Rogue Reviews Digest No. 33 - March 19, 1999 NOTICE If you are easily offended, not of the required legal age, or material of an erotic nature is illegal where you are, then do not read what follows. CONTENTS Mailing List Information Ratings Note Reviews "Dinner with Callie" by Edbun "Mom's Amorous Son" by Roderigo "Mowing the Lawn" by OddManOut "Raga" by Taria "The Teaser" by Al Steiner "Tragedy, Transition and Triumph" by Tigger "Zero G" by Bitbard ***** MAILING LIST INFORMATION I send my reviews individually, when I finish them, to the Sex Stories Discussion List. If you are interested in joining there is a form for doing so on my home page. * Home Page - http://www92.pair.com/leevine/rogue-reviews/ * E-Mail - santiago@switchboardmail.com ***** RATINGS Part 1. OBJECTIVE ANALYSIS SCORE = AROUSAL SCORE + STORY SCORE AROUSAL SCORE 0 Not 1 Barely 2 A Little 3 Somewhat 4 Very 5 Extremely STORY SCORE 0 This barely resembles a story 1 Definitely lacking, but its possible it has a redeeming quality 2 Effort is evident, but I have some problems with this story 3 Nothing exceptional, but on the other hand there are no major flaws 4 Well crafted, but is missing something, or something does not work entirely 5 Beautifully crafted, it does not seem to be missing anything Part 2. SUBJECTIVE ANALYSIS Not Good = This was a waste of my time, don't bother reading it Good = This is a good attempt, but I don't recommend it Very Good = If you have the time or like this variety of story then I recommend this story, otherwise I would go with something that I rate as Excellent or Outstanding Excellent = I recommend that you read this story, and I really liked it, but it did not give me the same feeling that an outstanding story does. Outstanding = This story was not only enjoyable, but it also gave me a special feeling that I cannot describe ~~~ Note that there is not necessarily a direct correlation between the objective analysis and the subjective analysis. On the other hand the terms objective and subjective as I have used them are relative and not absolute terms. In other words the objective analysis is more objective than the subjective one, and vice versa. This new system may not work in the long run, but for the moment I am going with it. This still does not get to one of MichaelD38's criticisms, which is how much better is an Outstanding than an Excellent, and Excellent than a Very Good, etc. To be perfectly honest I'm not sure myself. All I know is that I like Outstanding stories better than Excellent ones, etc. I have a hard time quantifying "like", or "love" for that matter. I can tell you if I liked something better than something else. I can tell you why I did. I can't put on a number on it however and say that I liked it 20% more or twice as much. That just does not work for me. BTW you may have noticed that I have dropped Grudgingly Good from my rating system. That rating really represented a case where I did not like a story, but only because I was revolted or disgusted by the subject matter. With the new system I'll just say under the Subjective Analysis that a story was Not Good. The Arousal score is somewhat subjective, so that score may suffer, but I think that I can recognize good writing even when it revolts me. ***** REVIEWS ----- Rogue Review No. 326 - March 8, 1999 Tragedy, Transition and Triumph by Tigger F/M, Femdom, BDSM Length: 10,700 words Objective Analysis: 7 (out of 10) Arousal: 2 (out of 5) Story: 5 (out of 5) Subjective Analysis: Very Good SUMMARY Megan and Andre manage to rebuild their lives after Andre gets raped. COMMENTARY I found this story to be a little arousing. By that I mean that there are scenes in this story that are arousing, but there were only a limited number of them. By no means did these scenes dominate the story. From reading this story, my impression is that the author did not intend for the nonconsensual parts to be arousing. This is a very well written story. It has a nice flow and the characters seem realistic. Despite the fact that Andre has just gone through a rather traumatic experience, the tone that the author sets seems a bit subdued. So, summing up, I liked this story, it is well written, but not what I consider to be A-list material. If you are a fan of BDSM stories then you may enjoy this more than I did. One thing to keep in mind, despite the fact that the story revolves around sex, the story is about much more than just sex. Warning: If you do not care for B&D or S&M then this may not be the story for you. The author has labeled it as a romance and I think that is a fair description. On the other hand, the story does have some elements, aside from the rape, that some of you may consider to be rather extreme. LINKS Tragedy, Transition and Triumph * http://www.qz.to/erotica/assm/Year98/9169.txt [1/3] * http://www.qz.to/erotica/assm/Year98/9170.txt [2/3] * http://www.qz.to/erotica/assm/Year98/9171.txt [3/3] * http://search.dejanews.com/=gh/getdoc.xp?AN=332757609&fmt=raw [1/3] * http://search.dejanews.com/=gh/getdoc.xp?AN=332757614&fmt=raw [2/3] * http://search.dejanews.com/=gh/getdoc.xp?AN=332757620&fmt=raw [3/3] ----- Rogue Review No. 327 - March 10, 1999 Mowing the Lawn by OddManOut M/f, Teen Length: 5,700 words Objective Analysis: 8 (out of 10) Arousal: 4 (out of 5) Story: 4 (out of 5) Subjective Analysis: Very Good SUMMARY Brad, 36, hates mowing the lawn, but then he meets his 17-year-old neighbor Katie, while returning her father's lawnmower. COMMENTARY I found this story to be very arousing. The author takes his time. The story begins with the rather mundane activity of mowing the lawn but quickly heats up. There is some tension in the sexual encounter that Katie and Brad share. It seemed realistic and served to increase my arousal. This is a stroke story. The plot is well placed, but after a point revolves around nothing other than sex. The characters seem life-like enough, though it would have been nice if there had been another side to Katie. This is a stroke story though, maybe I'm asking too much. On the whole I enjoyed this story. It is rather vanilla, but it is well written and arousing enough to make my B-list. That's why I gave it a Very Good, under Subjective Analysis. LINKS Mowing the Lawn * http://www.qz.to/erotica/assm/Year99/19948.txt [1/2] * http://www.qz.to/erotica/assm/Year99/19949.txt [2/2] * http://search.dejanews.com/=gh/getdoc.xp?AN=444536297&fmt=raw [1/2] * http://search.dejanews.com/=gh/getdoc.xp?AN=444540683&fmt=raw [2/2] ----- Rogue Review No. 328 - March 12, 1999 Zero G by Bitbard M/F Length: 14,500 words Objective Analysis: 5 (out of 10) Arousal: 2 (out of 5) Story: 3 (out of 5) Subjective Analysis: Good SUMMARY Steve Whiley is enjoying a leisurely trip to Mars, when one of his fellow passengers is murdered. COMMENTARY This is the third story, in a series of four, about a detective named Steve Whiley. For the most part this story is not arousing. I believe that was the author's intent. There are a few sex scenes, but they felt like the gratuitous sex scenes that Hollywood studios include in many motion pictures. Don't misunderstand me. I enjoyed the sex scenes in this story. They were arousing, but they weren't essential to the plot and they were few and far between. As far as the story goes, I liked the plot. It was well conceived and well paced. The author acknowledges that the story resembles the works of Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle. Think 'Murder on the Orient Express', not 'Hound of the Baskervilles'. The story was going along nicely, until it came time for Steve to interview his fellow passengers, a la Hercule Poirot. The various passengers did not come across distinctly. They were in and out of the story so fast that it was hard to remember who was who. This was not a problem with the main characters. If you are a big fan of mysteries, then you may want to read this one. Other than Conan Doyle and Christie, it also reminded me of Isaac Asimov. This is a good attempt, but it is less polished than the stories I consider to be A- or B-list material, thus the Good, under Subjective Analysis. LINKS Zero G * http://www.qz.to/erotica/assm/Year98/8350.txt * http://search.dejanews.com/=gh/getdoc.xp?AN=323893063&fmt=raw Bitbard's Library * http://bitbard.pair.com/ ----- Rogue Review No. 329 - March 13, 1999 Mom's Amorous Son by Roderigo m/F, m/m/F, F/m, Teen, Incest Length: 12,700 words Objective Analysis: 9 (out of 10) Arousal: 5 (out of 5) Story: 4 (out of 5) Subjective Analysis: Excellent SUMMARY Anita interrogates Brad, her son, about his sex life. First there was the lady next door, then the preacher's wife, then his best friend's mother. In the end Anita decides to do something to prevent her son from laying pipe all over the neighborhood. COMMENTARY Okay, if you don't care for incest stories then you may want to stop right here. Its not that this story is particularly bad, but there isn't much to it other than sex. I found this story to be extremely arousing. The author does a nice job of using the stories with the story to build tension. The ending was inevitable, but I still found it to be arousing. In particular I liked the fact that the story does not feature women who are unflawed In other words they might be carrying a little extra weight or might not have the prettiest face, but Brad still finds them attractive. This is a well written story. There is not a whole lot to the plot, other than sex, but the author still does a nice job of laying it out and pacing it. The characters are a bit sex crazed. They don't seem to have much else to their lives. I prefer to see characters with a little more depth, but maybe that is asking too much