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Bionic Lover
A powerful and erotic lesbian romance exploring love, lust…and loss
Pell was lost, alone, and lonely―until Arc appeared. Fiery, enigmatic, and with a mesmerizing cybernetic eye, Arc was everything Pell needed, wanted, and most of all, desired.
The next time Pell saw Arc the eye wasn’t the only thing artificial about her new lover. And the time after that, and the time after that: each time the passionate and mysterious Arc drifted into her life, Pell saw more and more of her being replaced by refined and precise machinery…and with each departure of her natural body for the artificial, Pell grew more and more terrified.
One day, she knew, there’d be nothing left of her lover but the cold, the engineered…the bionic.
Pell knew what she had to do…but the end, when it came, was worse than she ever could have imagined.
****
With Bionic Lover, acclaimed erotic science fiction author M. Christian spins a mesmerizing tale of bittersweet desire, lesbian romance, and all-too human frailty set in a near future San Francisco where cybernetics aren’t just commonplace but the stuff of erotic dreams.
"M. Christian's stories squat at the intersection of Primal Urges Avenue and Hi-Tech Parkway like a feral-eyed, half-naked Karen Black leering and stabbing her fractal machete into the tarmac. Portraying a world where erotic life has spilled from the bedroom into the street, and been shattered into a million sharp shards, this tale undercuts and mutates the old verities concerning memory, desire and loyalty…truly a book for our post-everything 21st century."
―Paul Di Filippo (author of over 100 stories and five novels)
"Rarely is raunch paired with such style and wit…this story offers the sizzle of strokebook sex combined with the dark lyricism of the perverse."
―Lucy Taylor, Bram Stoker award-winning author of Safety of Unknown Cities
"M. Christian's stories are the fairy tales whispered to one another by dark angels whose hearts and mouths are brimming with lust. He goes beyond the pale, ordinary definitions of sexuality and writes about need and desire in their purest forms. Readers daring enough to stray from the safety of the path will find in his images and words a garden of delights to tempt even the most demanding pleasure-seeker."
―Michael Thomas Ford, Lambda Literary Award winner
Pell was lost, alone, and lonely―until Arc appeared. Fiery, enigmatic, and with a mesmerizing cybernetic eye, Arc was everything Pell needed, wanted, and most of all, desired.
The next time Pell saw Arc the eye wasn’t the only thing artificial about her new lover. And the time after that, and the time after that: each time the passionate and mysterious Arc drifted into her life, Pell saw more and more of her being replaced by refined and precise machinery…and with each departure of her natural body for the artificial, Pell grew more and more terrified.
One day, she knew, there’d be nothing left of her lover but the cold, the engineered…the bionic.
Pell knew what she had to do…but the end, when it came, was worse than she ever could have imagined.
****
With Bionic Lover, acclaimed erotic science fiction author M. Christian spins a mesmerizing tale of bittersweet desire, lesbian romance, and all-too human frailty set in a near future San Francisco where cybernetics aren’t just commonplace but the stuff of erotic dreams.
"M. Christian's stories squat at the intersection of Primal Urges Avenue and Hi-Tech Parkway like a feral-eyed, half-naked Karen Black leering and stabbing her fractal machete into the tarmac. Portraying a world where erotic life has spilled from the bedroom into the street, and been shattered into a million sharp shards, this tale undercuts and mutates the old verities concerning memory, desire and loyalty…truly a book for our post-everything 21st century."
―Paul Di Filippo (author of over 100 stories and five novels)
"Rarely is raunch paired with such style and wit…this story offers the sizzle of strokebook sex combined with the dark lyricism of the perverse."
―Lucy Taylor, Bram Stoker award-winning author of Safety of Unknown Cities
"M. Christian's stories are the fairy tales whispered to one another by dark angels whose hearts and mouths are brimming with lust. He goes beyond the pale, ordinary definitions of sexuality and writes about need and desire in their purest forms. Readers daring enough to stray from the safety of the path will find in his images and words a garden of delights to tempt even the most demanding pleasure-seeker."
