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Tales of the Slayer #2
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Tales of the Slayer, Vol. 2
"Sacred duty, yadda yadda." -- Buffy Summers
Buffy the Vampire Slayer has always held an irreverent attitude toward her calling, but ultimately she understands the ramifications of her destiny and is prepared to die to protect the world from Evil. In fact, she has died. Twice.
"I remember the drill. One Slayer dies, another is called." -- Buffy Summers
It's an ancient tradition, steeped in lore, mythology, and fateful prophecies. Slayerdom consists of a Council of Watchers, a continuum of slayers, an archive of journals, and even a handbook.
"Handbook? What handbook? How come I didn't have a handbook?" -- Buffy Summers
But first and foremost, it begins with a girl. One girl in all the world. A Chosen One. Now, catch up on other Slayers past and present, in the second short-story collection, Tales of the Slayer, Vol. 2!
"[Another] Slayer? I knew this, 'I'm the only one, I'm the only one,' thing was just an attention getter." -- Xander Harris
Volume includes these stories:
#1 All That You Do Comes Back Unto Thee (Sunnydale, California 2000) by: Todd A. McIntosh
#2 Lady Shobu (Sagami Province, Japan 980) by: Kara Dalkey
#3 Abomination (Beauport, Brittany, France 1320) by: Laura J. Burns & Melinda Metz
#4 Blood and Brine (The Caribbean, 1661) by: Greg Cox
#5 The Ghosts of Slayers Past (London, England 1843) by: Scott Allie
#6 The New Watcher (Atlanta, Georgia 1864) by: Kristine Kathryn Rusch
#7 House of the Vampire (London, England 1897) by: Michael Reaves
#8 The War Between the States (New York City, New York 1922) by: Rebecca Rand Kirshner
#9 Stakeout on Rush Street (Chicago, Illinois 1943) by: Max Allan Collins & Matthew V. Clemens
#10 Again (Sunnydale, California 1999) by: Jane Espenson
Buffy the Vampire Slayer has always held an irreverent attitude toward her calling, but ultimately she understands the ramifications of her destiny and is prepared to die to protect the world from Evil. In fact, she has died. Twice.
"I remember the drill. One Slayer dies, another is called." -- Buffy Summers
It's an ancient tradition, steeped in lore, mythology, and fateful prophecies. Slayerdom consists of a Council of Watchers, a continuum of slayers, an archive of journals, and even a handbook.
"Handbook? What handbook? How come I didn't have a handbook?" -- Buffy Summers
But first and foremost, it begins with a girl. One girl in all the world. A Chosen One. Now, catch up on other Slayers past and present, in the second short-story collection, Tales of the Slayer, Vol. 2!
"[Another] Slayer? I knew this, 'I'm the only one, I'm the only one,' thing was just an attention getter." -- Xander Harris
Volume includes these stories:
#1 All That You Do Comes Back Unto Thee (Sunnydale, California 2000) by: Todd A. McIntosh
#2 Lady Shobu (Sagami Province, Japan 980) by: Kara Dalkey
#3 Abomination (Beauport, Brittany, France 1320) by: Laura J. Burns & Melinda Metz
#4 Blood and Brine (The Caribbean, 1661) by: Greg Cox
#5 The Ghosts of Slayers Past (London, England 1843) by: Scott Allie
#6 The New Watcher (Atlanta, Georgia 1864) by: Kristine Kathryn Rusch
#7 House of the Vampire (London, England 1897) by: Michael Reaves
#8 The War Between the States (New York City, New York 1922) by: Rebecca Rand Kirshner
#9 Stakeout on Rush Street (Chicago, Illinois 1943) by: Max Allan Collins & Matthew V. Clemens
#10 Again (Sunnydale, California 1999) by: Jane Espenson
368 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1996
About the author
Scott Allie
236 books20 followersScott Allie is an American comics writer and editor, best known as an editor and executive at Dark Horse Comics from 1994 to 2017.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
June 3, 2022
This is the second of four anthologies that presented short stories that featured Slayers from various historical times and locales, though Buffy herself does appear twice in this volume. The stories range from Japan in 980 to contemporary Sunnydale, with stops in 1320 France, The Caribbean in 1661, London in 1843 and again in 1897, New York in 1922, 1943 Chicago, and 1864 Georgia. Among the authors are genre stalwarts like Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Michael Reaves, and Greg Cox, Laura J. Burns and Melinda Metz (known most for Roswell), Scott Allie (of comics fame), Max Allan Collins (known best for mysteries), and Rebecca Rand Kirshner, Todd A. McIntosh, and Jane Espenson from the television show itself. It's a somewhat uneven collection, with a few duds and a couple of stand-out stories. I especially enjoyed Again by Jane Espenson and The War Between the States by Rebecca Rand Kirshner. Curiously, there was no editor credited on the book.
June 22, 2011
I'm giving this BUFFY collection five stars only because of one standout story -- THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES by Rebecca Rand Kirshner.
Not only is this Slayer story set in the Roaring Twenties, my favorite time period, it has an adorable flapper heroine, tons of romance, and a dark-haired, incredibly slinky and glamorous Slayer named Ardita who's more exotic and more mysterious than Buffy while still having a heart of gold and being incredibly helpful and supportive of the heroine.
You see, in this story the "heroine" is really a very ordinary girl. She's not a Slayer. She's just a sweet, not always very sensible, but very brave and determined young girl from Charleston, South Carolina. She doesn't want to just marry the "right" boy and stay in her hot, stuffy, tiresomely backward South. She wants to sample the freedom, excitement, and hope offered by the North. (This is why the story is called THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES -- there's a real struggle between freedom and slavery, between what the girl knows is safe and what she's daring to reach out for.)
In the end, the cute little southern girl gets what she wants -- but along the way she learns some terrifying lessons about the evil creatures of the night. And she also learns, in some very unexpected and touching ways, that being a Slayer is much lonelier and less rewarding than being an "ordinary" girl. At the end you see how special the Slayer really is, yet you also see how ordinary people can be very special too.
All the other stories in this collection are totally bland and generic, but this one is a classic!
Not only is this Slayer story set in the Roaring Twenties, my favorite time period, it has an adorable flapper heroine, tons of romance, and a dark-haired, incredibly slinky and glamorous Slayer named Ardita who's more exotic and more mysterious than Buffy while still having a heart of gold and being incredibly helpful and supportive of the heroine.
You see, in this story the "heroine" is really a very ordinary girl. She's not a Slayer. She's just a sweet, not always very sensible, but very brave and determined young girl from Charleston, South Carolina. She doesn't want to just marry the "right" boy and stay in her hot, stuffy, tiresomely backward South. She wants to sample the freedom, excitement, and hope offered by the North. (This is why the story is called THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES -- there's a real struggle between freedom and slavery, between what the girl knows is safe and what she's daring to reach out for.)
In the end, the cute little southern girl gets what she wants -- but along the way she learns some terrifying lessons about the evil creatures of the night. And she also learns, in some very unexpected and touching ways, that being a Slayer is much lonelier and less rewarding than being an "ordinary" girl. At the end you see how special the Slayer really is, yet you also see how ordinary people can be very special too.
All the other stories in this collection are totally bland and generic, but this one is a classic!
December 23, 2011
I probably said this about the previous book but I find the whole idea of changing writers in the middle of the book very annoying. You're just getting used to a style of writing and then have to start again. It makes sense why they did it this way but its frustrating.
Some of the stories were interesting, like the gang going back in time. But some were boring, they took forever to get into the story. By the time the shit went down in the stories, it was time to flush and then it was over. Pacing was something that was weak in the stories.
Otherwise an interesting read. It will probably be a while before I go near volume 3 though.
Some of the stories were interesting, like the gang going back in time. But some were boring, they took forever to get into the story. By the time the shit went down in the stories, it was time to flush and then it was over. Pacing was something that was weak in the stories.
Otherwise an interesting read. It will probably be a while before I go near volume 3 though.
January 16, 2020
Obviously, not as big of a fan of this second collection as I was of the original Tales of the Slayer. Most of the stories are just middling, with only two that really stand out to me as truly show worthy adventures.
