While technically a “novel,” Children of the Void is clearly based on the role-playing lives of an extraordinary group of six women who share between them 22 personae and inhabit an “all female world of glamor and discipline” which they call Aristasia (located in present-day London). The Aristasians see our age (inaugurated by the great cultural collapse of the 1960s) as unnatural and psychotic and have seceded from the outside world which they term “The Pit,” erecting their own “Iron Curtain” in order to create their own time-space regions such as Vintesse (the 1920s) and Novaria (the projected future).
The Aristasian girls are divided into two sexes: blonde (ultra-feminine) and brunette (feminine) and even the most casual social relations between the sexes often seem to necessitate corporal punishment such as canings or strappings which are detailed by Miss Snow with a simmering eroticism. In place of what Snow terms “The Void” (the entire post-’60s cultural milieu), the Aristasians inhabit their own lively social whirl of the Cinema Odeon, the Soda Fountain, and the Constant Nymph Club. Their flirtations and chastisements are interspersed with eloquent theoretical analyses of the state of the Pit, in which for example a home is described as “just a dormitory for consumers” and its depraved media manipulations of the “bongos” (pit-dwellers). Includes a glossary of the Aristasian language and an afterword specifically addressed to the “One Girl in a Thousand” who might be inspired to actually cross over the Iron Curtain into the glamorously strict world of Aristasia. SS

Publisher: Wildfire Club
Hardback: 192 pages
Illustrated

“A fascinating dissertation on an esoteric subject. It is highly recommended to all those interested in exploring the little-known alcoves of history and culture.”

Publisher: Tuttle
Paperback: 176 pages

“Over a span of 5,000 years China has established the world’s most extensive pharmacopoeia of medicinal herbs… Chinese herbal medicine is a subject surprisingly neglected in current literature. The highly illustrated Chinese Herbal Medicine fills this void, providing the general reader with insight into one of the world’s most complex and little-known sciences. It examines the natural flora and fauna on which herbal medicine is based and explains the philosophy that propelled its development… The text includes a color-illustrated list of 200 major herbs detailing their use, and provides herbal recipes for some common ailments.”

Publisher: Shambhala
Paperback: 180 pages
Illustrated

“Tokyo Metropolis. Both in hospital rooms and on the neon streets, beautiful young Japanese girls are photographed in plastercasts and bandages, victims of unknown traumas. These are the ‘broken dolls’ of Romain Slocombe’s Tokyo, a city seething with undercurrents of violent fantasy, fetishism and bondage. Not since J.G. Ballard’s legendary Crash have the erotic possibilities of trauma—real or imagined—been so vividly exposed. City of the Broken Dolls is a provocative, often startling photographic document of a previously unseen Tokyo, and of the girls whose bodies bear mute witness to the city’s futuristic, erotic interface of sex and technology.”

Publisher: Creation
Paperback: 128 pages
Illustrated

“The essential parasitological reference… the textual descriptions of the intestinal protozoa, intestinal helmiths and confusing objects found in the feces continue to provide an excellent complement to the color atlas.”

Publisher: C.C. Thomas
Hardback: 176 pages
Illustrated

“Essays, fiction, and interviews compiled by a San Francisco lesbian-feminist SM support group. Chapters include ‘If I Ask You To Tie Me Up, Will You Still Want To Love Me?’ ‘Proper Orgy Behavior,’ ‘Handkerchief Codes,’ ‘How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love My Dildo,’ ‘Dangerous Shoes, or What’s a Nice Dyke Like Me Doing in a Get-Up Like This?,’ ‘Girl Gang,’ and ‘The Leather Menace: Comments on Politics and SM.’”

Publisher: Alyson
Paperback: 288 pages

A collaboration by artists, theorists and scientists, this is a pop media investigation of what happens when urban and human environments intersect with nature. In addition to documenting urban survivors such as the pigeon, it includes an interview with the Rat Catcher of New York, a photo essay on roadkill, a look at sci-fi, exploitation and Hollywood films following the “nature runs amok” theme and contributions from Dr. Paul Ehrlich, Donna Haraway and J.G. Ballard. AK

Publisher: Juno
Paperback: 224 pages
Illustrated

Brand-by-brand comparisons of more than 120 condoms sold in the U.S. and Canada. Width, length, lubrication, texture, price and special features are covered. GR

Publisher: Added Dimensions
Paperback: 128 pages

At the core of this oddly beautiful little book is a sort of “how to” guide, which focuses on the specifics of the correct behaviors for a woman desiring the “top” or “mistress” role in a sadomasochistic interaction. (It is written in such a way that the “bottom” might be male or female, but the sadist is presumed to be female.) This is an excellent book for the novice who might not have a clue where to begin. It would also make a great gift to a wife or girlfriend with whom one might wish to initiate a sadomasochistic interaction. Besides the basic etiquette involved, there are actual sample dialogues to which one might refer for inspiration or guidance. Keen insights are also offered for very specific aspects of fetishism, plus tips on how to make the most out of a humiliating situation. When offered as a present, it might well include bookmarks.
What makes this an odd book is not the subject matter, but the juxtaposition of the texts. The book is divided into three sections. The first and last sections are a fictional work of enormous precision and craft purporting to be the memoirs of Angel Stern. The writing has an almost hallucinatory edge to it. The general flow of the story tells the tale of how Angel came to her sadism. “Like some exotic monster I rarely emerged from the green darkness of the ocean floor, where my frail phosphorescence lit the way. These light and fluid creatures, who fled easily through the watery latitudes to surface and air I envied; I wondered at their careless trust in a foreign light. I surface slowly into their bright and confused stream to find they care nothing about my icy home below. They know only that to follow me would be their death as slowly the terrible pressure crushed their bodies. Enough that they are well-amused by my lurid coloring and profusion of antennae.” SA

Publisher: Blue Moon
Paperback: 192 pages

Power lines, computer terminals, and the attempt to cover up their threat to your health. Includes a chapter on the neurological applications of ELF pulses in mind control (such as José Delgado). FLA

Publisher: Putnam
Paperback: 336 pages