The Eightfold Fence

Zine
Title:	The Eightfold Fence
Publisher:	Crevichon Press
Editor:
Author(s):	Sue J.
Cover Artist(s):
Illustrator(s):
Date(s):	1993
Medium:	print
Size:
Genre:
Fandom:	Shogun
Language:	English
External Links:	The Eightfold Fence
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The Eightfold Fence is an 86-page single-story slash Shogun novel which first appeared in a numbered limited edition in 1993 and was thereafter produced on demand.

The story, written by Sue aka The Android, is set two years after the events of James Clavell's Shogun and describes the evolution of a romantic and sexual relationship between John Blackthorne (Richard Chamberlain) and Father Martin Alvito (Damien Thomas).

Summaries

Author's summary:

Japan, 1605. John Blackthorne, English Samurai, crosses paths again with Father Martin Alvito, Jesuit priest, in an encounter arranged by Yoshi Toranaga, Regent of Japan. Needing their help, afraid to lose either of them, he has decided it will suit his purposes very well for these two natural enemies to become lovers. He has the power of life and death over his subjects, but arranging the disposition of their hearts is not, he learns, quite as easy as he had imagined.

From Crevichon Press:

A slash novella using characters from Shogun. In an alien land where sexual relationships between men are considered acceptable, John Blackthorne finds himself unexpectedly desiring a man who has been his enemy; a jesuit priest who battles the temptation and consuming guilt of that same forbidden desire.

The Author's Favorite Fic

THE BEST THINGS I’VE WRITTEN?

‘The Eightfold Fence’ (John Blackthorne and Martin Alvito from ‘Shogun’) without a doubt. I worked very hard, learned a fair chunk of Japanese (and had a Japanese-speaking friend help me with it as well) and had a wonderful few months working through the intricacies of plot and characterisation. It’s the achievement of which I’m proudest, and nowadays I find only one sentence in the whole saga I would choose to change. It also remains the only Blackthorne/Alvito fiction I have ever heard of, which staggers me considering how blatant I thought the attraction between them was. And Damien Thomas is kinda easy on the eye, too, which doesn’t hurt.