PWP. Blake is annoyed that Avon won't tell him about his love-letter from Anna that he carries about everywhere. Avon tries to frighten him away by kissing him, with the inevitable result.
The Light of Other Days (A/V) - Alex T. MacKenzie
Long h/c stranded-on-hostile-planet story. I'm not really the right person to review this (let other pens dwell upon tears and soppiness...). Suffice it to say that if you are the type of person who likes this sort of thing, this will be the kind of thing you like.
Post Pandemonium (A/B) - xBryn Lantry
Lovely dark, complex mood piece (with splendid dialogue). A & (wounded, laser-blasted) B in a rather dilapidated doss-house, struggling with irreconcilable differences of approach in philosophy, politics, and their ambiguous relationship to each other. Impressive.
Found Wanting () - Natasha Barry
All crew (except Cally) incapable of sex. Avon & Blake want each other, Jenna wants Blake, Cally wants Avon, and Vila wants Avon and Cally. The only satisfied being is Orac, who wants Avon, but only for his mind.
Best of Show (A/B) - Natasha Solten
PWP. The crew are about to teleport down to Playworld for sexual entertainment, except A & B, who want something other than casual sex. The first half of the story is A & B falling in romantic love, and the second half is A & B being accidentally teleported down in the middle of oral sex. I don't think the 2 parts mesh very well, but maybe the author is going for the extra "ouch!" embarrassment factor.
I also loved Melody Clark's 'The Other Half of the Sky' - a A/B with the whole of the 4th season turning out to be a 'drug-induced and electronic dream'. Blake is especially well portrayed, somewhere between his Star One self and the battered man in 'Blake', and with little needed to push him either way - something that is true also of Avon, who is well done as the man in Terminal, before the ice got to him. For fans of these two only, however - as in her other stories I've read in this series, the rest of the crew are adroitly but firmly shuffled off-stage before the story even starts.
There's two stories by Natasha Solten. 'Falling' has Blake as sexual innocent (the mind-wipe, of course) and victim (during Federation torture). Given that he's by far the earthiest of the male characters on the show, I always have problems with the former idea. Add to that the view that he is unusually naive and poor at understanding other people (especially Avon) and you have someone I don't recognise at all. Which is a pity, because the plot isn't bad. 'Best of Show' works fine as a straight romantic little story (she does the intensity rather well), but the 'surprise' ending was a mistake, in my opinion.
'Into the Fire' is a good PWP, not overly original in the little plot there is, but with very nice characterisation and dialogue (emotion without sentimentality). There's only one A/V, 'The Light of Other Days' - it's long, somewhat slow, and suffers from an Avon with amnesia and without much character (and even less of it recognisable). I don't care for the pairing anyway, so I found it hard going. And 'Found Wanting' - where everyone on the ship wants someone they can't have - reads more like the synopsis for a set of stories than one in its own right (mind you, they could have been very interesting stories.)
Again, one of the better ones in the series, and recommended for A/B fans.
Fiction:
Melody Clark, "The Other Half of the Sky" (A/B)
Natasha Solten, "Falling" (A/B)
xBryn Lantry, "Confessions of a Right Bastard" (A/B)
Catocala, "Into the Fire" (A/B)
Alex T. MacKenzie, "The Light of Other Days" (A/V)
xBryn Lantry, "Post Pandemonium" (A/B)
Natasha Barry, "Found Wanting" (unclassifiable)
Natasha Solten, "Best of Show" (A/B)
Poetry:
Robin Hood, "Eternal Day" (A/B)
Gene S. Delapenia , "Alpha Time" (A/B)
Cybel Harper, "Suffer a Fool" (A/V)
Gene S. Delapenia , "Delta Time" (A/V)
Robin Hood, "Voice of the Prophet" (A/B)
Gene S. Delapenia , "Heart of Fire" (A/B)
xBryn Lantry, "Bribery and Corruption" (A/B)
Cybel Harper, "Tyger" (A/B)
xBryn Lantry, "Rape" (A/B)
Art
A. G., cover (bleeding, broken heart)
Last updated on 26th of January 2000