From: blakes7-d-request@lysator.liu.se Subject: blakes7-d Digest V99 #326 X-Loop: blakes7-d@lysator.liu.se X-Mailing-List: archive/volume99/326 Precedence: list MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/digest; boundary="----------------------------" To: blakes7-d@lysator.liu.se Reply-To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se ------------------------------ Content-Type: text/plain blakes7-d Digest Volume 99 : Issue 326 Today's Topics: [B7L] Great new B7 Genzine available! [B7L] Avalon Re: [B7L] Re: FC: Great new B7 Genzine available! Re: [B7L] Re: FC: Great new B7 Genzine available! Re: [B7L] the Federation Re: [B7L] Re: FC: Great new B7 Genzine available! RE: [B7L] Avalon Re: [B7L] Great new B7 Genzine available! Re: [B7L] the Federation [B7L] 1999 zines Re: [B7L] the Federation Re: [B7L] the Federation Re: [B7L] 1999 zines ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Nov 1999 01:22:57 PST From: "Sally Manton" To: freedom-city@blakes-7.org, blakes7@lysator.liu.se Subject: [B7L] Great new B7 Genzine available! Message-ID: <19991121092318.61341.qmail@hotmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed Susan Beth wrote: I'd second (third?) the recommendations, and add another for Neil Faulkner's =Pressure Point=. I got both in the last few weeks and both have been added to my pile of favourites. (Yes, one's Avon-centred and the other Blake-heavy, so what do you expect from moi?). Both have as the centrepoint an absolutely wonderful new PGP story with everything I love - a *believable* happy ending, a strong Blake/Avon storyline and good portrayals of the other characters. They are two of the *best* PGP stories I've read. And the other stories are all enjoyable - not a dud among them all. >From =Pressure Point= Marian Mendez's 'Dupe' (the PGP) has a clever idea done justice, splendidly sharp dialogue, a great visual feel, good characters - a strong if slightly simplified Blake, a terrific Avon and Vila, and a delightful if slightly demented Dayna (and I don't *like* Dayna). I absolutely *adored* Chris Blankarn's 'Diary of a Rebel Somebody', which is gloriously funny even if you don't know the original, and *hysterical* if you do (another 'don't read in public' gem). Susan Cutter's 'Traitor to the Cause' is harsh (great plot, though), and Nicky Barnard's 'Haunted' bleak, but both are marvellously written. >From =Rites of Passage= I especially liked Pat's own 'Remember me' - elegaic, autumnal in feel, intensely emotional - and the Bryn Lantry PGP 'The Thirteen Hour'. Bryn would be my favourite slash writer, and this gen story is a gorgously rich study of My (badly battered) Heroes and their deeply felt but obliquely worded bond. Again, a terrific Vila, soured, still angry but still loyal; breif but sharp portayals of the Scorpio crew; a good, intelligent, sympathetic Deva (I often think he gets short shrift for being the *other* computer expert in Blake's life). And while her style may not be everyone's cup of tea, I find it perfectly suited to this quiet but deep story. And of course there's Val's pictures... Congrats and many thanks to both Neil and Pat for such good zines. ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Nov 1999 01:28:05 PST From: "Sally Manton" To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se Subject: [B7L] Avalon Message-ID: <19991121092806.80171.qmail@hotmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed Andrew wrote: Well - to take an example - if Jarriere joined there would be murder. Same for Nova, Max or Krantor&Toise (now *that* conjures up a mental picture or two). And the same hand holding the airlock open in each case. I have no doubt of that. Okay, let's dream. Say you could put together a crew - any 7 people, regulars or guests, from all 4 series (Orac and Zen can come gratis.) You choose whether to pick them on practical grounds (who'd make the best team) or entertainment grounds (who'd be the most fun to watch). Who would you pick? I'm tempted by a crew of - Blake, Avon and Vila (all irreplacable to me) Jenna (my favourite of the women and they *do* need a pilot) Levett (the little she had to do in Destiny and she still drew sparks) Rashel (my kind of heroine - knees shaking, scared and bewildered, but doing what she has to, the perfect anti-Valkyrie) and Dr Bellfriar ('cause he's adorable, and they could use a doctor) Pity about Tarrant (the three-Alpha explosions, oh my), Gan and Soolin; Kasabi (her working with Vila would be joyous), the clone (2 Blakes would be Avon's idea of...), Chenie (she can mix the drinks for Vila. Love at first sip), the robot Avalon (wouldn't Avon prefer her to the real thing?), Carnell (Clash of the Egos extraordinaire), Ralli from Countdown (a born librarian - one of *us*), Kerrill (just for Vilakins), Dr Plaxton (deserved to get away from Stardrive), Nebrox from Assassin (well, *I* think he was rather sweet) and Deva. I'd like 'em all, but the flight deck might get crowded. ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Nov 1999 01:33:04 PST From: "Sally Manton" To: Blakes7@lysator.liu.se Subject: Re: [B7L] Re: FC: Great new B7 Genzine available! Message-ID: <19991121093304.12089.qmail@hotmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed Judith wrote: Tell me about it . Oh well, no sacrifice is too great and all that... ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Nov 1999 12:02:04 +0000 (GMT) From: Judith Proctor To: Lysator List Subject: Re: [B7L] Re: FC: Great new B7 Genzine available! Message-ID: Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII On Sat 20 Nov, Susan Beth wrote: > > > >Thanks for getting the specifics on "Rites of Passage," Susan Beth. I'm > >really impressed with Pat's prices. Even with expensive overseas postage, > >she's brought the zine in at less than $.10 per page including postage, and > >some of those pages are gorgeously reproduced photo collages. There were US > >zines at Eclecticon that were as high as $.22 per page (and that's without > >postage). No postage is somewhat of a myth. Some US publishers ship zines to cons by post and have to ship unsold ones back again. So they're paying postage plus the cost of the dealer's table. If you live far enough away to have to fly, what you can take in a suitcase is very limited. The max I ever take to an overseas convention is one and a half A4 boxes - that's all I can carry in a suitcase without my back going. > > I'm amazed at Pat's prices, too! I've seen a zine selling (hand to hand at > a con, not thru the mail) for nearly 30 cents (!) a page. It makes me > wonder.... If *she* can produce a zine so cheaply, why are some other > editor's prices so high? Because Pat gets it printed at work and hence pays virtually nothing for printing. Her costs are binding, envelopes, postage and overheads. The other factor is that Pat *cannot* calculate exchage rates. I thought it was odd when the Aus$ price dropped by $3 and the UK price dropped by 3 pounds. There are 2.5 Aus$ to the pound! I just phoned her and got her to tell me the price in Aus$ and worked out the conversion myself. The price within Australia is Aus$7. The price to England and America is Aus $15 = 6 pounds, but that leaves no margin at all for slipping exchange rates (and the Aus$ rate has moved around a lot over the last few years) so I'd call it 6.50 pounds as that means she can leave the price static and not worry about having to check the rate every time somebody orders a zine. She's a lovely writer, but isn't comfortable with maths. I'd call it US$11 to America as she'd slightly miscalculated there - it's over $10 and I'm rounding to $11 for an exchange rate margin again. If the rate moves a fair way in the other direction, then I'll get her to change the prices, but at $10 she was losing money already and at 6 pounds, she'd have lost money if the rate moved by less than 1%. Judith -- http://www.hermit.org/Blakes7 - Fanzines for Blake's 7, B7 Filk songs, pictures, news, Conventions past and present, Blake's 7 fan clubs, Gareth Thomas, etc. (also non-Blake's 7 zines at http://www.nas.com/~lknight ) Redemption '01 23-25 Feb 2001 http://www.smof.com/redemption/ ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Nov 1999 09:21:43 +0000 (GMT) From: Judith Proctor To: Lysator List Subject: Re: [B7L] the Federation Message-ID: Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII On Sat 20 Nov, Andrew Ellis wrote: > Judith said, > > >Armies don't always revolt, or it doesn't always succeed. Look how long > Stalin > >remained in power. I regard him as being on a level with the Federation. > > > > > Stalin won a HUGE war, that counts as a credit against a whole lot of > corruption. We don't know about the recent history of the Federation, but > there is no reference to a war. I think I went into the "acceptance level of > corruption" before. Tell me then, what is the 'acceptable' level of massacring your own population? Are you aware of how many of his *own* people Stalin killed, starting with all the returning prisoners of war? Judith -- http://www.hermit.org/Blakes7 - Fanzines for Blake's 7, B7 Filk songs, pictures, news, Conventions past and present, Blake's 