All That You Do Comes Back Unto Thee: A huge letdown considering that this is the opening story. It's set in 2000, during the latter half of Buffy's freshman year at UC Sunnydale. In terms of plot, it does closely resemble the sort of story that we would normally have seen, barring the lack of any hint to the Initiative which was already a part of the show's lore by that point in the season. However, the gang just does not sound like the gang. The voices are entirely wrong and the motivations, while believable, feel a bit hollow. I think this is largely because half of the story is told from Josh's perspective and it leaves the impression that Buffy's superpowers would surprise absolutely no one if she spoke of them openly. (Granted, that could very well be the case. They did name her Class Protector, after all.) Also, the Buffy gang's lack of response to Josh's death also left a distinctly false note to the narrative. Traditionally, the gang was always hit rather hard by deaths of old "friends" from school.
Lady Shobu: I enjoyed reading about a Japanese slayer! So often the stories take place in European countries or colonies, so it was a breath of fresh air to read about the idea of vampires from an Asian perspective. Kishi Minomoto was a fun teenager to spend time with and I felt so sorry for her when she gets thrown into the Imperial court of Japan with almost no information and threats of execution hanging over her head if she doesn't figure it out. Being a slayer in an honor/shame society seems to be a level of difficult that I doubt Buffy could ever have handled. The only slightly laughable part of this story is that Kishi seems to have to fight every distinctly Japanese demon throughout the course of one night. I think Kara Dalkey could have done with stretching the time of the narrative out a bit.
Abomination: I was so excited to read this story because of who the authors were: Laura J. Burns and Melinda Metz, the dynamic duo that gave me one of the book series I obsessed over at 14 -- The Roswell High books. As one would expect from two such writers, the story involves a forbidden romance, only this time it's not between a human and an alien, but is between a Potential and a Watcher. This isn't a problem really until the Potential becomes the Slayer and the Watcher's Council finds out about their illicit marriage and their two children. This has all the makings of a really interesting and dramatic story...but the execution is a bit sloppy. In the beginning, you feel for Eliane, but when she agrees to let an entire city full of innocent people die simply because the Watcher's Council separated her from her husband, well...I lost empathy with her pretty quickly. She does not seem to care at all what happens until her own family starts dying. There is a great moral lesson here: waiting until you're personally affected to fight a problem is too long of a wait. And it's definitely an interesting dynamic to study -- possible romantic liaisons between Watchers and slayers -- but you really need more than 20 or so pages to make an obviously selfish slayer into a character we can care about, if that's the angle you're going to follow. I could have even given this individual story high marks if it wasn't for the abruptness of the ending. Why exactly does Eliane burst into flames? Is spontaneous combustion a last-ditch self-defense for slayers, like a rattlesnake biting itself? I don't know. That part was random and weird, and a bit convenient for my tastes, and is never explained.
Blood and Brine: This was one of the two stories that made this collection three stars instead of only two. Greg Cox wrote some of my favorite APO era Alias novels, so I went into this story with high hopes. And he lived up to all of them. Seriously, a pirate slayer!? How had no one written that before this story?! Captain Robin is not only a slayer, but is a woman masquerading as man so that she can scour this seas and plunder Spanish ships in the Caribbean. I LOVE IT. And, even better, is that this is the first story in the collection where the slayer fights more than a singular, powerful vampire. Robin gets to fight an ancient demon from under the seas that sailors always called the Kraken. And it's a gory story full of pirate battles and entrails strewn across ships. If I had read this story when it originally came out (when I was 16), this would have fit all my requirements for a perfect story.
The Ghosts of Slayers Past: I really should have been able to tell from the title that this was going to be an A Christmas Carol pastiche. I kind of guessed it would be somewhat Dickensian when I read the name of the Watcher in the story: Charlton Muzzlewhit, which made me spit my coffee out laughing when I read it cos I could tell right away it was a play on the Dickensian novel/character Martin Chuzzlewhit. The story, taking place in 1843, even coincides for when the story was being published serially in papers throughout London. So, Scott Allie, I see what you did there. However, that's really where the good parts end on this story. And to be honest, I really don't feel that this story belongs in a collection called Tales of the Slayer because it's more about Catherine Hogarth's Watcher, and he's an annoying head space to be in. As you can guess from the A Christmas Carol narrative style, Charlton thinks himself above the East End slayer that has been assigned to him, and he gets led through time by a Dutch slayer from the past as a ghost, is shown the present by the slayer previous to Catherine, and then we get only a couple of paragraphs of the slayer from the future: Buffy Summers, whose English is apparently so awful that it frightens Charlton into being the Watcher his slayer deserves. It was a funny little tale, but as I stated before, not really about the slayer at all.
The New Watcher: A slayer during the American Civil War who dresses up as a boy and fights for the Union Army. Apart from that, nothing to say really. We don't read much about her fighting any villains and it's more endless praise of General William T. Sherman's raid of Georgia and his bloody ruthlessness. Once again, the slayer takes a back seat to praising of a man.
House of the Vampire: This one showed a lot of promise. A slayer in the southside of London during the days of Springheel Jack and Jack the Ripper, who like Buffy after her, wants to fight evil and still have friends at the end of the day. And, as with Buffy, she finds that does not come without casualties. Also, like Buffy, she fights Dracula...only Angelique does not have the benefit of having numerous movies about Dracula to watch to discover all the ways he can trick a person into believing he'll stay dead. Where the story falls short is in treating pop culture references as though they're real. It's not so much the Dracula references to van Helsing as Angelique's Watcher -- those make sense and are explained by the narrative -- but rather have to do with having Sherlock Holmes references everywhere. I get it, Michael Reaves. You like detective fiction from the turn of the 20th century. But the Sherlock Holmes references add absolutely nothing to the story and I feel that they should have stuck with names from detectives of the times that are still famous instead of using only fictional characters.
The War Between the States: Sally Jean is insufferable and I wanted her to get killed by a vampire. Ardita was a great slayer, and once again, we never really get to see much of her in a book entitled Tales of the Slayer. Instead, we get stuck inside the head of this envious, superficial, backwards girl the whole time. I don't blame Sally Jean for being stupid about vampires that she doesn't know exist, but she treats people terribly and she's terribly ungrateful. In truth, she reminded me of Eve in the movie All About Eve, and I kept picturing Bette Davis as Ardita. Huh...I wonder if that was the writer's inspiration.
Stakeout on Rush Street: Fun, and I think Buffy would appreciate that Betty staked one of the oldest vamps in the world with her high heel. RESPECT.
Again: The second story that saved this collection and made it worth reading. Granted, Jane Espenson wrote this one, and it is proof that a show's character voices are always most authentic when penned by people who wrote the show. With this story, we are once again back with the show's characters, but with a twist. The characters as they are in 2001 (season 6 of the show) wake up and find themselves in their 1999 bodies. This led to one of the funniest exchanges in the book:
"It looks smaller," he continued. The building, the parking lot, the bike racks. "Even the buses."
Willow turned to look. "Xander, that's the special education bus. It *is* smaller."
"Oh....right."
That whole exchange was so much like what I would expect from the characters I watched every week that I actually cackled in glee. But it wasn't all laughs and hijinks and pop culture references. There was a series of heartbreaking scenes between Buffy and Joyce, and a hard decision for Buffy -- have her mom back and lose her sister, or return to 2001 with everything she's lost, but which has a sister she was willing to die to protect. The story ends much like you would expect, but the journey is quite a page turner, and I cannot think of a better story they could have chosen to finish out the collection. A 25 page masterpiece.
All That You Do Comes Back Unto Thee: A huge letdown considering that this is the opening story. It's set in 2000, during the latter half of Buffy's freshman year at UC Sunnydale. In terms of plot, it does closely resemble the sort of story that we would normally have seen, barring the lack of any hint to the Initiative which was already a part of the show's lore by that point in the season. However, the gang just does not sound like the gang. The voices are entirely wrong and the motivations, while believable, feel a bit hollow. I think this is largely because half of the story is told from Josh's perspective and it leaves the impression that Buffy's superpowers would surprise absolutely no one if she spoke of them openly. (Granted, that could very well be the case. They did name her Class Protector, after all.) Also, the Buffy gang's lack of response to Josh's death also left a distinctly false note to the narrative. Traditionally, the gang was always hit rather hard by deaths of old "friends" from school.
Lady Shobu: I enjoyed reading about a Japanese slayer! So often the stories take place in European countries or colonies, so it was a breath of fresh air to read about the idea of vampires from an Asian perspective. Kishi Minomoto was a fun teenager to spend time with and I felt so sorry for her when she gets thrown into the Imperial court of Japan with almost no information and threats of execution hanging over her head if she doesn't figure it out. Being a slayer in an honor/shame society seems to be a level of difficult that I doubt Buffy could ever have handled. The only slightly laughable part of this story is that Kishi seems to have to fight every distinctly Japanese demon throughout the course of one night. I think Kara Dalkey could have done with stretching the time of the narrative out a bit.
