Southern Comfort (multimedia zine)/Issue 011.5
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Issue 11.5 (Southern Comfort, Blake's 7)
Southern Lights 11.5 was published in May 1999 and is 129 pages long (108,529 words). It has a color cover by Leah Rosenthal. The interior art is by Whitby27 and Sarah S.
- The Turning of the Worm, fiction by Willa Shakespeare (3)
- The Worm Continues to Turn, fiction by Willa Shakespeare (12)
- Taken In, fiction by Catocala (revised and reprinted with the name Leah Rosenthal and Ann Wortham in The Other Side #3 and Straight Blake's #2) (18)
- Xenogamy, fiction by Alicia Ann Fox (Star Trek: Voyager crossover) (24)
- Fun with Dick and Jenna, fiction by Willa Shakespeare (43)
- The Ultimate Slash Cliche Drinking Game by Predatrix (46)
- Embarkation, fiction by Tessa Nolan and Cami O'Tool (52)
- Flight Path, fiction by Tessa Nolan and Cami O'Tool (sequel to "Initiation") (56)
- Application to Pilot the Liberator by Willa Shakespeare (63)
- If There Were Dreams to Sell, What Would You Buy?, Archived version, fiction by Misha (64)
- With This Ring, fiction by Julia Stamford (103)
- This Is a Mad Blakelib by Willa Shakespeare (117)
- Pet Project, fiction by Willa Shakespeare (118)
- Delinquent, fiction by Nova (122)
from issue #11.5, sample text
from issue #11.5, Whitby27
from issue #11.5, "Application to Pilot the Liberator"
from issue #11.5, Whitby27 (portrays consensual sexual activity)
from issue #11.5, Sarah S.?
Reactions and Reviews: Issue 11.5
[If There Were Dreams to Sell, What Would You Buy?]: While Darring's f/f is definitely secondary, 'subplot' doesn't seem quite the right word for the f/f element in Misha's 'If There Were Dreams to Sell, What Would You Buy?', a long and complex story with multiple layers of dream and illusion. Cally is tortured and raped by Travis, using a psychic projection of her clone sister Zelda for extra sadistic effect, after which she is taken back to Auron by Tyce Sarkoff and a rather idealized version of Gan - a pacifist and diplomat, who meditates, moves fluidly and talks fluently. Somewhat surprisingly, when Cally wants to break the 'association between sex and violence', Misha has her opting for Gan, rather than Tyce, even though Cally's declared aim is to restore her sexual connection with her sister. After that, Cally and Zelda succeed in making love but the story ends with Cally and Tyce competing to help Gan overcome the sexually inhibiting effect of his limiter.
<...> Three more stories separate sex and emotion, giving detailed accountes of sexual activity but withholding the characters' emotional reactions or reserving them until later in the narrative - a technique that works well for the unsouciant erotica of 'Window Shopping' but less well in 'If There Were Dreams To Sell' and 'Asphodel', where the descriptions of rape and sexual violence require more contextualizing. [1]
[Delinquent]: This was the first Nova’s fic that I read and one of my favorite ones so far. It has some problems - while I like good boy/bad boy pairs, I think she sometimes tries too hard to shove Blake and Avon into these roles; the way Avon regains his rebelliousness after getting together with Blake felt too abrupt, almost comically so (I know that Magical Healing Cock is a thing; perhaps we should come up with the B7-specific version, Magical Class-Consciousness Rising Cock); and, of course, “undesirable associates” gets repeated ad nauseum. But I just find the idea of Avon being Blake’s childhood hero so adorable, and it’s for sure one of the most original takes on “they knew each other pre-canon” trope in this fandom. It’s interesting to review it after reading other Nova’s fics - now I can clearly discern some tropes and headcanons she used in many other fics, e.g. exploring characters’ backstories, accentuated differences in Blake’s and Avon’s upbringing, love restoring the fighting spirit in characters and so on. [2]
[zine]:Here's the companion zine to SC #10.5, and amazingly, it's just as good. I really appreciate the skill of the editor in juggling a wide assortment of stories so that each zine would have a good mix. Once again, every single item is well worth reaading.The standout in this issue is Alicia Ann Fox's "Xenogamy," one of the hottest het stories ever written. A rough draft appeared on SC and was perhaps the most popular story ever serialized here. This is the final, polished version, and it's even hotter now. I'd recommend that slash fans who think they don't like het give this one a try. There's lots of other good stuff besides the sex, as a deeply suspicious Avon, rescued by the Voyager crew after he escapes from torture by his Federation, learns his way around the Trek universe. And the hot tub scene is-- well, you'll just have to read it and see for yourself.
