Sidekicks (multifandom fanzine)
| Zine | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Sidekicks |
| Publisher: | Sidekicks Press & AngelWings Press |
| Editor(s): | |
| Date(s): | 2003 |
| Series?: | |
| Medium: | |
| Genre: | slash, some gen |
| Fandom: | multimedia |
| Language: | English |
| External Links: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Sidekicks is a 228-page mostly slash, with a tiny bit of gen and het, anthology of multifandom fiction.
The cover was designed by Bast; interior art by Bluespirit.
Contents: Slash
- Tanith's Lament by Tavaran (Stargate SG-1 - Tanith/Daniel Jackson) ("I drifted closer, put my hand on his shoulder, still unthreatening. "Would you like a drink of something? To help you stay awake."") (4)
- Scaling New Heights by Tavaran (The Professionals - Bodie/Murphy) ("Talk about the luck of the Irish - it didn't seem to have done him much good this time.") (8)
- Fantasy in C Major by Elspeth Leigh (The Professionals - Cowley/Murphy) ("Cowley watched, silently admiring the beauty of this man revealed.") (12)
- All Right for Some by Pamela Prior (The Professionals - implied Bodie/Doyle) ("They always stood so close to each other, often touching. It wasn't fair.") (40)
- Miles To Go Before I Sleep by Margaret Turner (Highlander - Methos/Kronos) ("Promises can't always be kept, no matter how much you mean them.") (46)
- Communion by Cinel Durant (Highlander - Duncan/Methos) ("Damn. I didn't think I could need him any more than I already do.") (54)
- Thy Eternal Summer Shall Not Fade by Le Reine Bleu (Horatio Hornblower - Horatio/Archie) ("Archie Kennedy. The one bright spot in the dark unfeeling world I found myself thrust into a year ago.") (60)
- Tá Mé Caillte Gan Tú (I'm Lost Without You) by Nancy-Anne Davies (Horatio Hornblower - Horatio/Archie) ("If I have learned anything about love in my twenty-seven years, it is that we do not know how to feel it the way it was made to be felt - without boundaries, without reason, without thought.") (83)
- One Man's Worth by JennyB (Horatio Hornblower - Pellew/Kennedy) Acting Lieutenant Kennedy makes his report to Captain Pellew in the aftermath of the action at Muzillac.") (104)
- Archie: Muzillac by Calypso (Horatio Hornblower)(" He didn't mean to sound so cynical, but if there were ever a doomed mission, it was this one...and if there were ever a romantic idealist, it was Horatio.")(112)
- Moments by Sinistral (Due South - Fraser/Kowalski, Thatcher/Turnbull) Warning: Death story. ("Thatcher revisits memories of the past.") (138)
- Change of Shift by JennyB (Due South - Fraser/Vecchio) ("I don't know what the hell I was thinking, showing up for my shift on the stakeout a half hour early. I just thought maybe I'd be doing Vecchio a favor by getting him free of the Mountie a little earlier.") (144)
- Idol Hands by maxi (Anita Blake - Jean Claude and Asher) (""Will it always be thus?" the creature asked, kissing Asher's palm. "With you on one side of salvation, and me on the other."") (149)
- In His Hands by Ames (West Wing - Sam/Josh) ("Their first kiss was in the rain.") (162)
- Else by Sleeps With Coyotes (Smallville - Clark/Lex) ("Lex locks Dominic in the trunk and comes out of the closet.") (169)
- In The Flesh by Sleeps With Coyotes (The X-Files/Highlander - Alex/OMC (morph), Alex/Methos, Mulder/?) ("Keep your eye on the Rat. Where will he be when the music stops?") (176)
Contents: Gen
- Countdown by Sinistral (Due South) ("Dewey wants to know what's going on in Kowalski's head. (198)
- Children of the Corn by SarahRosie (Smallville) You never get a second chance to make a first impression.") (200)
- Free Fall by SarahRosie (Smallville) ("Lex has asthma and a lot of angst for an eight year old.") (203)
- It'll Never Work by Rhiannon Shaw (Highlander) ("Methos really didn't want to look up from a freshly vandalized grave - a priest's grave - into the face of one of Paris's finest.") (206)
Reactions and Reviews
[Fantasy in C Major]: Being sadly bereaved of my beloved pair Bodie/Cowley, and having been confirmed by several experiments that the Doyle/Cowley pairing didn't work for me, I tried to find at least a passable substitute, still Cowley centered but with a reasonably apt equivalent for Bodie. It appeared that only Murphy could play the part; though, to my taste, as a rather dull stand in.Don't take it as a criticism of the story or the author's talent. Quite the opposite; she manages to get the best from a character which has not very definite features in the show and so, may be turned into whatever pleases or serves the writer. Here he has inherited of all the boyish charm, the mischievousness and the sex appeal of Bodie (but without the darker and more complex elements of the older man's personality). As he is, however, he has not much difficulty to drag a bemused and clearly smitten Cowley in a plot of his invention that involves the set up of a sex scene in a gay bar!
It's a testimony of the author's writing skills and cleverness that she succeeds in making this comedy believable. The picture of Cowley and Murphy tightly embraced on the dance floor is priceless. Though a little too mellow and tractable, the Controller (who doesn't control many things this time), remains more or less in character. He is not belittled in his misadventures (well, not too much) and, like in the other stories of the sort I presented, his weaknesses look more endearing than ridiculous.
As a matter of fact, there is, really, something pathetic in this character (his loneliness, his emotional and sexual self repression, something probably tragic we suspect in his past) that a few authors have sensed and hinted, if not developed. I picked a touching passage about that aspect in Elspeth Leigh's story:
Murphy smoothed his lips across the old battle scar on Cowley's thigh, offering a tenderness that surprised and moved Cowley. In a way, Cowley himself was a scar, damaged and improperly healed. Murphy's gentleness to the wound was a balm to both man and skin. Yet strange, almost awkward, the expression sounds right, in tune with the sadness and melancholy that envelop the outcome of the adventure, in Cowley's mind:
He wondered how he could be having such mixed feelings, why he simply could not appreciate the experience. And he knew at the same time he mourned that this would not, could not, happen again, not with this man, nor given Cowley's position, likely with any other. It was a beginning and end, a fait accompli. Still, he should be grateful, not grieving. The "fantasy" is realistic, after all: no romance, no sentimental delusion, just the severe lucidity of a man of power and duty.
And did I precise it's very neatly and elegantly written? [1]