The thrill of discovering something as fantastic, as mysterious, and as possibly dangerous as UFOs serves as an apt metaphor for the way that parts of a person's sexuality, previously repressed, could emerge under the right circumstances, igniting a sense of both wonder and terror.
Sam, a young reporter with a pregnant wife and a kid, falls for a handsome colleague, Dean. Sam grapples with his unexpected attraction, all while he and Dean investigate UFO sightings in Colorado.
The great and cheeky title, The Supersonic Phallus, as well as its 1940s setting, suggests an homage or even an outright parody of the outrageous pulp science-fiction stories of the mid-twentieth century. But Steven Key Meyers's book feels more like gay literary fiction disguised as popular sci-fi. It's sharply observed and well-plotted.
It also feels authentically rooted in a very specific time and place. We're treated to wide-eyed newspapermen chasing a hot story, Cold War paranoia, long-forgotten cultural references, and a budding gay romance between two men trapped in a more conservative era. The amount of research that must've gone into writing this must have been tremendous.
But while the story is full of nostalgia and the real-world concerns of the past, its echoes can still be heard in our present day: we still deal with homophobia, fear of foreign powers, the question of journalistic integrity, the ongoing mysteries of UFOs, and many more themes that are packed in this novel.
Recommended for fans of:
- grounded science fiction
- real UFO history
- stories about gay awakening set in the distant past
