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Blake's 7
Project Avalon
Novelisation of five classic episodes from the much–loved BBC TV series created by Terry Nation, featuring Roj Blake, Kerr Avon, and their cohorts as they do battle with the Galactic Federation and its despotic leader, Servalan. The episodes adapted in the book are Seek–Locate–Destroy, Duel, Project Avalon, Deliverance and Orac.
- GenresScience FictionFictionTv
191 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1979
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
November 29, 2020
Fast paced TV tie in to the first season of the classic sci-fi series, covering four episodes.
September 19, 2013
I'm a massive Blakes 7 fan but I very nearly gave up on this at disc one. The opening chapters are, frankly, dreadful - not the performances: Jacqueline Pierce and Paul Darrow are terrific, as always, but the writing is TERRIBLE. Massively, unnecessarily over-descriptive, with prose so purple it's barely still in the visible spectrum. Adjectives (and there are many. Oh. So. Many) are all turned up to eleven. Every description, every character trait is laboured to the nth degree. Everything is told (out loud and multiple times), never shown. Every point is hammered home with the subtlety of a keen serial killer on a spree. It's like a sketch-show parody of a bad book:
The tense silence seemed to hum in their ears like static electricity... all eyes on the sweeping hands of the large chronograph display flush-mounted into the bulkhead wall as it marked off precious segments of time.
Jenna drums slim fingers impatiently. Gann's hands are big and square and clench and relax; his deep set eyes beneath a massive brow fix unblinkingly. Avon's eyes are heavily-lidded, his expression is slightly contemptuous, meant to display an absence of emotion but akin to the machine intelligence of the computers he understood so well. His tone, meanwhile, is crisp and dry and - as you'll know, if you've watched the show (and why would you be listening to badly written B7 audio-books if you weren't already a dyed-in-the-wool fan?), he's always right:
Avon's right, said Jenna. I usually am, Avon said lightly, with no trace of irony, he actually believed it! Then Jenna flicks back a stray blonde curl from her forehead, while Cally paces, with the lithe supple grace of a highly trained guerilla fighter - and she was precisely that! Down to her tightly laced combat boots. Her wide green eyes like those of an animal trapped in a cage.
I actually laughed out loud at the last one.
I stuck with it, into disc 2, and 3, and all the way to the end of disc 6 (it's almost 7 hours long). After a while, the story kicks in and the ghastly writing settles a little - but it's never good. It's a waste of 2 fine actors.
I dithered over the rating, because, while it is truly horrible in so many ways, it's also very entertaining - though probably not in the way it was intended. I did enjoy it, after a fashion, but it's not an experience I'm eager to repeat. In future, I think I'll stick with my DVDs.
The tense silence seemed to hum in their ears like static electricity... all eyes on the sweeping hands of the large chronograph display flush-mounted into the bulkhead wall as it marked off precious segments of time.
Jenna drums slim fingers impatiently. Gann's hands are big and square and clench and relax; his deep set eyes beneath a massive brow fix unblinkingly. Avon's eyes are heavily-lidded, his expression is slightly contemptuous, meant to display an absence of emotion but akin to the machine intelligence of the computers he understood so well. His tone, meanwhile, is crisp and dry and - as you'll know, if you've watched the show (and why would you be listening to badly written B7 audio-books if you weren't already a dyed-in-the-wool fan?), he's always right:
Avon's right, said Jenna. I usually am, Avon said lightly, with no trace of irony, he actually believed it! Then Jenna flicks back a stray blonde curl from her forehead, while Cally paces, with the lithe supple grace of a highly trained guerilla fighter - and she was precisely that! Down to her tightly laced combat boots. Her wide green eyes like those of an animal trapped in a cage.
I actually laughed out loud at the last one.
I stuck with it, into disc 2, and 3, and all the way to the end of disc 6 (it's almost 7 hours long). After a while, the story kicks in and the ghastly writing settles a little - but it's never good. It's a waste of 2 fine actors.
I dithered over the rating, because, while it is truly horrible in so many ways, it's also very entertaining - though probably not in the way it was intended. I did enjoy it, after a fashion, but it's not an experience I'm eager to repeat. In future, I think I'll stick with my DVDs.
August 7, 2021
It was fun to revisit a favorite TV show from my youth.
