One of my guilty pleasures is to collect Western pulp fiction paperbacks with homoerotic book covers, along with the campy gay pulp fiction as well. Rarely do the two genres meet; the Westerns never have gay characters, and the early gay pulps often fail in authenticity, with few exceptions.

One author who straddles both genres is Victor J. Banis, whose novel Longhorns will please fans of gay and western fiction. As one of the last products of the sadly defunct Carroll & Graf gay fiction wing, Banis’ latest book gently blends elements of a standard romance, erotica, and traditional Western pulp fiction. It’s like Brokeback Mountain without so much angst.

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Humans have colonized the largely water-covered planet of Thalassa, settling on the many islands which dot its oceans. For centuries, news has traveled and history has been taught by storytellers, itinerants who sail the seas on harsels, which resemble intelligent telepathic whales.

One storyteller, who calls herself Teller, takes a young boy named Samad under her wing. She is very old, and Samad will be her final apprentice. As Samad grows up and travels with Teller, he learns about the world on which he lives and about the harsels which transport them.

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