Leyland, Winston (ed) Love Poems and Selected Letters

Prince Kaveh, the youngest son of the king of the City of Red Clay, is bisexual and completely besotted with Farzin, the engineer his father hired to oversee the improvements to the city's roads and bridges. However, the king doesn't share his positive feelings. After Farzin ends up at the head of the protest that ensues when the workers are only paid a third of their promised wages, he's thrown in prison and is scheduled to be executed. Queen Shulamit, who rules over the neighboring nation of Perach, is eager to assist the desperate prince. She, too, loves justice and has a same-sex partner. She's also hoping Kaveh, with his royal blood, is willing to give her and her sweetheart a legitimate heir in exchange. But can she find a peaceful solution that will pacify the king next door, get his workers fairly paid, and free Farzin? Or will she and her dragon-riding bodyguard Rivka have to go to war?

Best Gay Erotica 2006 is a cornucopia of searing man-sex. From the languid, Bolero-paced striptease of a magnificently buff lover in James Williams’s "The End” to the fevered gropings of a skater boy and a pink-haired goth in "DogBoy and the BetaGoth” by Nadyalec Hijazi and Ben Blackthorne, Best Gay Erotica holds something for every wicked taste. In Jeff Mann’s "Daddy Dave,” a lover awakens his gentle new partner’s dominant side by letting him witness a master's skillful savagery. Steven Zeeland’s "Trouble Loves Me” maps a porn director’s odyssey through a vivid underworld of bad boy marines, sailors, and submariners. Edited by Richard Labonté and selected and introduced by the inimitable Matt Bernstein Sycamore, Best Gay Erotica 2006 furthers the series’ reputation for gorgeous storytelling and hot, no-holds-barred sex between men. The book also features an excerpt from Dennis Cooper’s new novel The Sluts.