Limbo (Blake's 7 story)

Fanfiction
Title:	Limbo
Author(s):	Sheila Paulson
Date(s):	1988
Length:
Genre:
Fandom:	Blake's 7
External Links:
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Limbo is a Blake's 7 story by Sheila Paulson.

It was published in Gambit #3.

It has a sequel that is a crossover with Real Ghostbusters called The Way To Go Home.

Reactions and Reviews

1989

“Limbo” is not your average post-Gauda Prime story. Nor is it in any way Mary-Sueish (thank god). In fact, the heroine is one of the more level-headed women I’ve read. It’s written by Shelia Paulson, whose body of work has been so consistently fine that I would buy a zine just on the strength of her name. There are only a few other writers I can say the same for.

“Limbo" — A tired old plot, but Sheila makes it all work out, adroitly avoiding the usual Mary Sue traps. Very cute, picturing Avon watching TREK on the VCR!

2002

I quite enjoyed Limbo, though it's not one of Sheila's best. There were, I thought, two main problems with it: a] I don't think it *entirely* escapes Mary-Suedom, since there is that (for *me* annoying) business the The Heroine having all the emotional answers (to Gauda Prime and Malodaar) and giving way too much advice to both Avon and later Vila. b] tied up with that is a tendency to 'show *and* tell' rather than 'show instead of tell' - Sheila is actually very good at showing the emotional interactions, but doesn't seem to trust herself as the writer to do so, she then has The Heroine spell them out again. Oh, and [c] with *my* Avon, crying wouldn't help one little bit, and he would never break down like that in front of anyone - he'd quite literally rather die. But that is my take on the character, and it's not *too* jarring. Re [b] I can understand the urge, however. With Blakes 7, the characters are both *extremely* buttoned up and extremely contradictory, and trying *to* simply show can get very very difficult (anyone else find themselves shouting at the monitor occasionally <g>?)

Sheila Paulson always amazes me, because almost all of her B7 stories feel like they *shouldn't* work for me: she tends a bit too much towards the happy, fluffy, everybody-gets-in-touch-with-their-feelings-and-learns-to- get-along side of things, which usually sends me into sugar-shock. (I *like* my B7 dark!) But, weirdly, she almost always manages to make it work... I think because she's got a very good feel for the characters; their voices always sound right, which is very important to me. And she knows just exactly how to walk the tightrope of keeping them in-character as their snarky, buttoned-up selves while turning them into people who are, well, capable of a happy ending. And while there are all *sorts* of reasons why "Limbo," in particular, shouldn't work, in the end it pretty much *does*. Which is really very cool.

This story has a number of things in it which would send many a fan running for the delete key even before they'd tried to read the story. It has an original female protagonist. It's set in the 20th Century. It's told in first-person. And almost the only other Blake's 7 character in the story is Avon. But before you start screaming "Mary-Sue! Mary-Sue! Kill! Kill! Kill!" let me tell you the things which rescue this story from Mary-Sue-dom. Firstly, I doubt very much that Sheila Paulson is a widow living in Iowa. And the protagonist certainly isn't Mz. Perfect. But more importantly, this story works because of the thematic resonance set up between the protagonist and Avon, both being people who've shut out the world because of the pain of loss. Well, *I* think it works. And it's fun to see the reaction of Avon to things in the 20th Century. Some people may still find it too much of a wishlist of all the things one could say to Avon to try to make it right. But, hey, this is Sheila Paulson! Happy endings are her middle name. So... what do *you* think?