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Jul. 15th, 2004 08:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
doyleMy adventures with the Buffy tie-in novels continue apace. Thanks to my local library and a couple of charity shops (for 40p I don't *care* how bad the book is) I have in my grubby paws Seven Crows, These Our Actors, The Xander Years (1 AND 2!), The Angel Chronicles 2, City Of, Stranger to the Sun, Unnatural Selection, Resurrecting Ravana, Shakedown, Oz: Into the Wild, Pretty Maids All in a Row, Unseen, and Endangered Species. That's a stack of paperbacks to go with me to Belfast this week, then.
I've read one chapter of Resurrecting Ravana (by Ray Garton) and it's fairly painful going, what with the stilted, redundant writing.
She slammed the stake into its throat. The hellhound sat up with a startled growl. The stake remained in Buffy's hand... with the silver pointed tip pointing at her. She'd stabbed the hellhound in the throat with the wrong end of the stake.
I love how in the last sentence he recaps what she just did, the fact that it was to a hellhound, and that it was with a stake. Because we wouldn't otherwise know that from the previous two sentences. I'm having flashbacks to Sunset Beach (cue the sound effect of flashbacking)
Seven Crows (John Vornholt) is a book I should like - it's Rileycentric - and at least it acknowledges it completely screws with canon. The preface says it takes place in 'an alternate season 7', by which they mean the summer after Grave, except Angel's not stuck under the sea and Cordelia and Connor... well, so far, they don't seem to exist, but maybe they get a mention later on. Bored with the first couple of pages, I flipped ahead, read the section where Buffy whispers "goodnight, sweet prince" after Angel leaves their motel room, and hurt myself giggling.
These Our Actors - it's centred around Spike and Willow, set in season 5 but with a good chunk of it set prior to Spike's turning. so far, I'm loving it. Fingers crossed.
I've read one chapter of Resurrecting Ravana (by Ray Garton) and it's fairly painful going, what with the stilted, redundant writing.
She slammed the stake into its throat. The hellhound sat up with a startled growl. The stake remained in Buffy's hand... with the silver pointed tip pointing at her. She'd stabbed the hellhound in the throat with the wrong end of the stake.
I love how in the last sentence he recaps what she just did, the fact that it was to a hellhound, and that it was with a stake. Because we wouldn't otherwise know that from the previous two sentences. I'm having flashbacks to Sunset Beach (cue the sound effect of flashbacking)
Seven Crows (John Vornholt) is a book I should like - it's Rileycentric - and at least it acknowledges it completely screws with canon. The preface says it takes place in 'an alternate season 7', by which they mean the summer after Grave, except Angel's not stuck under the sea and Cordelia and Connor... well, so far, they don't seem to exist, but maybe they get a mention later on. Bored with the first couple of pages, I flipped ahead, read the section where Buffy whispers "goodnight, sweet prince" after Angel leaves their motel room, and hurt myself giggling.
These Our Actors - it's centred around Spike and Willow, set in season 5 but with a good chunk of it set prior to Spike's turning. so far, I'm loving it. Fingers crossed.
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on 2004-07-15 06:42 pm (UTC)I've read a couple of these.
Seven Crows -- I like the plot, but the characters in the book only vaguely resemble Riley, Sam, Angel, and Buffy. It's like Vornholt had an idea for an original novel and thought, "Wouldn't it be great if it were Riley doing this?" Vornholt has also written Star Trek novels. They were actually worse. I think Vornholt's schtick is to write for shows he doesn't actually watch.
These Our Actors -- I had to reread the last chapter a few times because I had no idea what happened and thought my copy was missing a few pages. I think some important exposition must have been cut or something. Dori was responsible for writing the flashback bits with Spike and Ashley McConnell wrote the modern day stuff.
Pretty Maids All in a Row -- Chris Golden's better than most. This one got Jossed out the window by the advent of S7, but it's really not bad.
Unseen -- Nancy Holder is saved from herself by the intervention of Jeff Marriotte. I really dislike Nancy Holder's work. First off, she refuses to type out either "because" or "cause" in favor of the Internet slang "cuz". "Cuz" is one of my least favorite words, right up there with "ne1" and "sum1". Secondly, she hasn't a clue what Buffy characters should sound like.
The one Buffy novel -- really it's a series of novellas -- I will recommend is the Lost Slayer series by Chris Golden -- an alternate future where vampires have taken over Southern California. Conversely, the one I think you should STAY AWAY FROM AT ALL COSTS is The Book Of Fours by Nancy Holder. With a plot that makes no sense and bad writing and characterization to boot, it's one great sinkhole of suck.
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on 2004-07-16 12:54 am (UTC)'The Lost Slayer' was good. Quite a dark and interesting AU; bleak loner Buffy, high body count, lots of violence, the writing was readable though nothing special. But the big point in it's favour was vampire Giles.
Then we come to 'The Book Of Fours' by Nancy Holder. Arrrg. My eyes, my eyes. I struggled through about a quarter of it before I gave up in despair. It has to be one of the worst books I've ever had the misfortune to open. I'm still trying to blank it from my memory. After that I decided to stick to fanfic.