Abomination: I was so excited to read this story because of who the authors were: Laura J. Burns and Melinda Metz, the dynamic duo that gave me one of the book series I obsessed over at 14 -- The Roswell High books. As one would expect from two such writers, the story involves a forbidden romance, only this time it's not between a human and an alien, but is between a Potential and a Watcher. This isn't a problem really until the Potential becomes the Slayer and the Watcher's Council finds out about their illicit marriage and their two children. This has all the makings of a really interesting and dramatic story...but the execution is a bit sloppy. In the beginning, you feel for Eliane, but when she agrees to let an entire city full of innocent people die simply because the Watcher's Council separated her from her husband, well...I lost empathy with her pretty quickly. She does not seem to care at all what happens until her own family starts dying. There is a great moral lesson here: waiting until you're personally affected to fight a problem is too long of a wait. And it's definitely an interesting dynamic to study -- possible romantic liaisons between Watchers and slayers -- but you really need more than 20 or so pages to make an obviously selfish slayer into a character we can care about, if that's the angle you're going to follow. I could have even given this individual story high marks if it wasn't for the abruptness of the ending. Why exactly does Eliane burst into flames? Is spontaneous combustion a last-ditch self-defense for slayers, like a rattlesnake biting itself? I don't know. That part was random and weird, and a bit convenient for my tastes, and is never explained.
Blood and Brine: This was one of the two stories that made this collection three stars instead of only two. Greg Cox wrote some of my favorite APO era Alias novels, so I went into this story with high hopes. And he lived up to all of them. Seriously, a pirate slayer!? How had no one written that before this story?! Captain Robin is not only a slayer, but is a woman masquerading as man so that she can scour this seas and plunder Spanish ships in the Caribbean. I LOVE IT. And, even better, is that this is the first story in the collection where the slayer fights more than a singular, powerful vampire. Robin gets to fight an ancient demon from under the seas that sailors always called the Kraken. And it's a gory story full of pirate battles and entrails strewn across ships. If I had read this story when it originally came out (when I was 16), this would have fit all my requirements for a perfect story.
The Ghosts of Slayers Past: I really should have been able to tell from the title that this was going to be an A Christmas Carol pastiche. I kind of guessed it would be somewhat Dickensian when I read the name of the Watcher in the story: Charlton Muzzlewhit, which made me spit my coffee out laughing when I read it cos I could tell right away it was a play on the Dickensian novel/character Martin Chuzzlewhit. The story, taking place in 1843, even coincides for when the story was being published serially in papers throughout London. So, Scott Allie, I see what you did there. However, that's really where the good parts end on this story. And to be honest, I really don't feel that this story belongs in a collection called Tales of the Slayer because it's more about Catherine Hogarth's Watcher, and he's an annoying head space to be in. As you can guess from the A Christmas Carol narrative style, Charlton thinks himself above the East End slayer that has been assigned to him, and he gets led through time by a Dutch slayer from the past as a ghost, is shown the present by the slayer previous to Catherine, and then we get only a couple of paragraphs of the slayer from the future: Buffy Summers, whose English is apparently so awful that it frightens Charlton into being the Watcher his slayer deserves. It was a funny little tale, but as I stated before, not really about the slayer at all.
The New Watcher: A slayer during the American Civil War who dresses up as a boy and fights for the Union Army. Apart from that, nothing to say really. We don't read much about her fighting any villains and it's more endless praise of General William T. Sherman's raid of Georgia and his bloody ruthlessness. Once again, the slayer takes a back seat to praising of a man.
House of the Vampire: This one showed a lot of promise. A slayer in the southside of London during the days of Springheel Jack and Jack the Ripper, who like Buffy after her, wants to fight evil and still have friends at the end of the day. And, as with Buffy, she finds that does not come without casualties. Also, like Buffy, she fights Dracula...only Angelique does not have the benefit of having numerous movies about Dracula to watch to discover all the ways he can trick a person into believing he'll stay dead. Where the story falls short is in treating pop culture references as though they're real. It's not so much the Dracula references to van Helsing as Angelique's Watcher -- those make sense and are explained by the narrative -- but rather have to do with having Sherlock Holmes references everywhere. I get it, Michael Reaves. You like detective fiction from the turn of the 20th century. But the Sherlock Holmes references add absolutely nothing to the story and I feel that they should have stuck with names from detectives of the times that are still famous instead of using only fictional characters.
The War Between the States: Sally Jean is insufferable and I wanted her to get killed by a vampire. Ardita was a great slayer, and once again, we never really get to see much of her in a book entitled Tales of the Slayer. Instead, we get stuck inside the head of this envious, superficial, backwards girl the whole time. I don't blame Sally Jean for being stupid about vampires that she doesn't know exist, but she treats people terribly and she's terribly ungrateful. In truth, she reminded me of Eve in the movie All About Eve, and I kept picturing Bette Davis as Ardita. Huh...I wonder if that was the writer's inspiration.
Stakeout on Rush Street: Fun, and I think Buffy would appreciate that Betty staked one of the oldest vamps in the world with her high heel. RESPECT.
Again: The second story that saved this collection and made it worth reading. Granted, Jane Espenson wrote this one, and it is proof that a show's character voices are always most authentic when penned by people who wrote the show. With this story, we are once again back with the show's characters, but with a twist. The characters as they are in 2001 (season 6 of the show) wake up and find themselves in their 1999 bodies. This led to one of the funniest exchanges in the book:
"It looks smaller," he continued. The building, the parking lot, the bike racks. "Even the buses."
Willow turned to look. "Xander, that's the special education bus. It *is* smaller."
"Oh....right."
That whole exchange was so much like what I would expect from the characters I watched every week that I actually cackled in glee. But it wasn't all laughs and hijinks and pop culture references. There was a series of heartbreaking scenes between Buffy and Joyce, and a hard decision for Buffy -- have her mom back and lose her sister, or return to 2001 with everything she's lost, but which has a sister she was willing to die to protect. The story ends much like you would expect, but the journey is quite a page turner, and I cannot think of a better story they could have chosen to finish out the collection. A 25 page masterpiece.
July 11, 2016
All That You Do Comes Back Unto Thee: 5/5
Lady Shobu: 4/5
Abomination: 5/5
Blood and Brine: 5/5
The Ghosts of Slayers Past : 5/5
The New Watcher: 5/5
House of the Vampire: 3/5
The War Between the States: 3/5
Stakeout on Rush Street: 2/5
Again: 4/5
Lady Shobu: 4/5
Abomination: 5/5
Blood and Brine: 5/5
The Ghosts of Slayers Past : 5/5
The New Watcher: 5/5
House of the Vampire: 3/5
The War Between the States: 3/5
Stakeout on Rush Street: 2/5
Again: 4/5
April 25, 2015
You're probably asking why I read this. It looks like the kind of thing that would be complete and utter torture. And I'd agree, if not for the fact that Melinda Metz is a contributor. And I really want to read something by Melinda Metz. The reason being - and I feel like such a geek for admitting this - Melinda Metz ghostwrote two Animorphs books, including The Sickness, widely considered the best of the ghostwritten books in the series. So, I entered this book, wary. Sure, I like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but that doesn't mean I like short stories based off of it. In fact, the very concept makes me shudder with fear. But this actually isn't the worst thing I've ever read. Don't get me wrong, there are some terrible, terrible stories here. But there are also a couple of gems, some from surprising sources. So, without further adieu, here's what I thought of each story individually:
All That You Do Comes Back Unto Thee by Todd A. McIntosh: 1/5
Boy, did this ever leave a sour taste in my mouth. It's easily the worst short story here, and it was a huge mistake to open with it. It should be noted that I didn't actually finish this story, because it did not deserve the effort. The story is about Josh, a minor character from Season 3. Don't remember him? That's probably because there's absolutely nothing interesting about him. McIntosh takes this character - who I believe was supposed to be goth - and turns him into the biggest camp gay stereotype I've ever seen. Josh references Bette Davis movies, he wears excessive amounts of makeup, and it's so obvious that he apparently didn't even have to come out to his parents. It was extremely grating to read, especially considering this is a spin-off of one of the most progressive shows of its day. Not to mention that McIntosh is a terrible writer. Buffy has never exactly had the best dialogue in the world, but holy shit, McIntosh writes like a third-grader imitating the banter on Full House.
