Weightless Books

BLACK FEATHERS: Erotic Dreams was originally published back in the 1990s by HarperCollins, showcasing 23 erotic stories by Cecilia Tan, founder of Circlet Press. The taboos broken by the book are not those of sexuality per se, though the book contains healthy doses of BDSM and alien-human relations. The boundaries most challenged by the book are those of categories themselves. The book mixes real world contemporary fiction stories with fantasy and science fiction, and includes gay, lesbian, trans, bisexual, and heterosexual erotica all in one collection. While that made it a challenge for bookstores to figure out what shelf to put it on (erotica? lesbian? gay? science fiction? literary fiction?), it prompted Paramour Magazine to issue the praise: “There’s something for everyone here.”This new ebook edition includes a new forward by the author, in which she says of the book’s “sex-positive” label, “In these stories there is conflict, pain, friction and trouble. But the sex is consensual, and the stories are intended to arouse. They arouse through pleasure and desire and exploration, and not through guilt.” Unless you’re reading them at work, perhaps.”Black Feathers is not for the faint of heart or the politically correct. Cecilia Tan’s collection of erotic fantasy explores the twists and turns of pain and pleasure, dominance and submission. But perhaps most fun for grown-up science fiction fans are Tan’s forays into the sex of the future.”–The New York Blade”Cecilia Tan transcends time, space, gravity, and cultural norms in her line of work: erotic science fiction.” –San Francisco Weekly”Fur, sandpaper, a hairbrush, a braided thong-—these are a few of Tan’s favorite things. BLACK FEATHERS is… steamy, lubricious, power-laden, and hypnotic for a stroke or trance when the itch calls.” –The Village Voice”When the erotic imagination is jump-started and tears through your subconscious like a funny car on acid, there’s no telling where a fantasy can lead. In the case of Cecilia Tan… your fantasies may take you way out.” –Girlfriends Magazine”Inventive and playful, Tan exhibits great imagination.”–Penthouse.com”[Her] best work fuses [fiction] with sexual practices beyond the norm. Amy Tan it ain’t.”–Harper’s Bazaar Singapore”Tan’s marvelous descriptive abilities … reach out of the page to the reader with a tremendous urgency. There’s something for everyone here.” — Paramour Magazine”Tan herself is writing about many other things when she writes explicitly about sex: the influence or people’s placement in social class and gender, race, and power groups in influencing sexual attraction, sexual practice, and sexuality.”–New York Review of Science Fiction

Posted on Tuesday, April 16th, 2013 at 12:00 am.