A good zine, much better than Horizon #21-- perhaps they saved up
the best stories for this one? IMO the two standouts are the first
and last stories, which of course is how clever zine editors often
arrange an anthology zine; come to think of it, the two best items
in Horizon #21 were placed first and last, also.Russ's story is an extremely well-written, angsty account of Cally's experience on Saurian Major, from her arrival (breathtakingly described in a wonderful hard-SF sequence) to the death of the rest of her group, with a nasty little kicker of a plot device that goes a long way toward explaining why Cally was so crazed by those events. "Melting Ice" is another almost-adult story, Soolin's thoughts about her lover Avon. Both stories have a pleasingly bleak tone that is very B7.
"Strings," my third favorite, is a study in contrasting but equally strong-minded types, as Anna clashes with Servalan for the first time. "Starlight" pits Dayna against a female Federation interrogator; my least favorite item in the zine, but not a bad story. "Beautiful by Starlight" is a long pre-series Jenna saga. Nicely done, but personally, I prefer the idea that she was born into a swashbuckling smuggler family to the vision of her as an aristocrat educated by the Federation to become a pilot. (Though there is that comment of Servalan's that she is a high-grade citizen of the Federation.)
Overall, recommended.
Fiction:
Russ Massey, "Hammer, Anvil, Forge" (S0; C)
Tim Pieraccini, "Starlight" (S4; D-ocf)
Helen Speight, "Beautiful by Starlight" (S0; J/ocm)
Nicky Barnard, "Strings" (S1, pre-SLD; Se-Anna)
Isobel Macbeth, "Melting Ice" (S4; A/So)
Art:
photos front cover Se, So, C, Anna, D, J
pp. 6, 13, 19, 28 C
pp. 34, 38 D
pp. 53, 61, 91 J
p. 96 Anna
p. 97 Se
p. 104 So
back cover Liberator
Last updated on 27th of May 2000.