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discoveredinaljAnd now to review the most recently-published of my batch of second-hand zines (What's all this? see here.) Dark Fantasies 4 was published by Maverick Press in 1996 and thus is a mere 15 years old! It has 203 pages, eighteen stories, and assorted poetry, plus an editorial and an advert at the back for a Man From UNCLE zine. There are five Pros stories in it.
The front page is paper rather than card, with a clear plastic cover. The cover art is a colour image of seven head-and-shoulders drawings of Bodie, Doyle, Starsky, Hutch, Blake, Avon, and... erm... since there's a lot of Forever Knight in the zine, I'll guess it's a Forever Knight person. The font is different from the other Dark Fantasies zine I have: a serif one. Definitely fitted the mood better. There was the occasional typo and I did get the impression that perhaps the editors simply collated the stories rather than correcting words: there was a lay/lie confusion (a personal bugbear), and a pastime/pass-time, and one (non-Pros) author seemed more prone to this than others did ('might of', 'initial affects'). There were some formatting weirdnesses: a couple of occasions of two separate words run together (one pair of which actually made a valid word - most confusing), and two hyphenated words set with a gap between them, and a sentence with // marks around it which made me think perhaps it had been intended to be in italics.
There are three internal illustrations: all black and white pencil sketches, but not Pros: all three are Avon (from Blakes 7) bound in various ways. I cannot say I object. This gives you a general idea of the theme of the zine: lots of BDSM in this one. If that's not your thing, don't get this zine. There are only two non-BDSM Pros stories, and in one of those two, Bodie is tied to a bed...
Pros content:
The Devil's Apprentice, by Kitty Fisher. 39 pp. As with Dark Fantasies 2, I would have bought this zine for the Kitty Fisher story alone. As with the Dark Fantasies 2 story to which it is a sequel (The Alchemist's Measure), it is online. (The Devil's Apprentice: online) And as with that story, I have raved about it before: Reading Room discussion of Devil's Apprentice. For those not inclined to follow the link: it's a historical AU with Bodie and Doyle in Restoration England (okay, it starts in France), there's explicit (consensual) BDSM... and then it gets much harsher, as the pair of them end up in an embittered fiancée's clutches and face real torture, with some direct comparisons drawn between the two situations. It's by Kitty Fisher, so the writing is lovely. I find the ending ambiguous: can they continue as they were or no?
Doyle, Later, by Dee. 13 pp This is available online: Doyle, Later. It's a sequel to a very short story (also online: Without). It's post Wild Justice and slightly AU: Bodie has killed King Billy and departed CI5. Doyle spots him, is determined to extract an explanation, and decides to hold him somewhere until he gets answers. I like this largely because their communication is far from perfect: instead they are angry, hurt, frustrated, violent and dangerous, before they get anywhere near an explanation, let alone a resolution.
Bounds of Consociation, by James Kythe Walkswithwind. 3 pp The first of the stories which I think are zine-only. Doyle accidentally sees Bodie with a companion in the bedroom. We're not told what he sees. But it leads him to initiate a BDSM scene. I enjoyed the main part, but I couldn't really go with the set-up and Bodie's reaction to Doyle's overtures. To be honest, in the situation portrayed, I think instincts would have intervened and he'd have thumped Doyle.
For A Start, by Irish, 14 pp. Fairly involved plot, but at its base, Doyle becomes aware that Bodie really fancies him, and reacts poorly. Because Bodie is knocked out and loses a day's memory, Doyle has a chance to reconsider his initial reaction and respond differently, before he realises that Bodie, eventually, will remember Doyle's original reaction, and there will be trouble. There's quite a bit more to it than that, so don't think I have given it all away. Plenty to like here - Doyle's fantastic tactlessness which precipitates a plot turn is very Doyle, and the actual twists and turns are well-paced - but lots that I really don't go for. There are at least four mentions of Doyle crying, for example (argh!), and Bodie does too, and Bodie's initial "I fell in love with you" declaration doesn't strike me as very Bodie. Also, I found it hard to get into the right frame of mind after realising the first scene is Cowley and Doyle in a gay bar. There is a reason, but the story nearly lost me right there.
