Celestial Reviews 21 - Sept 20, 1995 Note: I recently received a note from a potential author who was not a native speaker of English. He asked me if I would be willing to clean up his English grammar. I don't have time to do this myself; but it occurred to me that there may be others out there who could do this. If you are willing and interested, let me know. (All I am offering to do is this: when an author contacts me, I'll send you - the helper - the author's e-mail address. The helper and author can then decide how to work together.) I suppose similar assistance could be extended to native English speakers who would like to have someone look over their work before they post it. Let me know if you are interested in helping other writers in this way. Second Note: If authors wish to do so, they have my permission to post my reviews at the same time they repost their stories. This could be a useful service to readers. They can do this by pasting my review of their story (not other stories in the same review) into a separate message, and adding this brief tag: "This review is taken from Celestial Reviews by Celeste (Celeste801@aol.com). The review was written independently of consultation with the author and does not imply collaboration." At the end of my review, you can add your own comments - which might include rebuttals of my criticism or statements about how the story has changed in response to the review. The review's title should follow this format [REVIEW: Name of Story]. Third Note: If there's anybody out there who has the capacity to archive the Celestial Reviews and make them accessible to the public, I would probably be willing to cooperate. -Celeste "Imagine... A First Kiss" by CathcGuilt. (romance with a dominant twist) 4 "Settling Down" by Dave Schulte (romance & spanking) 5 "My Sister Jean - Ch 8" by BillyG (flirting & innuendo) 8 "Spring" by deirdre (hypnotism) 10 "Older" by deirdre (spanking) 10 "Trainee Manager" by Unknown Author (torture) 4 "Soaked in Seattle" by Green Onions (emerging sexuality & urination) 10 "Hottestchat" by Frank Lambert (cybersex fantasy) 8 "Walk in the Woods" by BinaryEdge (outdoor sex) 7 "To Serve and Protect" by Sue (sex in the fast lane) 10 "Imagine... A First Kiss" by CathcGuilt (cathcguilt@aol.com). I lost interest halfway through this story. It was labeled "romance with a dominant twist." As near as I can figure, it's about a guy who thinks he is God's gift to womankind building up the tension until he deigns to kiss a girl foolish enough to wait. I think people who are really heavily into the dominance scene might like this story a lot more than I did. (Rating: 4) "Settling Down" by Dave Schulte (schulted@aol.com). In this story a man befriends the younger sister of his closest friend. Eventually he becomes sexually attracted to her and discovers that he is in love with her while he is spanking her for stealing money from him. The narrative reads more like a summary than a story. I would have liked more tension, anticipation, or character development - and a good proofreading to get rid of annoying errors. (Rating: 5) "My Sister Jean - Ch 8" by BillyG (Yosh@loop.Com). I reviewed two early chapters that this author sent me; and then I saw this one in the postings. The protagonists have grown up. I was afraid they'd be having sex with each other by now. That's where all these brother/sister stories seem to go. But so far what we have here is good healthy flirting and sexual innuendo. In my own life I have ruled out sex with my brother. Period. This allows me to share thoughts with him that I would not feel free to share with a potential sexual partner. My brother and I don't interact the way Billy and Jean do in this story; but I enjoy imagining that we do. I just hope this author avoids the fascination with the incest taboo and lets this go on as a nice, healthy story about emerging sexuality. (Rating: 8) Spring by deirdre (an65862@anon.penet.fi). This is a story about a college girl who learns about hypnotism, and suddenly the people around her find themselves doing things that they cannot control. You know, yesterday after I read this story, I spent three hours reading a.s.s. stories, when I should have been doing something else. You don't think.... No, hypnotism can't be done across the Internet - or can it? Why does deirdre always get such high ratings from me? Why do I get this warm feeling in my.... (Rating: 10) "Older" by deirdre (an65862@anon.penet.fi). Weird! (Rating: 10) "Trainee Manager" by Unknown Author. (I should know this author's name, but I lost it through a glitch in my AOL service.) This story describes the sudden changes in the life of a man who thinks he's about to be promoted but instead is subjected to a constant barrage of pain and humiliation from the boss's daughter. The story is written in a fairly clear manner. I'm really not sure how to rate this story. The women in the story all seem to feel that it is perfectly natural to want to inflict great physical pain on the man for no reason other than the fact that he is a man. The man derives no noticeable pleasure from the beatings - he just endures it because he wants to keep his job. When I wrote a review of a D&s story recently, a few readers