Nobody talks like that. I try not to make angry, ranty reviews anymore, but if there's any story that deserves it, it's this one. I could go through the entire story and just add commentary on the terrible dialogue and prose. Combined with an uninteresting idea, and there's absolutely no reason to read this story.
Lady Shobu by Kara Dalkey: 3/5
This was a significantly better story, because I'm at least convinced that the author knows what good writing is supposed to look like. It was also nice to see a story outside the west - this is the only story that didn't have a white narrator, even though there should be Slayers all over the world at various points in history. Anyway, the writing was also pretty good, and Shobu was a very human and well-developed character. The problem is, the story itself was pretty boring. Dalkey spends too much time on the buildup. She starts the story where Shobu is called as a Slayer for no good reason, needlessly dragging out the beginning. When we do get to the real story, it isn't very creepy or memorable - the monster feels like it's ripped out of one of the less silly Buffy fillers. Still, call it the benefit of lowered expectations, but this was a huge improvement over the last story.
Abomination by Laura J. Burns and Melinda Metz: 4/5
As I said above, Melinda Metz is the primary reason I read this anthology. Here, she's collaborating with another author, but while this isn't as good as her work in Animorphs, it's still a highlight. The writing is quite good - very atmospheric and genuinely dark. It's also got a very nice story. It alternates between stories in the present tense and flashbacks, which is generally a risky choice, but it works here. The reason I took off a star, though, was that I felt generally distant from the story. Metz and Burns never really connect us to the protagonist - I never felt like we got to know her. It made the ending, while still surprising, not as creepy as it could've been. Nonetheless, this is probably the best story in this mostly-mediocre anthology.
Blood and Brine by Greg Cox: 4/5
This one started off pretty slow, and it was written in a painful "pirate-speak", which made me cringe throughout. But in spite of that, there's actually a lot to like here. Our protagonist is a pretty compelling character, as was her watcher. She had what I see as a realistic mentality for someone disguising herself as a boy, and most of the cliches of 'girl disguises as boy' stories are avoided (she doesn't fall in love, huzzah!). And the story itself was pretty interesting as well, once it picked up - the moral conflict of leadership presented here was pretty unusual for this anthology, where most of the stories focused on secret-keeping and isolation. There's definitely a lot of that here, but even in the short time, Cox also introduces more, which makes the story stand out. It's not the best thing here, but it's overall fun and entertaining.
The Ghosts of Slayers Past by Scott Allie: 2/5
I honestly don't remember much about this one, and I only read it a couple weeks ago. I skimmed most of this story, probably because while the writing style attempted to be fancy, it just ended up awkward and dull. The story itself wasn't much better. Bizarrely, this was a retelling of The Christmas Carol, from the POV of a watcher. I skimmed it, so I don't remember too much of the story, but I was left with the vague impression that it was exactly as cheesy and odd as you'd think it would be. There just isn't much to say about this one, to be honest, because I remember so little about it.
The New Watcher by Kristine Kathryn Rusch: 3/5
I had high hopes for this one. While I was a little annoyed that this is the second story here to have the slayer disguised as a man, that premise is handled here just as well as it is in Blood and Brine. And the setting here is even more evocative than Blood and Brine's was. If I'm to praise this story for anything, it would be the way Rusch's prose creates an evocative and immersive picture of the Civil War. Combined with a well-written slayer as our protagonist, there's a ton of potential here. But there's virtually no plot at all, much to my disappointment. In fact, the story actually ended right as I thought the plot was about to finally begin. Rusch seems to have went into the story with a very good character and setting in mind, but without much idea of a story. If she had gotten a story to go along with the setting, this might've been the best story here. But instead, it cuts off awkwardly, leaving all its potential behind it.
House of the Vampire by Michael Reaves: 2/5
I abandoned this story, almost entirely because of the horrendous prose. It's not as hilarious in its badness as McIntosh's from earlier in the anthology, but it's just as unreadable. Too many adjectives, big words used simply because Reaves can, and unimportant descriptions that go on for entire paragraphs. I feel like Reaves was attempting to be 'literary', because he's writing about Victorian London, but I would rather have bland prose than this half-assed attempt to be accurate to the time period. The story also opens the same way a good two thirds of the early Buffy episodes open - someone is walking through a dark alley, and they're attacked by a vampire. The tiny bit of story I saw after that did appear to have some potential, but that cliche, combined with the terrible prose, meant I wouldn't be reading it.
The War Between the States by Rebecca Rand Kirshner: 3/5
The writing was pretty good here, which is a nice change from most of this poorly-edited anthology. And, more importantly, our main character was pretty well-written. Kirshner put a lot of effort into delving through her psyche, which not a lot of authors did here. It's fascinating to watch her obsession with the flapper that she maybe falls in love with, and the arc progresses with a subtlety that this book generally lacks. The problem comes with this: nothing supernatural shows up until the last 5 pages of this 30-pages story. And when the supernatural elements do show up, they feel incredibly tacked on, almost like they belong to a different story. It's as if Kirshner wrote a good realistic fiction story about the twenties, and then haphazardly adapted it into a vampire story for this anthology. It's a shame, because Kirshner is clearly a far more skilled writer than most of this anthology's authors, and the subtlety and grace in the prose was refreshing. But it just doesn't fit into an anthology about vampires.
Stakeout on Rush Street by Max Allan Collins with Matthew V. Clemens: 4/5
(Note: I'm assuming Clemens was the one that actually wrote this story, because every time I've seen an author credited as being 'with' the main author, they've been a ghostwriter. Maybe Clemens is just Collins' intern or something, but him being a ghostwriter feels like a safe bet.)
This was probably my favorite story here. Which is odd, because the story has a terrible premise. This is basically a pastiche of film noir style detective movies, with vampires added in. It should've been a disaster along the lines of The Ghosts of Slayers Past. But I actually had a lot of fun with it. It was a little rushed, which is why I took the star off, but Clemens gets the mood exactly right so that it's a fun kind of cheesy, rather than a painful kind. It's the same line that Buffy often struggles to toe throughout its run, and it's nice to see it work so well here. The prose is evocative, and the main character is surprisingly well-developed. It's overall a success in a way that most the anthology never achieves.
Again by Jane Espenson: 2/5
This was the other story in the anthology about Buffy and the Scoobies. It was better than McIntosh's story, but that's not saying much. The writing and dialogue are still very cheesy, although it's not quite as bad here as it was with McIntosh. Still, Espenson (who writes for the main TV series) is clearly unaccustomed to writing prose. She's thinking like a screenwriter, with scenes mostly consisting of dialogue, with maybe a couple of descriptive details awkwardly shoehorned in. She can't seem to communicate the emotions or character traits of the Scoobies subtly through the dialogue, so instead, she tells us blatantly, which came across as lazy and awkward. It's a shame, because the story itself isn't actually that bad. The ending was fairly cheesy, and there wasn't much explaining, but on a base level, there was potential in the premise. And the scenes featuring Buffy had an urgency to them, giving the story the tension that often serves as the strong point of the TV series. But it was so badly written that I can't get behind it.
Overall, I suppose I could recommend this to you if you're a die-hard fan of the TV series. There are a couple of gems here, after all, even if you have to wade through a lot of shit to get to them. But if you're not in love with the TV show, you'll find a lot of bad stories, without enough good ones to make it worth the effort.
All That You Do Comes Back Unto Thee by Todd A. McIntosh: 1/5
Boy, did this ever leave a sour taste in my mouth. It's easily the worst short story here, and it was a huge mistake to open with it. It should be noted that I didn't actually finish this story, because it did not deserve the effort. The story is about Josh, a minor character from Season 3. Don't remember him? That's probably because there's absolutely nothing interesting about him. McIntosh takes this character - who I believe was supposed to be goth - and turns him into the biggest camp gay stereotype I've ever seen. Josh references Bette Davis movies, he wears excessive amounts of makeup, and it's so obvious that he apparently didn't even have to come out to his parents. It was extremely grating to read, especially considering this is a spin-off of one of the most progressive shows of its day. Not to mention that McIntosh is a terrible writer. Buffy has never exactly had the best dialogue in the world, but holy shit, McIntosh writes like a third-grader imitating the banter on Full House.
Tara: Oh, did you guys hear about Bruce Carter? The jock guy you flipped yesterday?
Willow: I told Tara about how you helped Josh Headly with that stupid jock... again.
Buffy: That's what makes having superhero powers worthwhile. Just so I can come to the rescue of the underdog. What freshman girl doesn't dream of whooping some jock ass now and again? Anyway, Tara, you were saying?
