The Adagio Series
You may be looking for the Pros story by Kathy Keegan called Adagio in Blue.
| Fanfiction | |
|---|---|
| Title: | The Adagio Series |
| Author(s): | Sebastian |
| Date(s): | 1983, 2002, 2003 |
| Length: | |
| Genre(s): | slash |
| Fandom(s): | The Professionals |
| Relationship(s): | Bodie/Doyle |
| External Links: | |
Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
The Adagio Series is a Professionals slash set of four stories by Sebastian. The series sometimes appears on fans' Desert Island lists.[1] It is also a story on The 1985 Hatstand Express Top Ten Lists.
From the Published Story
This story is published on the understanding that it is for private circulation only and should not be reproduced, distributed, or circulated with the express permission of the author. If no longer required it should be returned to source. No attempt is made to supersede copyrights on "The Professionals" held by any individuals or organizations whatsoever. This publication is produced by the fans for fans and no profit is made. Blue Jay Press 1983
The Series
- Adagio (paper circuit—1983, then Sebastian Collected #3 -- 2002, then archived online in 2003)
- Catharsis (paper circuit—1983, then Sebastian Collected #3 -- 2002, then archived online in 2003)
- The Homecoming (paper circuit—1983, then Sebastian Collected #3 -- 2002, then archived online in 2003)
- Plain Sailing (paper circuit—1983, then archived online in 2003)
Photomanips
In 2008, fan artist shooting2kill offered photo-manips along with text from the story, "The Homecoming". It can be seen here.[2] A set was done for "Adagio" here[3] and here.[4]
Fan Remixes
Billie Phillips wrote an alternate ending to series called "Starting Over". Anne Higgins also rewrote a part of this series on the CI5 Mailing List.
Reactions and Reviews
1985
This is the first of a trilogy and my favorite of the three. Oddly enough, if you get three fans in the same room (and can put away the pictures of Doyle's ass and Bodie's eyebrow long enough for coherent conversation) then eventually you will get around to talking about the Adagio Trilogy...and you will get three different opinions of which story is best. This, by the way, is not the Adagio that appeared in a zine recently. Again, there is good characterization, plot, character growth (good sex, too...), and just plain GOOD writing. It's not a story you are Itching to apply a blue pencil to...[5]
While I have problems with certain elements of this story, I still go back to it often, and I always enjoy it. I'm a sucker for first-time stories.[6]
"Adagio" [is one of my top ten Pros stories] because I finally get to see a real tough Doyle who's even tougher than his partner, rather than vice-versa (and oooh, it's very hot!); not talking about emotions here—but the possessive physical bit.[7]
1990
It was interesting, but the bobbling viewpoints (constantly switching from Bodie to Doyle) distracted me. [8]
1993
[on the series]:"I just finished reading the above three stories; strongly recommended to me by various of you. I just got them Saturday night, and I meant to ration my reading, but I started when I got home (at 2am) and read until I couldn't any more. My notes say this is by Sebastian, whose B7 work I have seen, but she REALLY knows her B&D. Or B/D. Or, to conform to [L]'s theory, her ideas are sufficiently congruent with mine to make the reading very satisfying. These guys are men, in all their testosterone-influenced emotions, and she does a good job on contradictory Doyle. I notice that the third [paper] circuit story seems to come to one kind of end at the bottom of the page, then there are two further pages with another kind of ending. Was the ending rewritten by popular demand?"[9]
1998
I love the Adagio/Catharsis/Homecoming series (good thing, because I scanned and typed the last two for the e-circuit library). I don't think they're perfect, but they're much closer to perfect than any number of i-dotted, t-crossed, lackluster stories I've read.[10]
2010
[on Adagio]:"How can one rec the Professionals without reccing Sebastian? Back in the day, Sebastian was the BNF. Everyone who'd ever read Pros fic knew Sebastian. This series is long and plotty and probably the piece that stands up best; the dialogue is still sharp as a tack, and the tension between Bodie and Doyle matches the show beautifully.[11]
A novella-length relationship story par excellence, with Sebastian's writing skill and verve on prominent display. The story starts with an incident that reveals Bodie's and Doyle's relationship has crossed a crucial line, a moment they never allude to openly, but which resonates through, and affects, all that follows. While never shifting its primary focus from the probe into their personal relationship, the story weaves in Bodie's and Doyle's work on the job, showing how inextricably combined the personal and the professional is for them, including a memorable and key action sequence in a cabin.But much of the story's appeal for me is its intense interiority:
The hand on Bodie's turned from resistance into a caress, running up Bodie's arm; steadily he drew Bodie down. He was warm and pleasant to the touch. Bodie had the sudden, last minute thought that maybe this was kind of a mad thing to do. But it was already too late; Doyle had called his bluff and changed the run of things at a stroke. Already, in the seconds that had passed, he was no longer just another bloke, not just a mate who meant more to him then some because he was Bodie's working partner, the one he had learnt to entrust his life to; with one move he had become--a lover. Someone Bodie had to discover anew, in a totally different light from the one he was familiar with; he had to find how he felt and how he tasted and how he liked to be touched, what gave him pleasure....
It was a minefield, full of traps.
The story also gives us some wonderfully astute observations on Bodie and Doyle by Cowley:
No sense hoping this tough independent man would confide in him, pour out his troubles to Cowley's practical ear. Doyle was far too remote, too self-contained for that; he was way out in a place Cowley couldn't reach. Bodie too. It couldn't be good for the pair of them. You could only take the old tenet of 'if you never care, you never get hurt' so far before the last vestige of feeling, the ability to let oneself feel, died; crushed beneath the years of automatic repression.
A riveting story, and a brilliant start to the Adagio sequence, with two completed sequels and a fourth, unfinished story in the set.[12]
Meta/Further Reading
References
- ^ Close Quarters Desert Island Episode/Zine/Fic dated July 18, 2009
- ^ Archive link.
- ^ Archive link.
- ^ Archive link.
- ^ from The Hatstand Express #6
- ^ In The Hatstand Express #6 from a fan listing what was supposed to be her top 10 Pros stories; the list turned out to be 50 stories long
- ^ from The Hatstand Express #7
- ^ Susan Douglass in Short Circuit #3 (October 1990)
- ^ posted to the Virgule-L mailing list in 1993, quoted anonymously with permission.
- ^ Jan Levine, quoted with permission from CI5 Mailing List
- ^ Bodie/Doyle thematic rec post, Archived version by cupidsbow, dated August 1, 2010.
- ^ 2010 comments by istia, prosrecs, Archived version