Book Review: Maximum Power! / RRP: £12.99 / Author: Too numerous to mention! Publisher: Miwk Publishing / Release date: Available now through www.miwkpublishing.com
Miwk Publishing are a small company with a skewed attitude, and their arrival is announced this month with a batch of three film and television tie-in titles, including Maximum Power!, a Blake’s 7 episode guide.
Now, Blake’s 7 is a series it’s almost impossible to take too seriously (no matter how seriously Blake’s 7 might like to take itself), being about as camp and as preposterous as pulp sci-fi can get, and thankfully Maximum Power! reflects that absolutely. This is no dry and dusty doorstop of an episode guide, filled with the kind of production ephemera that only the keenest of fans might wish to see in print (there is, after all, something called Google for that kind of thing; the Information sections herein offer something a lot more interesting), so instead the authors (of which there are any number) take wholly the opposite approach, sending the series up something rotten – but in the most loving of fashions, of course. If you’re a devout Blake’s 7 aficionado, you might be best advised to steer clear of Maximum Power! If, on the other hand, you’re the kind of person who can tell when Blake’s 7 is taking itself too seriously (which would include anything that happens between the opening titles and end credits), then this is exactly the book for you. It’s like a drinking game in prose form.
From the faked-up front cover that’s delicious in its detail, to the highly spurious section on spin-offs (as well as probably the best glossary you’ll ever read – a Hitch-Hikers’ Guide to Blake’s 7, in effect – and the most pertinent Acknowledgement ever written), even those with the most detailed knowledge of the subject will find themselves scratching their heads in wonder at some of the blarney on offer, including an actual episode guide that… well, I wouldn’t want to spoil the surprises.
Suffice it to say, if you enjoy Blake’s 7 as the guilty pleasure it actually is (heck, even if you’ve never seen it and just like guilty pleasures), then you’ll probably find the same enjoyment here. Maximum Pleasure!, in fact.
