Announcing The M.Christian Erotic Science Fiction Collection

For the first time, M.Christian’s sexual futurist novels and short story collections are available as both ebooks and special-edition audiobooks!

“Future technology’s ability to alter the very nature of our humanity—and the ways those changes interact with sex—shapes this solid collection of futuristic stories from erotica author M.Christian”

—Publisher’s Weekly on Skin Effect

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Since his appearance in the 1994 edition of Best American Erotica, M.Christian has proven himself to be the premier erotic chameleon: being able to seamlessly write for practically any genre and orientation, fetish and interest.  

But it is in the field of erotic science fiction that M.Christian has shown his mastery of both: combining a vivid style, haunting and evocative characters, and carefully crafted structures to not just sexually charge the reader he also examines how human sexuality may evolve in the coming decades—or centuries.

For the first time his premier short story collections and novels are now available as not just as ebooks but—through a special arrangement with Wordwooze Publishing—as audiobooks!

M.Christian’s Erotic Science Fiction Short Story Collections:

Bachelor Machine: Science Fiction Erotica (with an introduction by Cecilia Tan).  

The book that established M.Christian as a voice in the genre.  Received positive reviews from many, including Locus Online.  

Ebook (Renaissance E Books/Sizzler Editions): http://tinyurl.com/gp8cpkt

Audiobook (Wordwooze Publishing): http://tinyurl.com/zw25f7o

Skin Effect: More Science Fiction Erotica (with an introduction by Ernest Hogan).  

The positive-future sequel to Bachelor Machine.  Received positive reviews from the likes of Publisher’s Weekly.  

Ebook (Renaissance E Books/Sizzler Editions): http://tinyurl.com/j9moky8

Audiobook (Wordwooze Publishing): http://tinyurl.com/jzmct5u

M.Christian’s Erotic Science Fiction Novels:

Bionic Lover

A mesmerizing tale of bittersweet desire, lesbian romance, and all-too human frailty

Ebook Print-on-demand (Wordwooze Publishing): http://tinyurl.com/jz54uxr

Audiobook (Wordwooze Publishing): http://tinyurl.com/jsdbzgu

Painted Doll

"A non-stop ride of precise prose and unexpected imagery. Painted Doll is another M. Christian gem; a seamless blend of the erotic with the darkly fantastic. Unpredictable, engaging, and an often startling read."—Marilyn Jaye Lewis, author of Freak Parade

Ebook (Renaissance E Books/Sizzler Editions): http://tinyurl.com/hzx3xyx

Audiobook (Wordwooze Publishing): http://tinyurl.com/j5bvavs

Finger's Breadth

“Finger’s Breadth may well rank as one of the most psychologically astute erotic novels since Leopold von Sacher-Masoch’s Venus in Furs, and it deserves to be just as widely read.”—Circlet Press

Ebook (Renaissance E Books/Sizzler Editions): http://tinyurl.com/go8m62p

Audiobook (Wordwooze Publishing): http://tinyurl.com/zufwvav

All books are available for review.  Interested?  Write M.Christian at mchristianzobop@gmail.com

M.Christian’s Sexual Futurism In Fact As Well As Fiction:

In addition to writing erotic science fiction, M.Christian is a contributor to the well-respected Future Of Sex (“insights into the fascinating topic of the future of human sex and sexuality”): a publication of the Advanced Human Technologies Group!

M.Christian has written on a staggering array of subjects -- from covering state-of-the-art breakthroughs in sexual technology to speculations on the future of human eroticism -- in over 60 popular articles and essays.

Here’s a link to M.Christian’s work for Future Of Sex: http://futureofsex.net/author/m-christian.

About M.Christian:

Calling M.Christian versatile is a tremendous understatement. Extensively published in science fiction, fantasy, horror, thrillers, and even non-fiction, it is in erotica that M.Christian has become an acknowledged master, with stories in such anthologies as Best American Erotica, Best Gay Erotica, Best Lesbian Erotica, Best Bisexual Erotica, Best Fetish Erotica, and in fact too many anthologies, magazines, and sites to name.  In erotica, M.Christian is known and respected not just for his passion on the page but also his staggering imagination and chameleonic ability to successfully and convincingly write for any and all orientations.

But M.Christian has other tricks up his literary sleeve: in addition to writing, he is a prolific and respected anthologist, having edited 25 anthologies to date including the Best S/M Erotica series; Pirate Booty; My Love For All That Is Bizarre: Sherlock Holmes Erotica; The Burning Pen; The Mammoth Book of Future Cops, and The Mammoth Book of Tales of the Road (with Maxim Jakubowksi); Confessions, Garden of Perverse, and Amazons (with Sage Vivant), and many more.