pointed out to me some of the values of pain in a relationship; but I don't see how any of them apply here. When Simon Legree inflicted torture like this on slaves simply because they were black, the novel in which this occurred (Uncle Tom's Cabin) got people so upset that it practically started the American Civil War. I honestly do not find it even remotely sexy to think about having a guy lick my dirty boot clean. The author did not present the story in such a way as to make this sound sexy to me. Nor do I understand how it is sexy to kick a guy in the groin - a good idea, perhaps, under the right circumstances - but hardly sexy. The beatings were even more horrendous; but I guess they could be considered sexy to the extent that the guy was naked. If I were going to take the story seriously at all, I suppose I would have to focus on the mental aberration of the woman doing the torturing; but there is no character development of her at all. The story seems to suggest that her actions are pretty much normal - which contradicts my personal experience. I *can* understand how a person who has been greatly mistreated by men could find this story to be interesting and enjoyable - just as I suppose black slaves in America in 1850 would have enjoyed seeing or hearing about a slave master or overseer coming to harm. However, there is no suggestion of that kind of motivation here. As far as I can understand, this is simply a narrative about torture without significant motivation. I don't want to offend people, but I think you would have to have fairly serious emotional problems to enjoy a story like this. (Rating: 4) "Soaked in Seattle" by Green Onions (an209246@anon.penet.fi). Like many of you, I have skipped over "watersport" stories, because I figured that was one fetish that doesn't interest me. On the other hand, I feel compelled to read stories when new authors specifically ask for a review; and that's why I sat down a half hour ago to start reading this story. I was surprised. It was really a good story. If we're honest, I think that almost all of us can identify a time in our lives when we found it be enjoyable - even sexy - to take a leak. Many of us can also identify times in our youth when sexual things happened to our bodies that we didn't understand. This author combines these two ideas in a reminiscence about his own youth - about a time when he confused a nocturnal ejaculation with urination, and thereafter began to plan for and take greater enjoyment in the act of relieving himself. The story is not at all weird; it's perfectly natural and enjoyable. (Rating: 10) "Hottestchat" by Frank Lambert (an383759@anon.penet.fi). This is a very short story about a man who stays up late at night, engaging in a hot sexual IRC chat with an unknown woman. He turns the computer off and goes up to bed, where he finds the same woman in bed with his wife preparing to act-out the three-way fantasy with them. In the morning he wakes up and realizes it was a dream - or was it. I think we're in the Twilight Zone here. Nice fantasy. (Rating: 8) "Walk in the Woods" by BinaryEdge (binaryedge@aol.com). This is a short description of a man and his wife having sex in the woods. A lot of stories claim to be "true" stories, but this one really does have the ring of truth to it. It's exotic enough to be interesting, but tame enough that most of us can at least imagine ourselves actually doing it if we had a chance. The relatively low rating is not because there's anything wrong with what's here - It's just not an entire story. One more thing: the author mentions using withdrawal as a means of birth control. I feel compelled to repeat my previous warning that fucking away and then pulling the penis out right before climax is not really an effective means of birth control. Ask a doctor - this practice reduces the likelihood of pregnancy, but not as much as most people think. That precum is just full of hot little sperms. (Rating: 7) "To Serve and Protect" by Sue (SueNH@AOL.com). If you read my review of Sue's "Life's a Beach" in CR 20, you may recall that I theorized that Sue wrote bad stories before her 8th. Well, either she has renumbered the stories or I was wrong. This one (her 6th) is one of her best. Sue is driving down a highway in Maine, mentally reliving some of her recent sexual exploits. The wind and fresh air have an erotic effect on her and her fingers begin to wander. Eventually a police pulls her over because of her erratic (or erotic) driving. The cop is a perfect gentleman, but after he verifies that she's not dangerous and gives her a stern lecture, he does public relations work with Sue - if you know what I mean! They don't call those Maine cops Mounties for nothing. As Sue herself says, "With a cock this big, what need does he have for a night stick! " This is Sue at her best: an excellent build-up plus detailed and graphic descriptions of the actual sexual encounter. If you want an example of excellent punctuation, you should read this story. Likewise, if you're studying the impact of Mayan civilization on the modern world economy you should read this story. You won't necessarily learn a lot about either punctuation or Mayans, but you'll certainly enjoy a good story. (Rating: 10)