Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Angel: Monster Island by Christopher Golden and Thomas E. Sniegoski

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Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Angel: Monster Island by Christopher Golden and Thomas E. Sniegoski
Pocket Books/Simon and Schuster. 435 page hardback. Price: Ł12.99 (UK). ISBN: 0-7434-6776-0

check out website(s): www.simonsays.co.uk

Every fans dream that Buffy and Angel get back together. Alas with the change of networks in America (gee how did that happen?

We'd never do anything that stoopid)... So it can only happen in the tie-in books and guess what, it's going nowhere. Still we all want Cordy to get Angel - preferably breathing.

This novel is set just at the start of Season Six of 'Buffy' and Season Three of 'Angel'.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Angel: Monster Island Buffy is alive but not living, nothing has happened with Spike yet but something is stirring. In Sunnydale, there is a marked increase in demon activity, not only that but they are banding together cross-species and it looks like they plan some wiping out of crossbreeds.

Meanwhile in the jungle, someone who wants a little revenge on Doyle's human connections has attacked Doyle's human ex-wife. Harry survives and warns Angel that someone might be after him, too. Doyle's Daddy's coming home and he doesn't know that Doyle has made the supreme sacrifice for the crossbreeds he wants to wipe out.

Axtius the Brachen demon made a mistake when he bred with a human and he intends to make up for that. All roads lead to LA and Buffy realises she will have to go to Angel to get to the heart of the matter. The Sunnydale Scoobies team up with Angel's gang to help save the crossbreeds from extinction.

The crossbreeds want to live in peace on Questral, the Monster Island that cannot be found on any human map. The team realise that it will all come down to a battle on the shores of the island.

Once again written by Chris Golden (does this guy ever sleep?) this time his writing companion is Thomas E Sniegoski, whose credentials are based on Buffy comicbooks and the Xbox game also written with Golden. With just a little more for everyone to do, this would make a great movie.

Dawn doesn't feature heavily in this book because it falls before she takes on any ad-hoc slaying duties. Also, Giles gets to be the baby-sitter, leaving those young things to figure out what to do.

There are some good scenes, principally one where both Angel and Buffy are infected by a spell that makes them want to tear each other's heart out. (As if that hadn't already happen.)

Willow's over-willingness to use magic in difficult situations sets up one of the main concerns with Season Six. There is also good use of Spike and indications of where his character might be going, with a particularly gruesome scene involving sunlight and Angel. Interestingly the tag-line, 'a face-off between man and monster' doesn't really sum up the book.

Of course, the lines are blurred and pretty much everybody learns that it's not the colour of your skin (or the texture of your spikes) but what's in your heart that matters.

A bit more use of Wolfram and Hart in this would have made the point a little stronger. It also continues to deal with one of the main concerns of both of the series about friends replacing family in the new world.

This book has plenty of fighting, plenty of interaction between characters, lots of icky-looking demons and some excellent self-analysis as ever. Written with great affection for the continuing story this is a super read for a change from full on 'literature'.

Sue Davies

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