"Desolation" is classic Judith Rolls, bleak and beautifully written, with plenty of Avon-drool of a melancholy sort. And in "Guilty Conscience," we see what a truly nasty character Raiker really is. Fortunately Anna is more than a match for him, as she engages in behind-the-scenes maneuvers that explain some of what we saw in "Spacefall."
The editing, layout, and photo illustrations are all extremely well done. The zine is a bit thin-- some of those 36 pp. are the title pages and their blank verso sides-- but the price was reasonable enough, a mere £3 (about $5). Well worth it, IMO.
The zine has very high physical production standards, and is very pretty - someone's done a lovely job on the design and layout. Each piece in the zine has a title sheet with a stunning grey-scale photomontage, as does the zine itself. If you're into photomontage art, the zine is well worth getting for these alone. The reproduction of the BBC photos is superb, and I've seen dealer room multi-generation copies of much worse quality that cost more each than the whole zine does. The blank reverse means no print show-through from text on the other side of the page. Unfortunately, the end result is that of the 36 pages in the zine only some 18 full pages are actual fiction, with another two pages each devoted to a short poem, so if all you're interested in is the fiction it's an expensive zine for what you get, especially with overseas postage. The fiction itself is excellent, so it's expensive but not a waste of money.
Remote Encounter - Anoush Simon
Short, sad story set some years after Gauda Prime. Servalan is watching the surveillance screens, and sees a familiar face, triggering memories and regrets.
Desolation - Judith Rolls
Melancholy Avon/Soolin set near the end of series 4, with Soolin watching Avon and wondering how long he can manage to keep going under the burden he bears.
Alarums and Excursions - Chris Blenkarn
If you don't like Shakespeare and puns, you'll find this one hard work. If you do like them, you'll have a ball. Blake's 7 as a Shakespeare script complete with bad and bawdy jokes, and it's both screamingly funny and horribly accurate.
Guilty Conscience - Nickey Barnard
It's just before the London's run to Cygnus Alpha, and someone in Central Security has a little job for Raiker to do en route...
Fiction:
Anoush Simon, "Remote Encounter" (Overall Winner Short
Story; S5; Se-Ta)
Judith Rolls, "Desolation" (Runner Up Short Story; S4,
post-Orbit; A/So)
Chris Blenkarn, "Alarums and Excursions: The Most
Doleful Lamentable End of Liberator" (Judge's
Special Mention; script; Shakespeare parody; alt-S1;
humor)
Nicky Barnard, "Guilty Conscience" (Best of the Rest; S0;
Raiker-Anna)
Poetry:
Helen Lyon, "All Because of Anna" (Overall Winner Poetry)
Helen Lyon, "Blake's 7 Twenty Years On" (Runner Up
Poetry)
Nonfiction:
Judith Smith, "Introduction"
Chris Boucher, "A Few Words"
?, "Judge's Comment"
Art:
BBC photos cover, title page for each story or poem
Last updated on 21st of January 2003.