KRAD's Inaccurate Guide to Life - Queen of the Slayers

02:29 am July 2nd, 2005




			KRAD's Inaccurate Guide to Life - Queen of the Slayers ramblings from a mad fedora'd writer

kradical


	Queen of the Slayers
	Pocket recently published Queen of the Slayers by Nancy Holder. This is a Buffy the Vampire Slayer novel that takes place following the show's final episode. I just finished reading it today. Nancy did a fine job of covering all the bases, providing something that really felt like it could've been the Cliff Notes version of an eighth season, tied it all nicely into Angel's last season (even making some of the more idiotic creative decisions of that season make a bit more sense, not least of which was actually making the Immortal into an interesting character instead of a cheap gag in order to do The Slapstick Hour With Angel'n'Spike). Best of all, she brought Whistler back! (I loooooved Whistler. That's the fedora'd demon from "Becoming." Max Perlich rocks...) Oh yeah, and Oz is back, too (and it ties in with Christopher Golden's Oz novel). She even managed a good compromise between Spuffy and Bangel. Neat trick. I think it suffered from a bit of redshirt syndrome -- all the Slayereenies we knew survived miraculously, and all the ones we didn't know/care about died without having any dialogue -- and Robin Wood kinda disappeared from the narrative without notice, but these are minor complaints. I'm sure there are fangoobers giving her shit because what she wrote doesn't conform to their tunnel-visioned notions of What Buffy Is Really About You Idiot, Don't You Even Get It? Fuck 'em, says I. She had a lot to accomplish with this book, and managed all of it, even tying it into the apocalypse at the end of Angel. Current Mood: tired Current Music: "Animelée" by Jethro Tull

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	Comments

From: (Anonymous)	Date: July 2nd, 2005 09:41 am (UTC)		(Link)

I enjoyed it, and even recommended it to Buffy fans in a thread at the Trek BBS, even though the thread itself degenerated into a bash fest.

I personally thought that the dovetail into 'Not Fade Away' was an unnecessary distraction that took me right out of the story that was being told in the main narrative. I guess I just felt that any resolution to NFA should have been told in an Angel-centric story.

While you enjoyed the Spuffy/Bangel compromise, I thought it was a bit of a cop-out.

That being said, I thought that Nancy Holder did a good job of extrapolating on what we learned of the Scoobies in Angel S5 into an entertaining Buffy 'S8'. If there are sequels, I will read them.

Steve/Q420

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	From: kradical	Date: July 2nd, 2005 03:39 pm (UTC)		(Link)

I personally thought that the dovetail into 'Not Fade Away' was an unnecessary distraction that took me right out of the story that was being told in the main narrative. I guess I just felt that any resolution to NFA should have been told in an Angel-centric story.

Except she didn't resolve it. Read the ending again -- we still don't really know what happened next. (That will be covered in an Angel comic Jeff Mariotte is writing for IDW, for what it's worth...)

While you enjoyed the Spuffy/Bangel compromise, I thought it was a bit of a cop-out.

Maybe. But I don't think there was any other way to go with it....

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	From: rainfletcher	Date: July 2nd, 2005 10:57 am (UTC)		(Link)

I'm so ignorant of Buffy. One of the many things I missed over these years of working evenings. (Yes, yes, I know how to operate a VCR - it was always just easier to NOT watch TV.)

I realized I might be asking an opinion of a slightly biased source, but is Buffy really good enough to go out and get the season-set DVDs?

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	From: girasole	Date: July 2nd, 2005 01:00 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Yes. Yes. Yes.
But start with the first three seasons, or rent them from Netflix.

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	From: kradical	Date: July 2nd, 2005 03:40 pm (UTC)		(Link)

The first three seasons definitely are -- that's some of the best TV ever. The latter four seasons are a lot more hit-and-miss, but the hits are really good.

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From: lenonn	Date: July 2nd, 2005 10:09 pm (UTC)		(Link)
Okay

I'll add them the first three seasons to the NetFlix queue. Are any of the Angel seasons worth renting, too?

