Ros Williams

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Name:	Ros Williams
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Fandoms:	Blake's 7
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Ros Williams was a prolific BNF Blake's 7 writer who had a strong sense of style.

Differing Tastes: Williams' Comments in 1989

To sum up, I suppose I'd say Horizon #12 a reasonable zine - not the best, not the worst. Perhaps Judith's second tale was overlong for the rather slight content of the plot. More powerful development of the emotional matters might have made it more interesting to me personally than the unconvincing confrontations between Blake and Avon since neither seemed to have the right character. I suspect it's a matter of personal interest. Since I can't agree Judith's view of Blake and Avon I find the scenes between them rather boring. No doubt she feels the same when reading - if she does - stories depicting Blake as tough and forceful and Avon as remote and evasive!

About Being a Fan of Carnell: William's Comments in 1991

Williams wrote about the character, Carnell:

You could be forgiven for thinking that I am a one-woman Carnell fan-club and it's solely due to me that he’s popular, but- that's not so. Carnell was adored right from the start by a select few. In the days when I, like so many, had eyes only for Avon. Carnell appeared very occasionally in fiction before any of mine was written, and most of my early, fiction (everyone knows) stars Avon. It is true that I haul Carnell into view whenever I get the chance nowadays and he stars, or at least strongly features, in nearly all my recent stories. It’s also true that I'm still by no means his only fan, as I’ve discovered since I started promoting him - I'm Just by far the most vociferous! It’s interesting that you think there's a lot of Carnell fiction around. If there is, I wish someone would tell me about it as I can't find much at all, apart from my own, nearly all of which still waits on zine editors issuing it.

Essays in "Avon Club Newsletter"

• My Next Door Neighbor (1987)
• The Mystery Man of B7, or, The Thorny, Matter of Avon's Brother (1987)
• Essay on Anna: One Woman's Opinion (1988)
• Avon's Friends (1988)
• The Search for Blake (1993)
• The Origin of Kerr or Ker? (1997)

Fan Comments

Unknown Date

Possible Futures Part 1 and 2 - Ros Williams: I'm sorry, but I can't face reading this one at the moment. There are 70 pages in part 1 and 44 pages in Part 2 (in volume 8), and I know by now that there's a high probability that I will regret having spent the time reading anything by this author... Those who do like her style will just have to assess the story for themselves.

Afterdeath - the 'authentic' alternative PGP - Ros Williams: Something tells me that Ros Williams wasn't impressed with _Afterlife_... I abandoned the story when it moved from an alternative version of _Blake_ to taking the piss out of _Afterlife_, since it's not all that funny when you haven't read past the first few pages of that being parodied. I suspect that those more familiar with the original novel will enjoy this.

1985

About Ros Williams' stories. I have to admit, when I first read that long story that she had in E-man-uelle 4 or 5, it didn't make me think she was an 'obvious homophobe'. (I don't know her at all.) I was pissed off with Avon's behaviour, all that ridiculous guilt, and annoyed that he ended up with Cally, a very yukky twist to the story and totally unbelievable; everything was leading towards Vila, (not just because I'm biased towards A/V - I don't think!) but I felt the author had kind of ducked out at the last moment. If you've read any of her other stories, it seems to me she isn't really homophobic, more entranced by the idea but unable to cope with it. In at least one other of her stories (a humorous one) she has Avon believing Blake is in love with him and although once again she ducks out and makes them all perfectly uprightly heterosexual at the end, I don't think her treatment of gay sex is homophobic. I might be wrong! Pity - she's a good writer.

1988

"Afterdeath - the 'Authentic' Alternative P.G.P." by Ros Williams- You can tell by the title this is going to be a light satire. And it is. I guess Afterlife is so bad it isn't even really worth satirising - was it really that bad? I guess it was. I forget what happened in it - it was so forgettable.

1993

40 pages into The Measure of Affection, I was convinced that the slightly negative reviews of this zine were all too kind. In fact, I was ready to throw it across the room. The appeal of slash to most people, is that adding sex, or sexual attraction, to the emotional mix between two people, ups the emotional stakes between them, It makes their relationship more intense. None of this is shown in this novel!

Even worse than the Avon/Carnell relationship, the Blake Avon relationship was very poorly drawn. I much disliked Carnell's oft expressed belief to Avon that Blake was totally expendable; in fact Carnell seems to think Blake would be better off dead by the middle of season 2 (i.e., well before the Star One obsession) even though it is Blake that has hired him. Carnell himself is drawn as a little tin god, good at everything he does (including major surgery), and surrounded by little Meegats within his staff. Of course Cally, Jenna and Servalan are immediately drawn to him. I'm surprised Dayna didn't fall for him too. And not least, the author doesn't quite have a handle on colons. I have never seen them used as profligately as they are in this novel.

On the other hand, there are some nice things here. This is an entire alternate novel, integrated seamlessly into the events of the show as we know them. That is, nothing in the novel actually contradicts anything that happened on the show, and yet, it is *very* alternate. That's hard to do, and very impressive. I also like the idea that without being a spy, Carnell is a true patriot of the Federation, even when on the run from Servalan and working with Avon.

1995

'Future Passing" by Ros Williams: I'm not a great fan of Ros William's work as a rule, so bear in mind that if you normally like her stuff, you may like this in spite of my comments. This is another long story, about thirty pages, and is a continuation of a PGP epic from Horizon 17. Servalan rules the Federation, Avon controls the Federation bank, and Tarrant is Supreme Commander. What I dislike about Ros's stories is not the plots, but the characters' reactions. I always feel that the characters are being manipulated to fit the plot, rather than vice versa. For instance, Servalan becomes pregnant by Avon. "In that moment his passion for her died. It was over, it was finished. He would never touch her again nor even want to." We're never given any clues as to why he feels like that. Because she tricked him? Because he loathes children? Because he hates pregnant women? Or simply because the plot requires them to fall out?

Zine Contributions

III 3 | Alternative Seven | Amare | Avon | Avon Club Newsletter | The Avon Special | Blake's Seven: The True Story | Chronicle | Critical Mass | E-Man-Uelle | Forgotten Seven | Horizon | Horizon Letterzine | Horizon Newsletter | Input | Interface | Liberator Popular Front Newsletter | The Measure of Affection | Omnibus | Oracle | Orbit | Quicksilver Rising | Rats Tales | Rebel | Shadow | Vilacon | Voice of Oracle | The Way to Rebellion | What If | Whomsoever Holds This Sword