soundly unsatisfying, i'm afraid. i've liked (even loved) some of 120 days books' other reprinted vintage gay pulp fiction, but this one just fell flat. there didn't seem to be an overarching narrative, skipping from point to point and place to place over the course of 9 years. of course, one does not read pulp erotica for the plot, but that isn't an excuse to be so shoddy about it. i also found the sex scenes themselves oddly short (for an erotica novel) and not particularly well-written.

I was quite indifferent towards the story and even though I tried a lot to get into it, I just couldn’t do it.

This is an entertaining ribald story set in the mid-17th Century. Young Alan Steele yearns for adventure and fortune on the high seas, and runs away from home to stow aboard a ship sailing from Britain to the Caribbean. He meets Malcolm and Henry, two other similarly inclined lads, and together they endure a rough voyage. They think that they can pay for their passage by their crew work on the ship; instead they are treated as slaves, subject to floggings and other corporal punishments. They are introduced to male-on-male sex, although Alan has some inclinations toward this from the beginning. Upon arrival at Barbados they are sold off by the ship's captain one-by-one to plantation owners, and the trio is separated.

This is the first instalment in a series. It is mostly about Alan as he works out the term of his indenture in Barbados, only to be forced to endure anther period of harsh captivity before escaping back to England, nine years after he left. During that time he reunites briefly with each of his two original shipmates, Malcolm and Henry. Also during that period he was exposed to horrible disease and was near death before being saved by a young doctor, who becomes Alan's lover, and together they return to England. Once there, Alan plots revenge on the various people who mistreated him overseas. At the end of this instalment, Alan is setting out in his own ship to return to the Caribbean.

It's a rollicking adventure tale as Alan develops and suffers a string of trials and tribulations. There's a good measure of explicit sex activity, all described in quaint terms meant to reflect the times. Alan has some serious male relationships but some casual ones too. There's a curious fetish about Alan's body hair. At first he has lots of it, and then after his illness he has none and it's commented upon on a regular basis.

All in all, Book 1 of "Naked Launch" is an entertaining read. At the end of it, the stage is set for a continuation of Alan's story in the sequel.

I stumbled across this on my post-Black Sails search for queer pirate books.

It was fine, nothing I’d read again or extol the virtues of but it was a fun, fast paced read with a lot of adventures. It had significantly less pirating and much more dubious consent sex than I expected but it certainly fit the bill of “erotic gay novel”. It’s pretty much just sex and discourse about body hair. There are probably more pirates in the sequel, but I don’t think I’ll read it. I recommend this if you like vintage erotic pulp fiction but not if you’re looking for something with a strong narrative.

DNT at 60%

It was my third gay pulp classic novel published by Riverdale Avenue Books and the one I didn't enjoy at all. The language, the story, the characters, everything left me indifferent. I struggled from the very beginning through and HONESTLY, if EROTICA leaves you dry up to 50%...it missed the target.

This is probably more of a 2.5 but I decided to round down. I guess I had to come across a book from this publisher that I didn't really care for sooner or later. There's nothing outright horrible about this book, it just wasn't necessarily what I was looking for I guess. I think one of the major problems is just that historical erotica often reads incredibly awkwardly to me because the author tries to make everyone use really fancy language and that also extends into using incredibly over the top descriptions in the sex scenes [this is the reason why I could never get into Lord of the Rings fanfiction as well lol].

Also there's a lot of focus on body hair and I just found it all to be really unsexy. Like at first the main character is super hairy and they go on and on about how great that is then he gets some disease where he loses all his hair everywhere and they go on and on about how sexy THAT is and I'm just like ...can we not just have an average amount of body but also not talk about it so much? But I guess some people are into that so whatever floats your boat. There are also a lot of very lengthy time-skips in this book and I never really like that either so that was a bit distracting to me as well. There were a few good scenes but I found myself skimming a lot and I don't think I'll be reading the next one, but I could see it being enjoyable to people who are more into historical fiction.

This book was well written and very fun to read. The characters were great and I enjoyed the world building. The author does a great job at introducing the characters and moving the plot along. There were a few things that I didn't like, but it wasn't enough to really sway me one way or the other. It's definitely a story that I can get lost in and both feel for the characters. It is definitely a go-to novel that I highly recommend to anyone who loves a great read. Definitely a highly recommended read that I think everyone will enjoy.

The book is a good read revolving around Adam and his two friends and their experience as indentured aboard ship and the harsh surroundings they learn to survive in. It also tells of their being separated and Adam’s adventures until he is brought back into contact with Malcolm and they rekindle there long separated passions. This story is continued in the next book.