July 29, 2025
I loved this TV series and this was one of the books related to it. Was great to read more relating to the characters we saw on TV.
November 20, 2013
0 stars. Ugh. I bailed on Disk 1 (Part 1 / Jacqueline Pearce), skipping tracks along through to Disk 4 (Part 2 / Paul Darrow), and then abandoned entirely.
Where to begin? The story is so poorly written that it doesn't give the actors a chance. Slow and ponderous and dull.
Sadly, the actors couldn't rise above the material. Furthermore, much as I love them, I'm going to lay out their flaws. More shocking than the fact that they failed to do justice to the other characters -- the people with whom they acted in the series(!) --, neither of the performers got anywhere close to inhabiting their own original characters. What a letdown! I mean: Servalan! Avon! Thrilling! Only... not.
I will also say that both narrators had other, subtle changes in tone, timber and articulation that distracted this reader, making it impossible to forget the passage of time and the fact that this audiobook was a pale shadow of the original television programme.
I can't tell you how disappointed I am. Blakes7 was something special, and it would have been exciting to hear a performance with some passion in it, yet neither actor reached much more than a grind.
This was abysmal. Avoid.
Where to begin? The story is so poorly written that it doesn't give the actors a chance. Slow and ponderous and dull.
Sadly, the actors couldn't rise above the material. Furthermore, much as I love them, I'm going to lay out their flaws. More shocking than the fact that they failed to do justice to the other characters -- the people with whom they acted in the series(!) --, neither of the performers got anywhere close to inhabiting their own original characters. What a letdown! I mean: Servalan! Avon! Thrilling! Only... not.
I will also say that both narrators had other, subtle changes in tone, timber and articulation that distracted this reader, making it impossible to forget the passage of time and the fact that this audiobook was a pale shadow of the original television programme.
I can't tell you how disappointed I am. Blakes7 was something special, and it would have been exciting to hear a performance with some passion in it, yet neither actor reached much more than a grind.
This was abysmal. Avoid.
June 15, 2013
“You won,” said Travis stolidly, his face hard and brutal. “That's what counted.” But Sinofar shook her head wanly. Her eyes held an infinite reservoir of sadness. “It wasn't a victory. It was only the end of the war...”
I enjoyed this a lot more than the first one. I suppose I was already familiar with the characters and, because I approached B7 at an odd angle, I'm an Avon fan and the opening set of episodes pushed Blake, obviously.
There's a certain antiquity to these stories; their headlong pace and leaping from one story to the next lends itself to a serial form so you sort of feel a bit strange, buying them as novels. I, for one, would welcome flushed-out write-ups of all 52 original episodes (we have, what: 4, or 6 or so, at the moment). There's money in it too, up on Kindle I reckon they'd go well!
Oh and Orac is one of my favourite episodes of the whole show, so it was nice to have more of that in a written form.
I enjoyed this a lot more than the first one. I suppose I was already familiar with the characters and, because I approached B7 at an odd angle, I'm an Avon fan and the opening set of episodes pushed Blake, obviously.
There's a certain antiquity to these stories; their headlong pace and leaping from one story to the next lends itself to a serial form so you sort of feel a bit strange, buying them as novels. I, for one, would welcome flushed-out write-ups of all 52 original episodes (we have, what: 4, or 6 or so, at the moment). There's money in it too, up on Kindle I reckon they'd go well!
Oh and Orac is one of my favourite episodes of the whole show, so it was nice to have more of that in a written form.
December 10, 2012
This book is the novelisation of 4 episodes, Seek Locate Destroy, Duel, Project Avalon, and (an abbreviated) Orac. It was ok, reminded me how much I love this show. Unfortunately the thing I love the most about this show is Servalan and Avon and there was very little of them in these four stories. A quick and easy read that's a nice reminder of some of the good things about this show. Though why they choose the Duel instead of other episodes from series 1 is beyond me!
July 19, 2018
These early episodes of the series were so good-Travis was such an excellent character and I did like his black leather outfits especially when they switched actors! OK I'm digressing now...this was another good novel based on season 1 and the vendetta between Travis and Blake. Makes me want to go and watch the DVDs again...
June 21, 2012
I've always loved the show, and this was just sitting on my shelf.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews