Best Fantastic Erotica
edited by Cecilia Tan

Book Review by Ashley Lister

You’re going to think I’m an idiot but I was sat for ten minutes looking at the title of this book in confusion. I was thinking, in a way that mirrors inebriation but is actually natural stupidity, “Can stories be so good that they deserve to be called The Best and Fantastic?”

Of course, the cure for my idiocy—on this occasion as on many others—was assisted by a little reading. A glance at the blurb and the introduction revealed that this collection of stories comes from Circlet Press’s international contest searching for the finest examples of erotic science fiction and fantasy.

Consequently, I donned my reading glasses and prepared to boldly go where no one had gone before.

Like a lot of people, I’ve harboured fatuous reservations about the genre of erotic science fiction and fantasy. I don’t object to contemporary erotica where superbly handsome and virile men are paired with devastatingly beautiful and wanton women. I don’t object to sexual athletics and prowess that combine Herculean erections and Niagra-esque orgasms. But for some reason, if the characters are going down up on a spaceship, or fingering someone’s precious ring in Middle Earth, I tend to think the narrative is stretching the bounds of my credulity.

So, with those bigoted opinions clanging through my thoughts, and my expectations limited to an anticipation of Horny Hobbits or a new Borg sect that put the “ass” into “assimilation” I braced myself to face some brave new worlds.

Best Fantastic Erotica begins with Arinn Dembo’s "Monsoon." The bleak and barren landscape where the story is set had me thinking of Frank Herbert’s Dune or Luke Skywalker’s Tatooine. Reading a little further I discovered the alien landscape was not “in a galaxy far far away,” but set a little closer to home in India. And then I was lost in the universally adored fantasy world of damned good storytelling.

Monsoon is the story of a photographer and a country that is alien to him. Although the world may seem familiar and quantifiable through a camera lens, what you see isn’t always what is there. "Monsoon" is exquisitely written, and Dembo deservedly won first place in Circlet’s contest. A fantastical story, but based so firmly in reality, the author pulls off that cleverest of tricks so the reader understands everything and comes away blissfully confused.

Best Fantastic Erotica is also not without humour. One of my favourite stories from this anthology is "Capture, Courting and Copulation: Contemporary Human Mating Rituals and the Etiology of Human Aggression." The title alone is irresistible and the story produced by Carolyn and Steve Vakesh is an outstanding achievement of eroticism, wit and perhaps the most grownup realisation of dungeons and dragons that this reader has ever seen.

Catherine Lundoff’s "Twilight" is the story of a half-blood vampire in the clutches of her hot and horny nemesis. I didn’t realise Catherine and I shared the same passionate interest in vampires but she brings the undead to life in this story with a glorious sense of innate sexiness and fun.

"Smoke," by Jean Roberta, cleverly twists the familiar theme of “be careful what you wish for.” Jean Roberta’s protagonist is an independent lady—alone at the beginning of the story, although she’s wishing she wasn’t. This devilishly exciting tale is told with Jean Roberta’s typical wit, passion and enthusiasm making the whole experience so thoroughly enjoyable.

There are eighteen stories in this anthology and Circlet say it is the largest publication to come from them yet. The stories mentioned above are just a few of the genuinely exciting tales in this thoroughly enjoyable collection.

Ashley Lister
May/June 2008

Best Fantastic Erotica
(Circlet Press; May, 2008; ISBN-10: 1885865600)
Available at: Amazon.com / Amazon UK

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© 2008 Ashley Lister. All rights reserved.


About the Author: Ashley Lister is a UK author responsible for more than two-dozen erotic novels written under a variety of pseudonyms.His most recent work, Swingers: True Confessions from Today's Modern Swinging Scene (Virgin Books; ISBN: 0753511355), a non-fiction book recounting the exploits of UK swingers, is his first title published under his own name.
Ashley’s non-fiction has appeared in a variety of magazines, including Forum, Chapter & Verse and The International Journal of Erotica. Nexus, Chimera and Silver Moon have published his full-length fiction, with shorter stories appearing in anthologies edited by Maxim Jakubowski, Rachel Kramer Bussel and Mitzi Szereto. He is very proud to be a regular contributor to ERWA.
Websites: www.ashleylister.co.uk / ashleylister.blogspot.com

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