Gambit (Australian Blake's 7 anthology)

See also Gambit (disambiguation).

Zine
Title:	Gambit
Publisher:	New Horizons (club; Queensland, Australia)
Editor(s):	Theresa De Gabrielle and Robin Walker
Date(s):	1981-1982
Series?:
Medium:	print, zine
Size:
Genre:
Fandom:	Blake’s 7
Language:	English
External Links:
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Gambit is a gen Blake's 7 club zine of fiction published in Australia. It has three issues.

Reactions and Reviews

This was one of the finds of MediaWest -- with special thanks to Carol McCoy, who spotted it in Sheila Paulson's zine sale and reserved it for me. I had never seen the zine before and knew of its existence only because these two issues are listed in Bill Hupe's Blakesindex. Has anyone ever seen #1? And were there any more issues?

I didn't much care for the long story that makes up #3, in which the Liberator crew encounter a dear little blonde girl who says remarkably precocious things. But there is some good stuff in #2. My favorites were two Tarrant stories: "Fade to Black" by Marilynne Cromarty, in which Tarrant comforts Avon after Rumours in a very believable, no-nonsense Alpha way; and "Sojourn" by Daniel Murphy, in which Tarrant has a brief encounter with Jenna. The Avon/Anna poems by Marilynne Cromarty were nice too.

At last I have seen #1 of the Australian zine "Gambit", which preceded the well-known American zine of the same name.

This is a pretty good zine, worth keeping an eye out for. Interestingly, it has a number of positive Tarrant stories, perhaps due to the influence of Tarrant fan Monica Mitchell. (BTW, I'm still in search of her novel "Thomas Wolfe Was Right", aparently a pre-series story involving an ocf, Travis, and Jarvik. I'd particularly like to know whether it's gen or adult.)

I was very taken with the illo on p. 2 showing Tarrant being tortured, but the story it accompanied wasn't particularly wallowy; it was more a semi-comic treatment of the disappointment of the torturer when his victims all escaped.

Issue 1

Gambit 1 was published in September 1981 and contains 70 pages.

Fiction:

• Erin Warelle, "Time's Winged Chariot"
• Robin Walker, "Third Time Lucky"
• Monica Mitchell, "Happy Birthday"
• Monica Mitchell, "About a Natural Man"
• Theresa De Gabrielle, "After the End"
• Monica Mitchell, "An Image Passing By"
• Pat De Voss, "The Reason"
• Anonymous, "Dementia, by two of its victims"
• Daniel Murphy, "Pitfall"
• Beth Lange, "A Different Kind of Freedom"

Poetry:

• Jenny Stewart, "Ode to a Fanaticist"
• Carolyn Hughes, "Mutant"
• Lynda Hortley, "Avon's Thoughts"
• A. E. Walker, "Musings of a Super-Computer"
• Robin Walker, "Gentle Persuasion"
• Monica Mitchell, "And There'll Be Silence Ever After"

Nonfiction:

• Theresa and Robin, Editorial

Art:

• Greg Franklin (front cover)
• Mike Champ
• Harvey A. Kong Tin Esther Mace
• Robin Walker

Issue 2

Gambit 2 was published in March 1982 and contains 67 pages.

cover of issue #2, Mike Champ

Fiction:

• Jenny Stewart, "Not For Thy Faults, But Mine..."
• Cathy Lynn Goodwin, "All Things Equal..."
• Justine Webb-Eliott, "Flake's Seven Strikes Back (or Nearly)"
• Moira Dahlberg, "The Long Past" (later reprinted in The Star Change)
• Robin Walker, "The Truth of the Matter"
• Marilynne Cromarty, "Fade to Black"
• Cathy Lynn Goodwin, "Unguarded Moment"
• Daniel Murphy, "Sojourn"

Poetry:

• Monica Mitchell, "Born Without Love"
• Linda Mitchell, "Freedoms"
• Jenny Stewart, "A Fool's Tirade"
• Yvonne S. Hintz, "Orac"
• Marilynne Cromarty, untitled
• Marilynne Cromarty, untitled
• Daniel Murphy, "Out-take" (filk, Windmills of Your Mind)

Art:

• Mike Champ (front cover)
• Harvey A. Kong Tin
• Yvonne Hintz
• Greg Franklin

Issue 3

Gambit 3 was published in September 1982 and contains 66 pages. All art, including cover, is by Mike Champ. It contains a single novel by Yvonne S. Hintz called "Jared's Daughter."

cover of issue #3

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  from issue #3