Post by midwesternwatcher on Apr 17, 2010 21:05:29 GMT -5
This post is a brief review of "One Thing Or Your Mother," a Buffyverse novel. Of course not all Buffy novels are good, but this one is. I'm happy to be able to recommend it to all Buffy fans.
The story is set during Season 2, after the destruction of the Judge, while Spike is still in a wheelchair and Angelus, teamed with Drusilla, is “the big bad.”
It has three main plot lines. In the first, Principal Snyder forces Buffy to work with a tutor, since she's in danger of failing her classes. The tutor, a bright college student named Todd, is attractive and pleasant. There are signs that a Buffy-Todd romance is possible.
In the second, Drusilla decides she wants a child to care for, so she sires a child vampire. This seems much in keeping with Drusilla's character. Remember she likes to play at taking care of plants and animals, but they always die under her care.
In the third, everyone in Sunnydale, including the vampires, becomes tired and irritable for no apparent reason. It turns out they are missing REM sleep because of a magic spell. If this lasts long enough, the whole town will go to sleep forever. Buffy must travel to another dimension to find the source of the spell.
All three story lines are engaging, and each of them serves the main plan of Season 2. If these stories could have appeared on the TV show, Season 2 would've been better. For one thing, Spike would've had another motive for betraying Angelus. I don't want to spoil anything, so I can't say exactly how. Read the book to find out!
Along the way, we get some backstory on Principal Snyder. For one thing, we learn that his first name is Cecil. It's true that Snyder's name plate gives his first initial as “R,” but I'm not sure that's a conflict. The initial “R” might stand for his middle name, or a nickname. It's not hard to understand why a boy named Cecil would want to change his name when he grew up.
We also get plausible answers to some questions that aren't addressed on the TV show, like why child vampires are rare, and what was Mayor Wilkins doing during Season 2.
Finally, we get some insightful character moments. One of these I must share. Here's what Todd, the tutor, thinks of Buffy:
“Buffy's brain trust ... seemed seriously underfunded at first blush, there was something there. It was hard to put his finger on, but it was in the nightborhood of a word Todd had never before applied to a girl under twenty. Wisdom.
“She obstinately kept her mind free of the facdts and tools that made academic achievement possible, but there was something else taking up that brain space, a level of experience, perhaps, that belied her age. She seemed seemed older than she was, as if she had lived more ... than any other high school junior could or should have.”
Wonderful! I'd say Kirsten Beyer “gets” Buffy, and that's enough to make me a Kirsten Beyer admirer. Too bad, Ms. Beyer has not written any other Buffy books I know of. Instead she's devoted her talents to writing books for other, inferior fandoms. Please everybody, go online and buy this book! Maybe we can motivate her to write more.
BTW, I haven't read all the Buffy novels, if anyone can recommend me one, I'd be glad of it.
The story is set during Season 2, after the destruction of the Judge, while Spike is still in a wheelchair and Angelus, teamed with Drusilla, is “the big bad.”
It has three main plot lines. In the first, Principal Snyder forces Buffy to work with a tutor, since she's in danger of failing her classes. The tutor, a bright college student named Todd, is attractive and pleasant. There are signs that a Buffy-Todd romance is possible.
In the second, Drusilla decides she wants a child to care for, so she sires a child vampire. This seems much in keeping with Drusilla's character. Remember she likes to play at taking care of plants and animals, but they always die under her care.
In the third, everyone in Sunnydale, including the vampires, becomes tired and irritable for no apparent reason. It turns out they are missing REM sleep because of a magic spell. If this lasts long enough, the whole town will go to sleep forever. Buffy must travel to another dimension to find the source of the spell.
All three story lines are engaging, and each of them serves the main plan of Season 2. If these stories could have appeared on the TV show, Season 2 would've been better. For one thing, Spike would've had another motive for betraying Angelus. I don't want to spoil anything, so I can't say exactly how. Read the book to find out!
Along the way, we get some backstory on Principal Snyder. For one thing, we learn that his first name is Cecil. It's true that Snyder's name plate gives his first initial as “R,” but I'm not sure that's a conflict. The initial “R” might stand for his middle name, or a nickname. It's not hard to understand why a boy named Cecil would want to change his name when he grew up.
We also get plausible answers to some questions that aren't addressed on the TV show, like why child vampires are rare, and what was Mayor Wilkins doing during Season 2.
Finally, we get some insightful character moments. One of these I must share. Here's what Todd, the tutor, thinks of Buffy:
“Buffy's brain trust ... seemed seriously underfunded at first blush, there was something there. It was hard to put his finger on, but it was in the nightborhood of a word Todd had never before applied to a girl under twenty. Wisdom.
“She obstinately kept her mind free of the facdts and tools that made academic achievement possible, but there was something else taking up that brain space, a level of experience, perhaps, that belied her age. She seemed seemed older than she was, as if she had lived more ... than any other high school junior could or should have.”
Wonderful! I'd say Kirsten Beyer “gets” Buffy, and that's enough to make me a Kirsten Beyer admirer. Too bad, Ms. Beyer has not written any other Buffy books I know of. Instead she's devoted her talents to writing books for other, inferior fandoms. Please everybody, go online and buy this book! Maybe we can motivate her to write more.
BTW, I haven't read all the Buffy novels, if anyone can recommend me one, I'd be glad of it.
