Rainbow Reviews

BOOK BLURB:
Toby Johnson’s awarding-winning "Secret Matter" was a Lambda Rising #1 bestseller when it appeared in 1990. It received rave reviews. Now it’s back, revised, expanded and updated for a new generation of readers.

Kevin Anderson is moving along through his life, finishing up college, and getting ready to leave New York for an internship rebuilding San Francisco after an immense earthquake. Then the Visitors arrive; a race of human-like aliens touch down in several cities around the globe, including SF, and nothing will ever be the same. When Kevin's company is given a contract to build a facility for the Visitors, he forms a friendship with 'Bel, one of their number. But is 'Bel so alien after all? They seem so human, albeit much larger, but they possess some odd characteristics and seem to be hiding something. 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 in love with '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.

BOOK REVIEW:
Filled with numerous interwoven characters, self exploration, and beautifully written enigmas, Secret Matter turns out to be a coming-of-age story, an exploration of spirituality and religion, and a bold science fiction story.

The main character, Kevin Anderson, is a young man uncomfortable with his obvious but undeclared homosexuality. The near future world he inhabits has had a religious resurgence (eerily similar to what appears to be going on in today's world) and open prejudice against gays is a fact of life in Kevin's experience.

However, the world changes, first when a horrible earthquake devastates San Francisco, and second, when the apparently peaceful "Visitors" arrive overhead in large space ships.

When the visitors turn out to appear very nearly human, the mystery of their appearance deepens. However, they exhibit no overt threat and prepare to establish embassies and begin studies of our world.

When Kevin falls in love with a male Visitor, 'Bel, he starts to realize that the beautiful people have secrets that they are keeping and this leads onward to the real richness of ideas and powerful plot in the story.

This book is recommended reading for anyone who enjoys science fiction, religious and spiritual discussion, and interesting hypotheticals. It charms on every level. While at times I found myself feeling that Kevin's agonies and perspectives were frustrating and perhaps even unrealistic, that is more likely my own selective memory and perspective ~ that of a 40-year-old man who has been more or less comfortably "out" for 20 years. I also felt that at the point where the book was most exciting, it delved too deeply into explanations about the Visitors' technology; at the most dramatic and suspensful point in the story, there is a protracted technical discussion about how to resolve the situation ~ a discussion that would even make Star Trek TNG writers think that there had to be a less complicated techno-speak way of explaining things.

That aside, though, the book resolves in a very enjoyable and satisfying way, and the author's many-layered revelations about the Visitors is both intriguing and pleasantly startling. (I shouted out loud at the most critical revelation, and was very relieved when the author powerfully backed it up with science and reason.)

Recommended!

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