M.Christian's short fiction has been collected into many bestselling books in a wide variety of genres, including the Lambda Award finalist Dirty Words and other queer collections like Filthy Boys, BodyWork, and his best-of-his-best gay erotica book, Stroke the Fire.  He also has collections of non-fiction (Welcome to Weirdsville, Pornotopia, and How To Write And Sell Erotica); science fiction, fantasy and horror (Love Without Gun Control); and erotic science fiction including Rude Mechanicals, Technorotica, Better Than The Real Thing, and the acclaimed Bachelor Machine.

As a novelist, M.Christian has shown his monumental versatility with books such as the queer vamp novels Running Dry and The Very Bloody Marys; the erotic romance Brushes; the science fiction erotic novel Painted Doll; and the rather controversial gay horror/thrillers Finger's Breadth and Me2.

M.Christian is also the Associate Publisher for Renaissance eBooks, where he strives to be the publisher he'd want to have as a writer, and to help bring quality books (erotica, noir, science fiction, and more) and authors out into the world.

M.Christian’s Social Media:

Site: www.mchristian.com

Twitter: @mchristianzobop

Tumblr: http://rude-mechanicals.tumblr.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mdot.christian & https://www.facebook.com/zobopmchristian

More Cool b.senory News: Nice Little Interview With Vocativ!

The fun b.sensory stuff just keeps on coming! A few days ago I did a quick interview with Jennings Brown at Vocativ about this great new technology - combining sex tech and erotica - and the piece just went live!

Here's the link - and I'm pasting in the piece itself below:

The Future Of Erotica: E-readers That Sync Up With Your Vibrator
An erotica author explains how he will write literature made for a sex toy 

A particularly highbrow sex toy is on display this week at CES—and, of course, it’s French. 

French startup E.Sensory won a CES Innovation Award for their vibrator designed for bibliophiles. The device, called the Little Bird, will connect to the company’s reading app B.Sensory (forthcoming on iOS and Android) via Bluetooth. With the app, users can access scores of erotica stories, and each one will interface with the vibrator in exciting ways. Readers can activate vibrations on their own by caressing or breathing hard on the tablet or smartphone, or they can touch highlighted words that are especially arousing and trigger a vibration meant specifically for that part of the story. The app will come preloaded with a variety of erotic stories, and the company is working with several authors to write erotica that is specifically written for use with the “vibrating love egg.” 

“Now we have 25 authors in France and two in the United States,” E.Sensory founder and CEO Chistel Le Coq told Vocativ, “In erotica, they want to give sensation to their reader. So this is a new way to do that and make the experience better.” 

For some of the writers, this new technology is already changing how they plan to write future erotica. “One thing I will probably do is add a little more detail,” M. Christian, an award-winning erotica writer whose work will be available in B.Sensory, told Vocativ. “Instead of writing, ‘He kissed her,’ I would say ‘His lips tingled on her nipple’ or something like that, and that would be a perfect key in to a certain type of vibration.” 

Christian, who writes paranormal and sci-fi erotica, along with many other genres, said erotica written for this device would also be structured differently. “The story could have more of a thematic build [focused on] the titillation more than the actual sex act,” Christian said. In erotica, simply reading page after page describing sex acts is usually boring, he said, but this interactive format could allow for longer, more drawn-out erotic interactions to remain exciting. “You could have a tingle when someone winks. A sex scene would be much more protractive—almost musical.” 

For those interested in protractive, musical erotica, the Little Bird is already available for pre-order at the bargain price of $99. The free app, which should be available this month will launch with excerpts from Christian’s sci-fi erotica collection “The Bachelor Machine.”

Karla Tangh's Fun Review Of Bachelor Machine!

Karla Tangh is such a very, very very fun trip: just check out her new review of my science fiction erotica collection, Bachelor Machine!  Thanks so much, Karla!

Here's a tease, for the rest just click over to Karla's site.

Book Review: The Bachelor Machine by M. Christian

Her Tangh-i-ness Does read other things besides Erotica. But since we're on the subject—there's always time for more recreational Smut. Creatives are some of the most highly-sexed beings on the planet; I mean near everything they produce is the result of an orgasm of the Creative Mind.

Take this M. Christian guy, for example. Yeah. Yeah. I started with his short story collection Skin Effect. This guy, he just keeps writing more…more...reasons to moisturize the underthings or try and hide the evidence of stimulation upon the erogenous zone of choice. There's lots of male on female action, female on female, a genuinely happy foursome (two males make out with the females and also each other). For pure male on male, do refer to M.Christian's other short story collection, one being, Dirty Words.

However, for the People of Color in the Reading Audience, be aware this collection does contain Triggers. These are Sistah-shaped ones both golden, black, and brown. I hear ya'll saying just what does she mean? Read and find out. Just remember Her Tangh-i-ness saw that the work went there and got to the end of the book. Just saying. By the way, she kept reading other M. Christian works. Consider what the author has to say about himself: "For me, being a pioneer in this area, I feel like I have to create my own respect, in a way. I'm like a missionary – at first no matter what tribe I visit, I get the hairy eyeball." So it's obviously time to start eyeballing this dude until he creams in his pants or something.

