Secret Matter

Rating:
Summary: A Deserving Lambda Literary Award Winner
Review: Kevin Anderson is moving along through his life, finishing up college, and getting ready to leave New York City for a prestigious internship in San Francisco when issues about his sexual orientation begin to bother him. His roommate, Tim, is gay, but Kevin has been so busy with school that he has purposely not given it much thought. When Tim confronts him, Kevin ends up feeling rather glad they are going different directions upon graduation. Kevin flies out to the West Coast for an internship with a company that is helping to rebuild after a giant earthquake. He couldn't be more excited.

And then the Visitors arrive. A race of oddly human-like space people touch down in several cities around the globe, including San Francisco, and nothing will ever be the same. Everyone around Kevin: his neighbors, his boss, new friends, and coworkers are profoundly affected by these new beings, especially when Kevin's company is given a contract to build a facility for them. By accident Kevin meets up with a Visitor named 'Bel, and their connection blossoms into a friendship. But is 'Bel so alien after all? And what's with the Visitors' periodic changes in skin color? They seem so human, albeit much larger, but they possess some odd characteristics, and they seem to be hiding something. Are they dangerous? What secrets do they carry, and where, exactly, are they from?

Before Kevin can get to the bottom of his questions, political disasters and miscommunications occur, and the Visitors are expelled. 'Bel and his emissaries are very clear that certain actions on the part of the U.S. will have grave consequences upon his people and their world, but no one listens except Kevin, who has fallen for 'Bel. Now the young man is on a mission to unravel the Visitors' secrets in order to prevent the death and destruction of Visitors and millions of Americans.

The secondary characters are critical in wrapping up the story and resolving the mystery of the Visitors. Very quickly the reader feels sympathy for Kevin and his struggle to deal with both his internalized homophobia and the new experiences that confront him. The book is a mystery, a coming out story, a sci-fi adventure, a romance, and an insightful twist on biblical themes and philosophical debates. Secret Matter is an enjoyable read most worthy of the Lambda Literary Award it won...

Rating:
Summary: SPECTRUM AWARD NOMINATION
Review: SECRET MATTER has been nominated for the Spectrum Awards Hall of Fame presented by Gaylaxicon, the Washington, DC-based national gay and lesbian science fiction fan club. The award will be given at their annual convention in DC in Oct. 1999This is the first year for this award. The Hall of Fame is just starting. So of all the hundreds of gay sci fi books published up to this year, SECRET MATTER was chosen as one of the top five. So even if it is only nominated, it is a significant honor.There is more information at the web site for White Crane Journal.