Getting Serious, by Catherine and Katharina, 16pp. A follow-up to a story in Dark Fantasies 3, which I do not have, but this one stands perfectly well on its own. Bodie and Doyle are in a fairly new relationship and venturing into BDSM territory. Doyle in particular is quite prickly about it and keeps trying to top from the bottom, and they have to work out a lot to do with trust. Some lovely touches: I particularly liked Doyle's defensive extra-macho swagger as they arrive in Soho, and also the casual use of the corner of the bedsheets - entirely plausible, I thought! I liked it a lot. I finished it and immediately wanted to read the earlier story. There were references that weren't fully fleshed out, and I got the strong impression from these unresolved aspects that there would be sequels. I hope there were.
Non-Pros content:
Forever Knight: four stories and three batches of poetry.
Argh. I really don't like vampires. I am the wrong person to review these. Most of the stories - The Sheeted Altar, Gone with the Blow...Job, and Of Night Dreams, all by Natasha Barry (who also writes in Pros) - and almost all of the poetry - by James Kythe Walkswithwind, and Vanessa Mullen - did nothing for me beyond confirm that I should not watch Forever Knight. One of the limericks did raise a real laugh, and one of the stories - The Anniversary, by Katy Deery, kept me reading in spite of myself. Don't really get the blood/orgasm thing, but I liked the choice of 'pieces of mortal life', which managed to avoid too many clichés, and I did like the ending.
Blakes 7
In The Dark by Erica Bloom 4 pp. Avon/Vila. Avon has been captured. Vila, on a rescue mission, finds Avon strung up, blindfolded, and wearily defiant after abuse. He can't resist the opportunity to take advantage. Two of the drawings in the zine go with this story.
Limericks by Vanessa Mullan: very silly!
A Marketable Commodity, by Pat Jacquerie, 20 pp Avon/Tarrant. Avon and Tarrant must fake a night of passion for the watchers they suspect exist as they wait to leave a planet. Avon is determined to get answers from Tarrant, and intersperses questions at critical moments. I had seen this online - it's here: A Marketable Commodity, Pat Jacquerie - and that and the Kitty Fisher fic would probably have persuaded me to get the zine, even before the lure of Pros fic I hadn't read. There are a couple of observations that I really liked - a comment about jockeying for position so intensely for so long that what difference would a single night make struck me as accurate - and Soolin's deadpan comment towards the end was a great change of pace.
.
Denouement, by Irish, 1 p Looks like a sort of AU of Gauda Prime. Very brief: can't say more than that!
"Mixed Media" - a grab bag
Fugitive Dreams, by K S Nicholas, The Fugitive, 2pp First-person, told by Sam, or Samuel, who I presume is the police guy pursuing Kimble. "That night I dreamed I was..." I think this is events from the film (it's a long time since I've seen it), but I am pretty sure the rest of the dream was not in the film.
Souvenir, by Cody Nelson, X-Files. 4pp Mulder/Krycek. Ooooh. Wow. Playing right at the edge here, with a belt around the neck. I liked this very much, but I do not think everyone will. That said, it is online: Souvenir, by Cody Nelson
The Night of the Assault, by Mary Millard, Wild Wild West, 10 pp, Artie/Jim. Another series (or film?) I know nothing of. Without doubt the gentlest story in the zine. h/c, but almost entirely the comfort, as Jim (who he?) looks after Artie (who he?). The reason it is in a zine called 'Dark Fantasies' is, I presume, the nature of the hurt (which happens before the story starts). There is absolutely nothing wrong with this story at all, but it didn't grab me at all either, and I didn't come away thinking I must learn more about the characters.
Starsky and Hutch:
Down Roads Long Past, by James Kythe Walkswithwind, 27 pp. H/c: Hutch is gay and beaten up by an abusive lover. Starsky moves in to look after him whilst he can't use his hands. Hutch weeps at least seven times, and Starsky once - is this typical of S&H? Dear me. More seriously, if I liked S&H, and such very comforty h/c, I think I might really like this story: Starsky's concern for Hutch comes over very clearly, as does an ability to know when Hutch isn't quite telling everything.
