Read SPIES & SAUCERS and Learn the Secrets of UFOs!!!

In light of the resurgence of UFOs in popular culture as well as in the halls of Congress, I think it's time to remind everybody that the most mysterious and numinous secrets of UFOs are available in the pages of my second book, SPIES & SAUCERS, a collection of three novellas released by PS Publishing ten years ago this month. 

Madness, murder and mayhem abound in SPIES & SAUCERS, a collection of three sui generis novellas by ROBERT GUFFEY. Each of these tales explores the anti-Communist hysteria of the 1950s, as well as the flying saucer obsession of that era, while straddling the boundaries of seemingly disparate genres: metaphysical science fiction, espionage, satire, and crime noir.

The first part of SPIES & SAUCERS, “The Fallen Nun,” takes place in 1959. Our protagonist, Kyle Black, wakes up one morning to discover a dead nun lying facedown in the marijuana garden in his backyard. Attempting to solve the mystery of how the nun ended up in his garden leads Kyle to strange encounters with an Irish Cyclops named Finn mac Cumhall, a Devil Bat grown to enormous proportions by a dead mad scientist, two homicidal tabloid journalists, and a sickly extraterrestrial abducted by a time traveling mother superior…

In “Communist Town, U.S.A.,” a young FBI agent named Philip Trowbridge is sent to Wisconsin in 1955 with orders to infiltrate a small town, reportedly a hotbed of underground Communist activity, in which several previous FBI agents have disappeared without a trace…

“Spies and Saucers” is set three years earlier in 1952 and involves a blacklisted, left-wing Hollywood screenwriter named Curt Adamson. Down on his luck after having been dumped by every studio on the West Coast, Adamson is recruited by a covert spy agency to write a screenplay for an unknown reason—unknown only to Adamson, that is. Adamson’s superiors are well aware of the screenplay’s purpose. Though consistently told he doesn’t have a “need to know,” Adamson insists on discovering the truth behind the tale he himself is weaving, uncovering a plot far more outlandish and ominous than the cheap horror and science fiction B-movies on which he’s built his tarnished reputation…

 

PRAISE FOR SPIES AND SAUCERS:

 

"Robert Guffey’s book Spies and Saucers presents three novellas about UFOs, Men in Black, strange creatures and even stranger occurrences. These tales are set in the '50s, but they sound as fresh as any modern story of UFOs and strange creatures. Reading in bed or right before bed is not recommended for the faint of heart."

 

--Tessa B. Dick, author of Philip K. Dick: Remembering Firebright and My Life on the Edge of Reality

 

"Robert Guffey’s Spies and Saucers is an unforgettable experience. In this book, the three tales are distinct and yet also have clear thematic relationships to one another, all evoking an insightful view of the wonders and the fears of America in the '50s. They also draw upon a rich array of pop culture, ranging from B-horror movies like The Devil Bat (1940) with Bela Lugosi to Irish folklore and the golden age of science fiction novels.

 

"These allusions enriched both occasions I’ve read Spies and Saucers (thankfully I have a hardback, as I’ll be returning to it again in the near future). At the same time, I don’t believe knowledge of the various films and books to which Guffey refers is necessary, no more so than it is for reading and loving Thomas Pynchon.

 

"Spies and Saucers is thoughtful--at times dark, at times darkly humorous--but always enjoyable.

 

"Along with Cormac McCarthy, Guffey is my favorite modern fiction writer. Spies and Saucers provides ample proof as to why I feel that way.”

 

--Gary D. Rhodes, author of The Perils of Moviegoing in America

 

 

"Guffey's extraordinary fictional narrative is an extension of his interest in conspiracy theories and the wild suppositions and events these curious belief systems declare as truth [...]. Spies and Saucers resonates as a reconstruction of that mid-century media and those exceptional, nearly mystical experiences when flying saucers hovered above us and communists, hidden in doorways, watched us with subversive intent. Guffey's novel seems spontaneously generated from the troposphere of fear hanging above us at the beginning of a new, byte-infused century, a literary tulpa expressing the nexus of propaganda, false narratives, and outright lies we experience every day."

 

--The Mailer Review