Distant Journey, Unknown Lands

Sentinel Fanfiction
Title:	Distant Journey, Unknown Lands
Author(s):	Martha & Lemon Drop
Date(s):	November 2001
Length:	101,986 words
Genre:	slash
Fandom:	The Sentinel
External Links:	online here
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Distant Journey, Unknown Lands is a Jim/Blair story by Martha & Lemon Drop.

Reactions and Reviews

Unknown Date

Blair and Jim deal with the fallout of Jim's exposure as a Sentinel. Dealing with nasty reporters, and losing friends, Jim and Blair try to piece themselves back together. A memorable quote: "Jesus," Jim muttered, but happily, or as happily he could under the circumstances. They were really going to do this. They were really going to leave. He caught sight of Blair's round backside as he bent over digging through a pile of laundry. "Jesus," he said again, and picked up the phone.

ximeria 

Lemon Drop is the writer responsible for introducing me to The Sentinel. I followed her over from Stargate, where she writes as Quercus, never having seen an episode of TS (a situation that continued for a couple of years before SciFi finally rebroadcast the series). While each of these writers is brilliant on their own, this, their only collaboration, is really something special. It's deliciously long (nearly 600K) and set after The Sentinel by Blair Sandburg. Blair's life is in shambles. His career has been destroyed, his friends have deserted him, and Jim and he are so desperate to protect each other, they can barely communicate. The opportunity arises for Blair to spend the summer in Indiana, doing a bit of work tied to Burton at Notre Dame. A recuperating Jim tags along. They wind up house-sitting for a professor at a rambling old farmhouse located outside of town. What they don't initially realize is the place isn't exactly what it appears to be. This story offers readers gorgeous, atmospheric prose, angst, first time romance, rich emotion, and a touch of the supernatural. It's a fantastic journey you definitely don't want to miss.

HUGE. About 560K. Post series, Jim and Blair go down to Indiana and rent an old house for the summer so Blair can get some research done.. but around those bare bones is an epic, a gorgeously written tale that fairly sweeps you off your feet as it pulls you into a Jim and Blair finding their way to each other. And the supernatural is weaved in, too. Which I normally mind in my fic, but which has me spellbound here.

I'd begun to think that I wasn't going to find any Sentinel fics that I really liked anymore. I was starting to lose hope a little. I just haven't seen anything come up the pike lately that interested me or really caught my attention. I stopped by the archive the other day just to check if there was anything new. I didn't expect to find any thing I liked, much less a story that I would fall in love with immediately. The writing in this is so damn good, it is just rich and lush. That's how I would describe it best. The visuals are just so wonderful. You get lost in them. I could just see it all unfolding in my mind as I read it. I can't say that the characterizations of Jim and Blair are completely true, somewhere in my head a little voice brought that to my attention every now and then. Honestly, I didn't really mind though. They are close enough that I wouldn't say they had lost the characterizations. Blair is wonderfully masculine in this and so is Jim. The writing is so superb and coupled with the lack of wimpy or weepy men I found it damn satisfying. I just got sucked into this one and had to immediately pass it on to a friend. Couldn't even wait for the next rec update. I had to share this with someone else. This story takes it's sweet time which I love. Nothing like sitting down to a good long read. It's got a great plot that helps the guys face up to some of their fears and gain some closure to old hurts. I really enjoyed this one. Maybe you will too.

2001

I only have one Sentinel rec, but the story is clear-your-schedule, unplug-the-phone length. Distant journey, unknown lands is a collaboration that combines Martha's deft touch with horror with Lemon Drop's smooth dreaminess and great vegetarian food. Some bits made me look nervously over my shoulder, some bits made me hungry. Bring a packed lunch, and possibly a nightlight.

I'm dreaming...tell me I'm not dreaming. Two of my top 5 TS writers have collaborated in what looks to be a glorious, deliciously long story - "Distant Journey, Unknown Lands."

I'd love to stay on list longer and wax poetic about these two writers who've given me hours and hours and hours of pure reading enjoyment but I have to go to Staples and buy yet another ink cartridge for my DeskJet..and *borrow* more paper from the office;) The story is 191 pages (when printing directly from the net).

God, I think I'm salivating ;)

I'm not even a third of a way through it yet, but I have to say that what I've read so far has been just beautiful.

Well, I can report that this is not something you want to read in the middle of the night where you can't see what might be sneaking up behind you. Brrr! But definitely read it. Seriously creepy and seriously good. Very affecting at several levels.

I particularly liked seeing Blair immersed in an academic environment and pulling Jim in with him. Also, the theme of "once an anthropologist, always an anthropologist" resonates with the "Blair's Future" question under discussion in another thread. There's a lot of solid library research to balance the spooky bits and I always enjoy seeing more about Richard Burton and his kinks. The recipes look good, too. I was hoping for more explanation at the end, but ghost stories are like magic tricks -- they're probably better if you don't analyze the mystery out of them.

P.S. I'm hoping for a sequel in which the new punk-look Wendy Hawthorne somehow gets her comeuppance.

I spend almost 2 days reading (with many interruptions) and it was WELL worth it. I'd buy the Zine if it was published. A GREAT read. I can't rec it enough. Perfect characterization, hot sex (even though I barely noticed how long it took to get to that point, it was so engrossing) and a happy ending without being too sappy. I'd love a sequel too!

God, I loved this story so much. Even the scenes of the two of them cataloguing in the ND Library was a joy to read, the water/mirror imagery, the insufferable heat, the dreams/not dreams. I can't do justice to a recommendation - because I just don't have words. Suffice to say my stomach was in knots reading it. I'm hoping that Kass is out there somewhere and has read it (and am probably being very presumptuous in thinking that she enjoyed it as well - but I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hoping for a review by her in the near future).

2003

This story is long, gorgeous, filled with atmosphere. It's quite heady, really, and reads like a favorite movie. We go along with Jim and Blair for this almost surreal ride. There's no weepy Blair. Some old fears and issues get resolved - but in a floaty, misty kinda way. I'm not making much sense, I know. I don't have words for this story; suffice to say it's glorious.

2005

Another Post TSbBS story. A story by two very talented and wonderful writers. On their own they are wonderful. Together. Almost perfect. : )

This story has the spooky atmosphere, the supernatural web that Martha weaves so well. It also has the academic side, research and books and the mystique of The Sentinel lore. It's also a long wonderful read for a sunny or rainy Sunday. It's a slow pace but well worth the journey. It deals with the aftermath of TSbBS. The hurts, the mistrust, the consequences for both Blair's and Jim's lives.

But it also brings a plausible happily ever after ending to a series end that left the future wide open.

I've read this story many times. Probably will read it again many times

2008

I utterly adore Distant Journey, Unknown Lands too. One of my top ten fics of all time, in fact.

I'd probably bite hardest if someone tried to take away Distant Journey, Unknown Lands by Martha and Lemon Drop.