Buffy the Vampire Slayer: GateKeeper #2: Ghost Roads

Rating:
Summary: Buffy and Angel hit the Ghost Roads in Part 2 of the Trilogy
Review: "The Ghost Roads," the second book in The Gatekeeper Trilogy, is even better than the first volume in this epic Buffy the Vampire Slayer story. The Ghost Roads of the title are a network of inter-dimensional shortcuts that allow Buffy, Angel and Oz to travel quickly to Europe to search for the son of the dying Gatekeeper. What they do not know is that Spike and Drusilla have the boy and are looking to make a deal with the Sons of Entropy. Meanwhile, back in Sunnydale, the Flying Dutchman has appeared off shore causing problems for Giles and the rest of the Scooby Gang. Even worse, the Sons of Entropy have kidnapped Joyce Summers in an effort to force the Slayer to return so Buffy can be sacrificed by Il Maestro to the greater glory of his demon overlord and the end of the world as we know it.

Christopher Golden and Nancy Holder really hit their stride in this original novel. The tendency to work too many quips and one-liners in the first volume, a perpetual problem in these Buffy novels, is reduced to the perfect level. This is due in large part to the fact that the writers have clearly upped the ante on the serious side of the scale. What makes "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" one of the best shows on television is that in addition to the clever quips and innovative fight sequences there is drama acted out on an operatic level (the highpoint of which was Buffy having to slay Angel). Golden and Holder are clearly working on that higher level in this book: Giles has to leave behind students to die during an escape, Angel tortures a wounded man to get vital information, and Joyce deals with the idea of sacrificing herself so that Buffy can save the world. Consequently, this is NOT a Buffy book FOR YOUNGER READERS. Things get pretty heavy here and the characters have to deal with these issues.

Now that several television seasons have passed since this trilogy was first written it is worthwhile to note that Golden and Holder accurately predicted some significant character developments regarding the Scobby Gang. Certainly Willow is now as powerful a wicca at the end of Season 5 as she was in this novel, Xander is finally getting past his comic relief stage, Joyce certainly accepted Buffy being the Slayer before her untimely death, and Cordelia is much more accepting of her role in the scheme of things (albiet on "Angel" instead of "Buffy"). So in retrospect the authors deserve credit for seeing where Joss Whedon was going with these characters on the two shows.

Of all the people writing Buffy books, Golden and Holder are the two I would love to see take a stab at writing an actual episode of the show. Many of the Buffy books read like rejected scripts, storylines they would never bother to film that add little to the characters or the mythos of the series. The Gatekeeper Trilogy provides two ideas completely worthy of being included in the show. The first is the role of the Gatekeeper, a magical being who is responsible for binding up various monsters and demons, which is to say a Champion for Good, similar to the Slayer but certainly a unique idea. The second is the Ghost Roads, not just as a rationale for getting the characters out of Sunnydale to find the big bad evil but also as a way for the characters to confront the past, as in the first volume when Angel sees the shade of Jenny Calendar. Holder has successfully incorporated elements on the Ghost Roads in other Buffy novels she has written, which I judge to be a good thing. Again, this is just testimony to the quality of both the conception and the execution of this trilogy. So hurry up and read "The Ghost Roads" so you can download the final installment of "The Gatekeeper Trilogy."

Rating:
Summary: Buffy and Angel hit the Ghost Roads in Part 2 of the Trilogy
Review: "The Ghost Roads," the second book in The Gatekeeper Trilogy, is even better than the first volume in this epic Buffy the Vampire Slayer story. The Ghost Roads of the title are a network of inter-dimensional shortcuts that allow Buffy, Angel and Oz to travel quickly to Europe to search for the son of the dying Gatekeeper. What they do not know is that Spike and Drusilla have the boy and are looking to make a deal with the Sons of Entropy. Meanwhile, back in Sunnydale, the Flying Dutchman has appeared off shore causing problems for Giles and the rest of the Scooby Gang. Even worse, the Sons of Entropy have kidnapped Joyce Summers in an effort to force the Slayer to return so Buffy can be sacrificed by Il Maestro to the greater glory of his demon overlord and the end of the world as we know it.

Christopher Golden and Nancy Holder really hit their stride in this original novel. The tendency to work too many quips and one-liners in the first volume, a perpetual problem in these Buffy novels, is reduced to the perfect level. This is due in large part to the fact that the writers have clearly upped the ante on the serious side of the scale. What makes "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" one of the best shows on television is that in addition to the clever quips and innovative fight sequences there is drama acted out on an operatic level (the highpoint of which was Buffy having to slay Angel). Golden and Holder are clearly working on that higher level in this book: Giles has to leave behind students to die during an escape, Angel tortures a wounded man to get vital information, and Joyce deals with the idea of sacrificing herself so that Buffy can save the world. Consequently, this is NOT a Buffy book FOR YOUNGER READERS. Things get pretty heavy here and the characters have to deal with these issues.

Now that several television seasons have passed since this trilogy was first written it is worthwhile to note that Golden and Holder accurately predicted some significant character developments regarding the Scobby Gang. Certainly Willow is now as powerful a wicca at the end of Season 5 as she was in this novel, Xander is finally getting past his comic relief stage, Joyce certainly accepted Buffy being the Slayer before her untimely death, and Cordelia is much more accepting of her role in the scheme of things (albiet on "Angel" instead of "Buffy"). So in retrospect the authors deserve credit for seeing where Joss Whedon was going with these characters on the two shows.

Of all the people writing Buffy books, Golden and Holder are the two I would love to see take a stab at writing an actual episode of the show. Many of the Buffy books read like rejected scripts, storylines they would never bother to film that add little to the characters or the mythos of the series. The Gatekeeper Trilogy provides two ideas completely worthy of being included in the show. The first is the role of the Gatekeeper, a magical being who is responsible for binding up various monsters and demons, which is to say a Champion for Good, similar to the Slayer but certainly a unique idea. The second is the Ghost Roads, not just as a rationale for getting the characters out of Sunnydale to find the big bad evil but also as a way for the characters to confront the past, as in the first volume when Angel sees the shade of Jenny Calendar. Holder has successfully incorporated elements on the Ghost Roads in other Buffy novels she has written, which I judge to be a good thing. Again, this is just testimony to the quality of both the conception and the execution of this trilogy. So hurry up and read "The Ghost Roads" so you can download the final installment of "The Gatekeeper Trilogy."