Summer Days by James Kythe Walkswithwind 1 p Effectively a monologue from Starsky. Probably means a lot more if you know who the other people referred to are. I could see what it was meant to achieve, but without the background, it didn't have the impact.
Spanish Gold, by tasha, 37 pp. Adventures in the desert, dodging nasty pair of villains who have designs on them. Hutch is injured. Starsky is protective. No crying (yay) and more sex. I much preferred this to the Pros/S&H/vampire one by the same author in Dark Fantasies 2, despite the lack of Pros: whether it was her grasp of this setting in this or my reaction to vampires in the other, I don't know.
So overall, I was keen - and glad - to read the Pros stories which are not online. I particularly enjoyed Getting Serious. And I enjoyed reading the other Pros stories on paper for the first time. I enjoyed some of the rest, too, particularly the B7 stories and Souvenir. Unlike with the Concupiscence zines, I noticed that the other stories I liked here were all to do with series which I had already seen. If you only really go for one of the fandoms in this, I'm not sure this is the best zine to get. If you like more than one, I suspect it's a better bet.
The front page is paper rather than card, with a clear plastic cover. The cover art is a colour image of seven head-and-shoulders drawings of Bodie, Doyle, Starsky, Hutch, Blake, Avon, and... erm... since there's a lot of Forever Knight in the zine, I'll guess it's a Forever Knight person. The font is different from the other Dark Fantasies zine I have: a serif one. Definitely fitted the mood better. There was the occasional typo and I did get the impression that perhaps the editors simply collated the stories rather than correcting words: there was a lay/lie confusion (a personal bugbear), and a pastime/pass-time, and one (non-Pros) author seemed more prone to this than others did ('might of', 'initial affects'). There were some formatting weirdnesses: a couple of occasions of two separate words run together (one pair of which actually made a valid word - most confusing), and two hyphenated words set with a gap between them, and a sentence with // marks around it which made me think perhaps it had been intended to be in italics.
There are three internal illustrations: all black and white pencil sketches, but not Pros: all three are Avon (from Blakes 7) bound in various ways. I cannot say I object. This gives you a general idea of the theme of the zine: lots of BDSM in this one. If that's not your thing, don't get this zine. There are only two non-BDSM Pros stories, and in one of those two, Bodie is tied to a bed...
Pros content:
The Devil's Apprentice, by Kitty Fisher. 39 pp. As with Dark Fantasies 2, I would have bought this zine for the Kitty Fisher story alone. As with the Dark Fantasies 2 story to which it is a sequel (The Alchemist's Measure), it is online. (The Devil's Apprentice: online) And as with that story, I have raved about it before: Reading Room discussion of Devil's Apprentice. For those not inclined to follow the link: it's a historical AU with Bodie and Doyle in Restoration England (okay, it starts in France), there's explicit (consensual) BDSM... and then it gets much harsher, as the pair of them end up in an embittered fiancée's clutches and face real torture, with some direct comparisons drawn between the two situations. It's by Kitty Fisher, so the writing is lovely. I find the ending ambiguous: can they continue as they were or no?
Doyle, Later, by Dee. 13 pp This is available online: Doyle, Later. It's a sequel to a very short story (also online: Without). It's post Wild Justice and slightly AU: Bodie has killed King Billy and departed CI5. Doyle spots him, is determined to extract an explanation, and decides to hold him somewhere until he gets answers. I like this largely because their communication is far from perfect: instead they are angry, hurt, frustrated, violent and dangerous, before they get anywhere near an explanation, let alone a resolution.
Bounds of Consociation, by James Kythe Walkswithwind. 3 pp The first of the stories which I think are zine-only. Doyle accidentally sees Bodie with a companion in the bedroom. We're not told what he sees. But it leads him to initiate a BDSM scene. I enjoyed the main part, but I couldn't really go with the set-up and Bodie's reaction to Doyle's overtures. To be honest, in the situation portrayed, I think instincts would have intervened and he'd have thumped Doyle.