―Michael Thomas Ford, Lambda Literary Award winner
- GenresErotica
62 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 13, 2016
103 people want to read
About the author
M. Christian
135 books80 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 - 13 of 13 reviews
May 29, 2016
Sierra Kline's spot-on narration truly brought to life this enigmatic erotic love story set in a not-too-distant dystopian future. Yes, there are fairly erotic elements to it, but this book is about so much more than that. M. Christian is rightfully celebrated for his command of language and his ability to create unique futuristic worlds and effortlessly transport readers there. Bionic Lover is a simply wonderful listening experience that makes you wish it were longer, despite acknowledging that its brevity is part of its brilliance. Previously published in erotica anthologies under the title Speaking Parts, it is a testament to its enduring quality that this noir erotic lesbian romance finally is available as a standalone. Highly recommended to those who enjoy literate erotica.
May 29, 2016
If you’re not one of the unfathomably wealthy elite, avoid the streets of San Francisco. They’re crawling with drug-addled, desperate people hustling to survive until their next Subsistence Allotment Check, people who’ll do anything to avoid being conscripted to serve in the endless Central American wars. People who will literally sell their bodies—an eye or a limb—for a temporary influx of cash. If you don’t have a steady job—and who does, in this era of chronic unemployment?—every day is a day on the edge.
This is the dreadful, hope-shattering world of M.Christian’s lesbian science fiction tale Bionic Lover—a world that’s chillingly vivid and unquestionably believable. Against this background, he gives us the story of the relationship between two women—shy, struggling artist Pell and streetwise, secretive Arc.
Pell first encounters Arc at a low-rent gallery where an acquaintance is showing his work. She’s fascinated by Arc’s magnificently crafted artificial eye:
--------------------------------
Tourmaline, onyx, silver and gold, it was a masterpiece watch set in a crystal sphere, the iris a mandala of glowing gold. Her blinks were a camera shutter’s, as imagined by the archetypal Victorian engineer but built with surgical perfection not found anywhere in Pell’s knowledge. The woman’s left eye was jeweled and precise; clicking softly as the she looked around the gallery, as if the engineers who’d removed her original wet, gray-lensed eyeball had orchestrated a kind of music to go with their marvelous creation: a background tempo of perfect watch movements to accompany whatever she saw through their marvelous and finely crafted sight.
Click, click, click.
An eye like that should have been in a museum, not mounted in a socket of simple human skin and bone, Pell had thought. It should have been in some other gallery, some better gallery, allowed only to look out at, to see other magnificent creations of skilled hands. Jare’s splashes of reds and blues, his shallow paintings were an insult to the real artistry of the woman’s eye.
------------------------------------------------------
Then she notices Arc’s real eye, surveying her, notes the other woman’s penetrating, intelligent gaze and her lean, precise body. Soft, vague, suburb-raised Pell falls into a dream of lust—a dream that
Arc fulfills with raw precision and just a hint of cruelty.
In the morning after their coupling, Arc is gone. But before long she reappears, seeking sanctuary in Pell’s apartment and in her arms. Each time the woman of the street shows up at Pell’s door and finds her way into the artist’s bed, she has traded another piece of herself for some new miracle of prosthetic technology.
Though Bionic Lover was originally published over fifteen years ago (as Speaking Parts, a more appropriate title in my opinion), the tale is still fresh, its dystopian visions closer than ever to the current state of society. It is, quite simply, a gorgeous story—rich, dark and arousing, full of startling images and nuanced emotion. M.Christian is at his lyrical best here, using his breathless, flowing prose to bring his heroines to life.
Bionic Lover is subtitled “An Erotic Lesbian Romance”, but don’t expect a facile happy ending. The bonds tying Pell and Arc to one another go beyond love—and certainly beyond lust. Pell is simultaneously fascinated and repelled by her lover’s increasingly artificial body. And Arc—well, we never truly understand who she is or what she wants, any more than Pell does. This enigmatic tale will leave you feeling unsettled yet uplifted—as do most serious works of art.
This is the dreadful, hope-shattering world of M.Christian’s lesbian science fiction tale Bionic Lover—a world that’s chillingly vivid and unquestionably believable. Against this background, he gives us the story of the relationship between two women—shy, struggling artist Pell and streetwise, secretive Arc.
Pell first encounters Arc at a low-rent gallery where an acquaintance is showing his work. She’s fascinated by Arc’s magnificently crafted artificial eye:
--------------------------------
Tourmaline, onyx, silver and gold, it was a masterpiece watch set in a crystal sphere, the iris a mandala of glowing gold. Her blinks were a camera shutter’s, as imagined by the archetypal Victorian engineer but built with surgical perfection not found anywhere in Pell’s knowledge. The woman’s left eye was jeweled and precise; clicking softly as the she looked around the gallery, as if the engineers who’d removed her original wet, gray-lensed eyeball had orchestrated a kind of music to go with their marvelous creation: a background tempo of perfect watch movements to accompany whatever she saw through their marvelous and finely crafted sight.
