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Our 2008 Catalog
is online at this time ...
Click right here to download the PDF (download size is 1.12MB),
and take as read your permission to copy, print, forward, and generally pass it along. (If
anyone gives you grief, send them here!)
Drop us an
email to request a catalog for a friend who
doesn't have internet (or computer) access. We can
mail direct to your friend, or mail to you, and
you forward. (If you'd like a block of catalogs to
send along to multiple friends, let us know how many
to send ... and many thanks for helping us 'get the
word out' that MK is back, and better than ever!)
The brand-new addition to the SF list, launching in September 2009!
Gay science fiction novels ... it's a rich genre, and the one most often thought of when one thinks of Mel Keegan. There are no less than fifteen novels on the list for this category, if you call fantasy novels 'science fiction,' as most book stores seem to these days. (You always find the sword and sorcery filed cheek-by-jowl with the space wars and fictional mars missions.)
The NARC series is five volumes,
a set of stories which are the 'Gay science fiction reader's choice' of the Mel Keegan list. These novels tell the vast story of a paramilitary department, Narcotics And Riot Control, fighting a drug war four centuries from now, and their heroes,
Jarrat and Stone, have achieved cult status. See DEATH'S HEAD, EQUINOX, SCORPIO, STOPOVER and APHELION:
The NARC books are a exercise in 'social science fiction.' Rather than examining the possibilities of artificial
intelligence, alien creatures and more highly-evolved life forms, in these books Mel Keegan examines the human
condition ... and this is what makes them so popular. It's the factor that makes social science fiction, as a
genre, so popular.
In the Mel Keegan brand of science fiction, the author creates a world where homosexuality is no longer an issue in any way, shape or form. You're gay. Where's the problem? People
are completely free to choose their social niche. This is the 'upside' to this fictional universe. The 'downside'
is that there are plenty of other things to worry about! One of them is the lethal designer drug called Angel.
Mel Keegan's characters come from widely different backgrounds and lifestyles. They work with a common purpose on
the space-borne aircraft carrier, the Athena. A single vocation gives them kinship.
Everyone in the service has lost
a loved one to a designer drug known as Angel. Lethal ... incurable ... seductive, this plague has built empires
and torn them down.
(Briefly, Narcotics And Riot Control (NARC) is a paramilitary department. Don't think army or air force. Think some combination
of SWAT and a cutting-edge anti-terrorist squad, plus the US Coast Guard and (!) customs and quarantine. The
working atmosphere is relaxed and a number of their 'mission specialists' — in computers, programing, medicine —
are actually civilians. NARC was founded purely to fight the Angel plague, defeat the syndicates which achieve imperial
status in the human colonies. This is the background for the series. It's the framework on which the stories 'hang.'
For an in-depth look, visit the NARC sub-site, which is part of this site.)
The stories themselves are about people — very real, often haunting ... and frequently, men in love with men.
The themes which underlie the novels are often strongly gay, but on a broader level they're about the freedom to
be what you are. This freedom should be a right, not a privilege. Yet, how many groups on Earth in our own century still
struggle to achieve it?
And this is where 'social science fiction' comes into its own as a genre. The NARC books are superb examples of this
sub-category of SF. Readers have been enthralled since 1992, and many reviewers have raved.
HIM magazine described DEATH'S HEAD as 'unputdownable.' In the same year, CAPITAL GAY called the novel 'a powerful futuristic thriller.'
And in its year
of publication (1992), DEATH'S HEAD was nominated for the Science Fiction Hall of Fame. Being a gay novel, it was less
than likely to win over the giants of SF (Azimov, Clark, Bear...), but the nomination tells its own story. In the
estimation of many readers, the NARC series is gay SF at its very best ... and it's a hard act to follow.
In fact, take a moment out here to read the Reader Reviews of these novels. Pleasing
the critics is one thing. Delighting readers — and doing it reliably over almost twenty years — is something
else. And Mel Keegan has done this, with gay fiction of every description, from 1989 to 2008!
Meanwhile, the HELLGATE series does indeed follow the NARC books, in more ways than one.
More serial than series, HELLGATE is at four novels, and tells the story of
mankind's expansion into a region of space — the Deep Sky — where we will obliterated by an someone else's
enemies ... if we don't wipe ourselves out first with the colonial wars which are just beginning to explode as the
series starts.
And here's the kicker: HELLGATE is set in the same 'universe' as NARC. The frontier has moved back
from the Near Heavens (in which the NARC books take place, in the 24th century), to the Deep Sky, two centuries
later. HELLGATE has a couple more volumes to go to be complete; since THE RABELAIS ALLIANCE was published (2001),
we've tagged it as a 'masterwork of science fiction,' and this is rather an understatement! As per specifically
gay science fiction, HELLGATE is as much a ground-breaker as the NARC series.
See THE RABELAIS ALLIANCE, DEEP SKY, CRY LIBERTY and PROBE .. click on the covers above to browse each book.
Next are a raft of stand-alone novels, from TIGER, TIGER, which is set in Tasmania in the 2050s, to WINDRAGE, which
is a post-apocalypse romp once described as 'a gay western on super-bikes after we get pulverised by an asteroid impact'
...! There's also CALLISTO SWITCH, about a switch pilot in the Jupiter system, on the eve of massive developments
regarding the first human colony ships ... and AQUAMARINE, set in a 'drowned future,' where it was a comet that
impacted in the Antarctic, and the new race of Aquarians, genetically-engineered humans, might be the future of
mankind ... if any of us survive long enough. And if gay fantasy is your preference, THE SWORDSMAN is sword and
sorcery, Mel Keegan style, with an astonishing sting in its tail — a readers' favorite.
Click the covers, above, to go to the browser pages. From those pages
you can read around 40% of each book online, get inside MK's head with
the 'Research Tales,' link through to the Reviews and see what other readers
are saying ... and order the books! Learn more about HELLGATE...
Are you looking desperately for the old GMP editions
to complete a collection? In our experience, here is your best shot:
Copies often change hands there, although it's also true they don't change hands cheaply. In recent years, since the DreamCraft editions have been published, the price of an original GMP Death's Head is around US$80 - $100 ... which is an improvement on the price years ago, then it wa 4-5 times that high! Incidentally, when you buy a Mel Keegan title second hand, via an eBay trader, from a link on this site — Mel Keegan will earn a royalty, which is extremely appropriate. A new window will open; search on 'Mel Keegan,' and you'll see what's available at this time. NOTE: few people auction their MK titles, so the first result in your search results window is almost certainly going to be be '0 results for Mel Keegan.' Don't be deterred: scroll down to the Ebay Stores. At the time of this upload, for example, you could buy four MK titles, including both the GMP editions of Death's Head and Equinox, at very reasonable prices! Happy shopping ... and good luck! (Tell us how you go.)
...Good news for Lynx users. Mel Keegan OnLine is now completely friendly to text browsers. Onbiously, if you're running Flash Player 6 or better, you'll be loading the movies, but if you're here simply to read (or to listen, if you have test to voice software), then you'll enjoy the full benefit of a Lynx-tested site.
Link to us!
The brand-new addition to the SF list, launching in September 2009!
Special feature:
Are you looking desperately for the old GMP editions
to complete a collection? In our experience, here is your best shot:
