SALLY AND JENNY'S 50 FAVOURITE A-B GEN STORIES

(Plus 50 Bonus Titles Because We Don't Know Where to Stop)

THE 50 BONUS TITLES

NB: The annotations are shorter this time, just a brief account to help readers work out whether this is their kind of story.

StoryAvailability
Leigh Arnold, "Blizzard", MAGNIFICENT SEVEN #3 (US, 1986.7)

A first season hurt-comfort story, unusual in that the hurt is shared out pretty equally between Avon and Blake.

 
Ruth Berman, "In the Lion's Den", RETURN OF THE 7 #4 (US, 1991)

A PGP, light but well written, guest-starring Docholli from 'Gambit'.

 
Joyce Bowen, "To Avon from Blake", RAISING HELL #6 (US, 1994.12)

An unusual story format - a torn-up letter from Blake to Avon.

Read the story.

Rebecca Ann Brothers, "One Minute More", DOWN AND UNSAFE #6 (NZ, 1987.7)

A brief but sweet extension of the ending to 'Countdown'.

Read the story.

Rebecca Ann Brothers, "Promises Kept", GAMBIT #11 (US, 1994.3)

An AU story set in the third season, where the A-B interaction is only a subplot - but very compelling.

 
CarolMel Ambassador, "Torrent", DARK BETWEEN THE STARS #1 (US, 1989)

Our Heroes getting hurt and comforted and rescuing each other in whitewater torrents.

 
L.A. Carr and Ann Wortham, "Echoes of the Future", SOMETHING ... UNFRIENDLY #1 (US, 1988.5)

An erratic but interesting second season story where Avon, not Blake, is the victim of Federation programming.

 
Marla Fair, "Survivors", ZEN THE ART OF REBELLION #2 (US, 1992)

A fairly standard action plot complete with mysterious aliens but the A-B thread is well handled, giving due weight to the tug of Avon's self-interest. (He almost does betray Blake).

 
Mary Fall, "Dioscuri", B7 COMPLEX #2 (mm; US, 1984.7) A terrific plot, featuring Avon's brother as a mutoid, although the execution and characterisation doesn't quite match the storyline.  
B.N. Fish, "Voices", SERRATED SEVEN (US, 1993)

A mysterious evocative little story where Avon talks to a sort of ghost about his reactions to Blake.

 
Jean Hubb, "The Examined Life", DESTINY #1 (US, 1991.9)

At first this seems to be a standard locked-up-together-with-no-way out story but there's a twist at the end. Nice dialogue.

 
Carol Keogh and Anne Lewis, "Isolation", LIBERATOR #3 (UK, 1978.11), reprinted in second edition of #7 (UK, 1981.1)

Some good hurt-comfort, with Avon nursing Blake and then Gan putting Avon back together, although the rest of the crew seem a bit out of character.

 
Linda Knights, "Be But a Story That They Tell" THOSE WHO FAVOR FIRE (US, 1989)

An alternative to 'Terminal', where Blake's stranded on another of those primitive planets and Avon is guided to him by some interestingly described telepathy.

 
Linda Knights, "Last Will and Testament", REBEL DESTINIES #2 (US, 1995)

A early-fourth season story, worth reading for the brilliant sequence at the end where Avon is persuading himself not to abandon the search for Blake, even after Blake tells him to.

 
Linda Knights, "A Moment for Contemplation", QUESTIONS OF THE PAST (US, 1992)

A terrific hurt-comfort beginning tails off into Blake's somewhat baffling philosophical musings - and the ending at Gauda Prime seems to contradict that philosophy.

 
Linda Knights, "One More Lesson Learned", QUESTIONS OF THE PAST (US, 1992)

Blake has dragged Our Darling to a rebel celebration and Avon is enjoying it as much as you'd expect.

 
Linda Knights, "Yesterday: Memories of Today", GAMBIT #2 (US, 1988.4); revised and reprinted as a standalone (US, 1997)

Avon rescues Blake a year after Star One and then it turns out that Blake has survived by becoming a ruthless criminal and killer. Lots of good observation but with a nasty edge.

 
Bryn Lantry, DERELICTS. (novella by Bryn Lantry; first edition: AU, 1986?; revised second edition: UK, 1996.3)

A very dark PGP - actually a tad too dark and twisty for our tastes, though the quality of Bryn's writing is as powerful as always.

