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Set
at the usual vague point during season 3, Here Be Monsters
opens promisingly, with another of Sunnydale's doomed teenagers
fleeing from a pair of vampires, both of whom dote on their mother,
who's also a vampire.
Action
sequences sometimes transfer badly to the printed page, so it's
nice to see a strong opening, and Heidi Lindstrom actually gets
a bit of characterisation, unusual for the Pocket Books' vamp fodder.
Following
her disappearance, Heidi's friend Suz Tompkins seeks out Buffy,
and after a second meeting, Buffy finds she and Angel face to face
with the vamp twins.
Offing
these proves to be a bad move on the part of the Slayer as Mama
calls up Nemesis, the bringer of retribution. This retribution
takes the form of a trial that the Slayer must undergo alone, with
Joyce's life at stake.
After
a promising start, I found Here Be Monsters tailed off about
halfway through. Buffy fighting her own personal demons was
interesting, but unfortunately, the Scooby Gang ended up with little
or nothing to do. Okay, so Willow casts a scrying spell, but
that seemed to be about it. Some of the other books in the
younger readers' range have written out at least one of the Gang,
and that might have been an idea here too.
However,
it's not all doom and gloom - Buffy gets some reasonable scenes,
and one-off character Suz also gets to do something as well, which
makes a change from most of the other Pocket Books novels where
original characters rarely make it to the final page.
It's
not the best Buffy novel out there, but it's far from being
the worst either. BACK
TO THE TOP
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HERE
BE MONSTERS
Written
by CAMERON DOKEY
POCKET BOOKS
£4.99
RATING: 7/10
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