Click, click, click.
An eye like that should have been in a museum, not mounted in a socket of simple human skin and bone, Pell had thought. It should have been in some other gallery, some better gallery, allowed only to look out at, to see other magnificent creations of skilled hands. Jare’s splashes of reds and blues, his shallow paintings were an insult to the real artistry of the woman’s eye.
------------------------------------------------------
Then she notices Arc’s real eye, surveying her, notes the other woman’s penetrating, intelligent gaze and her lean, precise body. Soft, vague, suburb-raised Pell falls into a dream of lust—a dream that
Arc fulfills with raw precision and just a hint of cruelty.
In the morning after their coupling, Arc is gone. But before long she reappears, seeking sanctuary in Pell’s apartment and in her arms. Each time the woman of the street shows up at Pell’s door and finds her way into the artist’s bed, she has traded another piece of herself for some new miracle of prosthetic technology.
Though Bionic Lover was originally published over fifteen years ago (as Speaking Parts, a more appropriate title in my opinion), the tale is still fresh, its dystopian visions closer than ever to the current state of society. It is, quite simply, a gorgeous story—rich, dark and arousing, full of startling images and nuanced emotion. M.Christian is at his lyrical best here, using his breathless, flowing prose to bring his heroines to life.
Bionic Lover is subtitled “An Erotic Lesbian Romance”, but don’t expect a facile happy ending. The bonds tying Pell and Arc to one another go beyond love—and certainly beyond lust. Pell is simultaneously fascinated and repelled by her lover’s increasingly artificial body. And Arc—well, we never truly understand who she is or what she wants, any more than Pell does. This enigmatic tale will leave you feeling unsettled yet uplifted—as do most serious works of art.
April 5, 2017
It has been far too long since I last read a book by M. Christian, but Bionic Lover instantly reminded me why I love his work so much. The man has a way with words that borders on the poetic, but which remains blissfully accessible. This is not just erotic fiction, this is erotic literature that owes as much to the shelves of genre classics as it does to sensual, one-handed reads.
In Bionic Lover we have a vague, deliberately non-specific world that could just as easily be a cyberpunk future as an alternate history clockwork empire. It is largely familiar, with things like art galleries and slum apartments, but it feels run down and worn out. And yet, within that disturbing environment, we find technological advances that are as immediately exciting . . . even if they become rather more chilling as the story progresses.
Pell and Arc are two women trapped in this world, brought together by a shared boredom as much as anything. Theirs is not your typical romance, but rather more of a series of desperate hookups with a growing emotional entanglement. At first, Arc's robot enhancements are an exciting fetish, a source of newfound pleasures (and fears), but Pell soon begins to mourn the erosion of her lover's humanity. She can see a future where Pell will become a thing, bought-and-paid-for by her mysterious benefactor, with nothing of flesh-and-blood left to her.
Bionic Lover is intensely erotic, full of physical passion and emotional outbursts, but the romance feels sadly one-sided. It is an utterly fascinating tale, but look neither for a happy ending nor a tidy one. This is science-fiction erotic that makes you feel as well as think, told with a flair for language that is also too good for the genre.
As reviewed by Sally at Bending the Bookshelf
In Bionic Lover we have a vague, deliberately non-specific world that could just as easily be a cyberpunk future as an alternate history clockwork empire. It is largely familiar, with things like art galleries and slum apartments, but it feels run down and worn out. And yet, within that disturbing environment, we find technological advances that are as immediately exciting . . . even if they become rather more chilling as the story progresses.
Pell and Arc are two women trapped in this world, brought together by a shared boredom as much as anything. Theirs is not your typical romance, but rather more of a series of desperate hookups with a growing emotional entanglement. At first, Arc's robot enhancements are an exciting fetish, a source of newfound pleasures (and fears), but Pell soon begins to mourn the erosion of her lover's humanity. She can see a future where Pell will become a thing, bought-and-paid-for by her mysterious benefactor, with nothing of flesh-and-blood left to her.
