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The Love of a Master
There are good-looking, willing young men in every hidden corner of America — men like Tim and Marc who know a worthy top when they see him. John Preston’s powerful and darkly insightful classic The Love of a Master follows the Master’s patient, deliberate, and wickedly inventive training of his two boyish but determined devotees as they release themselves to their submissive natures, to the “fear and anticipation” that come with true service. Will Tim step up on the slave block and give himself body and soul to the highest bidder? Will his friend Marc do the same or accept the Master’s rare offer of a permanent — if painful — position in his home?
A legend in gay porn, Preston drew on his extensive knowledge of the S/M scene of the '80s to create this hot, savage, and psychologically penetrating portrayal of S/M power exchange between men.
A legend in gay porn, Preston drew on his extensive knowledge of the S/M scene of the '80s to create this hot, savage, and psychologically penetrating portrayal of S/M power exchange between men.
195 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1987
3 people are currently reading
102 people want to read
About the author
John Preston
51 books77 followersJohn Preston wrote and edited gay erotica, fiction, and nonfiction.
He grew up in Medfield, Massachusetts, later living in a number of major American cities before settling in Portland, Maine in 1979. A writer of fiction and nonfiction, dealing mostly with issues in gay life, he was a pioneer in the early gay rights movement in Minneapolis. He helped found one of the earliest gay community centers in the United States, edited two newsletters devoted to sexual health, and served as editor of The Advocate in 1975.
He was the author or editor of nearly fifty books, including such erotic landmarks as Mr. Benson and I Once Had a Master and Other Tales of Erotic Love. Other works include Franny, the Queen of Provincetown (first a novel, then adapted for stage), The Big Gay Book: A Man's Survival Guide for the Nineties, Personal Dispatches: Writers Confront AIDS, and Hometowns: Gay Men Write About Where They Belong.
Preston's writing (which he described as pornography) was part of a movement in the 1970s and 1980s toward higher literary quality in gay erotic fiction. Preston was an outspoken advocate of the artistic and social worth of erotic writings, delivering a lecture at Harvard University entitled My Life as a Pornographer. The lecture was later published in an essay collection with the same name. The collection includes Preston's thoughts about the gay leather community, to which he belonged. His writings caused controversy when he was one of several gay and lesbian authors to have their books confiscated at the border by Canada Customs. Testimony regarding the literary merit of his novel I Once Had a Master helped a Vancouver LGBT bookstore, Little Sister's Book and Art Emporium, to partially win a case against Canada Customs in the Canadian Supreme Court in 2000. Preston also brought gay erotic fiction to mainstream readers by editing the Flesh and the Word anthologies for a major press.
Preston served as a journalist and essayist throughout his life. He wrote news articles for Drummer and other gay magazines, produced a syndicated column on gay life in Maine, and penned a column for Lambda Book Report called "Preston on Publishing." His nonfiction anthologies, which collected essays by himself and others on everyday aspects of gay and lesbian life, won him the Lambda Literary Award and the American Library Association's Stonewall Book Award. He was especially noted for his writings on New England.
Although primarily known as a gay fiction writer, Preston was also hired by a local newspaper, The Portland Chronicle, to write news articles and features about his adopted hometown of Portland. He wrote a long feature about the local monopoly newspaper, the Portland Press Herald, as well as many food articles movie reviews and other writing.
In addition, Preston wrote men's adventure novels under the pseudonyms of Mike McCray, Preston MacAdam, and Jack Hilt (pen names that he shared with other authors). Taking what he had learned from authoring those books, he wrote the "Alex Kane" adventure novels about gay characters. These books, which included "Sweet Dreams," "Golden Years," and "Deadly Lies," combined action-story plots with an exploration of issues such as the problems facing gay youth.
Preston was among the first writers to popularize the genre of safe sex stories, editing a safe sex anthology entitled Hot Living in 1985. He helped to found the AIDS Project of Southern Maine. In the late 1980s, he discovered that he himself was HIV positive.