from a stroke story. Well, I liked this story a lot. I found it to be well written and extremely arousing. I am giving it an Excellent, under Subjective Analysis. LINKS Mom's Amorous Son * http://search.dejanews.com/=gh/getdoc.xp?AN=242644957&fmt=raw [1/4] * http://search.dejanews.com/=gh/getdoc.xp?AN=242645176&fmt=raw [2/4] * http://search.dejanews.com/=gh/getdoc.xp?AN=242645253&fmt=raw [3/4] * http://search.dejanews.com/=gh/getdoc.xp?AN=242645602&fmt=raw [4/4] ----- Rogue Review No. 330 - March 14, 1999 The Teaser by Al Steiner M/F Length: 7,400 words Objective Analysis: 9 (out of 10) Arousal: 4 (out of 5) Story: 5 (out of 5) Subjective Analysis: Excellent SUMMARY A man reflects on a fling he had with his next door neighbor, when he was in college. COMMENTARY I found nothing arousing in the first third of this story. The rest of the story is another matter. The sex play in the final two-thirds of the story is very arousing. The author takes his time with it, and even when it was obvious that something is going to happen the author still managed to surprise me. This is an extremely well written story. The beginning of the story was not arousing in the least bit, but I still found myself drawn in. The characters seemed realistic. The plot was well paced. There isn't as much dialogue as I usually like to see, but that did not even occur to me until I was sitting down to write the review. The story as a whole just flows very nicely. I found this story to be entertaining both when it was arousing and when it wasn't. My subjective opinion is that this is an excellent story. LINKS The Teaser * http://www.qz.to/erotica/assm/Year99/19914.txt * http://search.dejanews.com/=gh/getdoc.xp?AN=444222183&fmt=raw ----- Rogue Review No. 331 - March 16, 1999 Raga by Taria M/F Length: 5,500 words Objective Analysis: 9 (out of 10) Arousal: 4 (out of 5) Story: 5 (out of 5) Subjective Analysis: Very Good SUMMARY A man and a woman have sex. A prince and a servant girl make love. COMMENTARY This is a well composed story. It consists of a sexual fantasy that has been framed with snippets from a more realistic sex scene. I think this is an excellent trick to use and that the author uses it quite effectively. The sex in the fantasy story is very arousing. In particular I enjoyed the servant girl's transformation from innocent to passionate. The author uses some Indian terms in this story. I think that they made my imagination work a little harder and, considering their placement, made the story a little more arousing. I enjoyed this story, and it is well written, but I am not wild about it. It is for that reason that I am placing it on my B-list, rather than my A-list. This is not a knock against the author's writing abilities. You may enjoy the story even more than I did, so please do not let my subjective opinion carry too much weight. Consider what I have said and the objective scores that I gave this story. LINKS Raga * http://www.qz.to/erotica/assm/Year98/8404.txt [1/2] * http://www.qz.to/erotica/assm/Year98/8405.txt [2/2] * http://search.dejanews.com/=gh/getdoc.xp?AN=324572676&fmt=raw [1/2] * http://search.dejanews.com/=gh/getdoc.xp?AN=324568020&fmt=raw [2/2] Taria's Bibliography * http://www.bitbard.pair.com/library/tariat/ ----- Rogue Review No. 332 - March 17, 1999 Dinner with Callie by Edbun M/F Length: 7,600 words Objective Analysis: 9 (out of 10) Arousal: 5 (out of 5) Story: 4 (out of 5) Subjective Analysis: Excellent SUMMARY Callie lets Greg, her husband, in on something she has discovered. It involves butter and anal sex. COMMENTARY This is an extremely arousing story. I'm not too sure how healthy it is for a woman to baste her pussy, inside and out, with butter, but I found the description of it to be very appealing. I think I was also turned on by seeing Callie take charge of the situation and not relying on Greg to initiate sexual contact. This is a stroke story, but it is well written. The author gives enough background information about the couple to make them seem like more than just actors in a porn flick. The plot is well paced and seems to follow a logical progression. During the course of the story the author switches the point of view back and forth between Greg and Callie. I think this is done very effectively. I definitely enjoyed this one. It is well written and extremely arousing. I'll admit to at least one bias with this story. I usually enjoy stories that involve characters using food, whether that be bananas, butter or whatever else comes off the dining room table or out of the refrigerator, in the course of sex play. I still think this is one that most readers should enjoy. I give it an Excellent, under Subjective Analysis. LINKS Dinner with Callie * http://search.dejanews.com/=gh/getdoc.xp?AN=455848388&fmt=raw * news:7cpar2%2489l%241%40nnrp1.dejanews.com ***** 3/19/99