Bionic Lover is intensely erotic, full of physical passion and emotional outbursts, but the romance feels sadly one-sided. It is an utterly fascinating tale, but look neither for a happy ending nor a tidy one. This is science-fiction erotic that makes you feel as well as think, told with a flair for language that is also too good for the genre.
As reviewed by Sally at Bending the Bookshelf
May 29, 2016
Reviewed Audiobook Edition, go here: Bionic Lover: An Erotic Lesbian Romance
September 24, 2017
I'm not going to lie, I couldn't even finish this one. That and I just could NOT get into the sex scenes --and this is coming from someone who LOVES erotica.
For me I just felt like it was very clearly written by a man. I get that some women will find this stuff hot but I don't think this writing style is appealing to women on a large scale. It felt like a poor attempt to appeal to the female audience that failed because it still held onto the porn-esque image of "women don't actually enjoy this, we only do it in porn because thats what men want to see". We also enjoy descriptive variations, not "cunt" every. single. time. (And whose inner monologue refers to their own vaginas as a "cunts" anyway??)
I also did not find it sexy when Pell showed any apprehension (like pulling away or closing her legs against Arcs advances) Arc responded by using physical force to pry her legs apart. Why is that portrayed as sexy? It's not. It's kind of rapey.
And OMG this:
"Arc’s fingers became a brutal beat into her―one, two, three, four―a hammering.
Cold fear gripped her again, the thought of internal bruising, of warm wet from blood
and not just from hot moisture, having her cunt not just fucked but beaten."
My vagina has literally never been so dry. It literally tried to climb into itself upon reading this --and there's more of these type of scenes; one even going so far as to talking about her ripping her vagina.
Like, what the actual fuck...
Yes men, this is what us ladies want: Our vaginas fucked and beaten bruised and bloody. You've finally figured us out.
For me I just felt like it was very clearly written by a man. I get that some women will find this stuff hot but I don't think this writing style is appealing to women on a large scale. It felt like a poor attempt to appeal to the female audience that failed because it still held onto the porn-esque image of "women don't actually enjoy this, we only do it in porn because thats what men want to see". We also enjoy descriptive variations, not "cunt" every. single. time. (And whose inner monologue refers to their own vaginas as a "cunts" anyway??)
I also did not find it sexy when Pell showed any apprehension (like pulling away or closing her legs against Arcs advances) Arc responded by using physical force to pry her legs apart. Why is that portrayed as sexy? It's not. It's kind of rapey.
And OMG this:
"Arc’s fingers became a brutal beat into her―one, two, three, four―a hammering.
Cold fear gripped her again, the thought of internal bruising, of warm wet from blood
and not just from hot moisture, having her cunt not just fucked but beaten."
My vagina has literally never been so dry. It literally tried to climb into itself upon reading this --and there's more of these type of scenes; one even going so far as to talking about her ripping her vagina.
Like, what the actual fuck...
Yes men, this is what us ladies want: Our vaginas fucked and beaten bruised and bloody. You've finally figured us out.
April 23, 2016
Prepare to become fully immersed in this story.
This was an amazing read. The author does a masterful job of not just showing you this story but of engaging all of the reader's senses through his descriptions. You don't just see this story; you smell it, you taste it, you hear it, you feel it. The author embeds the reader in this story; you don't just read this book, you experience it.
To be honest I was a bit surprised at just how much I enjoyed this book. The book is scifi with a bit of steampunkish flavor, not usually my thing... I enjoyed it immensely though.
The book is well edited, the reader can skate through the pages with scarcely an editing hiccup. Oh, and the erotic scenes are wonderfully hot and sultry.
I definitely recommend this book.
Disclaimer: I was provided a free copy of this ebook for an honest review.
This was an amazing read. The author does a masterful job of not just showing you this story but of engaging all of the reader's senses through his descriptions. You don't just see this story; you smell it, you taste it, you hear it, you feel it. The author embeds the reader in this story; you don't just read this book, you experience it.
To be honest I was a bit surprised at just how much I enjoyed this book. The book is scifi with a bit of steampunkish flavor, not usually my thing... I enjoyed it immensely though.
The book is well edited, the reader can skate through the pages with scarcely an editing hiccup. Oh, and the erotic scenes are wonderfully hot and sultry.
I definitely recommend this book.
Disclaimer: I was provided a free copy of this ebook for an honest review.
July 20, 2016
Review based on audiobook version provided by Wordwooze.
I have 2 nitpicks for this book and as I like to focus on the positive let me get them out of the way now.