For A Start, by Irish, 14 pp. Fairly involved plot, but at its base, Doyle becomes aware that Bodie really fancies him, and reacts poorly. Because Bodie is knocked out and loses a day's memory, Doyle has a chance to reconsider his initial reaction and respond differently, before he realises that Bodie, eventually, will remember Doyle's original reaction, and there will be trouble. There's quite a bit more to it than that, so don't think I have given it all away. Plenty to like here - Doyle's fantastic tactlessness which precipitates a plot turn is very Doyle, and the actual twists and turns are well-paced - but lots that I really don't go for. There are at least four mentions of Doyle crying, for example (argh!), and Bodie does too, and Bodie's initial "I fell in love with you" declaration doesn't strike me as very Bodie. Also, I found it hard to get into the right frame of mind after realising the first scene is Cowley and Doyle in a gay bar. There is a reason, but the story nearly lost me right there.
Getting Serious, by Catherine and Katharina, 16pp. A follow-up to a story in Dark Fantasies 3, which I do not have, but this one stands perfectly well on its own. Bodie and Doyle are in a fairly new relationship and venturing into BDSM territory. Doyle in particular is quite prickly about it and keeps trying to top from the bottom, and they have to work out a lot to do with trust. Some lovely touches: I particularly liked Doyle's defensive extra-macho swagger as they arrive in Soho, and also the casual use of the corner of the bedsheets - entirely plausible, I thought! I liked it a lot. I finished it and immediately wanted to read the earlier story. There were references that weren't fully fleshed out, and I got the strong impression from these unresolved aspects that there would be sequels. I hope there were.
Non-Pros content:
Forever Knight: four stories and three batches of poetry.
Argh. I really don't like vampires. I am the wrong person to review these. Most of the stories - The Sheeted Altar, Gone with the Blow...Job, and Of Night Dreams, all by Natasha Barry (who also writes in Pros) - and almost all of the poetry - by James Kythe Walkswithwind, and Vanessa Mullen - did nothing for me beyond confirm that I should not watch Forever Knight. One of the limericks did raise a real laugh, and one of the stories - The Anniversary, by Katy Deery, kept me reading in spite of myself. Don't really get the blood/orgasm thing, but I liked the choice of 'pieces of mortal life', which managed to avoid too many clichés, and I did like the ending.
Blakes 7
In The Dark by Erica Bloom 4 pp. Avon/Vila. Avon has been captured. Vila, on a rescue mission, finds Avon strung up, blindfolded, and wearily defiant after abuse. He can't resist the opportunity to take advantage. Two of the drawings in the zine go with this story.
Limericks by Vanessa Mullan: very silly!
A Marketable Commodity, by Pat Jacquerie, 20 pp Avon/Tarrant. Avon and Tarrant must fake a night of passion for the watchers they suspect exist as they wait to leave a planet. Avon is determined to get answers from Tarrant, and intersperses questions at critical moments. I had seen this online - it's here: A Marketable Commodity, Pat Jacquerie - and that and the Kitty Fisher fic would probably have persuaded me to get the zine, even before the lure of Pros fic I hadn't read. There are a couple of observations that I really liked - a comment about jockeying for position so intensely for so long that what difference would a single night make struck me as accurate - and Soolin's deadpan comment towards the end was a great change of pace.
.
Denouement, by Irish, 1 p Looks like a sort of AU of Gauda Prime. Very brief: can't say more than that!
"Mixed Media" - a grab bag
Fugitive Dreams, by K S Nicholas, The Fugitive, 2pp First-person, told by Sam, or Samuel, who I presume is the police guy pursuing Kimble. "That night I dreamed I was..." I think this is events from the film (it's a long time since I've seen it), but I am pretty sure the rest of the dream was not in the film.
Souvenir, by Cody Nelson, X-Files. 4pp Mulder/Krycek. Ooooh. Wow. Playing right at the edge here, with a belt around the neck. I liked this very much, but I do not think everyone will. That said, it is online: Souvenir, by Cody Nelson
The Night of the Assault, by Mary Millard, Wild Wild West, 10 pp, Artie/Jim. Another series (or film?) I know nothing of. Without doubt the gentlest story in the zine. h/c, but almost entirely the comfort, as Jim (who he?) looks after Artie (who he?). The reason it is in a zine called 'Dark Fantasies' is, I presume, the nature of the hurt (which happens before the story starts). There is absolutely nothing wrong with this story at all, but it didn't grab me at all either, and I didn't come away thinking I must learn more about the characters.