To make it easy for potential readers of this collection, Her Tangh-i-ness will return to the following rating system that came in mighty handy when describing M. Christian's Skin Effect and other works.

TAMTT *Take A Minute to Think* This means the sexiness might have to grow on you.

WT *Wet* Self-explanatory. No?

H/OA *Hand/Object Assisted* Requires immediate action after the story climax.

FAPP *Find a Partner Pronto* Try this one at home, Folks.

*Spoiler Alert*

Her Tangh-i-ness greatly appreciates pithy plot summaries. However, for those who must have a virgin reading experience, read no further, and eyeball elsewhere.

*Spoiler Alert End*

STATE

WT *Wet* Fiction. M/F Action. She-Machine meets with man. The idea of exciting the man makes the She-machine cum. And when it's over and done with all the She-machine wants to do is sleep? Ok. Can we point to this story as an example of reverse gender post-coital physiology? Maybe the real reason to read this story can be found in the music of this sentence: "Too quick, maybe, too sudden, probably, but he was hanging way down, his breathing was quick and deep, his legs were columns of meat and tension." What does ya'll think?

HACK WORK

TAMTT *Take A Minute to Think* Fiction. M/F Action. This is the story where Her Tangh-i-ness counted to a thousand before she turned the page to the next story. Yup. This is the one of the Oh-No-He-Didn't-Go-There! stories. As the dear, departed writing instructor, Blake Snyder of Save the Cat fame once told me, Her Tangh-i-ness Ain't in the Target Audience.Those that are—ya'll know who you is when you read it. A female shares her consciousness with her paying fares and finds herself taking a young Black woman for a session with a riding crop.

WINGED MEMORY

TAMTT *Take A Minute to Think* Fiction. M/F Action. Dusk, a desperate young man named without prospects sells off painful sexual memories in order to afford the cyber-whore of his wet dreams. Each time he does this. He keeps losing more and more of his essential self until the only thing left is to turn the tables on the memory merchant to whom he dealt all his unrecoverables.

EULOGY

WT *Wet* Fiction. M/F Action. Jeff and Julie, two survivors of a broken triangle comfort one another rather orally. Find more of those musical sentences here. "Our breaths synchronized, and we steamed together like a pair of heavy engines." This is the second of the mouth-whore stories.

[MORE]

Blast From The Past: Cynthia Ward's Locus Online Review of Bachelor Machine!

In celebration of the re-release of my erotic science fiction collection, Bachelor Machine  and the follow-up collection, Skin Effect, here's Cynthia Ward's amazing review of Bachelor from Locus Online.

FORBIDDEN THOUGHTS: REGARDING AN EROTIC SF COLLECTION BY M.CHRISTIAN 

In the 1980s, I read an article about some noted visionaries of the bold future of virtual reality. The visionaries uniformly denied that virtual sex would be a factor in this brave new technology. Apparently the visionaries hadn't noticed that several existing technologies were significantly subsidized by sex, among them the phone companies (by 900 numbers), Big Pharma (by The Pill), and the new videotape industry (by X-rated sales and rentals). Here in the Twenty-First Century, though we're still waiting for VR, phone companies enjoy the additional subsidy of surfers seeking X-rated websites, penile implants and Viagra keep multinational medical companies big in the stock market, and video stores add X-rated DVDs.

SF authors are bolder, or maybe just less blind, than the VR visionaries; they routinely incorporate varieties of cybersex in their fiction. But SF authors rarely center plot and theme on sex, and the professional and semiprofessional SF magazines rarely publish speculative sex stories. Yet the enormous sexual changes of the last few years, both trivial (porn spam) and profound (legalized gay/lesbian marriage in Canada), demand more SF exploration of the subject. Fortunately, on the small-press margins of SF, at the border shared with the erotica genre, a few writers are speculating intelligently and imaginatively about the future of sex. Among the best-known and best of the erotic-SF writers is M.Christian.

The stories in his new collection, The Bachelor Machine, pass the litmus tests of both the SF and erotica genres. Take out the tech and there's no story; take out the sex and there's no story. This description may lead those unfamiliar with SF erotica to suspect that every story is about getting off with the aid of futuristic technologies, and that's true as far as it goes. But that's not going nearly far enough.

The stories in The Bachelor Machine are not about sex, though they're stuffed with sexual acts; the stories are about what sex means. M.Christian is writing about the psychology of being human, and he often does so by exploring sexual possibilities and realities that are rarely discussed, even in private conversation. He not only thinks forbidden thoughts, he extrapolates them in the finest SF fashion.

