BLACK FEATHERS

A debut collection featuring 23 tales devoted to erotic fantasy. All but two of Tan’s hot, twisty stories have appeared elsewhere, in kinky magazines you may never have heard of (Paramour, Taste of Latex, etc.) and erotica collections, none reviewed here (Dark Angels: Lesbian Vampire Stories; Switch Hitters: Lesbians Write Gay Male Erotica, Gay Men Write Lesbian Erotica, etc.), although Kirkus did review The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, 1996, edited by Teri Windling and Ellen Datlow, in which Tan’s “The Nightingale” first appeared. Tan is the founder and publisher of Circlet Press, specializing in erotic science fiction. The dreams herein focus on wish fulfillment (“Daydreaming”), rituals (“Heart’s Desire”), faraway worlds (“Pearl Diver”), utopias (“Telepaths Don’t Need Safewords”), the seamy side (“Porn Flicks”), the near future (“Rough Trade”) and how the other half lives (“Whipmaster”). Each section gets its own intro by Tan (“Right now I like writing endings that seem like beginnings”). “Penetration” catalogues substitute dildos that the narrator (top) uses on her seductee (bottom): They include kielbasa, a burning candle, and an Idaho potato swathed in a condom. “Daydreaming” tells of a virgin student who can’t keep his mind in focus and keeps being invaded by gay fantasies; “A True Story” reveals the narrator’s masturbation modes; in “Heart’s Desire,” the narrator must whip an S/M boy at a lesbian party before she can free and own him; and in “Pearl Diver,” a virgin dives by moonlight and collects large pearls in her vagina to provoke visions. To avoid narcosis, full hormonal participation is required.