 
Patti McClellan, "The Art of War", GAMBIT #14 (US, 1996.11)

Did you ever wonder how the Liberator crew learnt to fight? Cally does the teaching, Avon and Blake do a lot of learning.

 
Patti McClellan, "A Difficult Mentor", REBEL DESTINIES 1 (US, 1994.1)

Set after 'Mission to Destiny'. We're not sure we can see Avon as anybody's mentor but the dialogue is great.

 
Patti McClellan, "Second Chances", GAMBIT #13 (US, 1995.8), also accidentally published in the slash zine RESISTANCE #8.

A standard PGP? No, this time Blake is really mad at Avon, to the extent of taking a seriously twisted revenge. (But no one dies, okay?)

 
Susan Matthews, THE MIND OF MAN IS A DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD. (novel; US,, 1983.9)

An AU novel that turns the third and fourth seasons on their heads.The Avon aspect offers heaps of beautiful suffering for conoisseurs like Sally but Jenny complains that the A-B aspect is fairly minimal.

 
Marian Mendez, "A Rebel's Best Friend", THE SEVEN LIVE ON #9 (US, 1995.5)

This is a werewolf story, just for fun, and it fulfils that task admirably.

 
Liz Newton, "Calvan IV Nightmare", CONSTELLATION: GEMINI (mm; UK, 1979?)

A good idea - Blake searching for Avon inside a mad computer - although the computer's tests don't reveal as much about Our Heroes as they could and the experience doesnąt really change their relationship.

 
Brendan O'Cullane and Adrian Morgan, "Remembrance", GAMBIT #8 (US, 1992.2)

A very unusual take on the "it was the clone" premise ...

 
Helen Parkinson, "Remember Me", THE WAY BACK (US/UK, 1995.3)

There's a good story to be written, following on after 'Voice from the Past'. This is a brave stab at it, although it's a bit static and has a rather mushy end.

 
Helen Parkinson, "Small World / Large Project", GAMBIT #10 (US, 1993.6)

A prequel to 'The Way Back', a nice idea but the relationship is too lightly sketched to qualify as prime A-B.

 
Pat Patera, "Inner Space", RAISING HELL #3 (US, 1990.5)

An astringently written PGP, where Blake is unabashedly manipulative but, Sally insists, in a good cause.

 
Sheila Paulson, "Empathy", RAISING HELL #2 (US, 1998)

Now this is something completely different - not only an Avon-Blake-Gan story but also a hurt-comfort with Blake as the comfortee.

Read the story.

Sheila Paulson, "The End of Entropy", GAMBIT #8 (US, 1998.2)

Vila and Avon escape from Gauda Prime, go looking for Servalan and find someone else ... The territory is familiar but the characterisation is as good as ever.

 
Sheila Paulson, "Gemini Nightmare", RAISING HELL #4 (US, 1991)

After the shooting at Gauda Prime Blake asks Avon to find Jenna before he dies. A surprise version of the well-worn 'clone' plot and some rather nice suffering on Avon's part.

 
Sheila Paulson, "Interference", DR. BELLFRIAR'S MEMORIAL JOURNAL #1 (US, 1988)

Avon is captured and tortured by space pirates and may have been raped while unconscious. Some nice A-B scenes, although it's more a hurt-comfort story involving the whole crew.

 
Sheila Paulson, "Life-line", INPUT #2 (CN, 1989.3)

A classic PGP, with Blake insisting it's his fault that Avon shot him, which always strikes us as going too far in the direction of niceness and forgiveness.

 
Sheila Paulson, "Only the Dead Can Be Forgiven", ELEVENTH SECTOR #1 (US, 1988)

One of Avon's instinctive moves to protect Blake has tragic results. Not a gung-ho raid, more an exercise in guilt allocation.

 
Sheila Paulson, "The Wings that Fly Us Home", SOMETHING ... UNFRIENDLY #1 (US, 1988.5), reprinted from INTERFACE #1.

The whole of the fourth series was all a drug-induced, electronic dream ... but this time it's Blake's dream.

