What do you think?
Rate this book
Cocksure
Bob Vickery has given us some of the best, most intense gay erotic stories. Whether his protagonists are genetically designed sex-gods or vampires with something other than blood on their minds, Vickery's stories give a rise to your mind as well as your private parts. Bob Vickery 's stories have appeared in Best American Erotica 2000, Best Gay Erotica 2001, Men and Freshmen magazines, and Friction 2, 3, and 4 .
- GenresErotica
384 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2002
26 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 15, 2020
What a collection! A book full of what's hyped as some of the best gay erotica out there! I suppose your enjoyment of this depends on your reason for picking it up. Are you looking for erotica? Look no further, this is the book for you!! Unless, of course, you're looking for erotica involving women - that ain't this book. If you want gay erotica, however, this is the perfect book for you, full of solo man action, man-on-man action, man-on-man-on-man action, man-on-man-on-man-on-man action, and... well, you get the point. Even better if you're looking for stories involving prostitutes or casual hookups, since that's the bulk of what's in here. In my case, I wasn't actually looking for gay erotica but unwrapped this at a Christmas gift exchange and figured I shouldn't look a gift horse in its mouth. But even reading it as someone who's not interested in gay erotica, there were some highlights.
From the author's note at the beginning of this book alone, I could tell he was a good writer. His note said he's often asked how he writes such great gay erotica and his answer is, be really hot and have a lot of hot gay sex. Clever from the start! Granted, I think I enjoyed the actual stories and humor in this book than someone looking for straight gay erotica (note: that should be read as "pure gay erotica", as there's nothing straight about these stories), but there is truly an art to putting together short stories, much less short erotic stories, and the ones in here were mostly well done.
The best stories in here, for me, were the ones that highlighted the humor or actually told a full story with the requisite naughty scenes here and there. My two favorites were the ones in which he poked fun at himself, the author. In one, he writes as himself, Bob Vickery, the erotica author; naturally, he's unbelievably attractive to everyone and anyone who disparages him or his career is swiftly disposed of (a piano falls on one person). This turns into erotica after he meets a world famous porn star, who begs the author to sign one of his stories and then pleads with him to please let him have sex with him even though he's a lowly porn star with not much to offer compared to the author. This was BRILLIANT! My other favorite story was the last one in the book, which wrapped things up beautifully: it was about how the author uses stock characters in all his stories and how these characters pass the time in between being featured in various erotica he writes, as they're aware they don't have lives of their own but basically serve to act out written erotic fantasies of the author. Again, brilliant!
However, if you're reading this because you're looking for gay erotica, you likely have different standards for what you expect out of a book like this. I don't think it'll disappoint. There was plenty of gay sex in here, described in detail and generally multiple scenes in a single story, often with multiple characters. The stories are short and easy to get through and, for the most part, have decent stories that differ from each other and propel the action forward.
Brief descriptions of some of the stories in here, just so you can get a sense of what this book includes:
A man has rage issues and starts going to meditation classes to calm down. There, he meets a beautiful man who invites him out to coffee and next thing you know, they're back at his apartment having sex.
A man is on his way to a PTA meeting but stops in the park to have sex with a stranger in the bushes. The next day, he meets another gay man at a bar and after their sex scene, they talk about how they have sons the same age and should get together for a play date.
Vampires being hunted by Van Helsing, only they’re not interested in sucking blood...
A man regularly sees a prostitute, who's arrested after getting shafted by another client and calls the main character to bail him out. As thanks, they have the best sex ever and the man tips him more than usual.
A man goes to Costa Rica and visits a museum on a rainy day. There, he meets a museum guard who says no one comes in during the rainy season, so they have sex.
A man goes to Los Angeles to chase his dream of becoming a porn star!
There's a story set in an alternate reality where magic is real and Halloween is the biggest holiday of the year. A man conjures up an incubus using black market spell books so he can have sex with it.
Speaking of holidays, there's one set during Christmastime where the main character works as an elf and has sex with coworkers in a scene that I can only describe as elf on elf on Santa.
Two stories referenced Hitchcock. One was a weird knockoff of The Birds, in which a ton of birds are taking over the city while a man runs around trying to have sex with clients (naturally, he's a prostitute) and also with his boyfriend. In the other, a man and his boyfriend are film buffs spending the summer visiting locations featured in Hitchcock movies so they can have sex at each.
There's also a story that might appeal to the furry set: scientists have created human-animal hybrids using genetic engineering (basically, humans with some animal features), and the main character is a bit unsure about this at first but naturally this leads to sex.
And of course, there's the requisite story where a (presumed) straight man, married with kids, has an encounter with two gay men that makes him wonder where he goes from there.
