Authors Christopher Golden and Nancy Holder perfectly capture the tone and feel of the fun television series, which melded that crazy social quagmire that was high school for the most of us, with vampires and other assorted ghouls attracted to the Hellmouth. In Sunnydale, a pretty teenage girl named Buffy, with help from her Watcher, Giles, and her friends, Willow and Xander, battled the forces of evil while trying to navigate those treacherous and tumultuous waters of high school. Everyone’s seen the show, so no further recap of the basic premise is needed.

What I found great fun about Blooded is that every voice and character rang absolutely true to the series, without a false note detected anywhere along the way. At certain moments throughout the very good story, we get a glimpse into the thoughts of each character, and they fit perfectly with the people we know. If you loved Buffy, Willow, Xander, Giles and Cordelia, and of course, Angel, you’re almost certain to have fun reading this one. There’s action from the get-go as the book opens with a big fight at a movie theater, but soon settles into the story-line of a high school field trip to a museum that, because it’s Sunnydale, goes way, way wrong.

Willow cuts herself on a sword which has bound Chirayouju, a powerful and ancient Chinese vampire, and Sanno, the Japanese Mountain King. They were bent on destroying each other, and the backstory of what happened is parceled out nicely as Willow becomes, well, very un-Willow-like. As Giles and Buffy try to figure out what’s happening, it goes from bad to worse. When Cordelia seems the voice of reason, you know it’s bad. Sanno finds a host in Xander, and Buffy must figure out a way to keep them from killing each other, and possibly destroying much of Sunnydale in the process. Finally, Chirayouju vacates Willow and takes over Buffy, and things get even more complicated.

It’s a lot of harmless fun, woven around the personalities of the characters we came to know so well over the years. Reading it now, it’s both nostalgic and enjoyable on an entertainment level. Overall, this was a blast, and just the right kind of read for a palate cleanser, or just a comfort read. Very fun, and nicely done! ( )

Warning: This review assumes that you have watched the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer –at least up until Season 3.

The pleasure of these novelizations based on the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer is that if one thinks of them as “episodes” of the show, then there are some as yet “unwatched”; there is new territory to discover and delight in with our favorite characters. The failing of some of these is that they retread areas already explored on the show, or that the dialogue is trying too hard to mimic “Buffy-speak” and does not capture the convention completely. Also, it is sometimes difficult for written fight scenes to deliver the same action-y suspense as those in the visual medium. Fortunately for this episode, the failings are few and the successes great.

First, the bad: the book supposedly takes place early in the third season of Buffy. Angel has returned from hell, he’s back to “normal” and everyone is aware of that. Xander and Cordelia are in a relationship (of sorts), so this is prior to the events of “Lover’s Walk” but after “Revelations.” These two episodes aired back-to-back, a week apart, and at this point (in the show) Xander and Willow were already sneaking around together, which decidedly not the case in the book. Also, Faith does not appear at all in the novel. This bothered me a little while reading, even though I haven’t watched through the show in some time and it took some research to pin down the timing. Someone who had viewed Season 3 a little more recently might have been more bothered than I was. (Update: Apparently, this book was written before much of Season 3 aired, so it appears the authors were given some clues as to what was to come, but not all the information. In that case, well done.)

The good: Well, it’s bonus Buffy. Also, the characters remain true to type. The motivations, attitudes and personalities are spot-on. This is not always the case with these novelizations, so kudos to Holder and Golden on that. These two authors are the most prolific BtVS tie-in writers, so they absolutely should have the characters down, but this was written in 1998, while the show was still airing, so presumably pretty early in their careers.

Props should also be given for developing a completely new, yet still plausible storyline. The Scooby Gang takes a field trip to Sunnydale Museum, which is hosting an exhibit of ancient Japan. Willow becomes mysteriously infected with the spirit of an ancient Chinese vampire who had been battling a Japanese god when both were trapped inside a sword. There are some super-neat flashbacks to the original Japanese battle (which could have been labeled as such; it was not always obvious we were entering flashback mode. Just sayin’), and some satisfying contact with other Watchers as well as excerpts from a former Watcher’s journals. I like encountering those things in the novelizations, as flashbacks were some of my favorite parts of both Buffy and Angel. The history and richness of its mythology and background is part of what makes it great. Also, even though Spike killed a Slayer during the Boxer Rebellion, the show did not delve much into the fertile garden of Eastern mythology and demonology; there is much material there to explore.

Any Buffy fan would probably enjoy this book, if not too hung up on chronology and continuity and just took it for it was. An additional romp in the world of the Greatest Show Ever to Air. ( )

I liked this one because it had a legitimate amount of action and great dialogue. ( )

I used to read Buffy novels specifically searching for the parts with Angel in it. As a result, the only parts of this novel that I actually remember are the parts with Angel. And one part towards the beginning in the museum. I did enjoy it as a book though, for sure. ( )