Tara: Well, he's dead. His mom found him in his room this morning. They think it might have been one of those freak sports accidents. You know how it's always the young guy who is in top shape that dies of the unexpected clot or something. The only thing is they said he was all dehydrated like Xander was saying.
Xander: Whoa, whoa, whoa, now girl. This isn't the right campfire for dark and nasty-scare-Xander-to-death tales. I'm led hear to the Egyptian den by my bestest friends, on the excuse of a friendly get together, and just before I'm dragged into the maw of death, I hear something like this? No, I'm scootin, Scoobies.
Nobody talks like that. I try not to make angry, ranty reviews anymore, but if there's any story that deserves it, it's this one. I could go through the entire story and just add commentary on the terrible dialogue and prose. Combined with an uninteresting idea, and there's absolutely no reason to read this story.
Lady Shobu by Kara Dalkey: 3/5
This was a significantly better story, because I'm at least convinced that the author knows what good writing is supposed to look like. It was also nice to see a story outside the west - this is the only story that didn't have a white narrator, even though there should be Slayers all over the world at various points in history. Anyway, the writing was also pretty good, and Shobu was a very human and well-developed character. The problem is, the story itself was pretty boring. Dalkey spends too much time on the buildup. She starts the story where Shobu is called as a Slayer for no good reason, needlessly dragging out the beginning. When we do get to the real story, it isn't very creepy or memorable - the monster feels like it's ripped out of one of the less silly Buffy fillers. Still, call it the benefit of lowered expectations, but this was a huge improvement over the last story.
Abomination by Laura J. Burns and Melinda Metz: 4/5
As I said above, Melinda Metz is the primary reason I read this anthology. Here, she's collaborating with another author, but while this isn't as good as her work in Animorphs, it's still a highlight. The writing is quite good - very atmospheric and genuinely dark. It's also got a very nice story. It alternates between stories in the present tense and flashbacks, which is generally a risky choice, but it works here. The reason I took off a star, though, was that I felt generally distant from the story. Metz and Burns never really connect us to the protagonist - I never felt like we got to know her. It made the ending, while still surprising, not as creepy as it could've been. Nonetheless, this is probably the best story in this mostly-mediocre anthology.
Blood and Brine by Greg Cox: 4/5
This one started off pretty slow, and it was written in a painful "pirate-speak", which made me cringe throughout. But in spite of that, there's actually a lot to like here. Our protagonist is a pretty compelling character, as was her watcher. She had what I see as a realistic mentality for someone disguising herself as a boy, and most of the cliches of 'girl disguises as boy' stories are avoided (she doesn't fall in love, huzzah!). And the story itself was pretty interesting as well, once it picked up - the moral conflict of leadership presented here was pretty unusual for this anthology, where most of the stories focused on secret-keeping and isolation. There's definitely a lot of that here, but even in the short time, Cox also introduces more, which makes the story stand out. It's not the best thing here, but it's overall fun and entertaining.
The Ghosts of Slayers Past by Scott Allie: 2/5
I honestly don't remember much about this one, and I only read it a couple weeks ago. I skimmed most of this story, probably because while the writing style attempted to be fancy, it just ended up awkward and dull. The story itself wasn't much better. Bizarrely, this was a retelling of The Christmas Carol, from the POV of a watcher. I skimmed it, so I don't remember too much of the story, but I was left with the vague impression that it was exactly as cheesy and odd as you'd think it would be. There just isn't much to say about this one, to be honest, because I remember so little about it.
The New Watcher by Kristine Kathryn Rusch: 3/5
I had high hopes for this one. While I was a little annoyed that this is the second story here to have the slayer disguised as a man, that premise is handled here just as well as it is in Blood and Brine. And the setting here is even more evocative than Blood and Brine's was. If I'm to praise this story for anything, it would be the way Rusch's prose creates an evocative and immersive picture of the Civil War. Combined with a well-written slayer as our protagonist, there's a ton of potential here. But there's virtually no plot at all, much to my disappointment. In fact, the story actually ended right as I thought the plot was about to finally begin. Rusch seems to have went into the story with a very good character and setting in mind, but without much idea of a story. If she had gotten a story to go along with the setting, this might've been the best story here. But instead, it cuts off awkwardly, leaving all its potential behind it.
House of the Vampire by Michael Reaves: 2/5
I abandoned this story, almost entirely because of the horrendous prose. It's not as hilarious in its badness as McIntosh's from earlier in the anthology, but it's just as unreadable. Too many adjectives, big words used simply because Reaves can, and unimportant descriptions that go on for entire paragraphs. I feel like Reaves was attempting to be 'literary', because he's writing about Victorian London, but I would rather have bland prose than this half-assed attempt to be accurate to the time period. The story also opens the same way a good two thirds of the early Buffy episodes open - someone is walking through a dark alley, and they're attacked by a vampire. The tiny bit of story I saw after that did appear to have some potential, but that cliche, combined with the terrible prose, meant I wouldn't be reading it.
The War Between the States by Rebecca Rand Kirshner: 3/5
The writing was pretty good here, which is a nice change from most of this poorly-edited anthology. And, more importantly, our main character was pretty well-written. Kirshner put a lot of effort into delving through her psyche, which not a lot of authors did here. It's fascinating to watch her obsession with the flapper that she maybe falls in love with, and the arc progresses with a subtlety that this book generally lacks. The problem comes with this: nothing supernatural shows up until the last 5 pages of this 30-pages story. And when the supernatural elements do show up, they feel incredibly tacked on, almost like they belong to a different story. It's as if Kirshner wrote a good realistic fiction story about the twenties, and then haphazardly adapted it into a vampire story for this anthology. It's a shame, because Kirshner is clearly a far more skilled writer than most of this anthology's authors, and the subtlety and grace in the prose was refreshing. But it just doesn't fit into an anthology about vampires.
Stakeout on Rush Street by Max Allan Collins with Matthew V. Clemens: 4/5
(Note: I'm assuming Clemens was the one that actually wrote this story, because every time I've seen an author credited as being 'with' the main author, they've been a ghostwriter. Maybe Clemens is just Collins' intern or something, but him being a ghostwriter feels like a safe bet.)
This was probably my favorite story here. Which is odd, because the story has a terrible premise. This is basically a pastiche of film noir style detective movies, with vampires added in. It should've been a disaster along the lines of The Ghosts of Slayers Past. But I actually had a lot of fun with it. It was a little rushed, which is why I took the star off, but Clemens gets the mood exactly right so that it's a fun kind of cheesy, rather than a painful kind. It's the same line that Buffy often struggles to toe throughout its run, and it's nice to see it work so well here. The prose is evocative, and the main character is surprisingly well-developed. It's overall a success in a way that most the anthology never achieves.
Again by Jane Espenson: 2/5
This was the other story in the anthology about Buffy and the Scoobies. It was better than McIntosh's story, but that's not saying much. The writing and dialogue are still very cheesy, although it's not quite as bad here as it was with McIntosh. Still, Espenson (who writes for the main TV series) is clearly unaccustomed to writing prose. She's thinking like a screenwriter, with scenes mostly consisting of dialogue, with maybe a couple of descriptive details awkwardly shoehorned in. She can't seem to communicate the emotions or character traits of the Scoobies subtly through the dialogue, so instead, she tells us blatantly, which came across as lazy and awkward. It's a shame, because the story itself isn't actually that bad. The ending was fairly cheesy, and there wasn't much explaining, but on a base level, there was potential in the premise. And the scenes featuring Buffy had an urgency to them, giving the story the tension that often serves as the strong point of the TV series. But it was so badly written that I can't get behind it.
Overall, I suppose I could recommend this to you if you're a die-hard fan of the TV series. There are a couple of gems here, after all, even if you have to wade through a lot of shit to get to them. But if you're not in love with the TV show, you'll find a lot of bad stories, without enough good ones to make it worth the effort.
April 23, 2020
I based the 4 stars on the fact I gave the first one 4 stars and I felt the second collection wasnt as strong as the first as a whole, although some of the stories were instant favourites and my favourite story so far has some from this book (Lady Shobu). As I did with the last book, I've rated each tale individually as well. :) great for Buffy fans, but too much Buffy in a book about other slayers.