Some of his last essays, found in his nonfiction anthologies and in his posthumous collection Winter's Light, describe his struggle to come emotionally to terms with a disease that had already killed many of his friends and fellow writers.
He died of AIDS complications on April 28, 1994, aged 48, at his home in Portland. His papers are held in the Preston Archive at Brown University.
Librarian Note: There is more th
He grew up in Medfield, Massachusetts, later living in a number of major American cities before settling in Portland, Maine in 1979. A writer of fiction and nonfiction, dealing mostly with issues in gay life, he was a pioneer in the early gay rights movement in Minneapolis. He helped found one of the earliest gay community centers in the United States, edited two newsletters devoted to sexual health, and served as editor of The Advocate in 1975.
He was the author or editor of nearly fifty books, including such erotic landmarks as Mr. Benson and I Once Had a Master and Other Tales of Erotic Love. Other works include Franny, the Queen of Provincetown (first a novel, then adapted for stage), The Big Gay Book: A Man's Survival Guide for the Nineties, Personal Dispatches: Writers Confront AIDS, and Hometowns: Gay Men Write About Where They Belong.
Preston's writing (which he described as pornography) was part of a movement in the 1970s and 1980s toward higher literary quality in gay erotic fiction. Preston was an outspoken advocate of the artistic and social worth of erotic writings, delivering a lecture at Harvard University entitled My Life as a Pornographer. The lecture was later published in an essay collection with the same name. The collection includes Preston's thoughts about the gay leather community, to which he belonged. His writings caused controversy when he was one of several gay and lesbian authors to have their books confiscated at the border by Canada Customs. Testimony regarding the literary merit of his novel I Once Had a Master helped a Vancouver LGBT bookstore, Little Sister's Book and Art Emporium, to partially win a case against Canada Customs in the Canadian Supreme Court in 2000. Preston also brought gay erotic fiction to mainstream readers by editing the Flesh and the Word anthologies for a major press.
Preston served as a journalist and essayist throughout his life. He wrote news articles for Drummer and other gay magazines, produced a syndicated column on gay life in Maine, and penned a column for Lambda Book Report called "Preston on Publishing." His nonfiction anthologies, which collected essays by himself and others on everyday aspects of gay and lesbian life, won him the Lambda Literary Award and the American Library Association's Stonewall Book Award. He was especially noted for his writings on New England.
Although primarily known as a gay fiction writer, Preston was also hired by a local newspaper, The Portland Chronicle, to write news articles and features about his adopted hometown of Portland. He wrote a long feature about the local monopoly newspaper, the Portland Press Herald, as well as many food articles movie reviews and other writing.
In addition, Preston wrote men's adventure novels under the pseudonyms of Mike McCray, Preston MacAdam, and Jack Hilt (pen names that he shared with other authors). Taking what he had learned from authoring those books, he wrote the "Alex Kane" adventure novels about gay characters. These books, which included "Sweet Dreams," "Golden Years," and "Deadly Lies," combined action-story plots with an exploration of issues such as the problems facing gay youth.
Preston was among the first writers to popularize the genre of safe sex stories, editing a safe sex anthology entitled Hot Living in 1985. He helped to found the AIDS Project of Southern Maine. In the late 1980s, he discovered that he himself was HIV positive.
Some of his last essays, found in his nonfiction anthologies and in his posthumous collection Winter's Light, describe his struggle to come emotionally to terms with a disease that had already killed many of his friends and fellow writers.
He died of AIDS complications on April 28, 1994, aged 48, at his home in Portland. His papers are held in the Preston Archive at Brown University.
Librarian Note: There is more th
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
October 25, 2018
Overall book rating: 3.8
Audio Book: N/A
Book Cover: 3.5
Definition – ME:
I said it, you have been warned.
Now. On to the review.
My “dark and scary” little mind just went:
When I started this one off...
