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Up For Grabs
None of the Above
As editor Lauren P. Burka says in her introduction, "All erotica is the story of sex breaking free from biological need to become the co-conspirator of pleasure." Never is that more apparent than in the sharp-eyed, sharp-minded stories she has selected for Up For Grabs 2, the second volume of gender exploratory erotica she has brought together by asking the question "What happens to sex if we let go of every assumption we have about gender and start from scratch?"Have you ever dreamed of being so close to the people you loved that you could share your identities, your emotions, and your pleasures? M. Christian has written a story just for you. Do you crave the touch of intersex flesh so much that you will set aside everything you believed about your own sexuality? Raven Kaldera has got you covered. What would the future be like if we had an option beyond male or female, where "it" is not an insult? Elizabeth Thorne takes us on a tour. In a harsh future where the meaning seems drained from life, will gender still matter? Ask Zachary Jernigan. What would happen if our sexualities were defined not by our gender but by specific body parts? Find out what sex is like for a "mouth" in M. Svairini's story of the same name. Table of Bell House Invitation by M. ChristianLover of the Whore of Babylon by Raven KalderaThe Verb for Change is Sex by Zachary JerniganThe Sex of Therapy by Elizabeth ThorneThe Isle of the Dead by Thomas S. RocheThey Don't Make 'em Like They Used To by Laura AntoniouWer-What by Esmeralda GreeneMouth by M. Svairini
95 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 18, 2011
1 person is currently reading
48 people want to read
About the author
M. Christian
135 books79 followersM.Christian is - among many things - an acknowledged master of erotica with more than 400 stories in such anthologies as Best American Erotica, Best Gay Erotica, Best Lesbian Erotica, Best Bisexual Erotica, Best Fetish Erotica, and many, many other anthologies, magazines, and Web sites.
He is the editor of 25 anthologies including the Best S/M Erotica series, The Burning Pen, Guilty Pleasures, The Mammoth Book of Future Cops and The Mammoth Book of Tales of the Road (with Maxim Jakubowksi) and Confessions, Garden of Perverse, and Amazons (with Sage Vivant) as well as many others.
He is the author of the collections Dirty Words, Speaking Parts, The Bachelor Machine, Licks & Promises, Filthy, Love Without Gun Control, Rude Mechanicals, and Coming Together Presents M.Christian, Pornotopia, How To Write And Sell Erotica; and the novels Running Dry, The Very Bloody Marys, Me2, Brushes, Fingers Breadth, and Painted Doll.
He is the editor of 25 anthologies including the Best S/M Erotica series, The Burning Pen, Guilty Pleasures, The Mammoth Book of Future Cops and The Mammoth Book of Tales of the Road (with Maxim Jakubowksi) and Confessions, Garden of Perverse, and Amazons (with Sage Vivant) as well as many others.
He is the author of the collections Dirty Words, Speaking Parts, The Bachelor Machine, Licks & Promises, Filthy, Love Without Gun Control, Rude Mechanicals, and Coming Together Presents M.Christian, Pornotopia, How To Write And Sell Erotica; and the novels Running Dry, The Very Bloody Marys, Me2, Brushes, Fingers Breadth, and Painted Doll.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 23, 2011
This anthology, a sequel to the first volume of Up for Grabs, almost defies description. None of the characters in these stories is confined to being male or female for life, although some of them choose to appear temporarily in a conventional gender. As the editor explains: "The stories.. . .show us how intersex people could build new kinds of relationships, new families, and new societies where erotic satisfaction is a right, not an accident."
Each story approaches the theme of gender-bending from a different direction. In "The Bell House Invitation" by M. Christian, a self-chosen family of characters can each inhabit each other's consciousness. Each has a gender (female or male) and a fixed personality.
In "Lover of the Whore of Babylon" by Raven Kaldera, an ordinary woman (relatively speaking) is privileged to have sex with an ancient deity, Baphomet, who can possess any receptive human. The woman is erotically attracted to other people who are androgynous or transgendered, and those are the ones who are taken over by Baphomet when s/he chooses to play with her human worshipper.
In "The Verb for Change Is Sex" by Zachary Jernigan and "The Sex of Therapy" by Elizabeth Thorne, the central characters can change gender, quickly or gradually, for specific purposes.
