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The most frustrating aspect of having to occasionally review something that was missed upon its first release is that it's difficult to give it a fair rating. Back in 1999, we would have been pretty amazed that there was any BUFFY merchandise out there, but four years on, and dozens of novels later, a straightforward novelisation of three early episodes doesn't have quite the same appeal that it once had. Actually, I'll admit it - when I first heard there was a BUFFY novel called THE ANGEL CHRONICLES, I assumed it involved Angel's life before Buffy Summers moved to Sunnydale. Of course, it's not that at all. Instead, it's a merely a novelisation of season 1's ANGEL and season 2's REPTILE BOY and LIE TO ME. ANGEL is probably the pivotal story of season one, and clearly involves Angel heavily, although the same can't really be said of the other two episodes here. (In fact, REPTILE BOY might be better suited to a Cordelia collection.) Nancy Holder has come in for some stick on this site, but here she gets the job done with a minimum of fuss. With just over 200 pages in which to squeeze three episodes plus a bit of topping and tailing, there's not much room to indulge in expanding what we saw on screen. So, as with most of Pocket Books' novelisations, this is pretty much a straightforward run through of the three episodes. Fortunately at this stage Holder wasn't prone to slipping into "Slayer speak" during narrative paragraphs, and neither could I see her favourite phrase, "Boca del Infierno", popping up either! As I said at the start, it's difficult to be fair with non-contemporary reviews, especially of novelisations, but VOL. 1 gets the job done without every being particularly great. The strength of the original episodes - particularly ANGEL - helps, but Holder doesn't really do anything that adds to the scripts (then again, I doubt she was asked, or even paid, to do so). BACK TO THE TOP |
THE
ANGEL CHRONICLES, VOL. 2 Written by NANCY HOLDER POCKET BOOKS £5.99
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