I mean.. the concept of having “The Network” a highly sophisticated, highly upscale and posh group of people who actually put human beings on a bidding platform to be sex slaves. Hmmm
Oh keep your panties out of a twist!
It’s consensual. There is no kidnapping ect. The “slaves” train for this auction. And they sign contracts on their own will regarding the duration ect. for these contracts.
I was rubbing my greedy little hands together in anticipation of unwrapping this EVIL happenings.
So, my conclusion on the matter:
1. Yes. The book was good I suppose. It was something else and did entertain me.
2. It wasn’t nearly has deliciously EVIL has the picture my wicked mind conjured up when I got to understand the workings of THE NETWORK.
If you are looking for a book giving you inside information and happenings of this mysterious group of very rich and apparently “strange” people who would like to spend good money on a living toy, then this... is not the story for that.
I know, I know...
So basically this is a whole bunch of “memories” of what one of the MC’s experienced and are currently experiencing.
He is training a slave for The Network auction, but DON’T READ THIS IT’S A SPOILER!!!
The story was good. It’s something else yes.
But don’t you just absolutely HATE it when you can already see the delicious awful goodness of something, and then it ends up being....well.. just that.
Another mildly kinky story.
So excuse my mild disappointment about this one. It’s all my fault really. I think 98% of authors are really just not comfortable going to those dark places with “Out of their Mind” readers like me.
5 Stars for the concept.
3 For the execution
This could have been AWESOME!!!!
Audio Book: N/A
Book Cover: 3.5
Definition – ME:
I said it, you have been warned.
Now. On to the review.
My “dark and scary” little mind just went:
When I started this one off...
I mean.. the concept of having “The Network” a highly sophisticated, highly upscale and posh group of people who actually put human beings on a bidding platform to be sex slaves. Hmmm
Oh keep your panties out of a twist!
It’s consensual. There is no kidnapping ect. The “slaves” train for this auction. And they sign contracts on their own will regarding the duration ect. for these contracts.
I was rubbing my greedy little hands together in anticipation of unwrapping this EVIL happenings.
So, my conclusion on the matter:
1. Yes. The book was good I suppose. It was something else and did entertain me.
2. It wasn’t nearly has deliciously EVIL has the picture my wicked mind conjured up when I got to understand the workings of THE NETWORK.
If you are looking for a book giving you inside information and happenings of this mysterious group of very rich and apparently “strange” people who would like to spend good money on a living toy, then this... is not the story for that.
I know, I know...
So basically this is a whole bunch of “memories” of what one of the MC’s experienced and are currently experiencing.
He is training a slave for The Network auction, but DON’T READ THIS IT’S A SPOILER!!!
The story was good. It’s something else yes.
But don’t you just absolutely HATE it when you can already see the delicious awful goodness of something, and then it ends up being....well.. just that.
Another mildly kinky story.
So excuse my mild disappointment about this one. It’s all my fault really. I think 98% of authors are really just not comfortable going to those dark places with “Out of their Mind” readers like me.
5 Stars for the concept.
3 For the execution
This could have been AWESOME!!!!
August 17, 2019
There are some truly intense and intimate events in this one, emotions laid bare and people stripped to their purest level... very raw.
I loved how the whole story is told from the Master's pov and we get his insight - as well as hints of some profound events in his past.
The narrator, Darren Douglas, is perfect in his simplistic and relatively emotionless retelling of the events. That way, when he does add in hints of emotions we know it's real, and it's importance is magnified - powerful.
I loved how the whole story is told from the Master's pov and we get his insight - as well as hints of some profound events in his past.
The narrator, Darren Douglas, is perfect in his simplistic and relatively emotionless retelling of the events. That way, when he does add in hints of emotions we know it's real, and it's importance is magnified - powerful.
February 16, 2018
A very good book. It started a little slowly, but picked up after Tim decided he wanted to become a slave.
May 1, 2010
The book starts off slow with some reflection by the Master. The first half of the book is the Master storytelling followed by Tim (future slave) storytelling. The second half is Tim and Marc's journey.
