Rating: 
Summary: The Smartest Shorts
Review: 'The Longest Night Vol. 1' Is a fantastic collection of short stories written by some of the best Buffy & Angel writers in the league. Whilst I am not usually a big fan of short stories, these each had properly developed plots and dealt with the problems in true Angel tradition, and in doing so, sticks closely to the format of the show.
My favorite was 'The Anchoress' written by B&A regular, Nancy Holder in which the gang are drawn into ancient England, the land of the Druids. But this is only one of many that had me intrigued and unable to put the book down.
I definately recommend this book to any true fan of the series.
Rating: 
Summary: Full of potential, but fails to succeed
Review: Conceptually, it's a nice idea: a series of short stories, taking place all on the same night. However, by creating such an idea, the editor set up expectations that aren't followed through.In publishing, there are two ways to present short stories. The first is a simple short story collection, such as the Tales of the Slayer volumes. The other way is through "braided novels", such as I, Robot (and what The Longest Night seems to be). These consist of stories that, while seemingly disparate, tie together to tell a more cohesive story. When reading the description for The Longest Night, I expected the volume to be similar to 24: to tell a story, or an arc, through multiple (mostly) standalone stories, all in quick succession. However, there is nothing to tie these stories together, no common framework (not even what you would see in a braided novel). While taken alone, these stories range from acceptable to great, together they seem forced. In fact, few of the stories have anything to do with the Winter Soltice (the longest night of the year; hence the title). The Longest Night would have been better served to be a standalone collection, with each author free to use their own timeframe, rather than this incredulous mishmash.
Rating: 
Summary: Happy Birthday Dear Sun God...
Review: I am not much of a fan of short stories as a rule, but I'm also not one to skip a new Angel book because of a personal prejudice. Right now Angel is getting better writing than Buffy is and this set of short stories is full of both old-timers who made both series a success and newcomers who have come to their own with the Angel startup. The overall story arc that binds this made-for-Christmas volume together isn't really Christmas, but the Winter Solstice that precedes it - a much older sacred day than the one we celebrate now. This solstice is the longest night of the year and hence offers the most opportunity for badness. That plus its special nature as a magical day means that this is truly Angel Investigations' busiest day of the year. And as Cordelia would be quick to point out, their least profitable as well. The book contains 12 stories set from 6:00 PM to 5:00 AM, written by 9 different authors from very old-timer Christopher Golden to complete newbie Pierce Askegren. With a certain amount of cheating, the editors have actually forced the tales to fit in a 12 hour span, but don't look for perfect timing. Almost all are written to a consistently high standard, and certain standing themes are developed evenly throughout. Like Angel's sense of isolation, echoed by Cordelia's internal struggles with her own lot. The one story that bothered me a bit was Nancy Holder's 'Have Gunn, Will Travel.' In reading it, I kept thinking that she felt quite awkward with Gunn. Which is the case, since Holder has little direct experience with the uniquely Angel characters. Other than that, from Askegren's tale of a father's love gone comepletely awry to Christie Golden's finishing tour-de-force these are completely enjoyable. Since this is marked Volume One, we can look forward to another effort next year.
Rating:
Summary: Happy Birthday Dear Sun God...
Review: I am not much of a fan of short stories as a rule, but I'm also not one to skip a new Angel book because of a personal prejudice. Right now Angel is getting better writing than Buffy is and this set of short stories is full of both old-timers who made both series a success and newcomers who have come to their own with the Angel startup. The overall story arc that binds this made-for-Christmas volume together isn't really Christmas, but the Winter Solstice that precedes it - a much older sacred day than the one we celebrate now. This solstice is the longest night of the year and hence offers the most opportunity for badness. That plus its special nature as a magical day means that this is truly Angel Investigations' busiest day of the year. And as Cordelia would be quick to point out, their least profitable as well. The book contains 12 stories set from 6:00 PM to 5:00 AM, written by 9 different authors from very old-timer Christopher Golden to complete newbie Pierce Askegren. With a certain amount of cheating, the editors have actually forced the tales to fit in a 12 hour span, but don't look for perfect timing. Almost all are written to a consistently high standard, and certain standing themes are developed evenly throughout. Like Angel's sense of isolation, echoed by Cordelia's internal struggles with her own lot. The one story that bothered me a bit was Nancy Holder's 'Have Gunn, Will Travel.' In reading it, I kept thinking that she felt quite awkward with Gunn. Which is the case, since Holder has little direct experience with the uniquely Angel characters. Other than that, from Askegren's tale of a father's love gone comepletely awry to Christie Golden's finishing tour-de-force these are completely enjoyable. Since this is marked Volume One, we can look forward to another effort next year.
Rating:
Summary: an excellent angel novel
Review: i picked this book up just shortly after christmas with some leftover christmas money, i was pleasantly suprised by how good this book was. i have read all the other angel books in the series and this is by far one of the best. i enjoyed that it was short stories not one long, continuous story, after all, it is over 400 pages long. i would definitley recommed this book to an angel fan.