The other long story, this one novella-length, is Misha's surreal dream story, which rather reminds me of New Wave SF-- as if J. G. Ballard or some such author were writing B7 fan erotica! This one is very complicated but repays careful reading. It opens with Cally, captured on Centero, being raped and tortured by Travis --who has, however, made her believe she is having sex with her beloved sister--in the hope of getting her to talk. But Cally is already suffering severe mental illness as a result of her experience on Saurian Major, and is broadcasting strange and disturbing dreams to everyone within reach. The Federation must get rid of her but dare not kill her ("The death-scream of an Auron is incredibly powerful"), so they send her back to neutral Auron in the care of Senator Tyce Sarkoff of Lindor and none other than Olag Gan, now also a Lindorean diplomat after he decided not to join Blake back on Cygnus Alpha. Gan, of course, has problems of his own due to the limiter, but with the assistance of Tyce, Docholli, and later Zelda, he and Cally are able to help each other. Dream sequences are interwoven with real events in a complex plot that also involves evil Federation experiments and Lindorean mythology. I predict that this will be a "love it or hate it" story. Some will find it too confusing and too far from the aired series, while others will find it fascinating. I guess it's obvious which category I'm in!
A/B fans will be delighted to find two excellent A/B stories in this issue. "With This Ring" by Julia Stamford explores the erotic ramifications of genital piercing and Liberator healing pads, as well as the emotional ramifications of the relationship between Blake and Avon. The illustration by Whitby27 is very beautiful and very explicit, stunning in every sense. My jaw dropped when I saw it. And the story itself is both hot and unusual.
Nova is a new author to watch out for; her A/B story in the multimedia zine Dark Roses is also noteworthy. Here, "Delinquent" provides an unusual but plausible background for Avon and explains why both he and Vila hate psychiatrists. Avon's cynicism is revealed as thwarted early idealism-- and Blake realizes that Avon is in fact the very person he has idolized for much of his life. And then things really begin to sizzle!
Federation mind-meddling also figures in the plot of "The Turning of the Worm." This story grew out of discussions in the Tarrant apa, in which Tarrant fans complained about all the old stories in which mean bully Tarrant rapes the poor widdle Delta until Avon makes him stop, and said they'd like to see a story in which Vila rapes Tarrant instead. Well, here it is at last! Poor Tarrant is blackmailed into serving as the helpless sex slave of Vila's evil alternate personality, which was generated by all the shrinking of Vila's head. Avon resolves the problem by making love to Vila himself, and they all settle into a happy threesome, joined by Cally and Dayna in the sequel.
Young Tarrant has encounters with m/m sex both tender and brutal in "Embarkation" (originally called "Initiation"?) and "Flight Path." The first story opens with the bizarre image suggested by Penny, of Tarrant in one of Servalan's gowns. It's an initiation prank at the FSA. Tarrant is rescued by Major Travis, who turns out to have his own agenda.
In the second story, Tarrant seeks out Travis once again. Travis is now changed physically, after what Blake did to him, and he appears to be changed emotionally as well. Or was he really that way all along? Tarrant learns a lesson, though not, as he thinks to himself at the end, the one that Travis intended. It's an interestingly eroticized twist on the question of why Tarrant decided to leave Space Command when he had been so sucessful there.
More het content is provided by the reprinted A/J story "Taken In." I haven't actually compared it with the original version, but this version is distinctly hotter than I remember, so I think it has been skilfully spiced up. Very nice.
I suppose "Pet Project" would have to be called het too, or at least partly so, since Cally's moon disc and Avon's Sopron manage to reproduce! This event coincides with Tarrant's unsuccessful attempt to seduce Avon. The same story is also presented in the form of a Mad-lib game-- a list of words to be supplied at random by the game player, which are then plugged into blank spaces in a story, with hilarious results.
"Fun with Dick and Jenna" presents the entire aired canon in the form of a Dick and Jane reader, but very definitely for adults. A sample, which explains the title: "See Jenna see Blake in the showers. Blake is not small. See Jenna smile. Jenna says, 'Hello, Dick.' "Blake says, 'My name is not Dick. I am Roj Blake.' "Jenna smiles."
Other humorous items are the "Application to Pilot the Liberator," which could almost have gone in a genzine except for the question about the Prince Albert (a foreshadowing of the "Ring" story later in the zine!); and Predatrix's B7 version of a slash drinking game, in which the player must take a sip for every cliche encountered. (The "Dick and Jenna" passage quoted above coresponds to item 2.3, "Are you pointing that thing at me?," worth a half sip.)
A stellar lineup of authors, and none of them disappoint. Again, highly recommended. [3]
References
- ^ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namednova - ^ From the tumblr post Reviews of Some Nova’s Fics, Archived version
- ^ from Sarah Thompson at Judith Proctor's Blake's 7 site, also at Ashton Press where it had the statement: "These reviews were originally published on the Blakes 7 mailing list, Space City, and are reproduced here with the permission of the author."