There really aren't a lot of fetishes or extremes in this book. There is some nipple play & spanking. But the strength of the story lies in Tim and Marc accepting their desires and their learning process.
There really aren't a lot of fetishes or extremes in this book. There is some nipple play & spanking. But the strength of the story lies in Tim and Marc accepting their desires and their learning process.
August 22, 2021
I went into this story thinking that this was all about the preparation for a dark and secretive group - “the network”. I was looking forward to all of this taboo and forbidden sexual experiences….but…
Instead, I found this to be a story about journeys - one for a master, one for a slave whose end goal is “the network”, and one for a slave who fought the calling and just wanted the fantasy.
The Slave - End Goal “The Network”
A big chunk of the book goes deep into Tim’s retelling of his short exploration of being a “hole”. His time as a “hole” was limited because the man who pulled him into the situation understood that Tim was too young to really know what he wanted. Tim wanders through life yearning for what he experienced and gets temporarily caught in playing house with Marc.
The Master
The Master seemed so stereotypical but through Tim and Marc’s individual journeys, we get to see cracks that are well-hidden behind the armor that he walks around in. For a significant portion of the book, he came across as a confident master who was rooted firmly in the lifestyle. When Marc fully entered the picture, that’s when the master’s transformation began.
The Reluctant/In Denial Slave
Marc is the type of guy who would visit the leather bars on the weekend, get tied up, have kinky role-playing sex, and then he’d go back to his (imaginary) white-picket fence gay life. When forced to choose between the role-playing and the authentic experience, he fled. It took him months to come around and face his true nature.
That’s all of the details I’m going to give you about this book.
This story is for anyone who:
1. Isn’t a homophobe
2. Enjoys the journey and isn’t bothered about getting to the exact and perfect destination
3. Understands that authentic gay fiction and glitter role-playing gay fiction aren’t the same (but both can be enjoyable reads)
PS Darren Douglas is the perfect narrator for John Preston’s books.
Instead, I found this to be a story about journeys - one for a master, one for a slave whose end goal is “the network”, and one for a slave who fought the calling and just wanted the fantasy.
The Slave - End Goal “The Network”
A big chunk of the book goes deep into Tim’s retelling of his short exploration of being a “hole”. His time as a “hole” was limited because the man who pulled him into the situation understood that Tim was too young to really know what he wanted. Tim wanders through life yearning for what he experienced and gets temporarily caught in playing house with Marc.
The Master
The Master seemed so stereotypical but through Tim and Marc’s individual journeys, we get to see cracks that are well-hidden behind the armor that he walks around in. For a significant portion of the book, he came across as a confident master who was rooted firmly in the lifestyle. When Marc fully entered the picture, that’s when the master’s transformation began.
The Reluctant/In Denial Slave
Marc is the type of guy who would visit the leather bars on the weekend, get tied up, have kinky role-playing sex, and then he’d go back to his (imaginary) white-picket fence gay life. When forced to choose between the role-playing and the authentic experience, he fled. It took him months to come around and face his true nature.
That’s all of the details I’m going to give you about this book.
This story is for anyone who:
1. Isn’t a homophobe
2. Enjoys the journey and isn’t bothered about getting to the exact and perfect destination
3. Understands that authentic gay fiction and glitter role-playing gay fiction aren’t the same (but both can be enjoyable reads)
PS Darren Douglas is the perfect narrator for John Preston’s books.
September 2, 2015
Better than average. Half the book is in dialogue recounting adventures of the past, which is kind of odd—I would've liked it more in scene. (But maybe that's a writer's complaint?) Still, I enjoy the characters and it's really fun to dive into a world that normalizes M/s, even as some of the characters have challenges with it.
August 25, 2009
This is a very very slow build, especially compared to Preston's short stories. Which makes it damn sweet when it all falls into place. I'm still unsure how much he had me but i have to admit some of it is gonna be on high rotation.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews