And another zine review: D-Notice.
Dec. 5th, 2012 11:55 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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discoveredinaljSo it occurs to me that not a single one of today's offerings has been purely Pros. It is perhaps time to remedy that. Another review, and this one is a Pros zine proper: D-Notice.
D-Notice was published in 1995 and is, as far as I know, out of print. I bought it second-hand. It is 156 pages long and contains five stories which total about 87,000 words. Three of the stories have been online for some years; a fourth only arrived online earlier this year. So if you are looking for fiction you can't get on the net, this is not the zine you should put at the top of your list.
D-Notice comes with a khaki green cardboard front cover. On the front is a stylised image of a folder with tabs labelled 4/5 and 3/7 and "D-NOTICE" apparently stamped across it. On the back are stamps of "FILE CLOSED" and "CONFIDENTIAL". There are no graphics inside the zine except for some fancy initial letters at the start of stories and some nice design around the titles (in black/white/grey). The font is clear and readable and there are very few typos.
I had heard or read somewhere that the D in D-Notice could as well be 'dark', but the foreword says the editors originally simply planned to produce a collection that "broke with the established conventions of Professionals fandom while remaining faithful to the aired series". Almost twenty years after the event, obviously it's had to be sure which conventions had been established, but here are things I did not see in this zine: AUs, weeping, the smaller man, or "we have to tell Cowley". I think it managed to remain faithful to the milieu portrayed on the programmes very well. I am not quite sure the aired series would have dared show some of the ideas in these stories, mind you.
So, the stories.
Object of Desire, by Courtney Gray. Online. Hunting a suspect, Bodie and Doyle come across someone's home dungeon, complete with someone tied up in it. Doyle is taken aback both by the situation and by Bodie's easy assumption of the role of the master. He thinks he knows Bodie - especially since they have recently begun sleeping together - and apparently he doesn't. At all. He's also disturbed by the realisation that he and Bodie are taking increasing risks in when and how they come together, to coin a phrase, and that he is getting in very deep, despite Bodie's claims that this "temporary case of the hots" is bound to pass over soon. The first time I read this story, I was too tangled up in the plausibility or otherwise of a side character - Joey - and the chances of stumbling over such a situation and didn't really pay attention to the core of the story: Doyle's perception of what he and Bodie are doing. I still can't find the set-up entirely credible, but I do like the rest of the story built around it. And the scene where they return to that room is a nice bonus.
Chalk and Cheese, by Thomas. Bodie asks Doyle to be his best man. Bodie, marrying? Doyle is stunned and unhappy, and wants Bodie back. The ending is not especially optimistic, but based on what I have read of Thomas's stories, then as Thomas endings go, it's probably quite a high spot. I associate her with very intense emotions and this is no exception. This is quite an unusual take on their relationship, especially with some of Bodie's interpretations at the end, but it's interesting, and I like variation. Some of Thomas's stories are on the Online Circuit Archive and the CD: this one is not but arrived on AO3 earlier this year.
The Good Morning Soldiers, by Madelein Lee. This follows the stories Carnal Interests and The Selling Hours. I don't think you need to have read the previous two, though. It takes place during the final series of Pros, and from a comprehension point of view, it may be more important to remember the outline of the episodes than to have read the prior stories, since references to the programmes can be fairly glancing. But in the gaps between the episodes, Bodie and Doyle are sleeping together. Unknown to Bodie, Cowley knows and is trying to split them up. Doyle has figured this out - and Cowley's motivation - and confronts Cowley. And things spiral, with all of them in danger, with plotting on all sides and resentment and betrayal and some real shocks and I love it. Although not everyone will. (This is what you can call a warning.)