All That You Do Comes Back Unto Thee: 2 Stars
Lady Shobu: 5 Stars
Abomination: 4 Stars
Blood & Brine: 4 Stars
The Ghosts of Slayers Past: 2 stars
The New Watcher: 3 stars
House of the Vampire: 5 Stars
The War Between the States: 2 Stars
Stake out on Rush Street: 3 Stars
Again: 2 Stars
Note: two of these stories directly feature Buffy & the Scoobies. I'm not averse to the gang, obviously not, but I felt that their inclusion was rather cheap and the stories that they featured in were far too weak for such wonderful characters.
All That You Do Comes Back Unto Thee: 2 Stars
Lady Shobu: 5 Stars
Abomination: 4 Stars
Blood & Brine: 4 Stars
The Ghosts of Slayers Past: 2 stars
The New Watcher: 3 stars
House of the Vampire: 5 Stars
The War Between the States: 2 Stars
Stake out on Rush Street: 3 Stars
Again: 2 Stars
Note: two of these stories directly feature Buffy & the Scoobies. I'm not averse to the gang, obviously not, but I felt that their inclusion was rather cheap and the stories that they featured in were far too weak for such wonderful characters.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 10, 2024
4.5 stars again.
Favourites:
‘Lady Shobu, Sagami Province, Japan, 980’ by Kara Dalkey. I loved Mulan as a child and this gave me Mulan vibes.
‘House of the Vampire, London, England, 1897’ by Michael Reaves. This was my absolute favourite.
‘Stakeout on Rush Street, Chicago, Illinois, 1943’ by Max Allan Collins with Matthew V. Clemens. I really liked the mob aspect of this.
Just FYI - ‘Again, Sunnydale, California, 1999’ by Jane Espenson has spoilers from Buffy Seasons 1-5 so you need to have watched up to the end of Season 5 otherwise you’ll find out the end of Season 5.
Favourites:
‘Lady Shobu, Sagami Province, Japan, 980’ by Kara Dalkey. I loved Mulan as a child and this gave me Mulan vibes.
‘House of the Vampire, London, England, 1897’ by Michael Reaves. This was my absolute favourite.
‘Stakeout on Rush Street, Chicago, Illinois, 1943’ by Max Allan Collins with Matthew V. Clemens. I really liked the mob aspect of this.
Just FYI - ‘Again, Sunnydale, California, 1999’ by Jane Espenson has spoilers from Buffy Seasons 1-5 so you need to have watched up to the end of Season 5 otherwise you’ll find out the end of Season 5.
July 19, 2020
One of the stories made no sense to me, but all the other ones were really good!
October 19, 2020
Such awesome stories about the different slayers throughout the years
June 21, 2022
the christmas carol short story was the best surprise ever
August 23, 2024
Sherlock.... what are you doing here?!?!?
January 21, 2013
Only two of these stories might be considered canon: The War Between the States and Again . But even that is a fan contention and not confirmed by the Buffy Lord, Joss Whedon.
All That You Do Comes Back Unto Thee by Todd A. McIntosh
Already on the first page we get a gay stereotypes twofer. Seems like a cheap way to establish a character as being gay. and on the next page there is a really strange insult? He asked the guy to the prom because he's a girl? I don't even understand.
Anyone who's watched season 4 and onwards of Buffy the Vampire Slayer should know that spell-casting is portrayed as a metaphor for sex. So why then on page 8 do we get a very unsubtle spell/sex metaphor between Willow and Josh if the author maintains that they are both gay? None of this is adding up. Also, gross for making me thinking of those two together.
On page 22, the entire ancient Egyptian religion is thrown under the bus just to serve this weak plot. I read the rest of the story without paying much attention because it had become to boring and ridiculous.
The writing is weak and there are so many things that are confusing or just downright weird, but not in the fun way.
Rating: 1/5 skip it
Lady Shobu by Kara Dalkey
This story has weak writing. This story is bland and boring. It uses too many simple and short sentences. It really stops making sense on page 72. I think there are some racist undertones throughout the story but I'm frankly too bored by the story to bother analyzing it. At best it shows a superficial understanding of Japanese culture.
Also, when I read page 51 I saw the twisty-twist that happens on page 77 coming.
rating: 1/5 don't bother with this one
Abomination by Laura J. Burns and Melinda Metz
I thought the story did a very good job of establishing the romance and attraction between of two characters early in the beginning of the story. However, I didn't like the whole guilt theme.
Rating: 2/5
Blood and Brine by Greg Cox
The only criticism I have is that the dialogue is written in "pirate talk" popularized, if not invented, by the 1950 Treasure Island movie. In the beginning that makes it kind of hard to take seriously, but I got over that and really enjoyed the story. It is an excellent short story with a strong female lead. It also has a really cool monster.
Rating: 5/5 starrrs!
The Ghosts of Slayers Past by Scott Allie
This story is really stupid. I had to walk in some racist, sexist, classist watcher's mind and I didn't get any pay off at the end. All I got was a cheesy ending that made me want to punch the book in the face.
Rating: 1/5 Don't waste your time
The New Watcher by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Undercover slayer and American patriot.
rating: 4/5
House of the Vampires by Michael Reaves
I don't know, I just couldn't get into this one.
Rating: 2/5
The War Between the States by Rebecca Rand Kirshner
30 pages until something interesting happens. But even the last 5 pages don't make up for the boring social drama nonsense endured up to it. It is a pointless story with a boring ending. I also don't know why it's called The War Between the States unless that's some melodramatic metaphor.
Rating: 1/5 So boring
Stakeout on Rush Street by Max Allan Collins with Matthew V. Clemens
WTF is all of this. I do not care about your boring social and fashion life. No, I'm not going to read this. It keeps talking about clothing, people and things I do not give a shit about.
Rating: 1/5
Again by Jane Espenson
Finally something that starts off interesting! And the writing is so good. The chracterization is spot on, which makes sense because the author wrote a lot of actual episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Rating: 5/5
Taking the average of all the ratings I get 2.3. Ouch. That's what happens when you have a collection. Too many bad stories drag the whole thing down and it doesn't matter how good the good stories are.
All That You Do Comes Back Unto Thee by Todd A. McIntosh
Already on the first page we get a gay stereotypes twofer. Seems like a cheap way to establish a character as being gay. and on the next page there is a really strange insult? He asked the guy to the prom because he's a girl? I don't even understand.
Anyone who's watched season 4 and onwards of Buffy the Vampire Slayer should know that spell-casting is portrayed as a metaphor for sex. So why then on page 8 do we get a very unsubtle spell/sex metaphor between Willow and Josh if the author maintains that they are both gay? None of this is adding up. Also, gross for making me thinking of those two together.
On page 22, the entire ancient Egyptian religion is thrown under the bus just to serve this weak plot. I read the rest of the story without paying much attention because it had become to boring and ridiculous.
The writing is weak and there are so many things that are confusing or just downright weird, but not in the fun way.
Rating: 1/5 skip it
Lady Shobu by Kara Dalkey
This story has weak writing. This story is bland and boring. It uses too many simple and short sentences. It really stops making sense on page 72. I think there are some racist undertones throughout the story but I'm frankly too bored by the story to bother analyzing it. At best it shows a superficial understanding of Japanese culture.
Also, when I read page 51 I saw the twisty-twist that happens on page 77 coming.
rating: 1/5 don't bother with this one
Abomination by Laura J. Burns and Melinda Metz
I thought the story did a very good job of establishing the romance and attraction between of two characters early in the beginning of the story. However, I didn't like the whole guilt theme.
Rating: 2/5
Blood and Brine by Greg Cox
The only criticism I have is that the dialogue is written in "pirate talk" popularized, if not invented, by the 1950 Treasure Island movie. In the beginning that makes it kind of hard to take seriously, but I got over that and really enjoyed the story. It is an excellent short story with a strong female lead. It also has a really cool monster.
Rating: 5/5 starrrs!
The Ghosts of Slayers Past by Scott Allie
This story is really stupid. I had to walk in some racist, sexist, classist watcher's mind and I didn't get any pay off at the end. All I got was a cheesy ending that made me want to punch the book in the face.
Rating: 1/5 Don't waste your time
The New Watcher by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Undercover slayer and American patriot.
rating: 4/5
House of the Vampires by Michael Reaves
I don't know, I just couldn't get into this one.
Rating: 2/5
The War Between the States by Rebecca Rand Kirshner
30 pages until something interesting happens. But even the last 5 pages don't make up for the boring social drama nonsense endured up to it. It is a pointless story with a boring ending. I also don't know why it's called The War Between the States unless that's some melodramatic metaphor.
