Sins of Our Mothers

Fanfiction
Title:	Sins of Our Mothers
Author(s):	LKY
Date(s):
Length:
Genre(s):	gen
Fandom(s):	The Sentinel
Relationship(s):
External Links:	online here
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Sins of Our Mothers is a Jim/Blair story by LKY.

Reactions and Reviews

LKY is another active writer of Sentinel fiction and the fans are LucKY to have her :-). I considered reccing her award-winning 'Attribute of the Strong' (don't miss it), but decided on this story which introduces the roller-coaster AU, Lineage of Lies. Why is a kidnapped Blair a threat to national security? What happened to flaky flower-child Naomi? LKY makes a wildly unexpected scenario plausible, and gripping.

Naomi is really a CIA operative! And, as a result, Blair gets kidnapped. Then Jim. Then Naomi. Then Jim and Blair get kidnapped together. (There's probably a lot more kidnapping going on, but I'm only about four stories into the eleven story series.)

Having read a good chunk of the long relationship fic in the Sentinel fandom, I've started reading more gen lately. LKY is one of my favorite TS gen authors (and expect recs of her fics to come), mainly because she does a deft job of showing a close friendship between Jim and Blair without the relationship devolving into smarm.

Except for this series. I mean, when multiple characters in the story itself are asking whether Jim and Blair are lovers, you really have to question whether you really are writing a friendship or if you are writing something more. As a reader, I like close friendships and I like relationships, but smarm really bothers me (as I've mentioned at least once or twice before) and by story four in this series I'm already getting uncomfortable: Jim and Blair may talk about women, but they never, ever date; Blair gets all of his emotional comfort from Jim, rather than anyone else, including Naomi (which is especially noticable in a series where Naomi is a main character); Jim and Blair only spend time with each other and have no friends other than Simon (and even then, Jim is jealous because Blair is starting to develop a friendship with Simon); outside of the loft, Jim and Blair always sleep in the same room, and often on the same bed; etc.

Smarm is hugely popular in the Sentinel fandom, and if you are a fan of it, you'll probably like this series. Personally, I find smarm to be really depressing: by making two utterly heterosexual male characters completely focused on each other, you're condemning them both to a life of celibacy or loveless sexual encounters. Frankly, if you're going to go so far as to have Jim and Blair be emotionally intimate to the exclusion of everyone else, I can't understand the appeal of not taking that (relatively minor, in comparison) extra step and making them physically intimate as well.

At any rate, I'm not sure if I'll keep reading this series, though I might end up reccing the first story as a stand alone -- there they aren't together for a long enough stretch for the smarm to be really obvious. Still, I'm a bit disappointed in general and I think it might be a while before I attempt another Sentinel 'gen' fic.