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The last few months have
seen Pocket Books expanding their Buffy fiction range beyond the
usual novelisations, with the Unseen crossover trilogy, the Lost
Slayer serial novel and now an anthology about previous Slayers.
Like many anthologies, Tales
of the Slayer is pretty hit and miss affair. However, with only
seven stories, there's nowhere nearly as much room for failure as
there is in a much larger collection such as the Dark Terrors series.
The collection spans two
and half thousands years, from The Battle of Marathon in 490 BC through to
Florida in the 1950s, and many of the historical backdrops will be familiar
to anyone with a basic knowledge of history (or to your average Doctor
Who fan!)
While Pocket Books'
previous attempt at a Buffy novel that didn't feature the title
character at least had Spike and Dru, here the six authors (Yvonne Navarro
contributes two tales) have only the concept of a Slayer, her Watcher and
the Watchers Council to build a story around. This
has potential, but the downside is that - especially in a short story -
there's not a lot of space in which to develop the character of the Slayer
and to serve up a threat that does justice to the idea that she alone in her
generation will stand up to the forces of darkness.
The concept of "one
dies, another is called" means that it's difficult to feel any real
attachment to any of the Slayers here. Most of the stories revolve
around their last battle, but few of them get to go out with any style or
dignity. There's no battles against major vampires here - although
there isn't the room to develop that anyway - and while one or two of them
at least get to do a Good Thing before being killed, others come out really
badly (Yvonne Navarro's stupidly ill-prepared Slayer walking to her death
being perhaps the worst example). It's also possible to predict the
ending to a least half the stories here (and I'm not just talking about the
fact that the Slayer dies), which is rarely a good thing.
There are a couple of
half-decent stories in Tales of the Slayer, but as a collection, I
found it a bit on the disappointing side. (Although at least Nancy
Holder steered clear of using Lucy sodding Hanover!)
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TALES
OF THE SLAYER, VOL. 1
Written by GREG RUCKA,
CHRISTIE GOLDEN,
YVONNE NAVARRO, NANCY HOLDER,
DORANNA DURGIN, MEL ODOM
POCKET BOOKS
£6.99
RATING: 5/10
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