Rating: 1/5 So boring
Stakeout on Rush Street by Max Allan Collins with Matthew V. Clemens
WTF is all of this. I do not care about your boring social and fashion life. No, I'm not going to read this. It keeps talking about clothing, people and things I do not give a shit about.
Rating: 1/5
Again by Jane Espenson
Finally something that starts off interesting! And the writing is so good. The chracterization is spot on, which makes sense because the author wrote a lot of actual episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Rating: 5/5
Taking the average of all the ratings I get 2.3. Ouch. That's what happens when you have a collection. Too many bad stories drag the whole thing down and it doesn't matter how good the good stories are.
February 10, 2017
The first story here was so awful, this nearly became the first book I've abandoned in years. Todd A. McIntosh is an excellent make-up artist and an entertaining public speaker, but his dialogue is stilted to the point of unreadability. But other reviews promised the collection improved after the opener, so I soldiered on, and I'm glad that I did.
My favorites were probably "Blood and Brine" (pulpy and purple, but entertaining), "The New Watcher" (featuring one of the happiest endings in the collection, although the fact that I'm calling Sherman's March to the Sea "happy" says something), and "The War between the States" (which had the best prose and most interesting characterization in the collection, even if its relationship to Slayer lore was tenuous). Even "The Ghosts of Slayers Past," which I see other reviews disliked, entertained me, although I did feel the ending was unearned.
The story endings in general are probably my one complaint about this collection. I like tragedy in my reading material, but there's a level of bleakness here that started to wear on me, particularly because in several cases ("Lady Shobu," "House of the Vampire") it seemed tacked on to what would otherwise have been an interestingly bittersweet conclusion. I know that the life of a Slayer is hard, but even for Buffy (she died twice!) it's not all woe. It's that contrast--the difficult life and the few moments of joy grabbed despite it--that attracts me to Slayer lore. Some of these stories showed that contrast, but some just went for unremitting despair. Still, overall, it was an interesting kaleidoscope of possibilities.
My favorites were probably "Blood and Brine" (pulpy and purple, but entertaining), "The New Watcher" (featuring one of the happiest endings in the collection, although the fact that I'm calling Sherman's March to the Sea "happy" says something), and "The War between the States" (which had the best prose and most interesting characterization in the collection, even if its relationship to Slayer lore was tenuous). Even "The Ghosts of Slayers Past," which I see other reviews disliked, entertained me, although I did feel the ending was unearned.
The story endings in general are probably my one complaint about this collection. I like tragedy in my reading material, but there's a level of bleakness here that started to wear on me, particularly because in several cases ("Lady Shobu," "House of the Vampire") it seemed tacked on to what would otherwise have been an interestingly bittersweet conclusion. I know that the life of a Slayer is hard, but even for Buffy (she died twice!) it's not all woe. It's that contrast--the difficult life and the few moments of joy grabbed despite it--that attracts me to Slayer lore. Some of these stories showed that contrast, but some just went for unremitting despair. Still, overall, it was an interesting kaleidoscope of possibilities.
January 13, 2023
Geen idee waaraan het juist ligt, maar ik merk dat ik wat een boekendipje heb. Niet dat het me niet meer interesseert, maar ik lijk er precies geen tijd meer voor te kunnen vrijmaken en wanneer ik lees, dan is het maar een hoofdstukje. De tijd dat ik urenlang in de Dark Tower franchise lag te lezen is dus ver weg (al zijn dat ook echt wel geweldige boeken natuurlijk) maar misschien kon ik de liefde terug doen opflakkeren met een guilty pleasure: de Buffy reeks. Sowieso één van mijn favoriete series en de boeken kan ik vaak ook waarderen.
Het eerste volume van Tales of the Slayer was wat wisselend van succes, maar las op zich erg vlotjes weg waardoor ik wel zin had om aan de opvolger te beginnen. Het resultaat is echter nog een heel stuk wisselvalliger te noemen. Het valt op dat de verhalen met Buffy zelf het beste uit de hele collectie zijn (daarvan zitten er hier 2 in: All That You Do Comes Back Unto Thee en Again) en dat de overige werkelijk hit or miss zijn. Die knipoog/parodie naar A Christmas Carol (The Ghosts of Slayers Past) is tenenkrommend slecht en Abomination is niet veel beter. Daar staat gelukkig dan nog wel een aantal leuke verhalen tegenover zoals een Slayer als piraat (Blood and Brine) en de roaring twenties setting in The War Between the States kon me ook wel bekoren. Het probleem is echter ook dat dit qua stijl gewoon niet altijd even goed matcht en dat het soms sleuren is om door het verhaal te geraken. Het zijn echter allemaal wel korte verhalen dus er is al snel licht aan de horizon.
Waardoor je toch telkens met goede moed aan een volgend verhaal begint, maar tot nu toe ben ik nog niet zo'n enorme fan van deze vroegere Slayers. Ik blijf fan en kijk het wat door een gekleurde bril waarschijnlijk, maar geef mij dan toch maar de "gewone" boeken. Het blijft echter wel tof om te zien hoe ze wat geschiedenis kunnen verwerken in de verhaallijnen, dat is toch denk ik nog de grootste reden waarom ik dit nog zo positief beoordeel.
Het eerste volume van Tales of the Slayer was wat wisselend van succes, maar las op zich erg vlotjes weg waardoor ik wel zin had om aan de opvolger te beginnen. Het resultaat is echter nog een heel stuk wisselvalliger te noemen. Het valt op dat de verhalen met Buffy zelf het beste uit de hele collectie zijn (daarvan zitten er hier 2 in: All That You Do Comes Back Unto Thee en Again) en dat de overige werkelijk hit or miss zijn. Die knipoog/parodie naar A Christmas Carol (The Ghosts of Slayers Past) is tenenkrommend slecht en Abomination is niet veel beter. Daar staat gelukkig dan nog wel een aantal leuke verhalen tegenover zoals een Slayer als piraat (Blood and Brine) en de roaring twenties setting in The War Between the States kon me ook wel bekoren. Het probleem is echter ook dat dit qua stijl gewoon niet altijd even goed matcht en dat het soms sleuren is om door het verhaal te geraken. Het zijn echter allemaal wel korte verhalen dus er is al snel licht aan de horizon.
Waardoor je toch telkens met goede moed aan een volgend verhaal begint, maar tot nu toe ben ik nog niet zo'n enorme fan van deze vroegere Slayers. Ik blijf fan en kijk het wat door een gekleurde bril waarschijnlijk, maar geef mij dan toch maar de "gewone" boeken. Het blijft echter wel tof om te zien hoe ze wat geschiedenis kunnen verwerken in de verhaallijnen, dat is toch denk ik nog de grootste reden waarom ik dit nog zo positief beoordeel.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 6, 2015
Similarly to volume 1 of this series, the quality of stories was a mixed bag in this collection. I'd rank them as follows (from worst to best):
The Ghosts of Slayers Past - A Christmas Carol homage that didn't really go anywhere or get funny.
Blood and Brine - A pirate story where the main character is a bit unbelievable and the cliches are plenty.
All That You Do Comes Back Unto Thee -The first Buffy centered short story was about as generic as one would expect from a TV adaptation (focusing on a student never on the show that uses magic to raise an Egyptian demon).
House of the vampire - A bit of a generic story set in 1800's London but I liked the Scooby gang of the era.
Lady Shobu - A solid take in feudal Japan with interesting characters and suspense.
The New Watcher - Vampires in the Civil War and the army is aware! This was lots of fun.
Stakeout on Rush Street - A great private eye story that read like a pulp mystery set in prohibition America.
The War Between the States - I'm not sure where the title comes from but I really dug this story of a flapper girl that had very little vampires or slayers involved. The build and reveal were very well done.
Abomination, Beauport - The darkest story yet, about a slayer and watcher who fall in love and have kids. Very disturbing stuff, had to tell Beth about it when it was over.
Again - Another Buffy story, but written like some of the best episodes of the series. Buffy, Willow and Xander go back in time three years and make choices based on what they know about the future. The best story yet, even with the hokey tie-in at the end to the season six villains.
The Ghosts of Slayers Past - A Christmas Carol homage that didn't really go anywhere or get funny.
Blood and Brine - A pirate story where the main character is a bit unbelievable and the cliches are plenty.
All That You Do Comes Back Unto Thee -The first Buffy centered short story was about as generic as one would expect from a TV adaptation (focusing on a student never on the show that uses magic to raise an Egyptian demon).
House of the vampire - A bit of a generic story set in 1800's London but I liked the Scooby gang of the era.