The first, I'm well aware, is based on an atypical opinion of mine. M. Christian writes very much in the vein of a famous canadian author by the name of Margaret Atwood. This style is defined by detailed description and heavy use of simile. I hate that style with a fiery passion. I get lost too easily in the torrent of adjectives and similes and before I know it I'm wondering why a rocket is launching in their bedroom. Perhaps I'm the stupid at the end of the K.I.S.S. principle but if you are like me be prepared.
The second minor issue is the jarring jump from S.A.T. vocabulary words in the non-sex scenes to out and out vulgarity during the sex. Perhaps this author has a fetish I lack (one of the 120 Days of Sodom I didn't enjoy) but I don't find detailed descriptions of the scents and sensations of vaginal and anal fingering particularly arousing. I know those who do but the idea of a whiff of poop during sex doesn't do it for me.
With that out of the way lets talk about the actual story. This book takes place (unnecessarily in my opinion) in a futuristic San Francisco. There seems to be a war similar to Vietnam going on as there are a lot of people missing limbs and worrying about conscription. It's also a socialist system with a guaranteed income. None of this is really explained and it doesn't seem to be relevant except to justify the titular character (Arc) having bionic parts. These, again, don't really seem necessary. They don't vibrate or have any special function so aside from being "pretty" to the character telling us the story (Pel) they don't appear to have a purpose. Even when, in their only conversation, Arc explains how she got them its irrelevant. The tale arouses Pel, as an artist and a lover, but it could be replaced with any other fetish and achieve the same result. You could set this story just as easily in modern times or in Vietnam era San Francisco and get the same enjoyment out of it.
This lack of detail extends to the characters as well. Who is Arc? Why does she keep showing up? Why does the artist allow this bionic booty call to keep crashing with her? They never really seem to talk so is the sex all that good? Apparently there are feelings of love but I don't see how those could form. Neither knows anything about the other beyond the superficial. The sex, when not marred by mentions of bodily functions, seemed passionate and enjoyable but neither woman seems to know so much as the other's last name (or real name). Pel even goes so far as to be afraid to ask and Arc just doesn't seem to care. What little we get is more through implications and assumptions made by Pel and nothing is ever actually confirmed.
The description, when coherent, can suck you into the story but that immersiveness can be a hindrance as much as a blessing. Because I am in the room I smell that whiff, I can't ignore it. Because I'm walking those streets with Pel I see the soldiers and all the people with bionic limbs but I lack their understanding. This is one of those books that really does transport you to another world but it leaves you there, a confused child, unable to understand the world that surrounds you in the narrative.
In the end I was reminded of an adult cartoon called Heavy Metal that I saw in my teens. Like its shorts this is a peak into a strange world. One that sucks you in and disturbs as well as arouses you. It's a wild but unsatisfying meal. Bionic lover drops you into this strange world, dangles you there for just long enough to get a glimpse of what it's like. Letting you experience it through the lens of two women and their brief times together then yanks you out. It leaves you wanting more even if you didn't entirely like the first taste. A rare, if irksome, skill and the sign of a very skilled author.
In the end this was one of those stories that inspires day dreams. It's too gross to be arousing yet too immersive to be forgotten. The vague philosophic undertones relating to the nature of humanity (the old "if you replace all the parts is it still the same thing?" question) give this story a soul but that soul is wrapped in too much style and not enough substance. Bionic lover is an ephemeral touch of something almost great but it lacks as much as it provides and seems like one of those tales that will fade from my memory soon enough despite the tears that welled up in me at the end.
I have 2 nitpicks for this book and as I like to focus on the positive let me get them out of the way now.
The first, I'm well aware, is based on an atypical opinion of mine. M. Christian writes very much in the vein of a famous canadian author by the name of Margaret Atwood. This style is defined by detailed description and heavy use of simile. I hate that style with a fiery passion. I get lost too easily in the torrent of adjectives and similes and before I know it I'm wondering why a rocket is launching in their bedroom. Perhaps I'm the stupid at the end of the K.I.S.S. principle but if you are like me be prepared.
The second minor issue is the jarring jump from S.A.T. vocabulary words in the non-sex scenes to out and out vulgarity during the sex. Perhaps this author has a fetish I lack (one of the 120 Days of Sodom I didn't enjoy) but I don't find detailed descriptions of the scents and sensations of vaginal and anal fingering particularly arousing. I know those who do but the idea of a whiff of poop during sex doesn't do it for me.