Starsky and Hutch:
Down Roads Long Past, by James Kythe Walkswithwind, 27 pp. H/c: Hutch is gay and beaten up by an abusive lover. Starsky moves in to look after him whilst he can't use his hands. Hutch weeps at least seven times, and Starsky once - is this typical of S&H? Dear me. More seriously, if I liked S&H, and such very comforty h/c, I think I might really like this story: Starsky's concern for Hutch comes over very clearly, as does an ability to know when Hutch isn't quite telling everything.
Summer Days by James Kythe Walkswithwind 1 p Effectively a monologue from Starsky. Probably means a lot more if you know who the other people referred to are. I could see what it was meant to achieve, but without the background, it didn't have the impact.
Spanish Gold, by tasha, 37 pp. Adventures in the desert, dodging nasty pair of villains who have designs on them. Hutch is injured. Starsky is protective. No crying (yay) and more sex. I much preferred this to the Pros/S&H/vampire one by the same author in Dark Fantasies 2, despite the lack of Pros: whether it was her grasp of this setting in this or my reaction to vampires in the other, I don't know.
So overall, I was keen - and glad - to read the Pros stories which are not online. I particularly enjoyed Getting Serious. And I enjoyed reading the other Pros stories on paper for the first time. I enjoyed some of the rest, too, particularly the B7 stories and Souvenir. Unlike with the Concupiscence zines, I noticed that the other stories I liked here were all to do with series which I had already seen. If you only really go for one of the fandoms in this, I'm not sure this is the best zine to get. If you like more than one, I suspect it's a better bet.
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no subject
Date: 2011-12-07 04:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-07 05:09 pm (UTC)The short version: I bought all five of these (and two others, back in September) via zinelist at yahoo groups. I found it an utter pain to find that list via the Yahoo interface, and I am convinced that their search engine simply doesn't admit the existence of slash.
I eventually found the signup URL for zinelist via the loiteringpalely comm on LJ (of which I see you are a member). For people who don't know it, it is a community for zines - finding and buying and swapping and stuff. It's very quiet at the moment, but it has a list of contact points and notes about different publishers.
The other route is that I posted in despair about being unable to get hold of a particular zine, and a couple of very kind people offered to loan me their copies - and then another person told me "actually, I know someone who is selling off an old copy of a related zine" and I fell and worshipped at their feet, and then the next time that someone was thinking of getting rid of something, they knew I might be interested.
So really, making it plain you're looking for them helps a lot!
no subject
Date: 2011-12-07 09:14 pm (UTC)I'm so pleased to see someone else notices things like the lie/lay disasters. They're becoming so prevalent one has to wonder if there is a language change underway...
no subject
Date: 2011-12-07 10:38 pm (UTC)I can be ridiculously pedantic about petty language things, when really it doesn't matter at all. But lie/lay is important: there are useful distinctions there. Especially in fanfic, whether it is het or slash!
no subject
Date: 2011-12-07 09:18 pm (UTC)Not my boys but then, a lot of writers like their guys crying. (Doyle cries 7 times in the one story, right?) S&H isn't as rough and tough at times as Pros but they're not generally cry babies. The slash in S&H is on screen and canon. :) LOL! We do have canon hand holding, many hugs and caresses and lots of flirting. It was the actors but hey, we get the benefit of their close relationship. They hand their hands all over each other.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-07 10:43 pm (UTC)Canon hand-holding? Flirting? I'm just trying to imagine that in Pros-time Britain.
*fails*
Seriously, I have heard the argument that if you're used to S&H fic, you expect to see (and write) the same in Pros, which accounts for a fair number of the touchy-feely Pros stories.
I have to applaud your choice of icon for that reply, btw!
no subject
Date: 2011-12-07 10:45 pm (UTC)Thanks re: icon.