Lady Shobu - A solid take in feudal Japan with interesting characters and suspense.
The New Watcher - Vampires in the Civil War and the army is aware! This was lots of fun.
Stakeout on Rush Street - A great private eye story that read like a pulp mystery set in prohibition America.
The War Between the States - I'm not sure where the title comes from but I really dug this story of a flapper girl that had very little vampires or slayers involved. The build and reveal were very well done.
Abomination, Beauport - The darkest story yet, about a slayer and watcher who fall in love and have kids. Very disturbing stuff, had to tell Beth about it when it was over.
Again - Another Buffy story, but written like some of the best episodes of the series. Buffy, Willow and Xander go back in time three years and make choices based on what they know about the future. The best story yet, even with the hokey tie-in at the end to the season six villains.
May 18, 2013
I didn't enjoy this volume as much as the first but there were still enough stand-out stories- moat notably Blood and Brine and The New Watcher -to keep me interested.
This collection of shirt stories seemed to take place largely in either England or America- not necessarily a problem, just a bit of a cop out considering that the first volume had stories set in Ancient Greece, France and Hungary to name a few. Still, the stories were all of great substance and I definitely enjoyed them.
My favourite by far was Blood and Brine, the tale of a pirate captain/vampire slayer. I enjoyed this moat because it was a fresh, new take on the slayer mythology and I loved the way it harnessed the pirate culture and even threw in some good old piratey baddies too!
The New Watcher was also a great story, although I think I'm being a little bias as the main character had the same name as me ;)
Still, any Buffy fan should definitely try these books- they still tie into the Buffyverse (this one even had two stories about Buffy herself, the final one succeeding in bringing a tear to my eye) but they give you a greater understanding to the history of the slayer and introduce some equally amazing and strong female characters.
This collection of shirt stories seemed to take place largely in either England or America- not necessarily a problem, just a bit of a cop out considering that the first volume had stories set in Ancient Greece, France and Hungary to name a few. Still, the stories were all of great substance and I definitely enjoyed them.
My favourite by far was Blood and Brine, the tale of a pirate captain/vampire slayer. I enjoyed this moat because it was a fresh, new take on the slayer mythology and I loved the way it harnessed the pirate culture and even threw in some good old piratey baddies too!
The New Watcher was also a great story, although I think I'm being a little bias as the main character had the same name as me ;)
Still, any Buffy fan should definitely try these books- they still tie into the Buffyverse (this one even had two stories about Buffy herself, the final one succeeding in bringing a tear to my eye) but they give you a greater understanding to the history of the slayer and introduce some equally amazing and strong female characters.
May 17, 2015
Pretty decent collection of stories within the Buffyverse. It was especially nice to see stories penned by people who worked on the show like Rebecca Rand Kirshner, Jane Espenson, and Todd A. McIntosh. Also nice to see Dark Horse editor of all things Buffy, Scott Allie, contributing to this. It gives it all some added legitimacy for anyone concerned with "getting the voices right" or Buffy canon. Stand-outs would include the pieces by the aforementioned authors, but the Max Allan Collins/Matthew V. Clemens Chicago 1943 story was pretty good, too. My personal faves would be "War Between the States" by Rebecca Rand Kirshner which is a wonderfully done Buffy by-way-of F. Scott Fitzgerald homage, and Espenson's "Again", which ties in nicely to season six and the problems the characters face during that period in the series.
Well worth the time.
Well worth the time.
September 16, 2012
A nice collection of short stories from the Buffyverse, ranging from the year 980 to modern day Sunnydale. With each story by different author, this title is a bit uneven; some of the stories are great and leave you wanting for more, some you want to be over quickly. I've definitely read some better fanfiction than some of these. A couple of the stories also bring feminism a bit too much to the front, I'd prefer it to be somewhat subtle and in the background.
I think my favourite ones were the pirate adventure in 17th century Caribbean "Blood and Brine" by Greg Cox, 1940s detective story "Stakeout on Rush Street" by Max Allan Collins with Matthew V. Clemens and Jane Espenson's Sunnydale-based "Again".
I got this title for a few euros, and at that price it's certainly worth having if you're a Buffy fan.
I think my favourite ones were the pirate adventure in 17th century Caribbean "Blood and Brine" by Greg Cox, 1940s detective story "Stakeout on Rush Street" by Max Allan Collins with Matthew V. Clemens and Jane Espenson's Sunnydale-based "Again".
I got this title for a few euros, and at that price it's certainly worth having if you're a Buffy fan.
February 2, 2016
Stories inspired by the TV series. Some good & some not so much.
Since I don't normally write reviews unless I have something specific to say, here's the break down of how I rate my books...
1 star... This book was bad, so bad I may have given up and skipped to the end. I will avoid this author like the plague in the future.
2 stars... This book was not very good, and I won't be reading any more from the author.
3 stars... This book was ok, but I won't go out of my way to read more, But if I find another book by the author for under a dollar I'd pick it up.
4 stars... I really enjoyed this book and will definitely be on the look out to pick up more from the series/author.
5 stars... I loved this book! It has earned a permanent home in my collection and I'll be picking up the rest of the series and other books from the author ASAP.
Since I don't normally write reviews unless I have something specific to say, here's the break down of how I rate my books...
1 star... This book was bad, so bad I may have given up and skipped to the end. I will avoid this author like the plague in the future.
2 stars... This book was not very good, and I won't be reading any more from the author.
3 stars... This book was ok, but I won't go out of my way to read more, But if I find another book by the author for under a dollar I'd pick it up.
4 stars... I really enjoyed this book and will definitely be on the look out to pick up more from the series/author.
5 stars... I loved this book! It has earned a permanent home in my collection and I'll be picking up the rest of the series and other books from the author ASAP.
September 29, 2014
My actual rating is 3.5 stars.
A collection of short stories about different slayers (including Buffy) throughout the ages. I thought all the authors did a good job depicting whatever era their story took place. But as with any collection of stories there will be some you enjoy and some you do not. I will say the stories that I enjoyed did outnumber the stories I did not. Some of the stories had some themes that could be tied in with the show. I really enjoyed the appearance of historical and fictional characters throughout the stories. The story by Jane Epenson is worth the read alone. If you like the tv show you probably would enjoy this.
A collection of short stories about different slayers (including Buffy) throughout the ages. I thought all the authors did a good job depicting whatever era their story took place. But as with any collection of stories there will be some you enjoy and some you do not. I will say the stories that I enjoyed did outnumber the stories I did not. Some of the stories had some themes that could be tied in with the show. I really enjoyed the appearance of historical and fictional characters throughout the stories. The story by Jane Epenson is worth the read alone. If you like the tv show you probably would enjoy this.
April 15, 2014
I decided on a 3 star rating because it was better than volume 1 but still not great. I am not a short story person and never feel I'm getting enough out of it and they just start to get good when they finish. I actually thought this started off well starting in the present with Buffy and then going backwards and working forwards in time. My favourite was Lady Shobu. Unlike others I actually felt the stories got worse as they went along with the last 2 being my least favourites. Personally I much prefer a full novel to a short story collection any day and this has done nothing to change my mind.
December 28, 2015
"Into every generation a Slayer is born."
Here is another collection of short stories centering on various Slayers throughout history. There are ten stories in all, and every one of them is enjoyable. The time span in this collection covers Slayers from 980 AD to the present day. The idea of this collection is great, and the stories are well done! I am looking foward to Volume Two.
Here is another collection of short stories centering on various Slayers throughout history. There are ten stories in all, and every one of them is enjoyable. The time span in this collection covers Slayers from 980 AD to the present day. The idea of this collection is great, and the stories are well done! I am looking foward to Volume Two.
August 16, 2013
3.5 stars. Worth reading just for the pitch-perfect Jane Espenson story, and I also loved the stories about the Japanese slayer, the pirate captain slayer, and the 19th century slayer with her own Scoobies. Some of the other stories were pretty bland though.
Want to read
May 8, 2008I know I've read at least a couple of stories from this one, way back when I first got the book. I don't remember anything, though, so I'll have to reread those when I pick it up to read the others.
July 22, 2008
This might actually belong to a friend. Perhaps she'll see this review and demand her book back.
May 18, 2012
Great!
February 25, 2019
Love the short stories
January 27, 2017
I read this when I was going through my Buffy phase. I still love Buffy and would love to re-read these.
I don't remember all that much of these at all.
I don't remember all that much of these at all.
Shelved as 'to-read-owned'
May 12, 2015Buffy book gift package from my beautiful friend Kay.
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