Best Gay Erotica 2011 includes a compilation by Cleis Press Inc. of varying authors, all with different styles. The stories were chosen by Kevin Killian and edited by Richard Labonte. I felt that these two did a great job with their choices, because these honestly were all great, well-written stories. The authors include: Shane Allison, Jeff Mann, Eric Karl Anderson, Rob Wolfhsham, Thomas Rees, Johnny Murdoc, Shaun Levin, Boris Pintar, Tony Pike, Dominic Santi, Natty Soltesz, Simon Sheppard, Jonathan Asche, Martin Delacroix, Daniel Allen Cox, and James Earl Hardy.

At the beginning of the book is a little foreword written by Richard Labonte and after is an introduction/feature of sorts that was written by Kevin Killian. After all of the stories is a section that is titled "About the Authors," and then another section that is about the two editors.

The book features sixteen different stories spread across 200 pages, all involving some form of homosexual pairing (only gay men, mind you; the book does not involve lesbian couples). Some of the stories include incest, BDSM, urination, "vanilla" pairings, supernatural beings, necrophilia, and much more. It's honestly hard to choose favorites because they're all written so well. Sure, some are unbelievable (the incest and supernatural story being the main two that are a bit off), but they are still well-written and could be pleasing to some audiences who are into that sort of thing.

My three favorite stories in Best Gay Erotica 2011 are Attackman by Rob Wolfsham, Bodies in Motion by Johnny Murdoc, and Shel's Game by Jonathan Asche. These all involved pretty intense story lines and sex scenes, which is probably why I enjoyed them so much. Surprisingly enough, only one of them really involved any form of power play dynamic (Shel's Game).

Attackman was about two young boys in high school, one a buff, burly "jock," the other a scrawny, little "outcast." Pretty typical, but it still made for a nice pairing when the "jock" figure (his name was Max) was a closet homosexual and actually in love with the "outcast," Alex. It starts off with Alex fantasizing about Max beating him up, and then later on Max actually does beat him up, and have sex with him too.

The story Bodies in Motion has almost a similar theme to Attackman: two boys in high school, one admires the big jock. But the difference here is that later on in life, the two meet up and the "jock," Nathan, professes his love for the main character, whose name we do not actually know (Nathan refers to him as "Johnson," which I'm assuming is his last name). Throughout the story, Nathan keeps attempting to get Johnson to talk to him and give in to him and finally, at the end, he does.

My last and favorite story is Shel's Game. The story is written from Shel's partner's point of view, who talks about how he met Shel (at a party with other men) while Shel is taking him to a bar. The narrator as a hole in his pants that Shel fondles with noticeably so that other individuals at the bar can see, and Shel also makes him suck off multiple men in an alleyway. At the end of the story, the narrator says that he would "suck a thousand cocks" if he could get to Shel's. It's pretty cute, actually.

The front and back cover both feature the same image of two men in bed, one with his arm around the other and the covers pulled down to just under their butts so that the entire backside is shown. It's obviously not discreet, and since it's on both covers, you cannot very much get away from it. If you're like me and don't give a damn whether people see what you're reading or not, then you'll be fine.

It's very well put together and should stay in good condition so long as you take care of it. The covers do become a bit curled at the ends during reading, but putting the book in a bookcase for a while helps the curling flatten out.

When I read that the title was "Best Gay Erotica," I was honestly extremely skeptical. I mean, come on, to make such claims, you've got to be damn good. But I can surprisingly say that it really was a compilation of some of the best short erotic stories that I've ever read. They were really well-written, had great plots, and I was fairly engaged in all of them. There were two that bored me, but two out of sixteen is a pretty damn low number that I'm pleased with.