The Price of Freedom (Blake's 7 zine)

Zine
Title:	The Price of Freedom
Publisher:
Editor(s):
Date(s):	1982
Series?:
Medium:	print
Genre:	gen
Fandom:	Blake's 7
Language:	English
External Links:
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The Price of Freedom is a 1982-ish zine with Blake's 7 stories by Sarah Berry.

Author's Comments

In 1987, Berry wrote:

'The Price of Freedom.' I stared writing that in a small, red notebook on the plane back from L.A. in 1980. It wasn't finished to my (then) satisfaction for over two years. It took so long as it was written in twenty minute bouts before school and at weekends if I could concentrate that long. Thankfully, I've destroyed the original pictures that went with the stories. It took months for me to type (on two different typewriters) out and the first, unbound copy was sent to IMIPAC. Soon I had the one and only copy photo-copied, reduced and aligned so that it could be sold in booklet form. I never expected the response thrust upon me, and even now I'm at university and stopped putting out adverts 2/3 years ago, I still get esquires from America, New Zealand, Australia, Holland, Germany and, occasionally, parts of Britain. Hear this world, I sell it now more! Jane Porter and I hope to present you with two new, non-fiction ventures shortly!

Reactions and Reviews

In the last newsletter, we mentioned interest expressed in more detail on other clubs newsletters and zines. Although a couple of you think this is a bad idea quite a few expressed interest and below follows an extract from a review written by Lesley Hatch on a zine she had recently read. The Price of Freedom by Sarah Berry,

[It] is a biography of Avon which covers his life from before his attempt to rob the Federation Banking System to (presumably) after Blake*'s death at Avon*s hands. Available at the moment is Part One of this biography, with 3 other parts to follow, and this itself is split into two sections.

The first of these introduces us to Avon, his brother Kel, and Ros Coolen, Avon's partner in a form of genetic manipulation experiment which the Federation hope will produce, with the aid of drugs, superior beings, I found this idea totally convincing and in keeping with the indications we got from the series themselves of the Federation*s degeneracy, and the same could be said of the way in which Kel Avon is made to disappear after his discovery of the suppressants and the later experiments with "Blis."

Sarah does a fine job of introducing characters who Avon was later to meet in the series and explaining their involvement with him - Anna and Del Grant, Tynus (whose guilty secret is well explained), Keiller, Del Tarrant and Vila (who, typically, tries and fails to pick Avon's pocket!) The one exception to this is Servalan, which is something I would have liked to see,

I find Sarah's descriptive ability remarkable, particularly in the description of the experiments with the drug "Bliss." In the second part, the action builds to a climax and the characters begin to get "fleshed out," in particular Anna and Ros.

I particularly liked the characterisation of Keiller; Sarah’s description of him as a "perpetual coward" offers a neat counterpoint to Vila, who is only a coward some of the time.

I was impressed with the overall style of writing, except for a couple of very minor details regarding Federation irregularities, and look forward to the forthcoming parts of the story with eager anticipation. I cannot help but wonder if this novel could not perhaps be converted to a play for production at a future convention?