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After being trapped in the
final year of high school for what seemed like an eternity, Pocket Books
have finally moved on. In fact, they've jumped ahead since The
Burning is set between seasons four and five of Buffy, as well as
the first two seasons of Angel. This means its the first Angel
novel to feature Wesley instead of Doyle, and the first time Riley and Tara
have appeared in the Buffy novels.
The crossover nature of the
novel gives us plenty of plot strands, with most of the regulars given
something to do, either individually or in pairs.
The familiar idea of a
previously unseen friend of Willow's leads Buffy and Willow to investigate
the disappearance of Salma de la Natividad's brother, Nicky, while also
solving the mystery of the mysterious shadow-like creature that's stalking
the streets of Sunnydale.
Meanwhile, in LA, Angel is
investigating a case of paranormal activity while Cordy and Wesley try to
protect a group of wannabe vampires.
Of course, it's only a
matter of time before characters from one city have to travel to the other,
and with Salma's family living in LA, she, Buffy and Willow travel to the
City of Angels, leaving the rest of the Scoobies back in Sunnydale.
With Anya and Xander not given a whole lot to do, this leads to the slightly
surprising teaming of Riley with Tara.
The problem with being the
first part of a trilogy is that it feels like the opening installments of a
long Doctor Who story. Things are being put in place, but there
is an awful lot of separate threads at the moment, and very little is
resolved - just how are the various storylines going to come together, and
are certain scenes relevant to the main plot or just padding? Still,
there are a couple of nice touches with a cameo appearance by Gunn, and a
continuity references to corruption in the LAPD.
However, there are also
several problems with the novel itself. The quick healing of vampires
and Slayers has been well established by the TV series, but even so, Holder
and Mariotte take this to what I thought were ludicrous extremes at one
point. And if you're going to throw in pop-culture references, at
least get them right - coupled with the error on the backcover blurb, you do
have to wonder if proofreading is something Pocket Books have heard of.
An above average start to
the trilogy, but it remains to be seen whether the authors will be able to
increase the pace (and my interest!) over the remaining two novels.
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Written by NANCY HOLDER
and JEFF MARIOTTE
POCKET BOOKS
£5.99
RATING: 6/10
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