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ci5hqI've been having a wee zine sort-out and palelyloiter, and a bit of a read, and I thought I'd post about it, because I haven't for ages... And as this is a review, there are spoilers under the cut below... *g*
Merlyn's Tales 1 contains two Pros stories, the first two parts of a trilogy which is completed in Merlyn's Tales 2.
In Kindred Spirits, a futuristic AU (which according to the blurb "strays into Escape from New York City territory) we find ourselves confronted with a hard man, a man imprisoned for crimes against his country, for working as a mercenary - and this man is Ray Doyle. He left CI5 years ago when Bodie was killed, but now Cowley wants him back, because Doyle is the only man who can enter New York City - now a gigantic prison - and rescue both Murphy and a nuclear decoder that he was carrying when his plane crashed and he became trapped. Doyle is promised his freedom in return, and although he doesn't care one way or the other - has cared about nothing for a long time - he agrees to take on the job. And of course it turns out that Bodie is both alive, in New York City, and... (let's try out that non-spoiler thing - highlight the following blank area to see what else Bodie is!) ...a vampire. And when Doyle is fatally injured in the rescue attempt, there is no other way for Bodie to save him, than... Can you guess? *g* (There, did that work for you?!)
This is one of those stories where I was intrigued enough by the premise to carry on reading - and because apocalypse stories are totally one of my bullet-proof kinks - despite the fact that this author cannot write in complete sentences! Gargh! It feels like every second sentence is a fragment, although it's not quite that bad - but there are far too many of them. Pros is also just plonked in America, which threw me a bit, cos I'd've liked to know why, rather than made to feel that the rest of the world just doesn't exist, and everything is just naturally a part of the USA. And yet... I still wanted to keep on reading. *g* The lads separated for years, the tragedy of it - and surely the inevitability of their reunion to look forward to... *sighs happily*
Blazing Shadows carries on where Kindred Spirits left off - ready for another attempt at blocking out the worst spoiler-y bits? Highlight here: - in the aftermath of the nuclear explosion detonated when Doyle's mission went horribly wrong. The lads travel across country, find out what has happened and working out how they will survive. Eventually they realise that living for themselves isn't enough - they need to try and do more. They need to find Cowley - if he survived - and so they need to return to New York...
Wilder Justice skips ahead a whole story or two - but I don't think there are others that come in between! Ack! All of a sudden we are told that the lads found Cowley, and were put into cryogenesis for 200 years to see if the world improved... Which it did and it didn't, because it was taken over by a woman called Sleer, who ran something called The Federation, and in conspiracy with Van Hauk and Snake Plissen, the lads join up with the Rebellion - led by a man called Roj Blake... *g* Of course they overcome the baddies, and then discover that Plissen is a vampire like them - and in allowing him to feed from them when there is no one else, the three form a bond, travelling together to find the vampire who made Plissen...
And I'm quite glad it ended there, because suddenly it's a threesome, and I don't want anyone else with Bodie and Doyle! So there.
But... in general it was an interesting premise for any other apocalpse-fic lovers, and a reasonably harmless read. Enjoyable enough in some odd way that I forgave various things in order to get to the end, which I don't always... I suspect part of that was because Merlyn had the lads very much together, and needing to be together - if she'd brought Plissen into play any earlier I probably would have switched right off. As it is... yeah, if you come across these wee stapled zines anywhere, then they're probably worth picking up... *g*
Merlyn's Tales 1 contains two Pros stories, the first two parts of a trilogy which is completed in Merlyn's Tales 2.
In Kindred Spirits, a futuristic AU (which according to the blurb "strays into Escape from New York City territory) we find ourselves confronted with a hard man, a man imprisoned for crimes against his country, for working as a mercenary - and this man is Ray Doyle. He left CI5 years ago when Bodie was killed, but now Cowley wants him back, because Doyle is the only man who can enter New York City - now a gigantic prison - and rescue both Murphy and a nuclear decoder that he was carrying when his plane crashed and he became trapped. Doyle is promised his freedom in return, and although he doesn't care one way or the other - has cared about nothing for a long time - he agrees to take on the job. And of course it turns out that Bodie is both alive, in New York City, and... (let's try out that non-spoiler thing - highlight the following blank area to see what else Bodie is!) ...a vampire. And when Doyle is fatally injured in the rescue attempt, there is no other way for Bodie to save him, than... Can you guess? *g* (There, did that work for you?!)