The aptly named "Technophile" pushes technofetishism to the ultimate as it explicates an idea most authors (especially male authors) would never imagine, let alone write about. To put it bluntly, "Technophile" eroticizes castration. A character has his penis cut off and replaced with the top-of-the-line, state-of-the-art "Long Thrust." Another character wants to lose his virginity to the technological phallus, which he sees as hotter and better than the old-fashion flesh kind. But the cutting-edge implant needs a recharge and remains limp throughout the encounter, a bitter irony.

In the decaying post-industrial future of "Winged Memory", Dusk does something most people couldn't imagine, and would find horrifying if they did: he sells (and loses) his memory of losing his virginity. He does this to buy thirty minutes with a prostitute "walking the street, eyes available red." To have her again, Dusk keeps selling memories, until he doesn't know who he is, or who this woman is that he inexplicably wants.

The stories "Bluebelle" and "Skin-Effect" break taboo by making explicit the sexual undercurrents of the savagery and killing in nearly every Hollywood cop and military action flick.

In "Guernica", several individuals meet secretly in a basement to enjoy sex acts outlawed by a repressive Twenty-First-Century government. Their practices, costumes, and toys deliberately, ironically, terrifyingly recreate the uniforms, actions, and tools of the cops who would arrest and punish – and kill – them.

In "Butterfliequot;, a hacker immersed in the full-sensory, Disney-perfect Glade of the Datasea finds herself assaulted – literally – by a flock of beautiful butterfly-sprites. I generally hate stories about rape/violation, yet Christian's skill, imagery, and insight kept me reading to the end ... and I never felt violated by the story. It's an impressive achievement.

In "Hackwork", Rosselyn Moss works for ExpressTaxi as a body that cyber-riders hire to carry their consciousness around New Orleans. They dictate her actions and, inevitably, drive her body into sexual encounters. One night, she is distressed to find herself whipping a beautiful young stranger – and even more distressed to discover the stranger loves it.

Like Rosselyn, the narrator of "Switch" is a rent girl. She isn't a taxi, but she may have an even more troubling job, for she never remembers who her clients were, or what they did to her. M.Christian travels deep into taboo territory by demonstrating that, for some, being so thoroughly controlled, so completely owned as to remember nothing, is the ultimate turn-on.

In "Everything but the Smell of Lilies", Justine Moor is a whore with a deeply creepy specialty. She's been turned into "a hardwired dead girl, a chilling and stiffening hooker", dying over and over for money. If this bleeding-edge cyberpunk extrapolation isn't disturbing enough, Justine finds herself lying, a motionless but fully-conscious corpse, in an ambulance staffed by a necrophiliac. (In case it's not already abundantly clear, some stories in The Bachelor Machine are not intended to arouse.)

Many of M.Christian's grittily urban stories are cyberpunk; "Heartbreaker" pushes the form to a logical extreme. When an undercover cop sets up the bust of an outlaw biohacker, the two women don't just have sex, they withdraw very special interface cables from inside themselves and connect them: "Linked, each hardwired into the other's genitals, mixed and matched, they surged and merged."

In "Thin Dog", fans jack their minds into a full-sensory experience of what it's like to be superstar reactor-rock band Thin Dog. Members Johnna, Paul, Georgina, and Jingo (ahem) play instruments that are nanotech implants woven through their bodies; playing includes on-"stage" couplings and quadruplings.

Some stories not only share 1980s-cyberpunk's fascination with Japanese culture, but show the influence of "anime" (Japanese animation). In many ways, the woman and situation in "State" are ideal for anime. The prostitute Fields lives in Japan and earns her living by pretending to be an almost mythically superior Japanese-made sex android. Her masquerade must always achieve perfection – from biochemically lowered body temperature, to "incredibly durable bonding polymer" applied daily to every millimeter of flesh, to behavior in orgasm – because her clients must never suspect she's human.

Not every story is cyberpunk. "The New Motor" is an amusing steampunk entertainment set in Paul Di Filippo territory. Nineteenth-Century spiritualist John Murray Spear has a vision of "the Association of Electricizers ... spirits with a mechanical turn of mind," and begins proselytizing for the creation of "the Physical Savior of the Race ... the New Motor!" This charismatic messiah for "a new Age of Man Through Machine" leads his followers to transcendentalist New England, where they settle in the conservative town of Lynn, Massachusetts. Seducing and neglecting a particularly fervent follower proves seer Spear is dangerously blind to certain human truths.

The collection has some flaws. Some futures don't seem entirely plausible (a minor problem, and one hardly confined to the erotic-SF subgenre). A couple of stories are vague in their SFnal elements. I never quite figured out what "Bluebelle" was (a micro Death Star? a flying fembot? a round mecha?). It takes too long to learn what the futuristic technology is and does in "Eulogy". The endings of "Eulogy" and "Winged Memory" left me wondering just what was happening. And frustratingly, the book provides no copyright data, providing no information about if or when the stories were previously published.

M.Christian's prose is strong and supple and sometimes lyrical. If you don't like naughty language or graphic descriptions of sex, you'd better steer clear of his work. But if you like smart, taboo-breaking SF, then read The Bachelor Machine.