7 fan clubs, Gareth Thomas, etc. (also non-Blake's 7 zines at http://www.nas.com/~lknight ) Redemption '01 23-25 Feb 2001 http://www.smof.com/redemption/ ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Nov 1999 08:10:30 +1100 From: Kathryn Andersen To: "Blake's 7 list" Subject: Re: [B7L] Re: FC: Great new B7 Genzine available! Message-ID: <19991121081030.A3018@welkin.apana.org.au> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii On Sat, Nov 20, 1999 at 03:26:20PM -0500, Susan Beth wrote: > Mac4781@aol.com wrote: > > >Thanks for getting the specifics on "Rites of Passage," Susan Beth. I'm > >really impressed with Pat's prices. Even with expensive overseas postage, > >she's brought the zine in at less than $.10 per page including postage, and > >some of those pages are gorgeously reproduced photo collages. There were US > >zines at Eclecticon that were as high as $.22 per page (and that's without > >postage). > > I'm amazed at Pat's prices, too! I've seen a zine selling (hand to hand at > a con, not thru the mail) for nearly 30 cents (!) a page. It makes me > wonder.... If *she* can produce a zine so cheaply, why are some other > editor's prices so high? > > Probably they have different philosophies about exactly what are the > "costs" that ought to be spread over the run of the zine. Maybe their > buyers are helping to buy a new printer for the editor -- or her airfare to > the con. I'm puzzled too, at some of the prices I see. More fancy overheads? I think printing prices in Australia have gone down too, since Officeworks stores started springing up all over, offering printing prices of 5c a page, where the standard price seems to be 10c from everyone else! If you don't have fancy binding, and there aren't many tribbers copies, I'm not surprised she can manage such low prices - mine are similar. Well, depends how big the zine is. But I've found that postage can account for half the price of the zine - that's where one loses out, being so far away. But then you gain, because the Australian dollar is so low at the moment compared to the US dollar and the pound. I think it averages at about 2/3 of a US dollar and 1/3 of a British pound. Kathryn Andersen (anybody want a copy of Refractions? 8-) ) -- _--_|\ | Kathryn Andersen / \ | http://home.connexus.net.au/~kat \_.--.*/ | #include "standard/disclaimer.h" v | ------------| Melbourne -> Victoria -> Australia -> Southern Hemisphere Maranatha! | -> Earth -> Sol -> Milky Way Galaxy -> Universe ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Nov 1999 17:47:29 +0100 From: Jacqueline Thijsen To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se Subject: RE: [B7L] Avalon Message-ID: <39DCDDFD014ED21185C300104BB3F99F90660E@NL-ARN-MAIL01> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Sally wrote: > Dr Plaxton (deserved to get away from Stardrive) Why? She was an irresponsible twit who put something as powerful as the stardrive into the hands of the Space Rats so that she could continue with her research. Her main objections to whatever the Space Rats did with it seemed to be that they interfered with her research. She only went along with Avon and co because staying would have gotten her killed and at that time she didn't even mention her assistant who was there at *her* request to begin with. And even the one good thing she did, installing the stardrive in Scorpio, she did because she would have been killed otherwise. If she'd survived, she'd have been more of a liability than an asset, no matter how brilliant she was. Jacqueline ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Nov 1999 09:06:13 EST From: "Joanne MacQueen" To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se Subject: Re: [B7L] Great new B7 Genzine available! Message-ID: <19991121220613.65802.qmail@hotmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed >From: Susan Beth >7 Australian Dollars (posted in Australia) Ooh! I think I'll just have to order this one. Trouble is, damn it, my account book and the building society that issued it is 200km away. Can't draw a cheque in Australian dollars just yet. Ah well, until next weekend... Thanks, Susan Beth, for alerting habitual non-buyers - I have no excuse this time! Regards Joanne For the edible and the readable we give thanks to God, the Author of Life. --Mervyn Stockwood ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Nov 1999 21:26:59 -0000 From: "Andrew Ellis" To: "Lysator List" Subject: Re: [B7L] the Federation Message-ID: <00a301bf3476$38acd7a0$f03bac3e@leanet.futures.bt.co.uk> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Judith Armies don't always revolt, ......