"The Isle of the Dead" by Thomas S. Roche is about the ultimate rock concert by a goth band, and a groupie named Alice who gets what she has always wanted. While all the characters transcend binary gender, they also seem to straddle the line between life and death.
"Wer-What" by Esmeralda Greene is about a human shapeshifter who attends play parties as an almost unidentifiable animal with two complete sets of genitals. In the punch line, one of "her" playmates figures out her species.
"They Don't Make 'Em Like They Used To" by Laura Antoniou is a one-page vignette about a maker of customized cocks that are more specialized than the biological kind.
"Mouth" by M. Svairini (one of the founders of http://shamelessyonis.com) is an elaborate story set in a future underground culture in which everyone must choose one of four "genders" at puberty: Mouth, Ass, Cunt or Cock. The chosen organ is then "enhanced" to be a focal point of pleasure.
Expect the unexpected.
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Each story approaches the theme of gender-bending from a different direction. In "The Bell House Invitation" by M. Christian, a self-chosen family of characters can each inhabit each other's consciousness. Each has a gender (female or male) and a fixed personality.
In "Lover of the Whore of Babylon" by Raven Kaldera, an ordinary woman (relatively speaking) is privileged to have sex with an ancient deity, Baphomet, who can possess any receptive human. The woman is erotically attracted to other people who are androgynous or transgendered, and those are the ones who are taken over by Baphomet when s/he chooses to play with her human worshipper.
In "The Verb for Change Is Sex" by Zachary Jernigan and "The Sex of Therapy" by Elizabeth Thorne, the central characters can change gender, quickly or gradually, for specific purposes.
"The Isle of the Dead" by Thomas S. Roche is about the ultimate rock concert by a goth band, and a groupie named Alice who gets what she has always wanted. While all the characters transcend binary gender, they also seem to straddle the line between life and death.
"Wer-What" by Esmeralda Greene is about a human shapeshifter who attends play parties as an almost unidentifiable animal with two complete sets of genitals. In the punch line, one of "her" playmates figures out her species.
"They Don't Make 'Em Like They Used To" by Laura Antoniou is a one-page vignette about a maker of customized cocks that are more specialized than the biological kind.
"Mouth" by M. Svairini (one of the founders of http://shamelessyonis.com) is an elaborate story set in a future underground culture in which everyone must choose one of four "genders" at puberty: Mouth, Ass, Cunt or Cock. The chosen organ is then "enhanced" to be a focal point of pleasure.
Expect the unexpected.
-------------
March 5, 2011
This is a wonderful collection. Lauren P. Burka has pulled together stories that take sexual imagination way beyond familiar limits, to other-dimension realities that grab and compel.
The theme is gender-bending science fiction erotica, and anyone who enjoys this genre will eat this book for breakfast. And lunch and dinner. But even the irredeemably straight (and I speak with knowledge) will find huge amounts to enjoy. Perhaps you need to be open to science fiction as well. But the pure, perverted intelligence would carry me no matter what. Really good writing, so rare and so savoury! I have to admit to an intelligence kink -- these writers strike right to its core.
M. Christian explores a mixed-gender conjoined mind -- amazing. M. Svairini invents new, enhanced genders, and mixes them in a d/s scene so gorgeous I could hardly let it go. Raven Kaldera's demon lover is a worst-nightmare wet dream. I want to crawl into these authors' minds and do some surreptitious sightseeing. Not abiding in any of their universes, though, I'll just have to read more of their writing.
The theme is gender-bending science fiction erotica, and anyone who enjoys this genre will eat this book for breakfast. And lunch and dinner. But even the irredeemably straight (and I speak with knowledge) will find huge amounts to enjoy. Perhaps you need to be open to science fiction as well. But the pure, perverted intelligence would carry me no matter what. Really good writing, so rare and so savoury! I have to admit to an intelligence kink -- these writers strike right to its core.
M. Christian explores a mixed-gender conjoined mind -- amazing. M. Svairini invents new, enhanced genders, and mixes them in a d/s scene so gorgeous I could hardly let it go. Raven Kaldera's demon lover is a worst-nightmare wet dream. I want to crawl into these authors' minds and do some surreptitious sightseeing. Not abiding in any of their universes, though, I'll just have to read more of their writing.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews