A Review of Summoning the Succubus by Viktor von Priapis

There are some pieces of succubus erotica that have what is a very interesting story buried beneath the sex scenes. The problem, most of the time, is that the story begins with story, but the moment there is the slightest chance for the main character to fall into the clutches of the succubus, this, of course, must happen.

Trying to keep some semblance of the story amongst a series of sexual encounters that go, seemingly, forever, is a challenge. Some can manage that, but then I wonder why it is that they couldn’t keep the focus of the work on the story and characters and not so much the sex?

• Title: Summoning the Succubus
• Author: Viktor von Priapis
• Length: 24 Pages
• ASIN: B010BVRBVS
• Publishing Date: June 23, 2015
• This work at Amazon.com

The work tells the story of:

In order to pass her classes at Mistress Lilim’s Academy of Necromantic Arts and Arcane Studies, Cassandra Crosswell must summon and bind a demon familiar. There’s just one problem: she comes from a family of paladins and no lesser demon in its right mind will heed her call. So Cassandra must take her chances and summon a greater demon of lust and battle if she wants to have any hope of not flunking out of school. She just hopes she doesn’t get more than she bargained for…

Cassandra has a problem in that she cannot pass her Demonology 101 course. It isn’t because she’s not good at her craft, it’s because no demon would think of answering a paladin. Still, after a long search she finds one chance and decides to take it. A name spoken, a succubus answers and then Cassandra finds that the having isn’t as good as the cumming.

The underlying story in this work is really very interesting and in being so that makes Cassandra a character that has a purpose, direction and meaning within herself. There’s a good deal of telling of her life, wants and fears. There’s history around her, there is a problem needing a solution. Even the path to that solution is interesting and tells a lot about the universe this work is set in.

Apiana is the succubus of this work, and she as well has history, purpose, a very strong will and desires. She is not, at all, stereotypical and makes reference to that when Cassandra is trying to make a pact with her, noting that she “doesn’t do souls”. I liked her personality, the mix of seduction, control, and dominance that she holds in the work. It takes some time for Apiana’s story to be told, to make the connection with Cassandra and throughout there are hints of some succubus mind control persuasion which I thought was very well done.

When the erotica comes in the story, Apiana’s secret comes to light, that he is a futa, for one, and once that moment is past and Cassandra learns a lesson or two, the work then tells of some of the powers that Apiana has, Cassandra is taken in other ways, including tentacles, and then the work comes to an abrupt ending and Apiana vanishes.

The work tends to have much of its focus on the erotica, but even through those scenes, there are moments that go back to the core story, what Cassandra needs, and that managed to keep my interest in things. It just manages to avoid being too heavy on the various bits of erotica that Cassandra goes through and in doing so it also managed to keep my interest, if at times just barely.

I felt the ending was a bit too abrupt, but in being so, this left several plots open for the work to continue with if the author was considering to do so. The means in which Apiana gave Cassandra a way to summon her was, I thought, quite delicious, and as such did leave more encounters open.

There was however one little misstep in the work, having to do with the terms of the summoning. Whether this was intentional, or a mistake, it is hard to say, but that also might be another path for the work to continue on.

The ending did work in the aftermath of Apiana’s appearance, even having a bit of humour to it which did make me smile a bit. Still, it was, for me, too quick when compared with all else that came before and that was disappointing.

Well written characters, a good plot to drive the story were the positives, the erotica was a little over the top at times, and that did bother me slightly. More focus on the story would have helped, perhaps allowing for more of a break between the erotica would have been nice to have as well.

I’ll give this work three and a half out of five pitchforks.

There is a story here, quite a good one I think, but it didn’t quite come to the fore as much as I wanted it to be.

 

Tera