The Sentinel

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Betwixt and Between by Maigret and Wolfling 
Favorite Things by Legion
Interesting Times by Hazel


Name of zine: Betwixt and Between
Press name: ffluxpress
Price: n/a
Type: Slash
Your name:  The Reviewer
Feedback email addy: the_reviewer@hotmail.com

My Review: The presentation of this zine is amazing. It’s high quality appearance shows the hard work and dedication that ffluxpress puts into their zines. The artwork from The Theban Band is stunning and in my opinion worth the cost of the zine alone. As I bought this zine from the web page before they had any information regarding the zine. (The only thing present on the site then was a story snippet.) I did not know that this was an Elf story. Or more obviously an AU. As I am not turned off by either of those things I charged ahead into reading this thick story. All 240 pages of it. If you are not use to reading fantasy novels (as I am not) the elfin names are hard to follow and sometimes confusing. But I still liked the fantasy and adventure of it. Blair’s father is an Elf king and has been searching for his son since Naomi took him away. The explanation for how Blair never knew who he really was is both fun and clever. I also enjoyed the way Blair’s character develops to understand his father, be angry at his mom while still loving her and how he learns to accept himself and his new found powers. The writers have a very interesting concept going on how the Elf and the Sentinel bond and communicate thus increasing Jim and Blair’s dependence, attraction and understanding of one another. The characterization is very well done and the sex was extremely hot. I loved the first time aspect of it the J/B relationship and how the characters around them act to their love. Being realistic this is a nice relaxing ROMANCE story. If you are looking for a nice, long, relaxing story I highly recommend this zine. In the wealth of TS zines that are out there this is a gem that I have loaned, recommend and given as a gift. I can’t wait to see the next zine from ffluxpress. They have a hard act to follow.

Things of Note: My copy of the zine (preordered from the net) is bound at the side with a plastic bar and a sturdy what feels almost like a thin plastic backing. The zine has thick paper and is very nicely presented, I was amazed by its professional look when I received it. I was upset to find that this was only Pt 1 (though complete in itself) of a larger story (there is a note that the next zine will be out summer 2001). Though I enjoyed this story I like to know of things like that before hand.

Name of zine: Favorite Things by Legion
Press name: Secret Pleasure Press
Price n/a
Type: Slash
Your name:  The Reviewer
Feedback email addy: the_reviewer@hotmail.com

My Review: With seven stories by Legion you can't go wrong! This zine digest sized for connivance starts off with a forward from the author herself. The reader then moves onto a new story ("And I want to thank you") which was written as a relief for 9-11. It's a good story about Blair remembering how he and Jim come to be a couple. I love the images of Blair's glasses on the bed side table. But my enjoyment came from knowing this was a post 9-11 story that never mentioned 9-11. Moving on "For the Grace of Blair" is a wonderful first time story in which Jim and Blair are targeted by a 'partner' killer. The plot is interesting, the sex is wonderful, sweet and loving. The characterization is very well done as is expected from Legion. The next story "Twenty One Days" I was leery about re-reading. I read it when it first appeared on the net and I found it confusing and very odd. This is not your normal Legion fic. So, when I went into this story I honestly didn't expect it to be better. I'm glad to tell you that I was wrong. I don't know if it's because I was able to take my time and read it away from the computer or if slight improvements to the story have been made to ease the story flow. But I enjoyed "Twenty One Days" in this zine. It was thought provoking, it was human and I could see the characters doing this. I loved the thought process and feelings which were under the surface for both Jim and Blair. I'm not sure if this is the same story as the one still on line, but if you are looking for a deep story, I highly recommend this one. "Bid him come or Bid him go" is another story previously on the net. This is a wonderful AU written with a unique ghost story twist. I find when talking about this story I tend to go into way too much detail. So all I will say on it, is if you are looking for a long powerful AU story try this one. "Changeling" is yet another twist on a ghost story / possession thing where Blair is possessed by his future self. When this story says it will not change Jim's future the fact that Blair and Jim know what is going on will change their future - so I found that slightly contradicting. I also found the ending ambiguous at best and wanted more for sure. "For giving me the best day of my life" & "Quack" are both good light stories. Blair's eyes are opened once again by Jim's wisdom an the partners are better for it.

Over all I would recommend this zine. There are a few grammar errors and missed words here and there but nothing that would take away from the quality of this zine. Legions writing as usual is solid and satisfying.

Things of Note: Some of these stories are still on the net, but not all. Suzann Lovetts art work is wonderful and compliments this zine well.

Name of zine: Interesting Times by Hazel
Press name: AngelWings Press
Price: n/a
Type: Slash
Your name:  The Reviewer
Feedback email addy: the_reviewer@hotmail.com

My Review: The cover of Rafe is very nicely done as would be expected from Geli and the tan backing matches well with the tan tones of Geli’s art. However the story itself left me depressed and slightly confused. I had not read the zine summary right before starting this zine so, I went into it with an open mind. The opening of this story was something I found hard to follow and over all and it took me awhile to figure out just which episode this zine was related to (which was the shoot-out at Major Crimes). The J/B story line (which I expected more of) is started through Rafe’s eyes and jumbled along the way. Blair leaves and Jim lets him go (of course). Meanwhile Simon and Rafe are sort of bouncing around each other while Rafe is assigned to Jim since Blair is gone. As the story unfolds we find that Rafe is going to school and suddenly this isn’t a story about Rafe moving on with his life and working to have Simon understand they can still be together even if he is a cop under him. It’s a story of how a writer can replace one character with another. Rafe becomes Blair as he does his schoolwork on stakeouts and comes into Major Crimes sleepy and stressed due to exams. On a side note there is a bomber running around which is how the writer is pushing Rafe to get Blair back into the picture and Simon to realize just how much Rafe means to him. When Blair does come back it’s the old “I’m not gay!” Line from Jim that makes you wonder just if the writer knew the characters they were writing about before Blair comes up with the brilliantly old “why is a label so important to you?” All of that leading up to a short 5 page love seen with Jim and Blair that really left this reader disappointed as first times go. Meanwhile across town Rafe and Simon are having a long talk where Simon finds out that Rafe is going to resign and suddenly everything is all right with the world and they can have sex as well as admit they are in love! And to top it all off they get 9 pages to prove their bodily passion to one another, (which was better then what J/B got).

For some reason I was lead to believe that this was a good J/B story as well as a R/S story. Honestly my disappointment stems from the fact that I found this a R/S story that had J/B thrown in to get those of us who prefer J/B to buy it. Overall, I would not recommend this zine and haven’t. Those who have asked have been given more details. Some of which include how it was hard for me to keep reading the story and how I felt that someone at AWP should have asked the author to explain the set up more. Just a tip to the writer, do not to rely on the page/presses’ description of your story to let the reader know exactly where this story picks up from and what it’s about.

Things of Note: A table of contents is present, but no chapter summaries or chapter names have been given. Also at the back of the digest sized zine there are 2 fully blank pages that serve no purpose but to increase the page count. Oh and something else of interest, the information on the AWP site states this is a 150 page digest zine. My copy is only 125 pages, 132 if you count all the blank pages in the back.

More to come!
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