Manning's "Spider Garden" is a brilliant piece of erotic art, incorporating Japanese mythology, cyberpunk sci-fi, and darkly polymorphous transgressive sex into a story line about transgenedered dieties, ninjas, sexual awakening, and dynastic warfare in a world part William Gibson, part Sade, and part medieval Japan. The art is powerful and evocative (and has overtones of Matt Howarth's work). Manning isn't for everyone, but for anyone looking for a story that entrances with both dark sex and action-- "Spider Garden" is very much worth reading.