Read this a while back, so not much of a review until I read it again. Pretty sure I thought it wasn't a bad read even though on my copy, pages 61 - 76 are repeated. Losing pages 93 - 108. May give higher score upon reread. ( )

This book has had a right bagging over the years from Blake's 7 fans. Perhaps I'm ludicrously easy to please (I do like the odd trashy novelisation) but I found this fairly pleasant. Avon was always my favourite--the handsome, sarcastic, cold-hearted, sexy devil--so getting to spend a bit of reading time in his company was a joy. Vila, the spineless little twerp, was, as usual, welcome comic relief.

Blake's 7 became so convoluted by the last season or two that I never really understood, or clearly remembered, what actually *happened* at the end. I'm still not entirely sure, but this book does, to my mind successfully, bring about some kind of conclusion. Sort of. For the most part.

I particularly enjoyed the references to Servalan's ridiculously impractical outfits. I always wondered, with the amount of time that woman must have spent putting on make-up and dressing how exactly did she have time to rule the galaxy? ( )

"Afterlife" continues the "Blake's 7" story after final TV season, which ended on the extremely bleak scene of Avon killing Blake, and the rest of the crew being shot by Federation guards.

The core of the book rightly focuses on Avon and Villa. Villa is as inventively and comicly craven and lazy as he always was, but his relationship with Avon is even more dysfunctional -- balanced against the events of the TV series (Avon deciding to throw Villa out of an airlock; Avon shooting Blake), is Villa's recognition that Avon finds him useful to keep alive. Avon himself is paranoid and fixated on the idea that his actions weren't his own, and his icy arrogance and insular self-reliance are at a finer pitch than ever, driving him ever onwards.

The new character Korell is a welcome, enigmatic ingredient that stirs up both characters; and there's cameos from a few of the past crew and some fun new computer characters.

There are some unsatisfying notes -- some "Star Trek"-like adventures in space and alternative worlds that are perhaps too much for a short book such as this. There are also some characters which have unsatisfying conclusions to their particular "arcs".

Overall, for all it's flaws, I enjoyed this book, mostly for the interactions of the main characters, and some of the ideas from the TV series. It's not great, but it's not bad. The ending could have been bleak, however it is rescued by a reassuring "classic" moment from Avon, letting us know that this is not the end, just another anticipated problem to solve. ( )

I believe Terry Nation commissioned Attwood to write this as an official continuation of Blake's 7, with the stipulation that both Avon and Vila had to survive. I'm afraid I never finished it, much as I love B7. It's badly written, Vila and Avon don't seem like the ones I know, and little motivation is given for their actions. Why, for example, would Vila hang around for months to rescue the man who shot Blake and almost killed Vila by spacing him? ( )