Redux
| Zine | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Redux |
| Publisher: | Almost Foolproof Press |
| Editor: | |
| Author(s): | Ruth Devero |
| Cover Artist(s): | |
| Illustrator(s): | |
| Date(s): | 1997 |
| Medium: | print, fanzine |
| Size: | |
| Genre: | slash |
| Fandom: | due South |
| Language: | English |
| External Links: | wayBack Archive link to publisher's site & Author's website with fic |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Redux is a 72-page slash Due South novel by Ruth Devero.
From the Publisher
Redux is the last - and longest - of Ruth Devero's "poker night" stories, which include "Little Mr. Marker" and "Thief of Hearts" (Due Frisky #1) and "The Fire This Time" (Due Frisky #4). However, while Redux is set in the same universe as the earlier stories, it can stand alone. Redux has love, it has lust, it has angst, it has handcuffs, it has Victoria, it has a kiss on top of a train full of Mounties, it has angst, it has betrayal, it has action, it has humor, it has angst, it has sex, it has thinking about sex, it has snow globes, it has advice from two dead fathers, it has angst, it has a mystery, it has Suzanne Chapin, it has Ray's mother finding out about him and the Mountie, and it has a really loooooong sex scene at the end. Oh yeah, and it has angst.
Reactions and Reviews
This is the fourth and last story in the "Poker Nights" series from the author started in DUE FRISKY #1. As some of you might remember, I reviewed that zine and didn't much care for the stories, "Little Mr. Marker" and "Thief of Hearts," mainly because I found the premise of them playing strip poker so unbelieveable. Actually it was more the idea that Benny would play strip poker with some female pilot he had just met--or anyone!--that distracted me more than anything. But when the third story, "The Fire This Time", was published in DUE FRISKY #4, I thoroughly enjoyed it. And the same goes for this short novel. She managed to capture the right ballance between angst and humor and capture the voices of the characters while also avoid some of the pitfalls that other DS stories have been wallowing in. She does some lovely dialogue for the guys which sounds very in character and gets plenty of sex scenes in there that are mostly just fun for the characters and for us.
As some of you might guess from the fact that this is the fourth story in series, this is not a first time story at all. And while it is part of a series and I enjoyed it as such, I really think it would stand up very well on it's own to someone who had never seen the the previous stories. The theme of the poker game is touched on once or twice and is related to the opening imagery, but there is enough explanation given not to leave anyone in the dark. The story opens with everything okay and Love Land. Ray and Fraser have been together romantically for about six months and they're still finding themselves zoning out (to borrow a phrase from another fandom) in the middle of the work day thinking about each other. But there is, of course, a dark cloud or two or a dozen on the horizon. For one thing Ma Vecchio finds out about the guys--mainly because she guesses Ray's in love and the schmuck tells her with who! And this is one of the first pitfalls it manages to miss in DS fanfic lore: Ma Vecchio, unlike in other stories, neither promptly goes out and buys them lube and condoms so they can have a romantic evening at home nor does she swing her arms open grandly to Fraser proclaiming "Son!" She instead has a royal hissy. A complete and serious one. Score one for the author.
Since this is set post-"Red, White or Blue"--which you may consider post-series, depending on how optimistic you feel about the upcoming season--it does not have to deal with a lot of the immediate IEC (Intense Emotional Crap) of the first two seasons, but it deals quite a bit in certain bits of lingering IEC. Especially from the IEC to end all IEC. But while the story does have it's angsty moments, mostly in the second half, I did not feel that this was a huge angst zine. Overall, there was a definite bouncy feeling to it, though the sap is not over-done. However, it does mesh well once we do get down to the nitty gritty of what this story eventually has to deal with: Victoria. But that comes later in the story.
Overall, I can't think of anything I didn't like. The one or two sub-plots that go through the novel are enjoyable as well. I particularly like the idea of who Frannie's new love interest was partly because I had never seen it before and partly because it seemed wickedly appropriate somehow. And I liked Ray's reaction to said love interest even more.
As for the technical aspects, the zine is very clean looking with double-columned format and type that looks to be about 11p. Very readable while still managing to get a lot of words on the page.
All in all, I would definitely recommend this zine to anyone who is a DS fan. Well-written and relatively cliche (and peeve for me) free, it's got some wonderful dialogue as well as some very well-done inner-voice musings from Ray and Benny. For $7 definitely worth the money and I look forward to seeing anything else done by this author. [1]
References
- ^ July 26, 1997, Michelle Christian, Virgule-L, quoted with permission
- ^ from Strange Bedfellows (APA) #19 (November 1997)