>> Stalin Andrew Stalin won a HUGE war, that counts as a credit against a whole lot of corruption Judith Tell me then, what is the 'acceptable' level of massacring your own population? Are you aware of how many of his *own* people Stalin killed, starting with all the returning prisoners of war? Sally True, but let's go back to the 37-39 Terror, when the Red Army remained loyal to Stalin's government (if not the man personally) even while their ranks were being decimated. New stuff .......... Judith, Sally, I accept that my knowledge of Stalin is weak, and I humbly concede any points about him. But.... What I am saying (apparently very badly) is that although certain people in the Federation are blacker than a black hole at night, that does not necessarily mean that the Federation as such is any worse than regimes that we either follow today, or respect from history. I've just downloaded your Essay on Why Blake Fought onto my HD, and I'll post my thoughts in due course. Andrew ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Nov 99 04:33:00 GMT From: s.thompson8@genie.com To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se Subject: [B7L] 1999 zines Message-Id: <199911220450.EAA23111@rock103.genie.net> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Here are all the 1999 B7 zines that I know about. Are there any I've missed?? More newsletters, perhaps? Any publications connected with Redemption? Also, was =Chronicles= #63 published in 1998 or 1999? There's no date in the zine itself. I put =The Quibell Abduction= in brackets because it's a new edition of a previously published story and so might or might not count as a new zine, depending on one's standards. Once again, we have a good haul of zines for the year. There will be some hard decisions to make come award time. 1999 B7 zines Gen standalone ALL CHANGE (script by Judith Proctor; UK, 1999) AVON #17: Full Circle (story by Penny Kjelgaard; UK, 1999) [THE QUIBELL ABDUCTION (novella by Lillian Shepherd; UK, 1980.7; second edition: UK, 1999)] RENAISSANCE (two novellas by Diane L. Holland; UK, 1999) S.L.Y.G.O. (novella by J. T. Johnson; NZ, 1999) VEM QUEST (round robin story by various authors; UK, 1999.1) Gen anthology CHRONICLES #63 (AU, 1999?) CHRONICLES #64 (AU, 1999) PRESSURE POINT (UK, 1999) RITES OF PASSAGE (AU, 1999) Multimedia gen with B7 material REFRACTIONS #6 (B7 poetry only; AU, 1999.4) Nonfiction AVON NEWSLETTER #72 (includes some short fiction; UK, 1999.5) A GUIDE TO BLAKE'S 7 EROTICA, Vol. 2 (bibliography, compiled by S. E. Thompson; US, 1999) Adult and slash: standalone THE ENDLESS FARCE (series of stories by Predatrix; slash; UK, 1999.2) LIBERATOR GENERAL (story by various authors; humorous adult and slash; US, 1999) Adult and slash: anthology FIRE AND ICE #5 (slash, all A/B; US, 1999.5) SOUTHERN COMFORT #10.5 (adult and slash; US, 1999.5) SOUTHERN COMFORT #11.5 (adult and slash; US, 1999.5) Multimedia slash with B7 material DIVERSE DOINGS #4 (slash; US, 1999.5) FANTASTIC FANTASIES (slash; US, 1999) DARK FANTASIES #6 (slash; US, 1999) ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Nov 1999 22:07:51 -0700 From: "Ellynne G." To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se Subject: Re: [B7L] the Federation Message-ID: <19991121.220858.10014.1.Rilliara@juno.com> >Andrew >Stalin won a HUGE war, that counts as a credit against a whole lot of >corruption > >Judith >Tell me then, what is the 'acceptable' level of massacring your own >population? Are you aware of how many of his *own* people Stalin >killed, >starting with all the returning prisoners of war? > >Sally >True, but let's go back to the 37-39 Terror, when the Red Army >remained >loyal to Stalin's government (if not the man personally) >even while their ranks were being decimated. > >What I am saying (apparently very badly) is that although certain >people in >the Federation are blacker than a black hole at night, that does not >necessarily mean that the Federation as such is any worse than regimes >that >we either follow today, or respect from history. > If I've followed all this correctly, I'm going to come to Andrew's defense on one or two points. Personally, I'd put Stalin more or less on par with Hitler. However, the army didn't turn against him, partly because of the effective use of fear and intimidation and partly because they often didn't identify with his victims. A Russian officer, writing about how starving Ukrainians wandered the woods in winter searching for any kind of food instead of doing work they'd been