I. THE ZINE - CONCEPT,
PRESENTATION, ART, ETC
A very well-thought-through attempt at that rare beastie, the
mixed zine. The impassioned editorial sets out the reasoning
behind Tavia's decision to resist the traditional adult-slash-gen
division with eloquence and conviction, and the format of the
zine carries it through well. There's a double contents page,
with title/author only at the front and a guide to sex and
violence ratings at the back. (Warning to anyone whose slash or
het barrier is very low: implied or past relationships are not
signalled, which I think is great, but you may find yourself
taken by surprise.)
The colour front cover by Val Westall - beautifully and moodily pencilled, and well reproduced - confused me with a slightly "fantasy" feel, but now I think it may originally have been an illustration for Firerose's Ash Wednesday. It's beautiful - particularly the haunted-looking Avon - but I don't think it reflects the mood of the zine as a whole. Non-fantasy fans (like me!) don't be put off. Internal art is a nice mix of Firerose's grainy-inked faces, well-chosen pale-grey frame grabs, and Penny Dreadful's strong and individual figures, which remind me a bit of Stanley Spencer. I think my favourites are the insidious and indescribable (for fear of spoilers) picture on p. 27, and the lovely Blake frontispiece which captures his mix of wistfulness and strength.
Binding is nice and sturdy, with a plastic cover which is handy for reading in the bath. Typesetting and layout are fine, I'm not really sensitive to that sort of thing.
II. CONTENT
Mixed in more ways than one! It seems there are as many
"Blake's 7 universes" as there are individual fic
writers, and this zine demonstrates the sheer range of Things To
Do With Canon (And Fanon), from Belatrix's and Airan Wilkinson's
takes on fanon staples, through Hades' and Hafren's dark and
ingenious reinterpretations of canon ("so *that's*
why..."), Penny Dreadful's and Judith Proctor's stunningly
detailed expansion on "offscreen" moments in the
journeys of Travis II and Blake, to Una McCormack's cleverly
bleak what-if AU set post-Star One (I think). Similarly, the
characters inhabit a broad range of settings, from Jackie's -
which puts the "sci" back into sci-fi - through Una's
greyscale world of political compromise, Penny's detailed and
gritty sci-fi universe, and Firerose's "primitive
planet" setting, through to Executrix's spin into a universe
next door to our own, filtering the B7 characters and canon
through more familiar settings. A very broad range of styles and
tones, then, and also a good mix of characters and seasons (I did
a rough table, and PWBs and PGPs predominate slightly, with all
four seasons about equally represented: characterwise it seems to
go Avon, Blake, Vila, Tarrant, then Travis, Servalan, Soolin,
with the rest trailing. Orac does better than Gan, strangely).
No poetry, and very little primarily-humorous material, although there's some good lighter moments in many of the stories, some cracking one-liners, and a lot of black comedy from Belatrix Carter. Some explicit sex, but no PWPs. Apart from some lovely flashes of emotionally-charged eroticism from Executrix and Nova (slash) and Firerose (het), the sex is generally non-explicit or, in one case, nonconsensual (neither of which titillates me greatly - on a purely physical level, at least), and all of it adds to the overall feel of the zine as character-driven.
I found the zine had quite a slashy feel, but that's because I interpret intense emotional interaction through my slash blinkers as often as possible, and I was quite surprised when I was rereading it for this review by how much less "actual" slash there was in it than I'd remembered. Despite being someone who sets the maximum m/f level on the Hermit library form down from "kissing" to "none, no, take it away, not even hand-holding, not even implied, ewwww, nasty het", I found myself enjoying the het stories too.
III. THE INDIVIDUAL STORIES
1. Honesty: A Question
of Policy - Belatrix Carter (1 page)
The first of seven short pieces by Belatrix Carter,
inspired by a Freedom City themed story challenge, "The
Seven Deadly Virtues." I suppose you don't really need to
know that, but I think they work better if you do. I'm not sure
how well Tavia's decision to split them up and distribute them
throughout the zine works, but on the other hand reading them all
together might have been a bit much. Hmmm.
Anyway, this is a nice twist on one of my favourite themes, and it's great to see Jenna kick some arse for once.
