No Surrender
| Zine | |
|---|---|
| Title: | No Surrender |
| Publisher: | Skeeter Press via BlackJag Publishing |
| Editor: | |
| Author(s): | Firefly |
| Cover Artist(s): | |
| Illustrator(s): | Frost Doll |
| Date(s): | March 2003 |
| Series?: | yes |
| Medium: | print, republished on CD |
| Size: | |
| Genre: | |
| Fandom: | The Sentinel |
| Language: | English |
| External Links: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
No Surrender is a 125-page slash Sentinel novel by Firefly.
It is NC-17, and an age statement was required.
It is a prequel to Panther Tales written with Saraid's permission.
Technology
This zine was also available as a CD, which makes it an early example of this form of technology regarding fanfiction: "Buried Secrets on CD. Self-contained HTML-based .exe and Palm OS .pdb file. Rocket eBook .rb upon request. Want multiple zines on one CD? Find out how." [1]
Author's Notes: Print Edition
Well, where do I start? I guess first and foremost, saraid. Without her and her Panther Tales series there wouldn't have been an inspiration for "No Surrender." And I thank her for her graciousness in letting me play in her sandbox. She let me grill her with questions about who, what, why, and how, so I could stick close to the universe she had in mind. Apparently, I did a good enough job that I inspired her to write a seventh tale. I have not read her seventh tale, so events in No Surrender might diverge slightly. No Surrender was too far into completion for me to make the changes necessary to link seamlessly into saraid's story. Hopefully the differences won't be too jarring.
This novel was nearly four years in the writing. When I started it, I never dreamed it would take me that long. I expected it to take half that time. And when a project takes twice as long as you anticipated, your spirits tend to flag. When that happened to me, I had the fortune of many cheerleaders and task masters along the way. You know who you are, but I especially want to thank TAE for pointing out some things I needed to do with my shaman, Dolimir for her cheering, Susan for her tireless beta work, no holds barred opinions on what did and didn't work, and her encouragement, and D.L. for her additional opinions (it's truly scary when she and Susan agree on something), constant nagging, and brainstorming. There are two other very special people I need to thank. DCPriestess, who gave me what I needed to get through the major roadblock I'd been stuck behind for nearly a year, and for her continued inspiration through to the end of this. Without her, I am certain No Surrender would still be stalled three-quarters finished. And Barbara, my longtime and dear friend who has seen me through many ups and downs, and tolerates my obsessions as they come and go. Now, if I could only get her to like TS as much as I do. <grin> Finally, last but not least, to my husband and daughter, who put up with my writing obsession, and holler when I'm neglecting them too much.
My goal was to fill in the gaps saraid tantalized me with in her series, and I wanted to see where Panther and Chief got their beginnings. I hope you enjoy this as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Author's Notes: Online Excerpt
Note: This is only a taste of the novella it took me nearly four years to write. Barbara, Dayspring, DCPriestess, Susan -- thank you. You kept me going and in places hoisted me over the rocks when I needed. It is to you that I dedicate my New Year's offering this year.To the rest of you out there, I finished this story in November after nearly four exhausting years. It is set to be published by Skeeter Press Slash in February/March 2003 in time for Senticon. While the story is ultimately slash, the part I am sharing with you all is not. For the strictly genners, I think, I hope I've left it at a good stopping point for you. The rest of you, I hope I'll wet your appetite enough to want to order the zine when it's available. ;-)
Author's Introduction: Online
From the excerpt online:
Note: This is only a taste of the novella it took me nearly four years to write. Barbara, Dayspring, DCPriestess, Susan -- thank you. You kept me going and in places hoisted me over the rocks when I needed. It is to you that I dedicate my New Year's offering this year.
To the rest of you out there, I finished this story in November after nearly four exhausting years. It is set to be published by Skeeter Press Slash in February/March 2003 in time for Senticon. While the story is ultimately slash, the part I am sharing with you all is not. For the strictly genners, I think, I hope I've left it at a good stopping point for you. The rest of you, I hope I'll wet your appetite enough to want to order the zine when it's available. ;-) [2]
Sample Interior
Reactions and Reviews
The zine is called No Surrender by Firefly, and as I said in the subject line, it's an authorized (by saraid) prequel to The Panther Tales.
I'd never heard of Firefly, in fact I don't know if she even has any fic on the net (tho I'd like to read some if you can point me in the right direction), but I took the chance and ordered it when I ordered Panther Tales. I am really glad I did, because it was great.
[snipped]
I bought Panther Tales because of the descriptions of the story I had read. I wanted to read about how the guys became mercenaries. IMO panther Tales is the best story I've read by saraid, so I'm not sorry I got it, either.
Anyway, back to No Surrender, it's a fast-paced, well-written story. And for those who, for whatever reason, do not have Panther Tales in zine form and will not buy it, you don't have to have the zine to enjoy this. Firefly says in her story notes that she had No Surrender almost done when saraid wrote the zine-exclusive 7th Tale and didn't want to re-write, so if you've read what's been net published, this story will fit seamlessly. There was one plot point in Surrender that contradicted the 7th story, but maybe I'm just schizophrenic <g>, because I didn't find it jarring. Personally I liked the way Firefly handled this point better.
I don't want to spoil the story too badly, so I'll just say that she introduces an OMC, a Native American shaman, who I thought was great. In terms of timeline for the Panther AU, Surrender starts when J&B have escaped the lab and show up on Simon's doorstep, but there is more elaboration on what happened to the guys in the lab than Panther included.
As for the zine itself, I thought it was really well done in terms of presentation and appearance, but I only have a few zines, so my sample size is limited. There is a color cover with clear plastic overlay. The cover art is not particularly interesting, but it's at least attractive, and for those who care about such things, it's not explicitly sexual or anything. The interior art is b&w pencil sketches which I really like. The zine is full-size, 125 pages. It costs $ 15 plus shipping, which in the US is $ 4, so I paid $ 19 for the whole thing. I'm particularly impressed by this because I just bought a zine from AWS that was $ 16 total for 90-odd pages in digest form. I know AWS marks digest zines as such, and I'm sure this one was, too, but I obviously wasn't paying attention. I wouldn't have paid that price if I'd noticed. I'm also disgusted with myself cuz I ordered the zine about 6 hours before the author posted a notice to another list that it had timed out and it was up on her site, but that's another topic, I suppose. <g> Suffice it to say, I thought Surrender was worth the money I paid. [3]
References
- ^ BlackJag Zines, Archived version
- ^ No Surrender, by Firefly, Archived version
- ^ comment on Prospect-L, quoted anonymously (April 4, 2003)