she will be initiated into a social group, but the narrator chickens out before anything kinky happens to her. This story left me wondering what was supposed to be happening. I could try to guess what was going on, but the story didn't motivate me to want to bother. Ratings for "Clique" Athena (technical quality): 9 Venus (plot & character): 8 Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 5 * "Closet" by Deirdre. Deirdre tries to create surrealistic atmospheres that give fuzzy focus to bizarre sexual activities, and she is highly successful in this story. The writing is so clear that it is easy to understand what is going on in the story, and it's all perfectly plausible; but at the same time it seems impossible to believe that this could ever really happen. It's like one of those dreams where you dream that you're dreaming and then dream that you wake up but then dream that you're only having a dream that you're dreaming. Oh, I almost forgot to mention - this is a strange story. Ratings for "Closet" Athena (technical quality): 10 Venus (plot & character): 8 Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 8 * "Coffee" by Deirdre. When housewives/mothers get their last preschooler off to school and finally have some time on their hands, what do you men think they do? They gather for coffee, of course. Do you really think they sit around and drink coffee, or is it more likely that they engage in kinky sex? Guess!! Actually, in real life they drink coffee while watching either soaps or talk shows until Jeopardy comes on. But that's not the way this story tells it! Ratings for "Coffee" Athena (technical quality): 10 Venus (plot & character): 10 Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10 * "College" by Deirdre. What strange things can happen to young girls at a private college? Why do memories of sexual events that never happened creep back into memory at odd times? This is a very short story, and it gets a short review. I like much of Deirdre's writing, but this one didn't strike me as good as some of the others. It nicely sets a mood of mystery, but I'm still have no idea what happened. But that's the point! Ratings for "College" Athena (technical quality): 9 Venus (plot & character): 6 Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 6 * "Company" by Deirdre. . This is another story that verifies my theory that Deirdre is actually Sherwood Anderson reincarnated. I have no idea what this story is about. But from the first paragraph to the last word, I couldn't take myself away from the computer screen. Very interesting! (Rating: 10) Ratings for "Company" Athena (technical quality): 10 Venus (plot & character): 10 Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10 * "Compensation" by Deirdre. A man has been longing to have anal sex with his wife, but she has adamantly declined. For his birthday, she let's him have her ass; but he has to pay. You'll have to read the story to find out how he pays. Ratings for "Compensation" Athena (technical quality): 9 Venus (plot & character): 8 Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 7 * "Convention" by Deirdre. A guy and his female colleague are taking a break from a convention by spending some time on the beach. Two bodybuilder guys and their girlfriends come by and do the sexual equivalent of kicking sand in their faces. True to Deirdre's style, the action gets hot and heavy in a surrealistic way. The only question I had at the end of the story was how much would you tip the maid if you left in your room a woman tied spread-eagle to the bed? The author had some problems with the various tenses of "lie" and "lay," but these will be the topic of next issue's Tip of the Week. (Rating: 10) Ratings for "Convention" Athena (technical quality): 10 Venus (plot & character): 10 Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10 * "Couch" by deirdre. A recent "Re" comment in a.s.s. panned deirdre as "the Jane Austen of porn." This critic meant the comment in a negative way. Jane Austen's books would definitely be more interesting if she would stop talking and get right down to the sex. Deirdre probably took the reference as a compliment; what deirdre does really well is build up a scenario that leads into the sex. And sometimes I imagine a lot more than she writes - which is the mark of a good writer. (Incidentally, if I ever find a story to be really boring, I'll refer to the author as the "Henry James of porn." That man couldn't fuck Daisy Miller even with a Turn of his Screw... never mind.) The climax of this story comes when the neighbor is getting screwed by her husband and makes eye contact with and blows a kiss to the voyeur outside the window, just a few inches away. Good story. But more like Charlotte Bronte. Ratings for "Couch" Athena (technical quality): 10 Venus (plot & character): 8 Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 8 * "Cousin" by Deirdre. At a family reunion two female cousins share a bedroom. The younger cousin comes on sexually to the more introverted, less sexually sophisticated, older cousin. It's a simple story, but hot and interesting. Ratings for "Cousin" Athena (technical quality): 10 Venus (plot & character): 9 Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 9 * "Cozy" by Deirdre. A guy is living with his fiancee and her mother. His old girlfriend comes to town; he meets her for dinner; and has anal sex with her in the bathroom at the restaurant. The girlfriend asks if she can stay the night, and so he brings her home and introduces her to the rest of the gang. The girlfriend somehow gets his fiancee to give the guy better sex than he has ever had from her before, and he gets even better sex from his attractive future mother-in-law. Then the girlfriend takes off with his fiancee, and the guy is left with his fiancee's mother; but he really has no gripe, because his only problem is that he has to have hot sex with her so often. Go figure! I've told you the whole plot; but if you're still unclear about what's going on, that's because I am too. It's hard to explain; the descriptions of the sexual activity are not vivid and it's not really clear why anything is happening, but it's still a very erotic story. Ratings for "Cozy" Athena (technical quality): 10 Venus (plot & character): 9 Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 9