2. The Last Days of Roj Blake
- Una McCormack (6-7pp)
I'm coming to rely rather on Una for politically-savvy
Blake stories, and this is a great take on the "President of
the Refederation" theme. It's one of those stories that
demands a few minutes' break after reading to let your head
resettle after its unnerving effect. Well-written, thoughtful,
and great characterization - each section is written in
first-person POV of a different character. They all work, but I
particularly liked the Vila voice. It managed to avoid the fanfic
trap of two-dimensional Vila characterization (alcoholic + thief
= Vila), while incorporating his own slightly overplayed
self-presentation as... alcoholic and thief. Strong, dark plot
with the emotional and political consequences of the action
thoroughly explored in the dialogue. Even though I adamantly
reject the idea that Blake would accept Presidency after the
revolution, this story convinced me - at least until I finished
it and rearranged my head. An added bonus is Una's Cally, one of
those fanfic Callys who's simultaneously recognizable and much
cooler than Canon Cally.
3. Awake And Find No - Ika
(4pp)
I wrote this, so I won't say much about it, except... I
wrote it as Servalan angst (an under-represented genre) for a
Servalanophile friend's birthday. And Una McCormack told me it
made her cry, and I was pleased, because I'm nasty.
4. Courage - Nickey Barnard
(1 page)
Nickey, you bastard. Vila GP/PGP vignette, a punch in the
guts, with a couple of the best lines in the zine ("the
whole world portrayed in leather and polish"): dark, gory,
plausible and harsh. Loved it.
5. Courage - Belatrix Carter
(1/2 page)
Short Vila Seven Deadly Virtues vignette: moving
exploration of Vila's take on heroism.
6. The Killer of Dole Nu Lin -
Penny Dreadful (10pp)
Quite simply one of the best B7 stories ever written:
probably worth the price of the zine alone. It relies heavily on
Penny's very successful experiment with writing style to explore
"mutoid subjectivity". It also triumphantly pulls
together the very incoherent canonical accounts of Travis's
journey from Trial to Star One, the Space Command structure, and
how mutoids work, to create a tough, psychologically and socially
plausible, realistic, hard-ish SF universe where the canonical
characters fit in (how hard is that to do?). I always appreciate
Penny's focus on physical and bodily detail - and this carries
through into the violence, moving away from the cartoonish
violence of canon into a much more realistic, effective style
(not for the more squeamish reader!). Oh - and a thoughtful
Travis II portrayal, giving him much-needed depth and coherence -
but for those who know Penny's work, that goes without saying!
Great Servalan cameos, too.
7. Purity - Belatrix Carter
(1 1/2 pp)
Wickedly funny take on fanon (the "diplomatic mission
to gay planet" scenario) and canon (why *do* they address
each other loudly and publicly by their real and notorious
names?) with an ending that manages to be both harsh and
touching.
8. Not Our Kind, Darling -
Executrix (7 1/2 pp)
Executrix's "Avoniad" universe: the College
Years. Avon meets Jenna. An exploration of the class system and
religious repression with a contemporary-type feel which throws
up surprising new insights into canon. I find Executrix's writing
style extremely dense and sometimes hard going - but in a good
way: things aren't spelt out, but alluded to, and I was a bit
dizzy by the end of the story, which was a fun feeling, and
cheaper than drugs. Lovely detailed milieu, with perfect little
descriptive/ physical details. Clearly driven by Executrix's
great love of and sympathy for Avon, this just avoids descending
into slavering Avon-worship (but I'm a Blake girl myself and I
may be biassed, as I don't think Avon is as self-aware or
competent as Executrix does). I love the Avon family:
upwardly-mobile Betas with all-too-plausible sibling dynamics of
love/hate (or maybe loyalty/dislike). As ever, the fireworks of
the writing and the only-just-SF take on the universe spin
delicately round the darkness of the themes and the depth of
characterisation.
9. Four Years After - Ika
(1 page)
I wrote this one as my contribution to the President of
the Refederation theme, but it doesn't work as well as I'd hoped.
Oh well.
10. Benediction - Morrigan (21pp)
A fantastic rendition of a harder, colder, GP-era Blake,
with a good balance between solid plot, psychological
elaboration, and detailed explication of the setup on GP. The
wealth of OCs is a little confusing at first but they're fully
enough drawn that they're easily sorted out once you get used to
them. The real strength of this story for me is the
characterisation - Dayna is particularly good - and the A-B
dynamics, which are unimpeachably gen, but I still think of this
as a slash story. Non-slash readers (and, in fact, the author!)
would disagree, though. Another triumph is that Morrigan manages
to get Blake (and - to a lesser extent, of course - Avon) to talk
things through, and to end on a relatively upbeat note, without
straining the characterization too far, which is dead hard in a
PGP. I also love the theme of Blake-the-actor, faking personae in
response to situations until even he's not sure which is the
"real" Blake - if there is one.
11. Charity - Belatrix Carter
(1 page)
Short Avon-Cally 7 Deadly Virtues piece, with great
snarling from Avon and great deadpan teasing from Cally. Funny
and sweet.
