Customer Reviews

As Francesca

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

_As Francesca_ tells an intriguing story of one woman's adventure to find the ultimate sexual encounter. This novel is unusual in that it is simultaneously erotic and plot-driven. The characters are interesting and original. I recommend this book to anyone who has an open mind about sex or wishes they did.

My 4 stars are based on the fact that it's a very entertaining book with some kink and online sex thrown in.... if that's your cup of tea - go for it.

For a first-time effort, Martha Baer does an exceptional job of intermingling suspense and erotica in As Francesca. Her protagonist, Elaine, like so many working women, finds herself in a less-than-perfect career. Elaine finds her only way to move onto the fast track is by stimulating her mental focus through submission to an on-line dominatrix. When she mistakenly logs on using her real name, the suspense begins. Baer's characters are strikingly similar to those I've encountered in my own working life - the icy female supervisor, the unapproachable department head, the gossiping underlings. Readers looking for "juicy" sex will be disappointed - As Francesca is a tale which examines the relationship between the nocturnal and the diurnal, and the consequences when the masks we wear are stripped away.

Overall quite a decent effort. Think Pauline Reage meeting William Gibson; as told by Dilbert. The characters kept my attention and the story flowed quite well, predictable perhaps but never boring. To be read while working on your tan.

There are three main things I loved about this book. One is the gorgeous use of language. Two are the incidental insights that grace almost every chapter -- sensations that we have all experienced in private moments, but never put a name to, and are amazed to discover that someone else has seen the same phenomenon. Like Proust. Three is the intellectual conceit that is the engine of the book: that somehow there is a relationship between public power(dominance) and private submissivenss. Politics as a sado-masochistic exercise. I don't necessarily think the paradigm holds true, but it's certainly fascinating to explore.

Distracting, overwritten prose spoils any erotic tension the story could have projected. Too much literary pretension, not enough stimulation. Sounds like it was written by a Creative Writing major- it tries too hard.

Luckily, I bought this book used, and after shipping and handling it only cost me about four bucks. Of course, I could have flushed four dollar bills down a toilet, and watching them go around in circles before disappearing would have been more entertaining than reading this book. The sex wasn't sexy, the "mystery" was predictable, and the characters were really obvious and boring. Don't waste your time.

The book contained a promising concept, incorporating cyberia within the folds of the erotic thriller. But it was just plain boring. It was very easy to predict exactly what would happen next and who Elaine would next suspect to be the secret Inez... The story follows a rigid day-night-day-night formula which is too repetitive to be interesting. Character development is really shallow; I never got drawn into Elaine or any of her friends. Pretty disappointing read.

I was really disappointed with this book. Elaine assumes a cyper-personality of a passive-submissive type, Francesca. Unfortunately, while the character has a lot of potential, she is never allowed to develop into anything.

I was very disappointed by this book. I did not care about the narrator's on-line or "real" life, nor her clothes, her dimensionless friends or her very boring fantasies. The "sex" scenes are juiceless and the show-don't-tell writing rule is blatantly disregarded. I was mildly interested in the ending though, as I skipped several chapters to get to it, so I guess Baer accomplished something.