Rating: 
Summary: Unless you have nothing better to do . . . .
Review: . . . . I'd say you should read this book. Nothing really outstanding. It's set -as most of the Buffy books from the past two years- in that alternate season three universe created by Golden and Holder where Faith and Wesley seem to not exist and Giles was never fired by the Council. But the story has more problems than that. The author seems to hide her tentative grasp of the Buffy characters by dedicating most of the first half of the book to two original characters that most Buffy-fans would not really care about to begin with, and then throwing in a lot of action in the second half so Buffy and the gang are too busy running around to have time to interact with each other in a way we are familiar with, which is good because most of the scenes when they do don't ring true and the dialogue, more often than not, doesn't sound like them either. ...it's about time they took the Buffy novels out of season 3...
Rating: 
Summary: Dinosaurs and Demons spell Dynamite
Review: A clever pairing of dinosaurs and a mythical demon makes this Buffy novel unique. The first half of the book sets up the science. The last half explodes with action. Oz fans will be pleased that he takes a leading role in this story. Set in the scoobies' senior year Angel's expertise and strength is called upon through out. A warning,however, to Buffy and Angel fans there is no romance just breath taking chases and battles. Ms Navarro mixes humor with the havoc. Angel and Xander bicker. Particular interesting is the descriptions of Buffy and the scoobie gang by a new Sunnydale senior. The sub plot which concerns a manager for the Dingos Ate My Baby fits in neatly. A well written adventure. I recommend this book
Rating:
Summary: An unusual entry in the Buffyverse
Review: A slightly silly idea -- the Scooby Gang vs dinosaurs -- is made very readable by some excellent writing and action sequences far above the norm for a Buffy novel. Characterisation is slightly shallow, although okay for the most part. My only beef is that Navarro is another author who subscribes to the Xander Is An Idiot theory. Well worth picking up.
Rating:
Summary: Jurassic meets Buffy
Review: Admittedly, this is not the most original plotline. It seems every sci-fi show out there has decided there is a need for dinosaurs ever since the sucsess of Jurassic Park. However, fans of our friendly neighborhood werewolf Oz and his band "Dingoes ate My Baby," should not miss this one, as Oz and his band are the central figures of a secondary storyline.
Rating:
Summary: Navarro knows her Buffy!
Review: After reading a few reviews here at amazon, I decided to pick up Paleo at my local book store. I am a huge fan of Buffy books and needed to add it to my collection.What a wonderful surprise! Yvonne Navarro really knows her Buffy as far as the mythology. She built an intriguing story that had everything we expect from Buffy, including dinosaurs; and she executed it well. At first look I thought this story was going to be very Buffy-light. The first half of the story focuses on Kevin Sanderson and Daniel Addison. Kevin recently moved to Sunnydale from Chicago due to his father's increading health problems, and hates the change. In Chicago he was big in dinosaurs and he can't seem to find anyone in Sunnydale he shares his interest; until the fatal day Daniel gives Kevin's Earth Studies class a lecture on dinosaurs. Daniel is a college student who works at the Sunnydale Museum. While doing some busy work he comes across a long-deceased paleontologists charred journal. Within the contents, a spell that can ressurect dinosaurs. Once four dinosaurs *are* resurrected, the one who ressurected them will be granted a single wish. Being greedy, Daniel wants to try and bring some dinos back to life. But how? When Daniel finds out Kevin snagged a dinosaur egg from one of his many paleontologist expeditions, he convinces the high school student to help him with his "experiment". Once the first dinosaur is resurrected, things go haywire. After saving a neighbors pet dog from a Timimus, and later killing a T-Rex in the alley behind The Bronze, Buffy realizes she must battle a possible army of prehistoric beasties. The secondary story of this novel ties in with the main plot. A young woman is interested in becoming the Dingoes Ate My Babies band manager. She is a smooth-talker and has Oz, Devon, and the rest of the band very interested. Of course not everyone is as they seems! Navarro does a wonderful job explaining the battles in these stories. She has a very precise way of wording things so there is no doubt of what is happening. She also does a great job at sticking to the story. She doesn't get wrapped up in plot upon plot, and she moves the story along at a steady pace. My only major complaint is I didn't feel the Buffy characters were in this book. It could have worked just as well if it were anyone. At times the characters acted illogically for our favorite Scoobies, and there were times Navarro didn't quite capture their voices correctly, especially with Oz and Angel. There were also times she resorted to the "Xander is a goofball" theory, which kept him rather one-dimensional. However, I was able to overlook these discrepencies because the action was so wonderful; and her moral of being a leader, not a follower, is very tried and true. Oz has a great part in this book and is actually in the center of the action, not standing aside and observing. If you are an Oz fan and miss him, this book is for you! Dinosaurs truly make a great villian for Buffy, and the twist Navarro threw in was an extra delight to the reader. I'm definitely glad I added it to my collection!
