Gemini Rising

Fanfiction
Title:	Gemini Rising
Author(s):	Suzan Lovett
Date(s):	1989
Length:	39,000 words, 49K
Genre:	gen
Fandom:	Blake's 7
External Links:	online here
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Gemini Rising is a gen Blake's 7 story by Suzan Lovett. It was published in Those Who Favor Fire.

Summary

"A young rebel is taken by a high official to confront a legendary figure."

See also

This fic was published in The Road to Hell and Other Stories with Lovett's other Blake's 7 fics (listed below). All five fics focus on Avon's relationship with Blake, but they take place at different points in canon and portray different versions of events to each other. They are not intended to be read as a series.

• The Road to Hell
• Lightbridge
• Doppelganger
• Circle of Fire
• Gemini Rising

Reactions and Reviews

B7 is a very political show. Sadly, few fics really reflect this; there are plenty that pay homage to the idea that there's politics going on, but almost always, it comes second to romance. Not that this is always entirely a bad thing, but if you're a politics geek like me then sometimes you want something a little less diluted.

Not here, though. This one is all about the politics, and has become one of my favorite PGPs because of it, although the quality of the writing and the confident way the author deals out the story certainly help. I especially like the way you're brought to realising what's actually going on... very cool, and tells you a whole lot without it being said explicitly. Mmm. I like to think all that makes it a lot more than the sum of its parts, and really, isn't that how you tell a good story from a bad one?

It's also, in my opinion, about as close to a happy ending as the show could ever get... though, uh, please bear in mind that this is B7, so that isn't saying very much. Heh.

A young rebel confronts the President and discovers that the presidential Counsellor is using him as an object lesson. Yes, Blake's now President, with Avon as his advisor - and don't think that, just because they've won, things are any easier or more peaceful. A brilliant portrayal of both men as older, if not necessarily wiser ...

omfg, this fic is astonishingly good <3 <3 <3 it actually makes me a little sad, because i read this (the first fic in the zine) and thought the love would last forever/the rest of the zine would be this good. i was wrong. in fact, all the other stories in the zine are not nearly as good as 'gemini rising', although to be fair to them - 'gemini rising' is one of the best things i've read in this fandom. but to be really fair - a lot of the other fics in this zine aren't very good.

back to 'gemini rising': nice tricksy beginning (which i'm pretty much ruining for you by saying that it's tricksy, but i don't think the 'is this blake or not?' aspect is all of what this fic has to offer, at all), and then an absolutely perfect and beautiful blake-avon relationship. the way they talk to each other is so good - blake swinging wildly between weariness, annoyance, passion for his cause, fondness and purpose, and avon being like '...i don't care' and then really obviously caring so much it hurts. god, it's so good.

it's also a very interesting look at blake as president and what would really happen if blake had survived and had won the war. all in all, i think it's an extraordinary piece and it really doesn't feel like the 49k it apparently is.

"Gemini Rising," an interesting story about an intense, idealistic, and very familiar-seeming young man who dares to take a stand against the injustices of his government. It's all about youthful ideals -- losing them, finding them, and realizing that they're not as clear-cut and simple as you'd hoped -- and about how much one person can change over the course of a lifetime. It does a good job with those themes, and with the portrayal of familiar characters at a previously unfamiliar time in their lives. It also features some truly wonderful, sharply written dialog.

Perhaps one of the fandom's greatest PGP Blake is president fics, which ruthlessly examines exactly how difficult and tiring it would be for Blake to restructure the Federation from within. Avon demonstrates exactly why he would be so useful as an advisor - specifically to Blake (as much as he might deny it, it is precisely because he cares). Wonderful nuanced depictions of both men, as usual from Lovett.

And speaking of B7 (which I like to do, for some reason) for anyone who wants to try somewhere near the very best gen that Blake's 7, The Road to Hell - my own very very favourite - is on the web ... The other four stories on the page - Doppelganger, Gemini Rising, Lightbridge (I love Lightbridge, the imagery is so perfect) and the wonderfully *black*angst Circle of Fire - are all among my favourites, but may be more difficult to get the benefit of if you've never seen the show. The Road to Hell takes one of the lesser Series 2 episodes and turns it into something rich, strange and obliquely intense.

So I finally read Gemini Rising, (I kept it in my reading list for a long long time as if I thought I would find the mood to finally taste it because… it’s very hard to write politics about a government that gone through a radical revolution, it’s really too many issues need to be discussed, especially the democracy, so I was afraid)

But really it’s not disappointing and our characters’ voices are just what I imagined when they’re older. It’s really convincing I just wish it’s canon :c (with fics like Thirteenth Hour as premise)