12. Purple Haze - Executrix
(4pp)
1960's-ish student agitation on the University of the
Federation/Federation Engineering Academy campus. Great
revolutionary rhetoric, nice cameos from a variety of canonical
characters (including the offbeat but somehow immediately
convincing pairing of Hal Mellonby/Kasabi), and a dark, harsh
denouement, in Executrix's rollercoaster style. (Una called it
"an iron fist in a velvet glove".) The Avon-focussed
plot is the peg on which all this hangs, and I'm probably
entirely unique in that it awakens in me a small desire to slap
Avon for being all superior. Oh - I liked the attention to
childcare details - never seen that in fanfic before.
13. All The Gin Joints -
Executrix (3pp)
A/B sequel to the above. "Heart-wrenching
eroticism" is a phrase which would never have made sense to
me until I read Executrix. The switches in POV narrator work
well, and this is one of Executrix's most sympathetic (and
therefore, to me, plausible) Blakes. Again, although I personally
found the premise (Avon's boyfriend from Purple Haze still
carries a torch for him, rather than wanting to slap him - see
above for declaration of bias) a touch implausible, the precision
and depth of the character dynamics are enough to suspend my
disbelief even against my will, and this is a great story with a
"bonus" of lovely Vila-voice narration.
14. Humility - Belatrix Carter
(1 page)
Short Gan 7 Deadly Virtues piece, set at the end of
Pressure Point. This works well for me as a thoughtful,
three-dimensional expansion of "I'm not worth dying
for" which doesn't turn Gan into a wholly selfless
martyr-type. The slight twist at the end, and particularly the
penultimate paragraph, are really, really moving.
15. Privilege - Susan Cutter
(10pp)
A cracking story with a very sympathetic and plausible
take on a teenage Tarrant. I found the Delta voices wobbled
slightly with occasional "lapses" into correct grammar
and educated vocabulary, and the prose style as a whole was
slightly clumsy, but plot, characterization, attention to
physical detail, and an impressive view of Federation social
structure more than made up for it.
I "collect" rape scenes, and I'm not entirely sure how I stand on this particular one. It didn't annoy me, but I felt there was a slight tension between the victim POV and the authorial overview which made it a bit less effective than it could have been - but then I'm always very picky about portrayals of rape. This scene was pretty graphic, but not all that disturbing (to me, but then it's quite hard to disturb me).
The 'privilege' theme is very well handled and interesting, and the point where Susan Cutter ends allows for endless speculation about what happened between the end of the story and Power Play. So, despite some minor reservations, I still think this is top quality fanfic, opening up a range of questions to think about which would never have occurred to me if I hadn't read this.
16. Nightmare - Jenner (2pp)
A very, very bleak and absolutely wonderful A/B story.
Like Nova (except depressing), Jenner takes our heroes into new
ways of relating - I've never seen their relationship portrayed
along quite these lines - while remaining absolutely true to both
of them and to canon. The scene with Blake alone in his cabin is
just extraordinary, in terms of the writing and of the emotional
impact.
17. Ghost in the Machine -
Jackie (4pp)
This felt to me like reading Bryn Lantry, I think because
of the sustained word-by-word attention it demands. Otherwise, it
couldn't be more different from Bryn: a hard-ish SF story with
the lengthy theory and explication filtered skilfully through a
charming Avon-Orac relationship. I'm ashamed to admit I still
don't understand quite what's going on, but I think that's more
my fault than Jackie's. Luckily, the overall plot was clear
enough, and the writing and pace so enjoyable, that it didn't
matter much. Interesting, original - and for some reason really
hard to review.
18. Inga - Judith Proctor
(2pp)
After reading "The Way Forward: Crusades of
Blake" I am keenly aware of just how difficult it is to
write a plausible account of Blake's politicization, and my hat
is off to Judith for this one: a thoughtful, wonderful and
seamless pulling-together of hints and moments from canon. As
ever from Judith Proctor, great, hear-able Blake voice (I'm
honestly not sure whether or not the last line is a quote from
canon because I can hear it so clearly), and impressive attention
to canonical details which in other hands might just have been
throwaway jokes (why are there birch trees on every planet the Liberator
visits?). If I had to make a criticism, it would be that the
dramatic setting - Blake is talking to Vila - fades out during
the course of the story, but actually that doesn't bother me.
19. Before the Fall - Airan
Wilkinson (3-4pp)
A depressing take on Blake's reliance on his
"followers", reworking the reality/illusion theme which
runs through canon: it takes off from what is, for me, probably
the most upsetting single speech in canon (Servalan's "Blake
is dead" speech from Terminal). I found the style slightly
maudlin, but then I'm not sure how Airan could have avoided that
given the tone and theme. Moving and emotionally disturbing, with
a particularly haunting cameo from a child Cally.