This is one of those stories where I was intrigued enough by the premise to carry on reading - and because apocalypse stories are totally one of my bullet-proof kinks - despite the fact that this author cannot write in complete sentences! Gargh! It feels like every second sentence is a fragment, although it's not quite that bad - but there are far too many of them. Pros is also just plonked in America, which threw me a bit, cos I'd've liked to know why, rather than made to feel that the rest of the world just doesn't exist, and everything is just naturally a part of the USA. And yet... I still wanted to keep on reading. *g* The lads separated for years, the tragedy of it - and surely the inevitability of their reunion to look forward to... *sighs happily*
Blazing Shadows carries on where Kindred Spirits left off - ready for another attempt at blocking out the worst spoiler-y bits? Highlight here: - in the aftermath of the nuclear explosion detonated when Doyle's mission went horribly wrong. The lads travel across country, find out what has happened and working out how they will survive. Eventually they realise that living for themselves isn't enough - they need to try and do more. They need to find Cowley - if he survived - and so they need to return to New York...
Wilder Justice skips ahead a whole story or two - but I don't think there are others that come in between! Ack! All of a sudden we are told that the lads found Cowley, and were put into cryogenesis for 200 years to see if the world improved... Which it did and it didn't, because it was taken over by a woman called Sleer, who ran something called The Federation, and in conspiracy with Van Hauk and Snake Plissen, the lads join up with the Rebellion - led by a man called Roj Blake... *g* Of course they overcome the baddies, and then discover that Plissen is a vampire like them - and in allowing him to feed from them when there is no one else, the three form a bond, travelling together to find the vampire who made Plissen...
And I'm quite glad it ended there, because suddenly it's a threesome, and I don't want anyone else with Bodie and Doyle! So there.
But... in general it was an interesting premise for any other apocalpse-fic lovers, and a reasonably harmless read. Enjoyable enough in some odd way that I forgave various things in order to get to the end, which I don't always... I suspect part of that was because Merlyn had the lads very much together, and needing to be together - if she'd brought Plissen into play any earlier I probably would have switched right off. As it is... yeah, if you come across these wee stapled zines anywhere, then they're probably worth picking up... *g*
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no subject
Date: 2010-03-27 08:07 pm (UTC)I can't say I liked Kindred Spirits all that much (not going into detail for spoiler reasons), and reading where it ultimately leads, I'm not too unhappy that I haven't had a chance to read the sequels.
no subject
Date: 2010-03-27 08:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-27 08:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-27 10:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-28 12:17 am (UTC)In your story, was Bodie supposedly drowned, and Doyle is being brought to Cowley's office in chains? He's been kicked out of CI5 after Bodie's death, because he didn't care any longer, and joined various vigilante groups.
And Cowley is more concerned about the decoder, than he is about Murphy?
no subject
Date: 2010-03-28 10:32 am (UTC)So I wonder if maybe what seemed to me a "missing part" of the story is actually somewhere else under a different name too... Will have to keep my eyes out...
no subject
Date: 2010-03-28 12:51 am (UTC)I’m fairly new to the PROS fandom and have been reading the PROS stories online. I'm now considering purchasing some of the highly recommended PROS zines.
I’ve been using the palelyloitering site, and Alisons’s recs for the Professionals zines as well as relying on the lovely recs from
Are there any other sites which provide reviews and summaries of the available zines?
Are there sites or groups around which buy/sale second-hand zines?
And one question for byslantedlight - is the
no subject
Date: 2010-03-28 09:21 am (UTC)As for other zine sites, including second-hand - you'll find them listed when you see the Loiteringpalely comm, but they're also listed over at Palelyloitering too, under Sources. Not all the old publishers are in there yet, but most of the active ones are. You've probably found The Hatstand (http://hatstand.slashcity.net/) by now? (The original one, not the automated version) That has a listing of Pros zines. And Nell Howell used to have zine recs up at her website (you've probably found via Alijot) but she moved things to Dreamwidth earlier this year> (http://prosrecs.dreamwidth.org/) and for the life of me I can't see them anywhere anymore... It might be she incorporated them into the Hatstand Slash zines list instead...
Of course this comm has reviews and summaries of zines too - check out the rec - zine stories" (http://community.livejournal.com/ci5hq/tag/rec%20-%20zine%20stories) tag for instance (trouble is, alot of reccers don't go to the effort to find whether the story they're reccing is in a zine, or only note the online source).
I have a zines tag (http://byslantedlight.livejournal.com/tag/zines) over at my own lj too, though you have to wade through varying amounts of other stuff, in some cases... Erm... You might well have found all those places for now - hope that was some help though!
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Date: 2010-03-28 11:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-31 08:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-30 12:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-31 08:24 am (UTC)I'm wondering now if there are other stories that fit in between the first and second zine though, maybe written under Cat Shannon, or another pseud, cos there's such a huge jump between the second and third stories... Maybe I should ask over at ProsLit, perhaps someone there would know...
We can totally work out some way to get you the third story, though... *g*
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Date: 2010-03-31 10:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-31 10:38 am (UTC)And
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Date: 2010-03-31 11:02 am (UTC)And I saw and responded to
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Date: 2010-03-31 11:19 am (UTC)Yeay! *vbg*
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Date: 2010-04-01 11:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-12 12:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-29 12:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-29 01:03 pm (UTC)