For the record, I've only watched the original movie, the final episode of Buffy (just out of curiosity), and a few minutes of a couple of episodes here and there (most notably one where the adults were all acting like teenagers or something).

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	From: kradical	Date: July 3rd, 2005 01:36 am (UTC)		(Link)
	Re: Okay

I have this love/hate relationship with Angel. There were times when it was the greatest thing on TV. There were times when it was a piece of shite. Sometimes, that was at the same time. The show never really figured out what, exactly, it was about -- the premise kept shifting -- it suffered from cast bloat (as Buffy did, honestly), and from the fact that the lead character was by far the least interesting person in the cast, yet the show kept focusing way too much on him to the exclusion of much more interesting members of the supporting cast.

Two recurring characters were added to the opening credits, and promptly stopped being interesting. One character was brought back from the dead, and proceeded to suck the life out of the show every time that person appeared (trying to avoid spoilers here). The entire fourth season was a disaster (despite the presence of Gina Torres), and the fifth season was only a mild improvement. One character was phased out of the cast to the complete detriment of the show, and a character was added in the fifth season that was stunt-casting at its worst.

OTOH, the show had some great episodes, and managed to make Wesley Wyndham-Price and Cordelia Chase arguably the two most interesting characters in the extended Buffy-verse (which, after the third season of Buffy, I would have deemed impossible).

Watch the first three of Buffy first. See what you think....

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	From: lord_flashheart	Date: July 4th, 2005 08:56 pm (UTC)		(Link)
	Re: Okay

I must be having a mad 5 minutes as I can't remember who came back from the dead for the life of me, (no pun intended!) and I've watched the show from the beginning!

I do have to agree that it did kind of lose it's way during Season 4, but I put that down to the fact that Joss was too busy working on Firefly. I guess theres only so much genius to go around ;) lol

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	From: kradical	Date: July 4th, 2005 09:21 pm (UTC)		(Link)
	Re: Okay

SPOILER!

Darla.

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From: (Anonymous)	Date: October 15th, 2006 05:01 am (UTC)		(Link)
series of buffy

damb straight. get season 6? the musical first

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From: (Anonymous)	Date: July 2nd, 2005 01:54 pm (UTC)		(Link)

I didn't even know there was such a book. I'll have to look for it. Thanks for the heads up.

Capt Spaulding (in Tulsa)

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	From: kradical	Date: July 2nd, 2005 07:19 pm (UTC)		(Link)

You're very welcome. *grin*

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	From: msdori	Date: July 2nd, 2005 03:31 pm (UTC)		(Link)

She even managed a good compromise between Spuffy and Bangel. Neat trick.

Oh, shit. The lists are probably gonna go nuts, and there'll be competing Amazon reviews again. <eyeroll>

I'm sure there are fangoobers giving her shit because what she wrote doesn't conform to their tunnel-visioned notions of What Buffy Is Really About You Idiot, Don't You Even Get It?

See above. The Spuffy fans AND the Ducks are all gonna be foaming at the mouth. Or having heads explode all over the place.

Why in the bleeding HELL do I always end up in these contentious fandoms? I'm a model of decorum and cooperation...

<snerk> Yeah, I wouldn't buy that on sale, either.

Thanks for the review, Keith. I must go and get this one.

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	From: kradical	Date: July 2nd, 2005 07:20 pm (UTC)		(Link)

FWIW, Nancy has indeed been getting fangoober e-mail up the wazoo. *rolleyes*

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From: (Anonymous)	Date: October 15th, 2006 04:58 am (UTC)		(Link)
slayers last book.

while hoping that this is not the last book,realisticaly it prob is.but it was the perfect ending. This book should def be the movie if they ever make one.

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	15 comments or Please comment

who is this guy?


User: kradical Name: Keith R.A. DeCandido Website: DeCandido.net

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Anonymous slayers last book.