Rating:
Summary: Navarro knows her Buffy!
Review: After reading a few reviews here at amazon, I decided to pick up Paleo at my local book store. I am a huge fan of Buffy books and needed to add it to my collection. What a wonderful surprise! Yvonne Navarro really knows her Buffy as far as the mythology. She built an intriguing story that had everything we expect from Buffy, including dinosaurs; and she executed it well. At first look I thought this story was going to be very Buffy-light. The first half of the story focuses on Kevin Sanderson and Daniel Addison. Kevin recently moved to Sunnydale from Chicago due to his father's increading health problems, and hates the change. In Chicago he was big in dinosaurs and he can't seem to find anyone in Sunnydale he shares his interest; until the fatal day Daniel gives Kevin's Earth Studies class a lecture on dinosaurs. Daniel is a college student who works at the Sunnydale Museum. While doing some busy work he comes across a long-deceased paleontologists charred journal. Within the contents, a spell that can ressurect dinosaurs. Once four dinosaurs *are* resurrected, the one who ressurected them will be granted a single wish. Being greedy, Daniel wants to try and bring some dinos back to life. But how? When Daniel finds out Kevin snagged a dinosaur egg from one of his many paleontologist expeditions, he convinces the high school student to help him with his "experiment". Once the first dinosaur is resurrected, things go haywire. After saving a neighbors pet dog from a Timimus, and later killing a T-Rex in the alley behind The Bronze, Buffy realizes she must battle a possible army of prehistoric beasties. The secondary story of this novel ties in with the main plot. A young woman is interested in becoming the Dingoes Ate My Babies band manager. She is a smooth-talker and has Oz, Devon, and the rest of the band very interested. Of course not everyone is as they seems! Navarro does a wonderful job explaining the battles in these stories. She has a very precise way of wording things so there is no doubt of what is happening. She also does a great job at sticking to the story. She doesn't get wrapped up in plot upon plot, and she moves the story along at a steady pace. My only major complaint is I didn't feel the Buffy characters were in this book. It could have worked just as well if it were anyone. At times the characters acted illogically for our favorite Scoobies, and there were times Navarro didn't quite capture their voices correctly, especially with Oz and Angel. There were also times she resorted to the "Xander is a goofball" theory, which kept him rather one-dimensional. However, I was able to overlook these discrepencies because the action was so wonderful; and her moral of being a leader, not a follower, is very tried and true. Oz has a great part in this book and is actually in the center of the action, not standing aside and observing. If you are an Oz fan and miss him, this book is for you! Dinosaurs truly make a great villian for Buffy, and the twist Navarro threw in was an extra delight to the reader. I'm definitely glad I added it to my collection!
Rating:
Summary: Buffy the Demon Dinosaur Slayer and Oz the Boy Wonder
Review: Any Buffy the Vampire Slayer novel that offers up demon dinosaurs is already starting ahead of the game. After all, who would not be salivating at the very idea of the Slayer and the Scobbey gang taking on a trio of T. Rexes? But what really impressed me in Yvonne Navarro's novel was her characterization of Kevin Sanderson, a shy transfer student to Sunnydale High for has an avid interest in paleontology in general, and dinosaurs in particular. As presented in the first half of "Paleo," Kevin is arguably one of the best developed new characters to pop up in a Buffy book. Unfortunately, Kevin pretty much disappears from the last half of the novel as the dinosaurs take over and the action takes off. The other strength of "Paleo," giving Oz a prominent role second only to Buffy in the tale, actually cuts both ways. We all appreciate Navarro's attempt to put Oz into the spotlight, but, ironically, the more he talks, the less he sounds like Oz. Every time we get into Oz's mind, I feel like an alien presence and get worried Angel is going to show up and pop me one in the mouth (After you read "Paleo," you will get that one). As we know from the "Earshot" episode, Oz is as reticent in his internal monologue as he is in actual conversation. Clearly this problem is unique to the character rather than to Navarro as a writer and simply underline how difficult it is to open up Oz as a character. Overall, "Paleo" gets off to a great start, but abandoning Kevin's character in the second half and having the sub-plot regarding Alysa Bardrick trying to sign Dingoes Ate My Baby to a professional contract disappear until the epilogue takes away a lot of that momentum. However, as the epilogue clearly proves, the person Oz works really well with is Angel. Navarro's scenes featuring Oz and Angel together click throughout the book and definitely seems worth pursuing, if not in Sunnydale, then in L.A.