ordered to do, put it the dereliction of duty down to the goldbricking you'd expect from Ukrainians. But, somehow, I don't think he would have expected Russians to work themselves to death at his orders. Then there's the Khmer Rouge, who killed anywhere from 1 to 3 million of their own people out of a nation of 8 million. When the Vietnamese--their traditional enemies and known for their own atrocities of war at that time--invaded and drove the Khmer Rouge out, they were said to have wept when they saw what the Khmer Rouge had done. However, there had been no effective uprising among the Cambodians themselves. The reasons why Pol Pot and Stalin weren't overthrown by their own people may vary, but apparently a leader can be as bad as they come and still not trigger the coup he or she deserves. Servalan probably still wonders what she did wrong. However, I still admit to wondering how bad the Federation was. IMHO opinion, they were bad enough, but the argument could be made that slaughtering Federation citizens was not a generally accepted practice (_not_ my POV [at least, not this week], but one I can see being made). Things like bombs ready to destroy an entire world's population may, in the Federation's POV, been something they did to conquored aliens (aliens in the sense of noncitizens or "them" rather than Aurons or ET). _Not_ a moral justification--but the kind of justification many people have accepted (the "They're not like us so it doesn't matter" argument). For this argument to work, the big evidence to the contrary (the massacre in episode one) was either an exception to normal opporating procedure or a thing that could happen--but that only a minority of the population would ever anticipate happening (Blake didn't expect it the first time he was caught and, despite knowing what had happened to him and the others, the rebel group to contact him in ep 1 wasn't expecting it either). Other things, like torture of suspects, may have been accepted as the price criminals pay. Oh, this argument also assumes events during the third year represented changes under Servie's administration. Ellynne ___________________________________________________________________ Get the Internet just the way you want it. Free software, free e-mail, and free Internet access for a month! Try Juno Web: http://dl.www.juno.com/dynoget/tagj. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Nov 1999 08:17:22 +0000 (GMT) From: Judith Proctor To: Lysator List Subject: Re: [B7L] the Federation Message-ID: Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII On Sun 21 Nov, Andrew Ellis wrote: > > What I am saying (apparently very badly) is that although certain people in > the Federation are blacker than a black hole at night, that does not > necessarily mean that the Federation as such is any worse than regimes that > we either follow today, or respect from history. > Delete the word respect and I'm with you all the way. (You don't need to read much about Stalin to lose any respect for him) There have been regimes as bad as the Federation. There are now, there certainly will be again. We may be cynical about our own government, but in truth I would rather live in England in 1999 than in almost any other time or place you care to mention. Studying history can rapidly remove rose-tinted views of the past (anyone else been watching 'green and pleasant land'?). Most of our geography is a study in ignoranace. We tend to know nothing of places like East Timor until they erupt into the headlines. Judith -- http://www.hermit.org/Blakes7 - Fanzines for Blake's 7, B7 Filk songs, pictures, news, Conventions past and present, Blake's 7 fan clubs, Gareth Thomas, etc. (also non-Blake's 7 zines at http://www.nas.com/~lknight ) Redemption '01 23-25 Feb 2001 http://www.smof.com/redemption/ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Nov 1999 11:19:20 -0000 From: "Jakx" To: Subject: Re: [B7L] 1999 zines Message-ID: <000001bf352c$19d0a300$df67883e@default> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit ----- Original Message ----- From: To: Sent: 22 November 1999 04:33 Subject: [B7L] 1999 zines > Here are all the 1999 B7 zines that I know about. Are there any > I've missed?? More newsletters, perhaps? Any publications > connected with Redemption? > > Gen standalone > VEM QUEST (round robin story by various authors; UK, 1999.1) *Vem Quest*? came out a a zine? Really? where can I get a copy, and how much? I`d love to see how it ended. Jakx -------------------------------- End of blakes7-d Digest V99 Issue #326 **************************************