–Cynthia Ward, Locus Online (2004)

(Cynthia Ward has published short fiction in Asimov's and numerous anthologies, and has written a monthly market column for Speculations. She has written many reviews for Amazon.com. Her website is at www.cynthiaward.com.)

M.Christian's Erotic Science Fiction Collection, Bachelor Machine, Back in A New Edition – PLUS Groundbreaking Sequel: Skin Effect!

M.Christian and Renaissance E Books, through its Sizzler Editions imprint, is pleased and proud to announce the republication of M.Christian's groundbreaking science fiction collection, Bachelor Machine, plus a brand new, never-before seen, follow-up collection: Skin Effect!

M.Christian rocked the world of both science fiction and erotica with Bachelor Machine – Cynthia Ward at Locus Online calling it "smart, taboo-breaking SF" and – and now his groundbreaking book is back in a brand new edition!

Not only that, but M.Christian will further amaze as well as arouse with a follow up collection of imaginative and stimulating stories: Skin Effect!

In Skin Effect and Bachelor Machine are tales that push the envelopes of both science fiction as well as erotica in innovative and stimulating ways: stories voyaging to the near as well as the far future, exploring the ultimate limits of sex and arousal.

In her introduction to Bachelor Machine, Cecilia Tan says of M.Christian "There are only two people in the world I envy. One is the late Roger Zelazny, whose talent for an almost jazz improvisational way of writing I could never match. The other is M.Christian, for writing exactly what I’d write if only I could get off my ass. Which is to say, raunchy hallucinatory sexfuture dreams that never fail to arouse me and kick me in the gut at the same time."

In his forward to Skin Effect, the Chicano science fiction legend Ernest Hogan (author of High Aztech and Cortez On Jupiter), says "The stories in Skin Effect are erotic, and original, state-of-the-art science fiction. They take the technological developments of recent years and plug them into the engines of human desire, taking us beyond our present day sexual issues into worlds that deliver in ways I hadn't imagined possible."

In Skin Effect and Bachelor Machine are tales that are riveting as well as arousing, stories of technology and desire, and arousal and innovation ... told in an engaging and evocative style guaranteed to amaze as well as excite.

From down and out hustlers, enhanced sex workers, enigmatic aliens, bleeding edge erotic technologies, and more – Bachelor Machine and Skin Effect are an unique visions of the future, while celebrating humanity's oldest pleasure ... sex!

"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. Truly an author for our post-everything 21st century."
–Paul Di Filippo, The Steampunk Trilogy

"M.Christian speaks with a totally unique and truly fascinating voice. There are a lot of writers out there who'd better protect their markets – M. Christian has arrived!"
–Mike Resnick, Hugo and Nebula Award winning science fiction author

"When I tell you that these stories are hot, I might be giving you an understatement. M.Christian’s erotica comes from the heart ... he has created an entire new genre."
–Amos Lassen

"There is an uncommon variety of material in here [Bachelor Machine], from cyberpunk to space opera, alternative history to dystopia. The science-fictional settings are manifold, as are the sexual positions and inclinations—and, more importantly, the role of the inevitable explicit sex within each story. From the frivolous to the poignant to the socio-politically scathing, there’s something in this book for everyone."
–Johann Carlisle, Future Fire

"M.Christian is a hybrid artist and knockout stylist on the order of Jonathan Lethem. Hard-boiled, sharp-edged, funny and fierce, his tales brim with unbridled imagination and pitch-perfect satire,"
–Jim Gladstone

"M.Christian is a writer who takes you for a long walk down a dark wet street at midnight. You can't get much more edgy and still be legal. His fiction never disappoints."
–Nancy Kilpatrick, The Power of the Blood series and In the Shadow of the Gargoyle

Calling M.Christian versatile is a tremendous understatement. Extensively published in science fiction, fantasy, horror, thrillers, and even non-fiction, it is in erotica that M.Christian has become an acknowledged master, 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 in fact too many anthologies, magazines, and sites to name. In erotica, M.Christian is known and respected not just for his passion on the page but also his staggering imagination and chameleonic ability to successfully and convincingly write for any and all orientations.

But M.Christian has other tricks up his literary sleeve: in addition to writing, he is a prolific and respected anthologist, having edited 25 anthologies to date including the Best S/M Erotica series; Pirate Booty; My Love For All That Is Bizarre: Sherlock Holmes Erotica; The Burning Pen; The Mammoth Book of Future Cops, and The Mammoth Book of Tales of the Road (with Maxim Jakubowksi); Confessions, Garden of Perverse, and Amazons (with Sage Vivant), and many more.

