THE SUPERSONIC PHALLUS, gay historical romantic story

THE SUPERSONIC PHALLUS
STEVEN KEY MEYERS
The Smash-And-Grab Press (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$2.99 ebook, available now

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: When cub reporters Dean and Sam of the Sinai, Colorado Sentinel investigate UFOs seen over Two-Mile Mesa, they have no idea of what they’re about to face—or of what they’ll end up doing. The time is July 1947—the great flying-saucer scare, when thousands of Americans suddenly report seeing UFOs over every part of the country.

Dean is gay, but Sam (our narrator) is decidedly not! But as they interview witnesses and maintain high-altitude stakeouts, Sam begins to fall in love with Dean. Are the UFOs to blame? Is Dean merely the handsomest man Sam’s ever seen, or a space alien? And are the UFOs actually Russian aircraft out to steal U.S. atomic secrets?

The Air Force sends P-51 Mustang fighters to shoot down Sinai’s aerial invaders, even as the Government insists people are just seeing weather balloons. But one night, after a veritable supersonic phallus streaks overhead, Dean and Sam risk everything to let the world know the truth.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: Sam...married, kid, wife pregnant...wakes up to man sex when Dean enters his life. It's the Cold War, the Lavender Scare, and they're chasing the newly-named UFOs as sightings make the world news...are they Soviet spies, are they really aliens, is this some secret intelligence project we lifted from the recently-defeated Nazis? No one knows but Sam and Dean mean to find out.

It's all told from Sam's PoV and in his voice, which honestly feels light and humorous. I was surprised by that, as he is a man with some deeply unsettling issues to deal with. Not least really lusting after Dean; though that one's tough for anyone anytime. You want someone you're not married to, that's trouble; but they're same sex and the world, the Army, the government in general are all having fits because queers = bad, queers = spies...humor might not be everyone's first option of tone.

It's not comedy, it's not tragedy, it's a dramedy. I smiled more than I laughed, first when I found out out heroes are Sam and Dean and we're in a paranormal hunt for facts and truth. I wondered if it would be fanfic for Supernatural, but that was not my impression as I read along. I'd wondered also if we were to be treated to sex scene(s) but this too was not wher Author Meyers was headed. Sam's awakening was enough of a stretch, in that day and time. Plus when you live in a small town (Roswell is clearly the model) and are pursuing the armed forces to give you information they do not want you to have...well, first rule of surviving in the news biz is "never hand your enemy the gun."

It's a short read. I'm really glad I read it to keep my mind occupied with troubles not immediate to me or real but really grounded and relatable. What it did for me was make me aware that I live a deeply fortunate life as a gay man in the twenty-first century, and how very under threat that is.

Gratitude, meet vigilance, y'all're gonna be roommates in my skull.

Fun, light of tone and serious of purpose. Serves both masters very well indeed, and for three bucks as an ebook, you won't go wrong.