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Just
as his earlier Angel novel Bruja featured a face from
Angel's past, so Mel Odom's sees the vampire come up against someone
he knew back when he was the scourge of Europe. But when he painted
Darla in 1815, Gabriel Dantz seemed human, so what's he doing in
21st century Los Angeles?
Dantz
isn't the only artist that Angel Investigations are interested in.
A young street artist named Faroe Burke is just about to hit the
big time, but she's got a bunch of demons and our old friends Wolfram
& Hart after her.
There's
also a rather tedious subplot involving a Hollywood studio and a
blackmailer that provides some humour with a stripping demon, but
that's about it. To be honest, the novel could have done without
this storyline, which would have allowed the author to concentrate
on the artists and Cordy's vision of a young boy threatened by a
demon.
There
are some interesting concepts in Image. The idea of the Weid
Deus talent is interesting, although at first glance it seemed
little different from the Charmed episode Painted World
(which has always reminded slightly me of Sapphire & Steel:
Assignment Four). There's also a flashback to Angel and Darla
in Switzerland, where Mary Shelley was inspired to write Frankenstein.
Sadly,
neither of these is really exploited to their potential. The idea
of Angel meeting Byron is potentially fascinating, except that they
don't meet and events in Geneva are reduced to a bit of night-time
skulking around the villa.
Another
problem with Pocket Books' Angel and Buffy novels
has been continuity with the television series. Okay, so we know
that Image must be set towards the end of season 2 (there's
no Kate, Darla is confined to flashbacks and they haven't met Fred
yet), but exactly when? Wesley isn't the pratfalling comic that
he was in the past, but Cordy should have been a lot sharper in
my opinion. She's also rather dense when it comes to her mobile.
All-in-all,
a couple of potentially good ideas spoiled by the inclusion of a
tedious subplot, some rather average writing and far too many fight
scenes. One of the weaker Angel novels. BACK
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