Customer Reviews

Mammoth Book of Erotica (Mammoth Book of S.)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

While a few of the stories in this compliation have some sensual quality, the vast majority are quite disturbing or rather boring. It is disconcerting to be paging through the book while feeling frisky, only to stumble across a story about about woman who dreams of eating feces! I don't care if it was meant to be "tongue-in-cheek", it just plain ruins the mood! And I would estimate that roughly 50% of the book deals with S&M or bondage of some sort.....which gets to be a bit tiring when its not your cup of tea. How about reserving this kind of stuff for the "Mammoth Book of BDSM" or the "Mammoth Book of Poo Eating"???

The average Penthouse Forum column is more titillating than this disappointing compendium of drivel.

I was shocked to read the other lukewarm reviews of this book. I bought this book about 10 years ago and found the stories compelling, entrancing (not to mention erotic). The book covers the darker side of eroticism--death, SM, but there's a lot of softer stuff. The real reason to buy the book is Marco Vassi's 80 page novella "Carcass of Dreams" (which I would argue is one of the best series of erotic stories ever written). The stories are more Bataille or Jean de Berg than Kundera, a lot of dark brooding nonsense. Another gem is Robert Silverberg's "Two at Once" one of the most delightful stories I'd read. Surprisingly, the Anne Rice story is one of the weakest of the bunch. Maxim Jakubowski also edited the excellent "Mammoth Book of International Erotica" (although I didn't find it as steamy as this original volume). For those who still prefer reading an intellectually-engaging dirty book once in a while and don't mind morbidity and S/M, this book will be great.

This is one of the finest collections of literary sexuality I have had the pleasure to read. Far from mere titillation, the stories are intriguing, thought-provoking and fascinating. Oh, and from time to time, the stories are really hot. Enjoy.

What a cheat. "Erotica" is supposed to refer to writing that is sexually stimulating. With about two exceptions, the stories in this book are enough to put you off sex for life.

Some of them are quite good in their own right, to be sure; they just aren't erotic. At least not to any even borderline normal person.

Jakubowski has assembled here a compendium of the most morbid, depressing, thoroughly unpleasant stories I've ever seen. I don't even want to meet anyone who gets turned on by this sort of thing. (And I am a man of broad and even kinky tastes, with no problem at all with reading about non-Euclidean sex; anyone who is familiar with my own recent work can attest to that.)

And this isn't just my opinion. As it happens, I know a couple of the authors included in this book; one in particular is a friend of mine - and he himself admitted that he was amazed that anyone would consider his story in any way erotic.

In addition, the book itself is of terrible quality: flimsy, grayish paper, too-tiny type.

Don't waste your money on this one.

I cannot say that I enjoyed all the stories of this work edited by Maxim Jakubowski. I cannot say that I even enjoyed most of them. Only a handful really stand out as enjoyable. It is not hard to write within a story one horny scene after another...I want a good story to be the framework, to stand out, and within that good story there be erotic scenes. For example, to be specific, Dion Farquhar's and Robert Silverberg's stories are only about sex, a laundry list of what erotically happened next. Both of Alice Joanou's stories are of this ilk as well, although "L'Enfer" could have gone places. Anne Rice's work was a chronology of one S&M act after another. Clive Barker's piece had promise, but seemed to be a bit rushed. All too many of Jakubowski's selections are not stories but either drivel (Barry Malzberg, Leonard Cohen) kiddie porn (one Marco Vassi selection), far too bizarre (Catherine Sellars, Adam-Troy Castro and the first Lucy Taylor piece), boring (Lucienne Zager and Sean O Caoimh), and so forth. Jakubowski's "KC Suite" is not bad. But I enjoyed the stories most: "Merry May" (Ramsey Campbell); "Needless to Say" (Lisa Palac) was hilarious!!: "Violent Silence" (Paul Mayersberg) was too short, should have been as long as Vassi's; and "Married Love" (David Guy). The big names failed to impress me. That's where I am at, that's what I look for, that's how I feel.

What can I say, this book was NOT erotic. It was dark and depressing for the most part. Rather than stimulating ones interest, it made me want to become celebate. Definately a waste of time and money!

I guess it all depends on what you are looking for. No, this is not.... letters, not for the faint of heart, not if you're looking for run of the mill erotica, not one bang after another. The stories were very well written and well developed. Very interesting. Not always a turn on, but extremely well done.

Hoping to find hot erotica - or at least well writen stories? Well you'll find some in this book, but your going to have to do some digging. Many of the stories are fairly average, and some are more interested in shoving their political agenda in your face.

I was expecting better, but at the right (low) price I've seen worse. Don't know if I will ever get anymore of this series.

Maybe if the price is right.....

I agree fully with the other negative reviews of this anthology. Most of the stories are just too dark or otherwise disturbing. By the time my wife or I would find a readable story we would be completely turned off, and then overly critical of even the better stories because of it. This book now sits in the recycling bin!