The Greatest Treason, by Lezlie Shell. This is not available online as far as I know, so it was the big unknown when I bought the zine. I loved it. It is a blackmail story, but this time this is not some undercover "draw the blackmailer out by pretending to be gay" plot. Bodie really is being blackmailed. He heads straight to Cowley, and Cowley, faced with the photographic evidence that two of his agents are lovers, is appalled and unforgiving. I like the characterisation of all three here. This is a Cowley I can believe in, and the reaction I'd expect. I like Doyle's rigid resolution, and subsequent volte-face, and his feelings about Cowley. I like the interaction between Bodie and Doyle after Bodie finds out something about Doyle he hadn't known. It's not laugh a minute banter, but there's some nice lines both in dialogue and narrative. I know that I recommended this in a haze of enthusiasm earlier this year and a few people tracked down copies of it. I'll be very interested to know what they thought of it.
Face Value, by Pamela Rose. The longest story in the zine. The first time I read this was not in the zine, though, but on my initial plunge through the CD, and I disliked one particular scene intensely and was in no hurry to read it again. I really should pay more attention when I read off a screen, because I felt differently reading it on paper. Bodie is badly scarred by acid and broods in hospital. Memories from his time in Africa plague him, including things he did and now regrets bitterly. He doesn't know how his accident will affect Doyle, with whom he has been sleeping and whom he regards as a sort of link to sanity and goodness. He certainly doesn't feel he's a particularly admirable character himself. He has to learn to deal with an altered appearance and with memories from Africa and from his childhood and with beliefs about himself. And then he seems to be losing Doyle. There's a lot of emotion in this story, and the way it's expressed can be violent. As with the Madelein Lee story, I can think of lots of reasons why people may not like particular aspects ("my Bodie/Doyle wouldn't...") but once I relaxed into the central thing you need to accept (to do with Bodie's mental state) I enjoyed it - but you do have to go with that aspect for the story to work.
So overall, I really enjoyed this zine. I enjoy taking my time with something on paper instead of having to sit at a screen, so I am sure that is one reason I enjoyed it. I enjoy the occasional ending that is not unadulterated "happy ever after": not only does it make me value the happy ones the more, I think it anchors stories into the real CI5 world. On the bright side, Bodie and Doyle do make it out alive through all the stories in this zine, and they are even together in most of them. There's a real variety of characterisation but there is a central core.
The text was readable, what graphics there were (on the titles, basically) were pleasant, typos were few (but argh, I suppose it was sod's law that one of them would show up on the first page), and although there were occasional lapses in British/American differences, only rarely did they impinge on my awareness. And it was a really nice surprise to find that the one story I didn't know was such a satisfying one for me.
Don't think I'll be selling this one.
D-Notice was published in 1995 and is, as far as I know, out of print. I bought it second-hand. It is 156 pages long and contains five stories which total about 87,000 words. Three of the stories have been online for some years; a fourth only arrived online earlier this year. So if you are looking for fiction you can't get on the net, this is not the zine you should put at the top of your list.
D-Notice comes with a khaki green cardboard front cover. On the front is a stylised image of a folder with tabs labelled 4/5 and 3/7 and "D-NOTICE" apparently stamped across it. On the back are stamps of "FILE CLOSED" and "CONFIDENTIAL". There are no graphics inside the zine except for some fancy initial letters at the start of stories and some nice design around the titles (in black/white/grey). The font is clear and readable and there are very few typos.
I had heard or read somewhere that the D in D-Notice could as well be 'dark', but the foreword says the editors originally simply planned to produce a collection that "broke with the established conventions of Professionals fandom while remaining faithful to the aired series". Almost twenty years after the event, obviously it's had to be sure which conventions had been established, but here are things I did not see in this zine: AUs, weeping, the smaller man, or "we have to tell Cowley". I think it managed to remain faithful to the milieu portrayed on the programmes very well. I am not quite sure the aired series would have dared show some of the ideas in these stories, mind you.
So, the stories.
