After the last, unexpectedly sex-free, romp in the Tales of Gentalia, readers may be wondering anxiously: has CB Archer lost his touch?
No fears, Gentalians, no fears: this latest outing contains plenty of touch, and many other things besides. Gertrude is setting off as an exchange student to wonderful, magical Canada; in preparation for her departure, her friends try to win the latest TorTech game to take over the world of Gentalia, a game that involves racing while hoeing and plowing.
Fans of the Annals--the full-length books that are the backbone of the series--won't know who Gertrude is, but they will recognize a number of secondary characters, who soon take over the narrative in their race to win, or maybe sabotage, the game. There's the lumberjackin' Hippolyta, whose entirely correct estimation of the sexism of many of the games and gamers is expressed in rather amusing (if you don't have to deal with it directly) overbearing outrage, or shy Trev and his clueless French Canadian crush, whose budding romance is adorably sweet.
But the main attraction is the twins, who move from throwaway side characterhood to take center stage. We finally get to know them as people, and even--gasp!--in the real as well as the pixelated flesh. Their sexual hijinks and underhanded plotting fill up a lot of the story, as they discover the fun of getting it on in the virtual as well as the real world, and try to throw the game so that they will never have to leave.
"Need for Seed" has plenty of lesbian love, but is not as over-the-top kinky as some of the earlier Tales, so even though it's the eleventh in the series, it could be a good place to start for those who who don't know yet how they come down on the topic of fantasy gaming erotica of the very, very naughty sort. Like the other stories, it's full of cheeky humor and a certain amount of real emotion amidst all the imaginary body parts. So, you know, not for the super-prudish, but for the more adventurous, a feel-good (haha! You see what I did there??) story unlike anything else you're likely to find.
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