M.Christian's short fiction has been collected into many bestselling books in a wide variety of genres, including the Lambda Award finalist Dirty Words and other queer collections like Filthy Boys, BodyWork, and his best-of-his-best gay erotica book, Stroke the Fire. He also has collections of non-fiction (Welcome to Weirdsville, Pornotopia, and How To Write And Sell Erotica); science fiction, fantasy and horror (Love Without Gun Control); and erotic science fiction including Rude Mechanicals, Technorotica, Better Than The Real Thing, and the acclaimed Bachelor Machine.

As a novelist, M.Christian has shown his monumental versatility with books such as the queer vamp novels Running Dry and The Very Bloody Marys; the erotic romance Brushes; the science fiction erotic novel Painted Doll; and the rather controversial gay horror/thrillers Finger's Breadth and Me2.

M.Christian is also the Publisher of Digital Parchment Services and an Associate Publisher for Renaissance E Books, where he strives to be the publisher he'd want to have as a writer, and to help bring quality books (erotica, noir, science fiction, and more) and authors out into the world.

Bachelor Machine: $2.99

Skin Effect: $2.99

READ RAVE "LOCUS" REVIEW M.CHRISTIAN'S SEXFUTURE COLLECTION "BACHELOR MACHINE"

(from the Sizzler Editions blog)

FORBIDDEN THOUGHTS: REGARDING AN EROTIC SF COLLECTION BY M.CHRISTIAN 

(REVIEW FROM LOCUS ONLINE BY CYNTHIA WARD)

In the 1980s, I read an article about some noted visionaries of the bold future of virtual reality.  The visionaries uniformly denied that virtual sex would be a factor in this brave new technology.  Apparently the visionaries hadn't noticed that several existing technologies were significantly subsidized by sex, among them the phone companies (by 900 numbers), Big Pharma (by The Pill), and the new videotape industry (by X-rated sales and rentals).  Here in the Twenty-First Century, though we're still waiting for VR, phone companies enjoy the additional subsidy of surfers seeking X-rated websites, penile implants and Viagra keep multinational medical companies big in the stock market, and video stores add X-rated DVDs.

SF authors are bolder, or maybe just less blind, than the VR visionaries; they routinely incorporate varieties of cybersex in their fiction.  But SF authors rarely center plot and theme on sex, and the professional and semiprofessional SF magazines rarely publish speculative sex stories.  Yet the enormous sexual changes of the last few years, both trivial (porn spam) and profound (legalized gay/lesbian marriage in Canada), demand more SF exploration of the subject.  Fortunately, on the small-press margins of SF, at the border shared with the erotica genre, a few writers are speculating intelligently and imaginatively about the future of sex.  Among the best-known and best of the erotic-SF writers is M.Christian.

The stories in his new collection, The Bachelor Machine, pass the litmus tests of both the SF and erotica genres.  Take out the tech and there's no story; take out the sex and there's no story.  This description may lead those unfamiliar with SF erotica to suspect that every story is about getting off with the aid of futuristic technologies, and that's true as far as it goes.  But that's not going nearly far enough.

The stories in The Bachelor Machine are not about sex, though they're stuffed with sexual acts; the stories are about what sex means.  M.Christian is writing about the psychology of being human, and he often does so by exploring sexual possibilities and realities that are rarely discussed, even in private conversation.  He not only thinks forbidden thoughts, he extrapolates them in the finest SF fashion.

The aptly named "Technophile" pushes technofetishism to the ultimate as it explicates an idea most authors (especially male authors) would never imagine, let alone write about.  To put it bluntly, "Technophile" eroticizes castration.  A character has his penis cut off and replaced with the top-of-the-line, state-of-the-art "Long Thrust." Another character wants to lose his virginity to the technological phallus, which he sees as hotter and better than the old-fashion flesh kind.  But the cutting-edge implant needs a recharge and remains limp throughout the encounter, a bitter irony.

In the decaying post-industrial future of "Winged Memory", Dusk does something most people couldn't imagine, and would find horrifying if they did: he sells (and loses) his memory of losing his virginity.  He does this to buy thirty minutes with a prostitute "walking the street, eyes available red." To have her again, Dusk keeps selling memories, until he doesn't know who he is, or who this woman is that he inexplicably wants.

The stories "Bluebelle" and "Skin-Effect" break taboo by making explicit the sexual undercurrents of the savagery and killing in nearly every Hollywood cop and military action flick.

In "Guernica", several individuals meet secretly in a basement to enjoy sex acts outlawed by a repressive Twenty-First-Century government.  Their practices, costumes, and toys deliberately, ironically, terrifyingly recreate the uniforms, actions, and tools of the cops who would arrest and punish – and kill – them.

In "Butterflie$", a hacker immersed in the full-sensory, Disney-perfect Glade of the Datasea finds herself assaulted – literally – by a flock of beautiful butterfly-sprites.  I generally hate stories about rape/violation, yet Christian's skill, imagery, and insight kept me reading to the end ... and I never felt violated by the story.  It's an impressive achievement.

