Destined: Tales of a Sentinel and His Guide

Zine
Title:	Destined: Tales of a Sentinel and His Guide
Publisher:	DE Press
Editor(s):
Date(s):	both were published in 2005
Series?:
Medium:	print
Size:
Genre:
Fandom:	The Sentinel
Language:	English
External Links:	DE Press
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

Destined: Tales of a Sentinel and His Guide is a slash anthology with fiction by Nancy T.

Many of these stories are online here, and had been previously posted to the internet before appearing in the print zine.

Note that the story versions linked below may vary slightly from the ones in the print zines.

Issue 1

cover of issue #1

Destined: Tales of a Sentinel and His Guide 1 was published in 2005 and contains 224 pages.

The color cover is by Nancy T. The interior illos are by Virginia Sky.

Summaries from the publisher:

• The Well ("Blair takes a misstep and ends up in deep trouble. Note: This story has been rewritten as slash for this zine.) (This was the author's very first Sentinel fanfiction.)
• Coming Home ("When an accident puts Blair in a coma, Jim takes on the challenge of home care for his Guide.")
• Minding His Ps and Qs ("Jim discovers that Blair has been keeping a secret.")
• High Voltage ("Blair finds comfort with Jim during a thunderstorm.")
• All I Have to Give You ("Blair frets because he can't afford a Christmas gift for Jim." Note: online version includes a graphic nude fanart.)
• Christmas Blues ("Blair graduates the academy just before Christmas, and does a little private celebrating with Jim.")
• Don't Stand Under the Mistletoe with Anyone Else but Me ("Jim is missing Blair's presence at the annual PD Christmas party.")
• Christmas Valley ("Jim and Blair get stranded in the boondocks of Oregon on Christmas eve.")
• No Limits ("original version" ("This is the original "campy" version I had written before deciding, on the suggestion of new beta readers, to take the story in another direction.") posted version ("Jim and Blair plan a simple commitment ceremony. But is anything simple when Naomi Sandburg gets involved?")

Reactions and Reviews: Issue 1

[Minding His Ps and Qs]:

I read Nancy Taylor's "Minding His Ps and Qs" the other day and I have been trying to pin down why I have had this quiet feeling of uneasiness ever since.

First of all, about the story: It's explanation or teaching fic. (Is there an accepted fandom phrase for such things?) It posits that Blair has dyslexia. The story is basically an explanation of dyslexia, its symptoms, and how they can fit the Blair we see in canon. And she does fit them. I didn't really see a story in this, however, just some insight into Blair's character and how it might have affected him growing up to result in the man we see today. So it's not really the *way* story itself is written that has me uneasy, uninterested maybe, but not uneasy.

No what bothers me is the subject. Perhaps it can be best illustrated by her dedication:

Dedication: To Garett Maggart, who had the guts and talent to succeed despite his gift of dyslexia. I have a profound respect for him, and all the others who have managed to overcome the difficulties of this learning disorder to go on and succeed.

Now, I touched on this before in discussion of SVS art, but this story sort reinforced my gut reactions and made me realize a bigger truth. I don't like *any* fanfic or art that reminds me that there are real people involved in this. In other words, I can't get over my uneasy feeling of infringement of personal rights of the actors. Now maybe this is incongruous. After all I'm reading stories about characters that are taken from a television show. All of the fanfiction stories are basically copyright infringements. But... Somehow they seem "public domain" to me. TV shows are committee affairs, I don't get a feeling of individual effort with them. On the other hand, I can't/won't read fanfic for one of my favourite authors, Lynn Flewelling, because I feel it's a violation of her creative integrity and her personal rights. <shrug> (I didn't say I was always consistent). I even get this to a lesser degree in fiction where Jim and Blair are into playing music. I know Blair plays the guitar in canon, but we see nothing of Jim and drums. Any story showing this just throws me out to RB and GM. Remind me that there are "real people" out there at the base of this and I get a little queasy. So... Perhaps it's me and I'm being overly conscientious. Or is this story "not on?'

[Minding His Ps and Qs]:

It bothered me because it always bothers me when I see what seems to be blurring the lines between actor and character. I know that's not really what she was doing here, but -- it's like finding out that the actor likes a particular sport, and giving the character that same liking as a result. That sort of thing bothers me, because the actors have nothing to do with the characters, to my mind (other than surface resemblance). The actors don't exist in the fictional world, and don't interest me at all, and I find it jarring to have them suddenly show up in relation to fanfic.

If she hadn't put in the explanation in the author's notes, it wouldn't have bothered me -- I had no idea GM was dyslexic, and wouldn't have made the connection.

That aside, I would have liked the story more if it had been longer, I think, with less explanation of dyslexia and more showing of how it affects Blair (and here we are back at "show, don't tell" <g>). Her story was basically "this is what dyslexia is, and here's Blair to explain it all", rather than "this is who Blair is, and part of what makes him that way." Fic that exists solely for exposition about a particular thing -- an illness, a social problem, a lifestyle, whatever -- tends to bore me.

Issue 2

cover of issue #2

Destined: Tales of a Sentinel and His Guide 2 was published in 2005 and contains 212 pages.

The color cover is by Nancy T. The interior illos are by Virginia Sky.

Summaries from the publisher:

• Buried Alive ("When the mayor's daughter is buried alive, it's falls to the Shaman of the Great City to find her before it's too late." Part 9 of the Make It Go Away Series.)
• Delirious ("A fever delirium brings forth an unexpected confession from Blair.")
• Unforgettable (Songfic, "Jim forgets the unforgettable after receiving a blow to the head, and in the aftermath, forges a new relationship with Blair.")
• It Happened One Christmas ("A drunken Jim and an unexpected outing at Simon's Christmas party.")
• The Portrait ("Blair wants to give Jim a special gift for Christmas, but his lover's suspicions almost spoil the surprise." First appeared in My Mongoose: May Seasons of Love #3.)
• Cabin Fever ("Things heat up between Jim and Blair during a weekend retreat in the woods.")
• Rite of Passage ("Will Blair's discovery of Jim's unusual tattoo put a damper on their budding relationship?" Note: online version includes a color nude fanart...)
• Prophecy ("When Blair has visions of an impending catastrophe, will he and Jim be able to make anyone listen before it's too late?" Part 9 of the Make It Go Away Series.)