With that out of the way lets talk about the actual story. This book takes place (unnecessarily in my opinion) in a futuristic San Francisco. There seems to be a war similar to Vietnam going on as there are a lot of people missing limbs and worrying about conscription. It's also a socialist system with a guaranteed income. None of this is really explained and it doesn't seem to be relevant except to justify the titular character (Arc) having bionic parts. These, again, don't really seem necessary. They don't vibrate or have any special function so aside from being "pretty" to the character telling us the story (Pel) they don't appear to have a purpose. Even when, in their only conversation, Arc explains how she got them its irrelevant. The tale arouses Pel, as an artist and a lover, but it could be replaced with any other fetish and achieve the same result. You could set this story just as easily in modern times or in Vietnam era San Francisco and get the same enjoyment out of it.
This lack of detail extends to the characters as well. Who is Arc? Why does she keep showing up? Why does the artist allow this bionic booty call to keep crashing with her? They never really seem to talk so is the sex all that good? Apparently there are feelings of love but I don't see how those could form. Neither knows anything about the other beyond the superficial. The sex, when not marred by mentions of bodily functions, seemed passionate and enjoyable but neither woman seems to know so much as the other's last name (or real name). Pel even goes so far as to be afraid to ask and Arc just doesn't seem to care. What little we get is more through implications and assumptions made by Pel and nothing is ever actually confirmed.
The description, when coherent, can suck you into the story but that immersiveness can be a hindrance as much as a blessing. Because I am in the room I smell that whiff, I can't ignore it. Because I'm walking those streets with Pel I see the soldiers and all the people with bionic limbs but I lack their understanding. This is one of those books that really does transport you to another world but it leaves you there, a confused child, unable to understand the world that surrounds you in the narrative.
In the end I was reminded of an adult cartoon called Heavy Metal that I saw in my teens. Like its shorts this is a peak into a strange world. One that sucks you in and disturbs as well as arouses you. It's a wild but unsatisfying meal. Bionic lover drops you into this strange world, dangles you there for just long enough to get a glimpse of what it's like. Letting you experience it through the lens of two women and their brief times together then yanks you out. It leaves you wanting more even if you didn't entirely like the first taste. A rare, if irksome, skill and the sign of a very skilled author.
In the end this was one of those stories that inspires day dreams. It's too gross to be arousing yet too immersive to be forgotten. The vague philosophic undertones relating to the nature of humanity (the old "if you replace all the parts is it still the same thing?" question) give this story a soul but that soul is wrapped in too much style and not enough substance. Bionic lover is an ephemeral touch of something almost great but it lacks as much as it provides and seems like one of those tales that will fade from my memory soon enough despite the tears that welled up in me at the end.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 11, 2016
This was a strange read and I’m really not sure how I feel about it. I would say it would be classified as a surreal sci-fi story. The story revolved around Pell and the sometime in the future reality she lives in. Where people are basically given an allowance, and when that allowance comes to an end, so do they. So some people pad their wallets by doing some unsavory things in the “black market”, so to speak. One such person is Arc, who Pell randomly meets and goes home with that night. Pell discovers that Arc sells parts of her body to a kind of surgeon, who basically lusts after her limbs, but then imbues her with cyborg replacements. Pell and Arc fall into bed together, Pell awakes to Arc being gone, and then doesn’t see her for weeks at a time sometimes. So this path continues on as Arc becomes more and more cyborg, and less and less flesh and blood. There is a lot of internal brooding by Pell that really lends the story its surreal quality, in the way she views Arc and her gradually “less human” body.
This is a f/f story with some sex scenes but nothing really graphic. I wouldn’t even classify this as erotica as the story really isn’t about that. Well, I’m not really sure what this story was about, other than an internal look into this one lonely person’s life at some point in the future. It’s actually probably a story I would read as a full book because I think it could offer some awesome world building.
I received a copy of this story for free in exchange for my honest review.
This is a f/f story with some sex scenes but nothing really graphic. I wouldn’t even classify this as erotica as the story really isn’t about that. Well, I’m not really sure what this story was about, other than an internal look into this one lonely person’s life at some point in the future. It’s actually probably a story I would read as a full book because I think it could offer some awesome world building.
I received a copy of this story for free in exchange for my honest review.