Rating:
Summary: Buffy the Demon Dinosaur Slayer and Oz the Boy Wonder
Review: Any Buffy the Vampire Slayer novel that offers up demon dinosaurs is already starting ahead of the game. After all, who would not be salivating at the very idea of the Slayer and the Scobbey gang taking on a trio of T. Rexes? But what really impressed me in Yvonne Navarro's novel was her characterization of Kevin Sanderson, a shy transfer student to Sunnydale High for has an avid interest in paleontology in general, and dinosaurs in particular. As presented in the first half of "Paleo," Kevin is arguably one of the best developed new characters to pop up in a Buffy book. Unfortunately, Kevin pretty much disappears from the last half of the novel as the dinosaurs take over and the action takes off. The other strength of "Paleo," giving Oz a prominent role second only to Buffy in the tale, actually cuts both ways. We all appreciate Navarro's attempt to put Oz into the spotlight, but, ironically, the more he talks, the less he sounds like Oz. Every time we get into Oz's mind, I feel like an alien presence and get worried Angel is going to show up and pop me one in the mouth (After you read "Paleo," you will get that one). As we know from the "Earshot" episode, Oz is as reticent in his internal monologue as he is in actual conversation. Clearly this problem is unique to the character rather than to Navarro as a writer and simply underline how difficult it is to open up Oz as a character. Overall, "Paleo" gets off to a great start, but abandoning Kevin's character in the second half and having the sub-plot regarding Alysa Bardrick trying to sign Dingoes Ate My Baby to a professional contract disappear until the epilogue takes away a lot of that momentum. However, as the epilogue clearly proves, the person Oz works really well with is Angel. Navarro's scenes featuring Oz and Angel together click throughout the book and definitely seems worth pursuing, if not in Sunnydale, then in L.A.
Rating:
Summary: don't bother
Review: i read this book and the basic story was very good. it dealt with 2 young men who find a way to bring dinosaurs back to life. the story there was pretty good until you remember that this is supposed to be a story about buffy the vampire slayer. the author does not seem to remember that until the end where the slayer and slayerettes get thrown in more as an after thought at the end. i would have given the book a better rating if they had interacted more in the story.
Rating: 
Summary: Buffy goes 1 million bc (minus the fuzzy bikini)
Review: I was a bit skeptical when i first picked up 'Paleo' especially considering the book is fairly thin for a buffy novel. However the Dinosaur 'buff' (pardon the pun) in me couldnt resist reading the amalgamation of a childhood love (the dinosaurs) and a current love (buffy the vampire slayer). When i began reading it, 'Paleo' drew me in and kept hold of me all the way through. It is my humble opinion that Yvonne Navarro has seriously given Chris golden and nancy holder a run for their money with this book. Navarro manages to combine the resurrection of an ancient evil with the efforts of the current day villians and stay focused keeping the reader on track . By doing this it shows that Navarro has carefully plotted out her story and made sure everything makes sense and the action is throughly discriptive and exciting. This is something that Nancy Holder has failed to do despite having good stories that are are enjoyable Her ideas are all over the place and not tightly knit and her two solo efforts 'Not Forgotten' (angel) and 'The Evil That Men Do' (buffy) are proof of this. Despite not being as long as the others 'Paleo' manages to incorporate good characterizations along with a very interesting and original plot along with a interesting and original villian. The action scenes were very well written it shows that Navarro had a very clear and precise image of what buffy was doing in the fight scenes. The book was also very humourous in parts and the characters believeable. The B story, involving Oz's band getting a manager and being given the possibility of making it big was interesting if resolved a little too quickly but i saw it as a mirror to the actions of daniel and kevin in their pursuit of fame by following the demon dragon Ladon's wishes. While Daniel and Kevin gave in Oz and the band thought about it and realised that the pursuit of fame is a harsh one and it is best to avoid succumbing to greed at all costs. Many people will probably wonder and go 'huh' what does dingo ate my babies have to do with a demon dragon well it shows that sometimes buffy novels are more than meets the eye and that you need to take a closer look at how the story could be a possible metaphor for the results of our real life wants and urges or actions. 'Paleo' is well written, planned and is excellent for Navarros first effort. Paleo has quickly become my fave buffy novel to date and i cant wait til Navarro writes another. There was however a part of the book that was too convenient involving how kevin gets the second lot of eggs (considering the eggs are of a rarely found dinosaur only 12 skeletons of a certain big meat eater have been found the eggs are even rarer). But Other than that as i said before a Throughly enjoyable book that is fast paced clever and well thought out. Readers may be dettered by the dinosaur references however (i wasnt, im a dinosaur freak ) but it is still worth buying even if its to just keep your collection complete. 'Paleo' is a fantastic read and i recommend it.
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