I think you hit a busllyee there fellas!

Bad story!

Another good story, Crystal.

However, I have some quibbles about the ethical decisions of the "new" Kara (Peter in Kara's body.)  While I can enjoy out-and-out 'stories without a moral', I am uncomfortable when moral people behave, well...immorally.  I'm not talking about the day to day fallibilities we all stumble over, but those very dark transitions from good to Evil.  I feel these should be handled with deliberation by an author and not inadvertently dropped into a plot where the change is not even recognized by the one penning the story.  Let me explain how I see it in The Observer...

 Kara's handling of the Renwick's is simply justice, rather than revenge, and thus acceptable coming from the former Peter.  However, her treatment of Barrington, while very appropriate, is abhorrent.  This is why:  Barrington, now in Sharon's body, is given to a sadistic abuser after the former Sharon decides she does not want to deal with "him."  The new, sadistic, abuser will undoubtedly torture and degrade more women than just the former Barrington.

On a state level it would be like hiring a sadist as the State Torturer for vivsections of the worst miscreants.  Many people in our society have advocated similar treatment of sex offenders, pedophiles, etc., but debasing ourselves so that we can better degrade and torment those "deserving" of it is not an answer, unless we choose to become the monsters we seek to punish.

I'm quite certain that you never intended such a message in this story, as I've already read Texas Gal to its current ending and I know you are a very moral person at heart.

Still very much your fan,

SuZie

This was a very excellent story! I loved it. Thank you for sharing. I wish there were more stories out there along this line. I look forward to reading some of your other work.

Crystal,
My hat is off to you for a wonderful short story.  Ok, I’m not into the Bondage thing like the original Kara was, but I see Pete adapted quite nicely to it after a while.  Your character development was quick and to the point as were your character’s approach to dealing with the situation.  Your approach to dealing with the gender acclamation was very good.  Any race intelligent enough to transfer a consciousness from one person to another would surely understand the importance of leaving behind some remnants of gender identity to ease the transition.  

I found the quality of your writing here to be far superior to your venture in “I can’t go home like this.”  The reading was smooth and transitions from one time frame to the next were effortless.  I see potential here for more in the series.  Of course, we all under stand the philosophy of “always leave them wanting more.”  

Well done.

I really enjoyed this story. The robinhood complex on the end was a nice feel good touch but, a bit much. It's too bad the old kara(now peter) lost his(er) girl but (s)he didn't wan't any commitments and while may have had an attchment it probably wasn't love. I'm not much for the whole slave/master thing, however without the nasty abuse and other SM stuff the loving commited relationship sounds very appealing.

Basically, I do not like these 'magical switch/tranformation' -type stories, but since I did enjoy very much C. Spite's serieal stories (namele the 'Texas Gal' and especially the 'I Can't Go Home Like This') I decided to give this story ('The Observer') a try -- and I must confess that I did like this also ... well, >almost< anyway.

What I did like was the characterization of the main caharacter and the fluent story telling. Althought these are very important elements, they alone couldn't 'hide' the (in my opinion) annoying things, namely:

* half-hearted bondage (i.e. 'tie up and leave alone')
  is not exciting, really

* the way 'Peter' (formerly Kara) character high-handedly
  uses bondage to non-consensual partners is just offending

* just when the story started to get interesting, it ended.

Anyway, this is not a bad story but not a great one either.

Hi Crystal. I enjoyed "The Observer" very nuch. while sci-fi TG bondage is not really what I look for in a story, it was nevertheless a very nice, and very interesting story. Heehee, I know some ppl I would like to use those nice round balls on.

Barbara

A story of love and devotion.  Also justice for those wronged and punishment of wrong doers.  This story is well worth a read or two.
                                                       Rose2