http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2513777.html

Set in early Season Four (Xander and Anya are together, so are Oz and Willow), this has Buffy yanked forward to an alternative future in which Giles has been turned vampire by the ancient demon Camazotz (I'd always thought that was just the evil planet of A Wrinkle in Time, but it turns out that it's also the name of an Aztec god of bats). This gives Golden licence to kill off many characters both new and old, before returning Buffy to our time line where everything is almost as before. It's well enough written, with reflections on how the other characters would have developed in five years where they had continued the fight without Buffy.

I'm troubled, though, as I was in the other book I read by this author, that the story ends up on the wrong side of colonialism - Camazotz, who is after all a native American entity, is rapidly outsmarted by vampire Giles who takes charge of his realm and allows the indigenous inhabitants only as much licence as he finds amusing; and this is presented as a natural development. So I may cast my reading of Buffy a bit wider, but I think I will try other writers next. ( )

Caution: Spoilers ahead if you haven't read the first two books in this series.
Buffy-at-nineteen and Buffy-at-twenty-four, merged into the 24-year-old body, have escaped from captivity and learned that Giles is now king of the vampires. His plan includes slowly taking over the world by turning those in power. Buffy and her friends, now hardened, cynical versions of themselves, must mount an attack to stop him. The biggest question is whether Buffy will be able to kill the demon that has inhabited the body of her former Watcher.
As always with Golden's BtVS tales, the dialogue sparkles almost as much as if it had been written by Joss himself. The beauty of the novel form is that they can depict situations that would be far too expensive in terms of production budgets to have produced for television. However, the combat scenes are somewhat lacking in that it is hard to picture what's written. Still, a very enjoyable expansion of the mythology, with characters that are true to form and a very fascinating plot. ( )