Rating:
Summary: an excellent angel novel
Review: i picked this book up just shortly after christmas with some leftover christmas money, i was pleasantly suprised by how good this book was. i have read all the other angel books in the series and this is by far one of the best. i enjoyed that it was short stories not one long, continuous story, after all, it is over 400 pages long. i would definitley recommed this book to an angel fan.
Rating:
Summary: Something Wicked This Way Comes
Review: There really isn't much to say about The Longest Night except that I enjoyed it. The Longest Night contains several short stories, each taking place within a one-hour time slot. Angel and the gang encounter ghosts, ice monsters, and last-minute shopping traffic. Each story is entertaining in its own way, some more so than others. "The House Where Death Stood Still" is a wonderful opening story written by newcomer Pierce Askegren about a missing boy and his supposedly-dead father who is making phone calls to his ex-wife. Very creepy, and also very well told. "A Joyful Noise," written by veteran author Jeff Mariotte, features the return of many characters that we haven't heard from in a while (including a certain billionaire who can't seem to act his age and a certain ex-girlfriend who can't handle the dangerous life of demon-fighting, among others). My favorite stories are "I Still Believe" and "Generous Presence." The former, written by Christopher Golden, tells about Angel and Cordelia going shopping for the gang; Angel doesn't have any ideas what to get them, so Cordy is there to help. The two run into trouble on the way, inevitably. "Generous Presence" (by Yvonne Navarro) occupies the 12 a.m. time slot, and it involves everyone at Angel Investigations getting gifts from Lilah Morgan at Wolfram & Hart. It seems like Lilah is just getting into the holiday spirit, but the gifts tend to show "what you're really worth." Really, The Longest Night doesn't have many low points. Some stories seem outgraeous and unlikely to only take place in one hour. For example, in "The Anchoress" the gang time-travels to stop druids from performing a ritual, escape death, and return... all in one hour? And some of the stories don't gel with others: a holiday party takes place early on in the novel, but there is no mention of it anytime later. However, these things can be easily overlooked while you're actually reading... the stories are so well written, you tend to get completely engrossed in them.
Rating:
Summary: Something Wicked This Way Comes
Review: There really isn't much to say about The Longest Night except that I enjoyed it. The Longest Night contains several short stories, each taking place within a one-hour time slot. Angel and the gang encounter ghosts, ice monsters, and last-minute shopping traffic. Each story is entertaining in its own way, some more so than others. "The House Where Death Stood Still" is a wonderful opening story written by newcomer Pierce Askegren about a missing boy and his supposedly-dead father who is making phone calls to his ex-wife. Very creepy, and also very well told. "A Joyful Noise," written by veteran author Jeff Mariotte, features the return of many characters that we haven't heard from in a while (including a certain billionaire who can't seem to act his age and a certain ex-girlfriend who can't handle the dangerous life of demon-fighting, among others). My favorite stories are "I Still Believe" and "Generous Presence." The former, written by Christopher Golden, tells about Angel and Cordelia going shopping for the gang; Angel doesn't have any ideas what to get them, so Cordy is there to help. The two run into trouble on the way, inevitably. "Generous Presence" (by Yvonne Navarro) occupies the 12 a.m. time slot, and it involves everyone at Angel Investigations getting gifts from Lilah Morgan at Wolfram & Hart. It seems like Lilah is just getting into the holiday spirit, but the gifts tend to show "what you're really worth." Really, The Longest Night doesn't have many low points. Some stories seem outgraeous and unlikely to only take place in one hour. For example, in "The Anchoress" the gang time-travels to stop druids from performing a ritual, escape death, and return... all in one hour? And some of the stories don't gel with others: a holiday party takes place early on in the novel, but there is no mention of it anytime later. However, these things can be easily overlooked while you're actually reading... the stories are so well written, you tend to get completely engrossed in them.
Rating:
Summary: A hot read for the Longest Night of the year
Review: This is the first short story collection for the Angel series, and a number of regular contributors are here for this great anthology. The basic premise is interesting, a different story for each hour of the night of the winter solstice, the longest night of the year. For the most part, the stories flow fairly seamlessly into one another. Where they don't, I found I didn't care much after a page or so, the stories were so engrossing and entertaining. Each of the main characters has a story centering more or less on them, but most of the stories are group efforts, and will make you think of the best moments of the show they're based on. All in all, this is a great collection, and I can't wait to see more!
Rating:
Summary: A hot read for the Longest Night of the year
Review: This is the first short story collection for the Angel series, and a number of regular contributors are here for this great anthology. The basic premise is interesting, a different story for each hour of the night of the winter solstice, the longest night of the year. For the most part, the stories flow fairly seamlessly into one another. Where they don't, I found I didn't care much after a page or so, the stories were so engrossing and entertaining. Each of the main characters has a story centering more or less on them, but most of the stories are group efforts, and will make you think of the best moments of the show they're based on. All in all, this is a great collection, and I can't wait to see more!
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