20. Fidelity - Belatrix Carter
(1/2 page)
I don't know how she does it. Once again, a Seven Deadly
Virtues piece which takes a premise which is so far-fetched it's
almost silly, and then spins a moving and characteristic vignette
out of it. So good I'll forgive her for using
"blood-red" for Servalan's lipstick (something I have a
knee-jerk prejudice against).
21. Ash Wednesday - Firerose
(32pp)
I generally don't like B7 fanfic with a fantasy feel - I'm
more of a Space Command, domes, hi-tech imperialism sort of a
girl - but this had a nasty little twist which reconciled me to
the "primitive planet" setting. I was also chuffed by
the wonderfully intense, complex A-B dynamics which underpin this
story of Avon's acceptance of his survival of Gauda Prime. We get
a very interesting insight into the Avon/Anna relationship along
the way, too.
Very good Orac, and a lovely, weary, S5 Avon: the other characters are all OCs, but they're likeable and believable. The plot intertwines perfectly with the emotional developments in and between Avon and Zenia. The Avon-Raznan subplot is moving and fascinating to me, as someone who's obsessed with the Blake/not-Blake theme in canon. The writing style occasionally pushed my too-many-long-words-in-one-sentence button, but then it *is* Avon POV....
As I was typing this up I realised I still wasn't sure why it was called Ash Wednesday. I'm assuming it's a TS Eliot reference, but then what do I know.
22. Some Questions Best
Unanswered - Firerose (1 page)
A short, sad ... um, A/B or A-B... piece. Firerose has their
voices particularly well, particularly Avon's. I think she might
be overwriting a little for Blake's POV - he doesn't seem to me
to be much given to metaphor. But there are some really wonderful
lines, a lovely, wistful tone, and good strong A-B dynamics.
23. Hombres. Sailors.
Comrades. - Ika (4-5pp)
Well, I tried my hardest, and there were extensive
rewrites after negotiations with the Tarrant Nostra. It still
might not be a favourite among Tarrant fans, though: I didn't
give him much to do and the plot might have pushed him out of
character a bit. That'll teach me to write plot.
24. Diligence - Belatrix
Carter (1 page)
A flash of insight into the workings of Zen, which I'd
never thought about before, underpins a bouncily humorous piece.
Great stuff.
25. Take My Breath Away -
Executrix (6pp)
A sharp, moving story with a strong queer sensibility
(something I for one cheer loudly). Another showcase for
Executrix's ability to supercharge details with emotion and
eroticism: it takes my breath away. Another well-drawn teenage
Tarrant, too, this one at the FSA and so full of bravado,
confusion, self-confidence and naïve enthusiasm that I rather
fell in love with him myself. Some beautiful lines, and slightly
less dense than many of Executrix's stories.
I did feel that Avon was a bit too close to acting as a Voice of Morality or something - he has a few speeches that felt to me a bit like a Beginner's Guide to Queer Politics - but then his love of infodumping is one of his most endearing canonical traits, so I shouldn't grumble when he puts it to a good cause.
26. The Sleep of the Dead -
Hades (5pp)
I was really confused at the beginning of this story,
which seemed to be in flagrant violation of canon and sticking
really close to it all at the same time, but by the end it came
triumphantly and shockingly clear. A devious, ingenious gem from
the twisted mind of Hades, clever and punchily written.
27. Obituaries: Roj Blake -
Ika (1-2pp)
This is just silly. I wrote it just after I first saw Blake
last year, so it's already served its therapeutic purpose, and if
anyone else is amused that's a bonus. It's a PGP - meaning Post
Gay Pride.
28. Fetch - Hafren
(3pp)
My comment on Freedom City after reading this was
"Hafren, you *bastard*!" and I stand by that. This is a
chilling, terrifying riff on Avon's progress through Series 4.
It's like the few HP Lovecraft stories I've read, it gets under
your skin - and stays there. Blimey. Just... amazing.
29. Unfinished Business - Nova
(12pp)
Another one which is probably worth the zine price just on
its own. A beautiful, happy-ending PGP which manages to combine a
tricksy plot with incredibly affecting, bitter-sweet and spot-on
A/B dynamics without seeming contrived. Other highlights are a
thoroughly enjoyable cameo from Carnell and a Vila/Tarrant
relationship - probably my personal Least Plausible Pairing -
which didn't interrupt my suspension of disbelief and was
actually really, really sweet. The sex (and snogging) scenes are
erotic, in-character, and so beautiful I could drown in them. I
cried.
13 March 2001