Poison Ring
| Fanfiction | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Poison Ring |
| Author(s): | Susan Douglass |
| Date(s): | 1996 |
| Length: | 6 pages |
| Genre(s): | femslash, PGP |
| Fandom(s): | Blake's 7 |
| Relationship(s): | |
| External Links: | |
Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Poison Ring is a Blake's 7 Jenna/Servalan story (with past Jenna/Cally) by Susan Douglass. It was published in the multimedia slash fanzine No Holds Barred #12.
Reactions and Reviews
Jenna has been working as a smuggler after Star One, and has been recruited as Servalan's personal pilot - and bedmate. Since Jenna had apparently cut her ties with the rebels, Servalan doesn't see her as a security threat. But Servalan has made one vital miscalculation.
I just don't buy the basic setup - I don't see Servalan giving that much trust to anyone who'd been involved with Blake, even if some years ago. But I can see the actual scenario as a distinct possibility with someone who wasn't a potential threat. Lots of lovingly written consensual BDSM (this is not a criticism:-). It's f/f, so it doesn't press my buttons, but I think it would be a good story for those with appropriate tastes.[1]
<...> However the third story with Jenna using Servalan as a sex slave in revenge for Cally's death was unpleasant ('tho a good comeuppance for S).[2]
The J/S is "Poison Ring" (6 pp.) by Susan Douglas, a story I found enjoyable, but if you don't like bondage, you won't like it. It has some surprises in it.[3]
Susan Douglass's 'Poison Ring' transposes the m/m sadomasochism sub-genre into f/f terms, in a fifth season story where Jenna, now Servalan's pilot, introduces Servalan to the SM games she shared with Cally, as a precondition for killing Servalan. Douglass tries to draw a distinction between the ritual punishments of SM and Jenna's desire to punish Servalan for Cally's death but the narrative inevitably fuses Jenna's opposing motivations, leading to an ambiguous ending that links sex and death as Jenna looks at Servalan's corpse, decked with bondage gear, and 'knew that she sometimes craved these implements as well'.
<...> The other five stories could serve as illustrations of the moment in Bryn Lantry's 'Tangents' where 'Jenna could no longer tell emotional and carnal sensation apart'. The lush descriptions of 'Poison Ring' convey the feelings evoked by eroticized pain and bondage.[4]
References
- ^ Helen Patrick. Blake's 7 - NO HOLDS BARRED 12, Archived version.
- ^ from Late for Breakfast #30 (1996)
- ^ from Rallying Call #19
- ^ This story was discussed in (Re)Making Space for Women: A guide to f/f slash in Blake's 7 fanzines, an essay by Nova (2002)