The World Turned Upside-Down (Blake's 7 zine)

Zine
Title:	The World Turned Upside-Down
Publisher:	Spice Press
Editor:
Author(s):	Sandy Hall
Cover Artist(s):	Karen River
Illustrator(s):
Date(s):	July 1987
Medium:	print
Size:
Genre:
Fandom:	Blake’s 7
Language:	English
External Links:
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cover by Karen River, covers of both issues were identical

The World Turned Upside-Down is a 552-page gen Blake's 7 novel by Sandy Hall.

flyer

At some point, the zines was bound in two volumes (264 pages, and 297 pages respectively) due to its size.

It was edited by Sheila Willis.

The art is by Karen River, Nancy Kolar, T.J. Burnside, Tim Pieraccini, Jean C., Pat Cash, TACS and Sheila Willis.

From the zine: "It took over two years to write "The World Turned Upside-Down." It took at least that long to get it ready for press."

Another fan wrote a sequel to this called Tying Up Loose Ends.

Summary

From Bill Hupe: "A focus on the changing relationship between Avon and Dana, Sandy Hall's novel weaves through the continual political intrigue and battle against the Federation in the lives of Vila, Tarrant, Soolin, Cally, Blake, the Commissioner and others.

From the Editorial

The long editorial by Willis is one of challenges and woes. An excerpt:

The first volume starts out in one type of type face, courier to be exactly because my letter gothic printwheel broke. Well, when I rented the other printer it came with a letter Gothic so around page 160 or so the print face changes, I'm sorry but I could not go back and reprint 160 pages.

I'd go on but it only depresses me. But I did it, I published it and if you do not have the second volume in your hands I promise you that it is not far behind, two weeks as the most.

There are lots of people to thank — Sandy for writing cuddle scenes that made the editor very happy. Jean Clissold, who doesn't even like B7 but gave me 16 wonderful illustrations (some of the aforementioned cuddle scenes that made the editor very, very happy). Pat Cash, for help above and beyond the call of roomate-dom. TJ, Nancy Kolar, Alex Dellcado, Tim, Linda, Diane. Thanks to Gail for 250 pages that I didn't have to type.

Thanks to Winston Howlett for not only finding me a printer but taking temporary custody of my 'child' In my absence. And of course to the Blake's 7, writers, actors and creator for showing us such a rich universe to play in.)

So I hope you enjoy reading WTUD as much as I did (at least the first 15 times).

Sample Interior

Note: the editor includes the artists and the pages on which their illos appear in the first volume, but does not it the second volume. This means that some of the credits below may be in error as they were determined by translating how they were signed.

• 

  Nancy Kolar

• 

  Nancy Kolar

• 

  Nancy Kolar

• 

  Tim Pieraccini

• 

  T.J. Burnside

• 

  T.J. Burnside

• 

  T.J. Burnside

• 

  Jean Clissold

• 

  Jean Clissold

• 

  Jean Clissold

• 

  Jean Clissold

• 

  Pat Cash

• 

  Jean Clissold

• 

  Pat Cash

• 

  Sheila Willis

• 

  Sheila Willis

• 

  Sheila Willis

• 

  Jean Clissold

• 

  sample text

• 

  Jean Clissold

Reactions and Reviews

Unknown Date

At over 500 pages of small print, there's no doubt that this is a novel!

And I confess, I've never been able to get all the way through it. Now that I finally own a copy (bought in Pat's used zine sale, after looking for some time for a copy that was both in reasonably good condition and reasonably priced), maybe I will. I have mixed feelings about the zine. It's extremely well written stylistically, and I like the author's other work, but IMO this one should have been edited down to a shorter length. An awful lot of it is what's going on inside people's heads, and I for one tend to get bogged down in all this introspection and lose track of the plot.

But other people whose taste I respect and often agree with love it; one says it's her very favorite B7 story. So, YMMV.

What I really bought the zine for is the yummy art. The Karen River color cover is gorgeous, and most of the interior illos are really nice too.

1992

(talk about <<GARGANTUAN>>!)

1993

For anyone who may be looking for a gen B7 novel, I have two that are deserving of _high_ kudos: _The World Turned Upside Down_ by Sandy Hall is GARGANTUAN!!! It is 552 pages of GOOD STORY! Double column, (probably) 10pt print (admittedly with white space around the edges of the page, but it's needed so that the hands desperately trying to keep hold of the book don't get in the way of the words :) with some nice pics and a FANTASTIC cover by Karen River of Avon and Dayna. Angst? It's in there. Character motivations/questionings? It's in there. A great plotline? It's in there! Prego? It's in- uh- take a hint and buy/borrow/steal- oops- this novel!

1994

I read "The World Turned Upside Down" in its entirety (borrowed from a friend in the late lamented Liberator Atlanta) and found it Stultifyingly Boring. I have this opinion because the author gave every single characters' point of view on every single event, one after the other, complete with their convoluted reasoning out of every event, often repeated more than once. This zine was 2 huge volumes long. The only thing I liked was that the author did a good job with the relationship between Dayna and Avon. I only wish she hadn't EXPLAINED every step of that relationship to me! Can you tell this is one of my pet peeves, telling the reader everything rather than than showing and letting the reader extrapolate?

2009

I have just finished reading volume II of the story. It had been very slow reading because the author buried the story in the details, more specifically in character introspection and analyses. There wasn’t enough plot to justify the sheer amount of words it had been typed, the slow pace dragged on and on and my interest became dimmer and dimmer. The whole story could have been told in one tenth of the words and nothing would have been lost.

Everybody thinks too much! Every action, every situation was analyzed in detail by everyone involved, going over the same thing five or six times; everyone’s feeling were explored throughoutly, even the OCs, the same OCs who despite having had so much description, didn’t come alive at all.

2003

The World Turned Upside-Down is a very good title for this novel. The stress of losing the Liberator has strained and broken the relationships of the Liberator crew as they struggle to survive the aftermath of "Terminal", and like puzzle pieces tossed in the air, they may not all come down in the same place. This AU story takes the situation of "Rescue" but makes things go somewhat differently. The price of Cally's survival may be too high -- but if they don't hang together "they will assuredly all hang separately". But how can they hang together when they all have different ideas of what is best for the group? And when some of those ideas are born of willful misunderstanding, then trust is a very fragile commodity indeed.

I liked this. Yes, it's a rather psychological novel, since it goes into the thoughts and motivations of all the main characters, but that's because the plot is largely character-driven, in that, while crises arise to push them hither and thither, it's the motivations of the characters which drive them to do and say the things they do, and the actions and words of other characters which then influence character reactions in their turn. Poor Tarrant gets the worst of it, in a way, since he's the main one that "doesn't understand", but he's not portrayed unsympathetically, since we're also seeing inside his head. Mind you, some may find all this head-seeing a bit much, since on more than one occasion we get the same scene through more than one set of eyes, but it managed to keep me hooked enough to finish it fairly quickly.

If this story has a theme, it's the question: can you trust the judgement of others when you yourself don't have all the facts?

The cover is a lovely Karen River cover of Dayna and Avon, and the whole story is actually in two volumes. I got this second-hand (thanks Sally M!) and I expect that's the only way to get it now.