Interesting Times

Zine
Title:	Interesting Times
Publisher:	Angel Wings Press
Editor:
Author(s):	Hazel
Cover Artist(s):	Geli
Illustrator(s):
Date(s):	May 2001
Medium:	print
Size:
Genre:
Fandom:	The Sentinel
Language:	English
External Links:
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cover by Geli

cover of the "no-frills edition"

Interesting Times is a 135-page slash Sentinel novel by Hazel. It is a Simon/Rafe first time and with a smaller amount of J/B first time romance.

From the distributor, "When Simon Banks and Brian Rafe fall in love with each other after the shootout at Major Crimes, it's not only a mad bomber they have to deal with. There's also the aftermath of said shootout that endangers Rafe's life and Banks’ moral dilemma that almost destroys their love. Meanwhile, Sentinel and Guide are struggling with their own relationship, heightening the danger to the Sentinel."

Reactions and Reviews

The cover of Rafe is very nicely done as would be expected from Geli and the tan backing matches well with the tan tones of Geli’s art. However the story itself left me depressed and slightly confused. I had not read the zine summary right before starting this zine so, I went into it with an open mind. The opening of this story was something I found hard to follow and over all and it took me awhile to figure out just which episode this zine was related to (which was the shoot-out at Major Crimes). The J/B story line (which I expected more of) is started through Rafe’s eyes and jumbled along the way. Blair leaves and Jim lets him go (of course). Meanwhile Simon and Rafe are sort of bouncing around each other while Rafe is assigned to Jim since Blair is gone. As the story unfolds we find that Rafe is going to school and suddenly this isn’t a story about Rafe moving on with his life and working to have Simon understand they can still be together even if he is a cop under him. It’s a story of how a writer can replace one character with another. Rafe becomes Blair as he does his schoolwork on stakeouts and comes into Major Crimes sleepy and stressed due to exams. On a side note there is a bomber running around which is how the writer is pushing Rafe to get Blair back into the picture and Simon to realize just how much Rafe means to him. When Blair does come back it’s the old “I’m not gay!” Line from Jim that makes you wonder just if the writer knew the characters they were writing about before Blair comes up with the brilliantly old “why is a label so important to you?” All of that leading up to a short 5-page love seen with Jim and Blair that really left this reader disappointed as first times go. Meanwhile across town Rafe and Simon are having a long talk where Simon finds out that Rafe is going to resign and suddenly everything is all right with the world and they can have sex as well as admit they are in love! And to top it all off they get 9 pages to prove their bodily passion to one another, (which was better then what J/B got). For some reason I was lead to believe that this was a good J/B story as well as a R/S story. Honestly my disappointment stems from the fact that I found this a R/S story that had J/B thrown in to get those of us who prefer J/B to buy it. Overall, I would not recommend this zine and haven’t. Those who have asked have been given more details. Some of which include how it was hard for me to keep reading the story and how I felt that someone at AWP should have asked the author to explain the set up more. Just a tip to the writer, do not to rely on the page/presses’ description of your story to let the reader know exactly where this story picks up from and what it’s about. Things of Note: A table of contents is present, but no chapter summaries or chapter names have been given. Also at the back of the digest sized zine there are 2 fully blank pages that serve no purpose but to increase the page count. Oh and something else of interest, the information on the AWP site states this is a 150 page digest zine. My copy is only 125 pages, 132 if you count all the blank pages in the back.

It’s the story of Jim, Blair, Simon and Rafe and how these four men were able to overcome doubt, uncertainty and angst to pair off into two very seeable couples.

The story takes place after TSbyBS and the dissertation fiasco. Blair and Jim have been growing further part, each thinking the other is pulling away. Finally, Blair realizes that he can’t deal with being in love with Jim and not having Jim and decides to drop out of the academy and move to LA. Jim is devastated by the loss of his friend and Guide. He can’t stop thinking about Blair and what he has lost. He can’t sleep, has problems with his senses and is generally miserable. In LA, Blair has no friends, is not interested in his teaching position at UCLA and can’t stop thinking about Jim.

At the same time, Rafe has realized that he is in love with Simon Banks. He decides to invite Simon to a Jags game and finds that Simon feels the same about him. After a passionate kiss, Simon tells Rafe that they cannot act on their feelings because not only do they work together, Simon is a police captain and the father of a teenage son. Reluctantly they agree to hide their feelings.

Hazel does a wonderful job of writing these four men as they struggle with their feelings. She intermixes the stories of Jim and Blair, Simon and Rafe as they discover new and old relationships, both personal and on the job. The story is sure to please the Rafe fans, as well as the fans of Jim, Blair and Simon. Admittedly, I am not one of Rafe’s biggest admirers, being more of a Jim/Blair fan myself. But I picked up a copy of Interesting Times at Electicon and very much enjoyed it.