Elf Sternberg: Online Erotica, Kzinti Fanfic Fight & Pendor Journal Entries

Elvis M. “Elf” Sternberg (born May 7, 1966) is an American writer, former keeper of the alt.sex FAQ, and one of the most notable and prolific online erotica authors. He has published large volumes of erotic stories and essays on sexuality and sexual practice, spanning Usenet culture, fan-fiction controversy, and a vast original science-fiction setting—the ringworld Pendor—filled with kink, nonhuman partners, and AI relationships.

The Only Fair Game and the Niven Cease-and-Desist

Sternberg’s best-known single piece is the erotic short story “The Only Fair Game,” which became famous—and infamous—for raising legal questions about fan fiction. The story’s speculation about homosexual and BDSM practices among Larry Niven’s Kzinti drew a cease-and-desist letter from Niven’s lawyers. The incident remains notorious inside SF fandom. Sternberg has argued the story is protected as parody; Niven has maintained it violates copyright but has not pursued further legal action. Niven commented on the dispute in a Slashdot interview. For kink and fanfic history, the case is a landmark of how explicit same-sex and SM readings of copyrighted aliens can collide with rights-holders even when the author frames the work as transformative critique.

Journal Entries and the Pendorwright Projects

Sternberg is also the creator of The Journal Entries of Kennet R’yal Shardik, a long-running erotica series set on the fictional ringworld Pendor (the Pendorwright Projects). The body of work covers humans, humanoid species, robots, and artificial intelligences across a dense timeline of exploration, sex, and social design. Pendor rotates around the star Pin; day and night are simulated by a ring of shadow blocks, producing 292 day/night cycles per Earth year. The system also includes the planet Pandora, its moon Pindam, and the space station Parma.

In an early Journal Entry, Kennet Shardik travels back in time to give an earlier version of himself his AI, Fawn Destiniere. After consulting Fawn, that earlier Shardik creates Pendor in a “pocket universe,” develops it while he is in suspended animation, then designs new species—including Centaurs, Dragons, Felinzi, and Tindals—with other AIs. Just before the first Centaur is decanted, Shardik delivers Fawn to his past self and, on return, dumps the databanks so silicon- and carbon-based inhabitants must explore and learn without a full map. About 93 Pendorian years later the pocket universe opens and Pendor moves into our universe. As exploration continues, a network of SDisks is built for transport. At the end of the universe, Fawn maintains a base on Pindam through to singularity and triggers a second Big Bang with the words “Let there be.” Pendorians and Pendor itself are the backbone of one of the oldest and largest erotic SF collections built inside a single original universe.

Usenet Presence and Online Status

Sternberg was a regular poster on Usenet groups including alt.sex, rec.arts.sf.written, rec.arts.sf.composition, and alt.atheism, and is listed on the Net.Legends FAQ. That combination—FAQ keeper, high-volume erotica author, and SF community lightning rod—explains why his name still surfaces when people map early internet kink writing. Related: BDSM literature online, fanfic copyright fights, and erotic SF worldbuilding. His site and Pendorwright projects remain the primary portals into the Journal Entries corpus.