Object of Desire, by Courtney Gray. Online. Hunting a suspect, Bodie and Doyle come across someone's home dungeon, complete with someone tied up in it. Doyle is taken aback both by the situation and by Bodie's easy assumption of the role of the master. He thinks he knows Bodie - especially since they have recently begun sleeping together - and apparently he doesn't. At all. He's also disturbed by the realisation that he and Bodie are taking increasing risks in when and how they come together, to coin a phrase, and that he is getting in very deep, despite Bodie's claims that this "temporary case of the hots" is bound to pass over soon. The first time I read this story, I was too tangled up in the plausibility or otherwise of a side character - Joey - and the chances of stumbling over such a situation and didn't really pay attention to the core of the story: Doyle's perception of what he and Bodie are doing. I still can't find the set-up entirely credible, but I do like the rest of the story built around it. And the scene where they return to that room is a nice bonus.
Chalk and Cheese, by Thomas. Bodie asks Doyle to be his best man. Bodie, marrying? Doyle is stunned and unhappy, and wants Bodie back. The ending is not especially optimistic, but based on what I have read of Thomas's stories, then as Thomas endings go, it's probably quite a high spot. I associate her with very intense emotions and this is no exception. This is quite an unusual take on their relationship, especially with some of Bodie's interpretations at the end, but it's interesting, and I like variation. Some of Thomas's stories are on the Online Circuit Archive and the CD: this one is not but arrived on AO3 earlier this year.
The Good Morning Soldiers, by Madelein Lee. This follows the stories Carnal Interests and The Selling Hours. I don't think you need to have read the previous two, though. It takes place during the final series of Pros, and from a comprehension point of view, it may be more important to remember the outline of the episodes than to have read the prior stories, since references to the programmes can be fairly glancing. But in the gaps between the episodes, Bodie and Doyle are sleeping together. Unknown to Bodie, Cowley knows and is trying to split them up. Doyle has figured this out - and Cowley's motivation - and confronts Cowley. And things spiral, with all of them in danger, with plotting on all sides and resentment and betrayal and some real shocks and I love it. Although not everyone will. (This is what you can call a warning.)
The Greatest Treason, by Lezlie Shell. This is not available online as far as I know, so it was the big unknown when I bought the zine. I loved it. It is a blackmail story, but this time this is not some undercover "draw the blackmailer out by pretending to be gay" plot. Bodie really is being blackmailed. He heads straight to Cowley, and Cowley, faced with the photographic evidence that two of his agents are lovers, is appalled and unforgiving. I like the characterisation of all three here. This is a Cowley I can believe in, and the reaction I'd expect. I like Doyle's rigid resolution, and subsequent volte-face, and his feelings about Cowley. I like the interaction between Bodie and Doyle after Bodie finds out something about Doyle he hadn't known. It's not laugh a minute banter, but there's some nice lines both in dialogue and narrative. I know that I recommended this in a haze of enthusiasm earlier this year and a few people tracked down copies of it. I'll be very interested to know what they thought of it.
Face Value, by Pamela Rose. The longest story in the zine. The first time I read this was not in the zine, though, but on my initial plunge through the CD, and I disliked one particular scene intensely and was in no hurry to read it again. I really should pay more attention when I read off a screen, because I felt differently reading it on paper. Bodie is badly scarred by acid and broods in hospital. Memories from his time in Africa plague him, including things he did and now regrets bitterly. He doesn't know how his accident will affect Doyle, with whom he has been sleeping and whom he regards as a sort of link to sanity and goodness. He certainly doesn't feel he's a particularly admirable character himself. He has to learn to deal with an altered appearance and with memories from Africa and from his childhood and with beliefs about himself. And then he seems to be losing Doyle. There's a lot of emotion in this story, and the way it's expressed can be violent. As with the Madelein Lee story, I can think of lots of reasons why people may not like particular aspects ("my Bodie/Doyle wouldn't...") but once I relaxed into the central thing you need to accept (to do with Bodie's mental state) I enjoyed it - but you do have to go with that aspect for the story to work.
So overall, I really enjoyed this zine. I enjoy taking my time with something on paper instead of having to sit at a screen, so I am sure that is one reason I enjoyed it. I enjoy the occasional ending that is not unadulterated "happy ever after": not only does it make me value the happy ones the more, I think it anchors stories into the real CI5 world. On the bright side, Bodie and Doyle do make it out alive through all the stories in this zine, and they are even together in most of them. There's a real variety of characterisation but there is a central core.
The text was readable, what graphics there were (on the titles, basically) were pleasant, typos were few (but argh, I suppose it was sod's law that one of them would show up on the first page), and although there were occasional lapses in British/American differences, only rarely did they impinge on my awareness. And it was a really nice surprise to find that the one story I didn't know was such a satisfying one for me.
Don't think I'll be selling this one.
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no subject
Date: 2012-12-06 02:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-12-06 04:17 pm (UTC)I think I see different things on paper. Whether I write a story in longhand or on a screen, I always, always, print it out to proof-read and to review. I see so much more, whether reading or writing.
no subject
Date: 2012-12-06 08:18 am (UTC)D-Notice is a zine that was always going to be in my pile of stalwarts, and I think because I had the same general sense of it that you've described above - that there are things missing from it. I wouldn't mind an AU or two in there, but yeay for lads that don't cry, that behave like adults, and like adult men, that aren't "smaller" and "bigger", don't have gemstones for eyes, and relate to Cowley as if he's also an adult man, and not someone who has to be told everything because he's all-knowing! I can take any one of those things now and then, but I can quite see that someone might want to put together a zine where none of those things are involved, because it all gets a bit much when you're reading Prosfic as fast as you can...
I liked all the stories in this zine - though I just had to read Chalk and Cheese again, and you reminded me that I've been meaning to re-read the Goodnight Soldiers stories again for ages...
Thank you!
no subject
Date: 2012-12-06 04:23 pm (UTC)Heh, I am so relieved. I rather felt that interrupting a run of original stories with comments about other people's stories was a bit crass. But yes, zines are fun and lovely. And name/identity issues aside, I do enjoy chatting about them.
when you're reading Prosfic as fast as you can...
That was so definitely me not so long ago. There was me and the CD in my little world, and I had to read it all, as soon as possible, whilst also watching all the DVDs (after ITV4 deleted important scenes!) and jotting down notes. Oh, and there was a real life for most of the hours in a day too, so it was all rather compressed...
I am occasionally a bit nervous about the zine chat because where I say "review", other people hear "rec", and it's not always the case... but god, I love this zine, I really do.
no subject
Date: 2012-12-06 08:40 am (UTC)Thank you!
no subject
Date: 2012-12-06 04:26 pm (UTC)Good luck with the Thomas one -- I shall be interested to know what you think of it, because there is an element of Doyle in particular that I do think both you and she touch on.
no subject
Date: 2012-12-06 11:04 am (UTC)Thanks for your careful and illuminating reviews throughout the day!
no subject
Date: 2012-12-06 04:30 pm (UTC)I am very relieved you liked the Lezlie Shell one (especially after one of the others in the same batch :)) and yes, it is the psychology that I enjoyed in that. And some of the dialogue - I adored Doyle's grumpy explanation of "it's not like letting a subscription lapse, for Christ's sake" (or something similar): that line in particular struck me as something that someone, somewhere, has said.
I have tried to to be careful in how I describe them, and I am really glad that no-one has said "what a mean-spirited post" or anything. It has been a lot of fun, and I re-read quite a few of these stories just before posting to check, and that was lots of fun.
no subject
Date: 2012-12-06 05:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-12-07 10:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-12-07 11:20 pm (UTC)But I've just read four fanfic novels (not Pros)and I have a whole slew of fics awaiting me - some of them Pros - so I'll give the sport a miss!! *g* Though the idea of the gambolling zines is quite attractive and I have to make a confession. My very first Pros fics - the ones that drew me into the fandom as distinct from merely liking the show when it first aired - were in zines I borrowed at my first Connotations. At that time I was strictly into SG1 and The West Wing. However, I then discovered the joys of online Pros fic and more recently, the pleasure of reading on my Kindle.
no subject
Date: 2012-12-06 10:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-12-07 10:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-12-09 09:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-12-10 05:07 pm (UTC)