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The
cover of Crossings implies that Xander and Anya will be the
novel's main characters, but in truth Pocket Books' shot selection
is a bit arbitary and almost any of the regulars could have been
used.
To
be honest, that's probably one of the reasons why the novel didn't
really work for me. There are an awful lot of regular characters
to fit in - Buffy, Willow, Xander, Dawn, Giles, Tara, Anya and Spike
- as well as a plot and original characters, and only 240 pages
to do it in.
Apart
from this clutter, the usual Pocket Books' problem of continuity
with the TV series crops up. Whilst it good to see them finally
catching the television series up (Crossings is set in the
second half of season five, more specifically after The Body),
the limitations imposed upon the writers - no mention of the season's
big bad and nothing major can happen to the characters - often means
that the novels don't fit in with the stories they're supposed to
take place around.
As
someone who felt season five was sometimes badly paced and disjointed,
this is perhaps less of a problem than with, say, the first three
seasons, and the events of The Body are referred to throughout
the book (it presumably takes place after Forever but before
the end of season arc kicked in with Intervention). However,
the lack of feeling that the Scooby Gang are up against a god did
still feel a little strange.
The
plot itself didn't really keep my interest, even though the novel
is quite easy to read. One of Xander's videogaming friends goes
psycho while Xander and Anya are watching a Star Trek marathon,
and it turns out that the people using them as guinea pigs aren't
exactly normal. Well, quelle surprise...
My
main problem is that the novel's original characters just weren't
interesting enough and there were far too many fight scenes that
didn't really work that well. On the plus side, there were a few
good lines and Anya wasn't used as the one trick pony she has been
in the past, but overall it didn't feel anything special. BACK
TO THE TOP
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CROSSINGS
Written
by MEL ODOM
POCKET BOOKS
£5.99
RATING: 5/10
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