Studs: Gay Erotic Fiction

As a collection of erotic fiction, this volume fails to deliver; it is, rather, a collection of mood pieces, self-examinations, and melancholy expressions of regret, all lacking in spice and sizzle. Written primarily in the first person, the stories rarely enter into the subject of pleasure, depicting sexuality but never satisfaction. Where the text does build excitement, it frequently averts its gaze from the erotic, stopping short of depicting the proposed scenarios. In many cases the prose is undone by the hesitation to follow through on the premise. Though the topics are eclectic and many of the authors engaging, as a whole the work is not what it purports to be. If the volume were offered as a set of examinations of alienation, despair, confusion, memory, and the act of fantasy, it might satisfy, but readers expecting a good hot time will be greatly disappointed. (Sept.)