In "Hackwork", Rosselyn Moss works for ExpressTaxi as a body that cyber-riders hire to carry their consciousness around New Orleans.  They dictate her actions and, inevitably, drive her body into sexual encounters.  One night, she is distressed to find herself whipping a beautiful young stranger – and even more distressed to discover the stranger loves it.

Like Rosselyn, the narrator of "Switch" is a rent girl.  She isn't a taxi, but she may have an even more troubling job, for she never remembers who her clients were, or what they did to her.  M.Christian travels deep into taboo territory by demonstrating that, for some, being so thoroughly controlled, so completely owned as to remember nothing, is the ultimate turn-on.

In "Everything but the Smell of Lilies", Justine Moor is a whore with a deeply creepy specialty.  She's been turned into "a hardwired dead girl, a chilling and stiffening hooker", dying over and over for money.  If this bleeding-edge cyberpunk extrapolation isn't disturbing enough, Justine finds herself lying, a motionless but fully-conscious corpse, in an ambulance staffed by a necrophiliac.  (In case it's not already abundantly clear, some stories in The Bachelor Machine are not intended to arouse.)

Many of M.Christian's grittily urban stories are cyberpunk; "Heartbreaker" pushes the form to a logical extreme.  When an undercover cop sets up the bust of an outlaw biohacker, the two women don't just have sex, they withdraw very special interface cables from inside themselves and connect them: "Linked, each hardwired into the other's genitals, mixed and matched, they surged and merged."

In "Thin Dog", fans jack their minds into a full-sensory experience of what it's like to be superstar reactor-rock band Thin Dog.  Members Johnna, Paul, Georgina, and Jingo (ahem) play instruments that are nanotech implants woven through their bodies; playing includes on-"stage" couplings and quadruplings.

Some stories not only share 1980s-cyberpunk's fascination with Japanese culture, but show the influence of "anime" (Japanese animation).  In many ways, the woman and situation in "State" are ideal for anime.  The prostitute Fields lives in Japan and earns her living by pretending to be an almost mythically superior Japanese-made sex android.  Her masquerade must always achieve perfection – from biochemically lowered body temperature, to "incredibly durable bonding polymer" applied daily to every millimeter of flesh, to behavior in orgasm – because her clients must never suspect she's human.

Not every story is cyberpunk.  "The New Motor" is an amusing steampunk entertainment set in Paul Di Filippo territory.  Nineteenth-Century spiritualist John Murray Spear has a vision of "the Association of Electricizers ... spirits with a mechanical turn of mind," and begins proselytizing for the creation of "the Physical Savior of the Race ... the New Motor!" This charismatic messiah for "a new Age of Man Through Machine" leads his followers to transcendentalist New England, where they settle in the conservative town of Lynn, Massachusetts.  Seducing and neglecting a particularly fervent follower proves seer Spear is dangerously blind to certain human truths.

The collection has some flaws.  Some futures don't seem entirely plausible (a minor problem, and one hardly confined to the erotic-SF subgenre).  A couple of stories are vague in their SFnal elements.  I never quite figured out what "Bluebelle" was (a micro Death Star? a flying fembot? a round mecha?).  It takes too long to learn what the futuristic technology is and does in "Eulogy".  The endings of "Eulogy" and "Winged Memory" left me wondering just what was happening.  And frustratingly, the book provides no copyright data, providing no information about if or when the stories were previously published.

M.Christian's prose is strong and supple and sometimes lyrical.  If you don't like naughty language or graphic descriptions of sex, you'd better steer clear of his work.  But if you like smart, taboo-breaking SF, then read The Bachelor Machine.  

–Cynthia Ward, Locus Online (2004)

(Cynthia Ward has published short fiction in Asimov's and numerous anthologies, and has written a monthly market column for Speculations.  She has written many reviews for Amazon.com.  Her website is at www.cynthiaward.com.)

BUY THE DAZZLING SEXFUTURE "BACHELOR MACHINE" ONLY $2.99 FOR KINDLE AT AMAZON.

M.Christian's Erotic Science Fiction Collection, Bachelor Machine, Back in A New Edition – PLUS Groundbreaking Sequel: Skin Effect!

This is amazing news!  Not only is my erotic science fiction collection, Bachelor Machine, back in print from the great folks at Renaissance E Books/Sizzler Editions but the sequel - with many new stories - is out as well: Skin Effect!  

Here's my announcement - and if you want a copy of either for reviews and the like please let me know.

M.Christian and Renaissance E Books, through its Sizzler Editions imprint, is pleased and proud to announce the republication of M.Christian's groundbreaking science fiction collection, Bachelor Machine, plus a brand new, never-before seen, follow-up collection: Skin Effect!

M.Christian rocked the world of both science fiction and erotica with Bachelor Machine – Cynthia Ward at Locus Online calling it "smart, taboo-breaking SF" and – and now his groundbreaking book is back in a brand new edition!