 
Sheila Paulson, "Though We May Have Different Dreams", BLAKE, RABBLE AND ROLL #2 (US, 1990)

Avon and Blake are trapped in that cave beloved by fanfic writers but, as always, Sheila's dialogue is spot-on and it's also one of the comparatively rare stories where Blake is hurt and Avon has to play comforter.

 
Cindy Rancourt, "Closer than a Brother", MAGNIFICENT SEVEN #7 (US, 1988.11); reprinted in REBEL #7 (UK, 1990.3)

A bit mushy - well, Avon has never reminded us of a frightened child, at any rate - but there's some good hurt-comfort here, as Blake nurses Avon through a fever, with Avon calling for his lost brother.

 
Cindy Rancourt, "A Matter of Trust", GAMBIT #2 (US, 1988.4)

A PGP where Avon is stranded on the borders of madness and Blake has to link with him telepathically via Orac. Although even then, there's more sorting out to be done between Avon, Blake and Vila in the sequel, "Purgatorio", POWERPLAY #6 (US, 1989)

 
Jamie Melody Randell, "Countdown: a Postscript" and "Voices from the Past: a Postscript", D.S.V. #2 (US, 1995)

Dialogue-based stories, without much attempt at a plotline, but the voices and the underlying emotions are nicely judged.

 
Wendy Rathbone, "Never Never Land" RAISING HELL #1 (US, 1987.10)

A poignant story that's basically about Avon and his brother, with an A-B sub-theme.

 
Rebecca Reeves, "To Surrender Dreams", INPUT #1 (CN, 1988.2)

A PGP in the form of a stage dialogue between Our Heroes, with good voices and atmosphere.

 
Leah Rosenthal and Anne Wortham, DOWN AND OUT (novella; revised reprint of stories from B7 COMPLEX #11 and 16; US, 1998.7)

One of the bleaker PGPs (lots of hurt and not a lot of comfort) and the portrayal of Blake is the bleakest part of all, a good corrective to all those Blake-Forgives-in-Six-Seconds-Flat stories - although Jenny thinks it goes too far in the other direction.

 
Emily Ross, "Once More into the Breach", POWERPLAY #1 (US, 1987)

Want to see Blake naked at a slave auction? This is your chance - and there's also some acid-etched A-B and a great punchline.

 
Natasha Solten, "To Rule in Hell", RAISING HELL #1 (US, 1987.10) Not much more than an extended argument between Blake and Avon, but with a good mixture of real venom and complicated emotions.  
Bobbie Stankiewicz, "Blake Redux", DR. BELLFRIAR'S MEMORIAL JOURNAL #3 (US, 1989)

A terrific premise - Avon on Gauda Prime faced with two Blakes, one evil, one (possibly) good - although a lot of the potential twists aren't fully explored.

 
Linda Terrell, "Cally Speaking ... To Avon, Who Probably Isn't Listening", SOUTHERN LIGHTS #3 (mm; US, 1987.5)

After 'Countdown' Blake's on the edge of collapse, Avon goes too far and Cally intervenes.

 
Linda Terrell, "The Shadow that Walks Between Us", AIRWAVES #4 (mm; UK, 1986.3), reprinted in THE RETURN OF THE SEVEN #2 (US, 1987.5)

Another hurt-comfort, with Blake as the comfortee. The characterisation's sometimes a bit off but it's nice to see the whole crew involved in the story.

 
Teri White, "After the Sword", WHOMSOEVER HOLDS THIS SWORD (US, 1992)

Avon searches for Blake through the third and fourth seasons and finds him in an Arthurian dream world, which hopefully will pre-empt the massacre at Gauda Prime.

Read the story.

Janet I. Walker, "... And Still Blake", FIFTH SEASON #2 (US, 1983.5)

More clone games, involving positively geological levels of mistrust, although the prose style is simpler than the story line. Sally also likes the fact that an actual scientific test, not 'instinct', proves which Blake is real.

 
Linda Willard, "Reasons", SOUTHERN SEVEN #4 (US, 1988.12)

It's PGP land again. Our Heroes are estranged and Avon's been thrown in a cell and ignored by Blake's followers but after Vila's interference they get to talk and work things out ... sort of, anyway. A good version of an oft-told tale.

 


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Last updated on 18th of May 2006.