Revenge for What?

Fanfiction
Title:	Revenge for What?
Author(s):	Jane Carnall
Date(s):	1988
Length:	20 pages
Genre:	PGP
Fandom:	Blake's 7
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Revenge for What? is a Blake's 7 story by Jane Carnall, the sequel to Changing by the same author, which was the first known Blake's 7 femslash printed.

"Revenge for What?" was published in Southern Lights #4.5 in 1988.

Author's Comments

I resent it. I resent the fact that when I write an adventure-packed fifth-season story it has to get printed in a slash, not a mainstream zine, because incidentally I make it clear in the story that Soolin and Dayna were lovers, that Avon and Vila were lovers, and that Jenna and her engineer, a woman called Dee, are lovers. I wonder if it would have been segregated if I had suggested that Soolin and Tarrant were lovers, Avon and Vila were celibate, and made Jenna's engineer-a man? If, in short, I had made it an action-packed adventure with a slish background, instead of a slash background?

"Revenge For What?": This is disgusting, perverted and insane. Real lesbians don't behave like that — they're all friendly and sisterly and kind and gentle. And it isn't even slash, so I don't know what it's doing here.

[Sorry, Jane — any story where two women are married and Avon and Vila are lovers and Soolin and Dayna are lovers, is slash, regardless of explicit content. -- Editor]

"Revenge for What?" is a somewhat discursive story of How One Revolution Ended and Another Began, unusually for a 5th season story, focussing not on Avon (who doesn't appear till half way through) or Vila (who doesn't appear till later than that) or Blake (who's dead eleven years before it starts) but on Soolin, Jenna, Dee Tarrant (yup, his sister), and a wholly unexpected clone.

There are a couple of unexplained inconsistencies, probably deriving from lack of authorial revision, but on the whole well-plotted and reasonably snappy dialogue. I've always liked Soolin, and it's nice to see her character more thoroughly explored than usual. The only truly odd thing is that it's not what I would classify as any kind of slash - or slish, slush, or slosh.

Reactions and Reviews

1988

["Revenge for What?" is my] favorite because I always like post-GP stories—there are so many ways to choose 'what happens next', and Ms. Carnall did an excellent story.

"Revenge for What?" was also interesting, though I would also have been interested in the parts that were left out: Dayna and Soolin's relationship, what Avon did and felt in those eleven years (especially the first three) and so on. But the ending sent chills down my spine. Very powerful. (And by the way...Parl Lemyal, indeed! Ouch.)

I hope Jane Carnall will continue with more stories in the "Revenge for What?" series. It was nice post GP story. Dee Tarrant was more charming than her brother ever thought of being. All in all a lovely zine

My favorite story was "Revenge for What?" by Jane Carnall. It actually had a plot that had the characters doing something rather than just an excuse to get them in bed (not that I object to that at times.) The last section gave me goosebumps. I like Dee Tarrant and the idea of "Stannis's Seven."

Jane Carnall produces a delightful example of fiction centered on the women in the show, bringing to each of them the sharp focus usually reserved for the male leads — very refreshing, as it is obviously intentionally feminist, but never overdrawn. The characters are very plausibly developed from the show, and whether by intent or not, she has picked the two least well-served women, Jenna and Soolin, to emphasize most I think she's a bit harsh on Tarrant (whose sister has no trace of the over-cuteness introduced sisters occasionally have), but not on Avon or Vila in their secondary roles. Her use of the show's background, from the curious multiplicity of Tarrants to the new Auron colony on Kaarn, is well-thought as well, and the few touches of whimsy add color.

1996

One of my favorite B7 slash stories was "Revenge for What" by Jane Carnall. It was in Southern Lights Special 4.5 -- my very first B7 slash zine (she adds in a sweetly nostalgic tone of, um, type). It's one of my favorite B7 stories and I think it's definitely my favorite Jane Carnall stories. I always read it and think at the end, "Gosh, I wish there was more"--and recognise right after how smart she was not to write a sequel. It's non-explicit. My one and only complaint about it is one that I have had with a few others by Jane: Absolutely everyone is gay! The only person who was explicitly not was Blake who was a jerk and flaked out over Jenna and Dee.

2002

While all of these stories have their parallels in m/m slash, the remaining seven stories more closely resemble the sub-genre of B7 gen stories that focuses on developments in the emotional relationships between the male characters - for example, Susan Lovett's 'The Road to Hell' (A-B) or Lillian Shepherd's 'The Haunting of Haderon' (A-V). Jane Carnall's 'Changing' and its sequel 'Revenge for What?' establish the basic paradigm. <...> The second story is a Girls' Own Adventure version of the traditional quest story, where Jenna and Dee gather up Soolin, Cally's clone descendant Calida, Avon and Vila, before setting off on a new 'career of blowing up Federation bases'.