April 15, 2016
This is lesbian erotica in a Blade Runner world with overtones of Thomas Pynchon’s V (think of Lady V herself, with her clockwork eye and her shadowy past). In a dystopian San Francisco where impoverished people are drafted once their money runs out, two women find love. I will confess that my own interests when it comes to mechanized erotica have to do more with women in robot suits or suits of armour, but what we have here is erotica of the bionic variety. So as not to give away too much, I will not say what body part or parts we are talking about, suffice it to say that M. Christian does this with considerable skill.
Actually, M. Christian’s story is skilled in one of the hardest to master arts of erotica writing: how to write long sex scenes without being repetitive.
I found this book a pleasant surprise. The sex was good at first, but not only did it get even better, the story itself became deeper and more significant. M. Christian is clearly not limited to descriptions of hot sex, but can tell a story with deeper meaning as well. There is a distinctively noirish air to this one.
Highly recommended.
Actually, M. Christian’s story is skilled in one of the hardest to master arts of erotica writing: how to write long sex scenes without being repetitive.
I found this book a pleasant surprise. The sex was good at first, but not only did it get even better, the story itself became deeper and more significant. M. Christian is clearly not limited to descriptions of hot sex, but can tell a story with deeper meaning as well. There is a distinctively noirish air to this one.
Highly recommended.
September 4, 2016
With M. Christian, I know I am going to getting something unique. This story does not disappoint with a woman who slowly becomes more machine with each "gift" her fancy client brings.
This book caught my attention with the cyberpunk element and the f/f theme. Finding good f/f erotica is difficult. This one is dark, sexy and a bit disturbing. It is never really explained the reason why a man wants to slowly replace the body parts of a woman. The perspective is from the woman's lover which makes it more eerie. Watching someone you love slowly disappear and morph into a cold machine can be daunting. The emotions of longing, regret and ennui are all captured so well in this book. I am impressed and I want to read more. This book is recommended for readers who enjoy pushing boundaries.
*I received a copy for review
This book caught my attention with the cyberpunk element and the f/f theme. Finding good f/f erotica is difficult. This one is dark, sexy and a bit disturbing. It is never really explained the reason why a man wants to slowly replace the body parts of a woman. The perspective is from the woman's lover which makes it more eerie. Watching someone you love slowly disappear and morph into a cold machine can be daunting. The emotions of longing, regret and ennui are all captured so well in this book. I am impressed and I want to read more. This book is recommended for readers who enjoy pushing boundaries.
*I received a copy for review
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 20, 2017
Spectacular imagery and feel of desperation. The figurative and literal struggle to decipher the difference between fake and real of a person's persona comes across as heartfelt with a twist of determination. Loved it!
August 5, 2016
(I received this book free in exchange for an honest review. On my blog, it received a 3.5.)
This was a novella that had a strong feeling of allegory to it, which by the end had be wondering if it was a metaphor for the obvious or something deeper. It reminded me of Tanith Lee and the Secret Books of Paradys, which is a compliment.
At the start, it felt like the author was a little too in love with his own verbal artistry but it did fall into a rhythmic flow. The world building was fascinating, and somehow the points where there was a lack of world building just seemed to bolster the intrigue rather than hinder it.
In the end it was intriguing, although I don’t know if I could call it a romance. It balanced on the edge of erotic and grotesque, with sex scenes that were both interesting and discomfiting. I give it a 3.5 Fireballs.
This was a novella that had a strong feeling of allegory to it, which by the end had be wondering if it was a metaphor for the obvious or something deeper. It reminded me of Tanith Lee and the Secret Books of Paradys, which is a compliment.
At the start, it felt like the author was a little too in love with his own verbal artistry but it did fall into a rhythmic flow. The world building was fascinating, and somehow the points where there was a lack of world building just seemed to bolster the intrigue rather than hinder it.
In the end it was intriguing, although I don’t know if I could call it a romance. It balanced on the edge of erotic and grotesque, with sex scenes that were both interesting and discomfiting. I give it a 3.5 Fireballs.
7-tbr-ooit
June 8, 2017Copy provided to me by the author.
★I won this book in the Erotica Group Anniversary Event 2016★
Tja... je wint wel eens wat, hahah! Of ik 'm ooit ga lezen??? Only time will tell.
★I won this book in the Erotica Group Anniversary Event 2016★
Tja... je wint wel eens wat, hahah! Of ik 'm ooit ga lezen??? Only time will tell.
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