This isn't to say that all the stories in here were winners. There were a few that just made me blink because the story was so underwhelming. Granted, I'm not the target audience so I suppose the sex bits in those stories could have made up for the plots, but it didn't seem like that to me. I guess that's how it goes with all short story collections, some are better than others.
Anyway, this isn't one I'll reread and don't think there will be any more gay erotica in my future. But, if that's what you're looking for, I imagine this short story collection will be an excellent addition to your bookcase.
From the author's note at the beginning of this book alone, I could tell he was a good writer. His note said he's often asked how he writes such great gay erotica and his answer is, be really hot and have a lot of hot gay sex. Clever from the start! Granted, I think I enjoyed the actual stories and humor in this book than someone looking for straight gay erotica (note: that should be read as "pure gay erotica", as there's nothing straight about these stories), but there is truly an art to putting together short stories, much less short erotic stories, and the ones in here were mostly well done.
The best stories in here, for me, were the ones that highlighted the humor or actually told a full story with the requisite naughty scenes here and there. My two favorites were the ones in which he poked fun at himself, the author. In one, he writes as himself, Bob Vickery, the erotica author; naturally, he's unbelievably attractive to everyone and anyone who disparages him or his career is swiftly disposed of (a piano falls on one person). This turns into erotica after he meets a world famous porn star, who begs the author to sign one of his stories and then pleads with him to please let him have sex with him even though he's a lowly porn star with not much to offer compared to the author. This was BRILLIANT! My other favorite story was the last one in the book, which wrapped things up beautifully: it was about how the author uses stock characters in all his stories and how these characters pass the time in between being featured in various erotica he writes, as they're aware they don't have lives of their own but basically serve to act out written erotic fantasies of the author. Again, brilliant!
However, if you're reading this because you're looking for gay erotica, you likely have different standards for what you expect out of a book like this. I don't think it'll disappoint. There was plenty of gay sex in here, described in detail and generally multiple scenes in a single story, often with multiple characters. The stories are short and easy to get through and, for the most part, have decent stories that differ from each other and propel the action forward.
Brief descriptions of some of the stories in here, just so you can get a sense of what this book includes:
A man has rage issues and starts going to meditation classes to calm down. There, he meets a beautiful man who invites him out to coffee and next thing you know, they're back at his apartment having sex.
A man is on his way to a PTA meeting but stops in the park to have sex with a stranger in the bushes. The next day, he meets another gay man at a bar and after their sex scene, they talk about how they have sons the same age and should get together for a play date.
Vampires being hunted by Van Helsing, only they’re not interested in sucking blood...
A man regularly sees a prostitute, who's arrested after getting shafted by another client and calls the main character to bail him out. As thanks, they have the best sex ever and the man tips him more than usual.
A man goes to Costa Rica and visits a museum on a rainy day. There, he meets a museum guard who says no one comes in during the rainy season, so they have sex.
A man goes to Los Angeles to chase his dream of becoming a porn star!
There's a story set in an alternate reality where magic is real and Halloween is the biggest holiday of the year. A man conjures up an incubus using black market spell books so he can have sex with it.
Speaking of holidays, there's one set during Christmastime where the main character works as an elf and has sex with coworkers in a scene that I can only describe as elf on elf on Santa.
Two stories referenced Hitchcock. One was a weird knockoff of The Birds, in which a ton of birds are taking over the city while a man runs around trying to have sex with clients (naturally, he's a prostitute) and also with his boyfriend. In the other, a man and his boyfriend are film buffs spending the summer visiting locations featured in Hitchcock movies so they can have sex at each.
There's also a story that might appeal to the furry set: scientists have created human-animal hybrids using genetic engineering (basically, humans with some animal features), and the main character is a bit unsure about this at first but naturally this leads to sex.
And of course, there's the requisite story where a (presumed) straight man, married with kids, has an encounter with two gay men that makes him wonder where he goes from there.
This isn't to say that all the stories in here were winners. There were a few that just made me blink because the story was so underwhelming. Granted, I'm not the target audience so I suppose the sex bits in those stories could have made up for the plots, but it didn't seem like that to me. I guess that's how it goes with all short story collections, some are better than others.
Anyway, this isn't one I'll reread and don't think there will be any more gay erotica in my future. But, if that's what you're looking for, I imagine this short story collection will be an excellent addition to your bookcase.
March 9, 2016
Well drawn assortment of male tales for the one handed reading set.
The characters are well evoked with little excess detailing and an emphasis on action. There's a wide variety of scenarios and a bit to float anyone's boat. Nothing here will be all that memorable, but then, that's not the point of this style of writing.
The characters are well evoked with little excess detailing and an emphasis on action. There's a wide variety of scenarios and a bit to float anyone's boat. Nothing here will be all that memorable, but then, that's not the point of this style of writing.
June 22, 2009
To be fair...I'm not the target audience...
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews