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:

[Click here for a swift overview of the series.]

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?

Special feature:
Mel Keegan talks about the gay science fiction genre

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