Not only that, but M.Christian will further amaze as well as arouse with a follow up collection of imaginative and stimulating stories: Skin Effect!

In Skin Effect and Bachelor Machine are tales that push the envelopes of both science fiction as well as erotica in innovative and stimulating ways: stories voyaging to the near as well as the far future, exploring the ultimate limits of sex and arousal.

In her introduction to Bachelor Machine, Cecilia Tan says of M.Christian "There are only two people in the world I envy. One is the late Roger Zelazny, whose talent for an almost jazz improvisational way of writing I could never match. The other is M.Christian, for writing exactly what I’d write if only I could get off my ass. Which is to say, raunchy hallucinatory sexfuture dreams that never fail to arouse me and kick me in the gut at the same time."

In his forward to Skin Effect, the Chicano science fiction legend Ernest Hogan (author of High Aztech and Cortez On Jupiter), says "The stories in Skin Effect are erotic, and original, state-of-the-art science fiction. They take the technological developments of recent years and plug them into the engines of human desire, taking us beyond our present day sexual issues into worlds that deliver in ways I hadn't imagined possible."

In Skin Effect and Bachelor Machine are tales that are riveting as well as arousing, stories of technology and desire, and arousal and innovation ... told in an engaging and evocative style guaranteed to amaze as well as excite.

From down and out hustlers, enhanced sex workers, enigmatic aliens, bleeding edge erotic technologies, and more – Bachelor Machine and Skin Effect are an unique visions of the future, while celebrating humanity's oldest pleasure ... sex!

"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. Truly an author for our post-everything 21st century."
–Paul Di Filippo, The Steampunk Trilogy

"M.Christian speaks with a totally unique and truly fascinating voice. There are a lot of writers out there who'd better protect their markets – M. Christian has arrived!"
–Mike Resnick, Hugo and Nebula Award winning science fiction author

"When I tell you that these stories are hot, I might be giving you an understatement. M.Christian’s erotica comes from the heart ... he has created an entire new genre."
–Amos Lassen

"There is an uncommon variety of material in here [Bachelor Machine], from cyberpunk to space opera, alternative history to dystopia. The science-fictional settings are manifold, as are the sexual positions and inclinations—and, more importantly, the role of the inevitable explicit sex within each story. From the frivolous to the poignant to the socio-politically scathing, there’s something in this book for everyone."
–Johann Carlisle, Future Fire

"M.Christian is a hybrid artist and knockout stylist on the order of Jonathan Lethem. Hard-boiled, sharp-edged, funny and fierce, his tales brim with unbridled imagination and pitch-perfect satire,"
–Jim Gladstone

"M.Christian is a writer who takes you for a long walk down a dark wet street at midnight. You can't get much more edgy and still be legal. His fiction never disappoints."
–Nancy Kilpatrick, The Power of the Blood series and In the Shadow of the Gargoyle

Calling M.Christian versatile is a tremendous understatement. Extensively published in science fiction, fantasy, horror, thrillers, and even non-fiction, it is in erotica that M.Christian has become an acknowledged master, 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 in fact too many anthologies, magazines, and sites to name. In erotica, M.Christian is known and respected not just for his passion on the page but also his staggering imagination and chameleonic ability to successfully and convincingly write for any and all orientations. 

But M.Christian has other tricks up his literary sleeve: in addition to writing, he is a prolific and respected anthologist, having edited 25 anthologies to date including the Best S/M Erotica series; Pirate Booty; My Love For All That Is Bizarre: Sherlock Holmes Erotica; The Burning Pen; The Mammoth Book of Future Cops, and The Mammoth Book of Tales of the Road (with Maxim Jakubowksi); Confessions, Garden of Perverse, and Amazons (with Sage Vivant), and many more. 

M.Christian's short fiction has been collected into many bestselling books in a wide variety of genres, including the Lambda Award finalist Dirty Words and other queer collections like Filthy Boys, BodyWork, and his best-of-his-best gay erotica book, Stroke the Fire. He also has collections of non-fiction (Welcome to Weirdsville, Pornotopia, and How To Write And Sell Erotica); science fiction, fantasy and horror (Love Without Gun Control); and erotic science fiction including Rude Mechanicals, Technorotica, Better Than The Real Thing, and the acclaimed Bachelor Machine.

As a novelist, M.Christian has shown his monumental versatility with books such as the queer vamp novels Running Dry and The Very Bloody Marys; the erotic romance Brushes; the science fiction erotic novel Painted Doll; and the rather controversial gay horror/thrillers Finger's Breadth and Me2.

M.Christian is also the Publisher of Digital Parchment Services and an Associate Publisher for Renaissance E Books, where he strives to be the publisher he'd want to have as a writer, and to help bring quality books (erotica, noir, science fiction, and more) and authors out into the world.

Bachelor Machine: The Award Finalist Author
$2.99

Skin Effect: By the Award Finalist Author: More Science Fiction Erotica
$2.99