Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Blood and Fog

Rating:
Summary: This book would have been better without Jack the Ripper
Review: Getting the go ahead to write "Blood and Fog" had to be a piece of cake simply because of the hook, which appears on the cover: "Buffy and Spike are on the trail of Jack the Ripper!" For Spike this will be the second go around with the original Ripper (not to be confused with Giles). The story is set in the sixth season of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," which means Buffy and Spike are dealing with what constitutes dating on their part while Willow is going through Wicca withdrawal and still separated from Tara. However, all of this matters only in terms of an attempt to presage the appearance of Darth Rosenberg at the end of the season, and while I think the nod towards that confrontation provides one of the best moments in "Blood and Fog," it is not the main game this time around.

Ironically, while Jack the Ripper is the hook for Nancy Holder's novel, it is ultimately as unnecessary as the vermiform appendix. I am by no means an expert Ripperologist, but I have worked my way through the superb website of evidence regarding the murders and I know enough to be well aware that what the Hughes brothers provided in their adaptation of Alan Moore's "From Hell" is, by Ripper standards, a PG version of what really happened (they left the audience off easy). Consequently, I know that besides invoking the name of Jack Ripper there is nothing substantial about the Whitechapel murders worked into this novel beyond the setting. This is of some importance since it gives Spike and Dru, along with Angelus and Darla, ample reason to cross paths with Jack. If anything, given the purpose for Jack's killing spree, the historical escalating of eviscerations makes no sense in terms of Holder's narrative.

At this point I should admit that I have something of a prejudice against science fiction and fantasy stories that turn Jack the Ripper into an inhuman monster. When Robert Bloch came up with "Wolf in the Fold" for the original "Star Trek," that was fine. After all, Bloch wrote a "real" Ripper story with "A Toy for Juliette." But Jack was human, which is what makes him such a horrible figure. If there is a more gruesome murder than what he did to his "final" victim Mary Kelly (Holder provides a massive example of understatement by referring to her as having been "gutted like a fish"), then I do not want to know about it and I especially do not want to see any photographs. Jack the Ripper was a human being and the idea that the Slayer of that time, Elizabeth, would be restrained by her Watcher from going after the Ripper because he was (presumed) to be human, has plenty of story potential.

That aside, the important thing here is that in telling the story of an eternal conflict between two sets of Irish faery, the Fromhoire and the Tuatha, Holder makes playing the Jack the Ripper card unnecessary. All it really means is that the name itself inspires some notion of fear in Buffy, but they the faery induced fog does that all by itself, so that pretty much makes the Jack the Ripper point moot. Clearly the creature that Buffy faces is not the Jack the Ripper of legend, which, again begs the question why bother to waste him in this novel? If Holder had written a novel about Spike and the rest of the vampire quartet in Whitechapel in 1888, dealing with a human evil whose viciousness was beyond even that of Angelus, that could have been a pretty good "BtVS" novel, even if Buffy never made an appearance in the main narrative (I assume she would be in the prologue/epilogue). I have no doubt that Spike could carry a book pretty much on his own.

The other problem with having Jack the Ripper in this story is that the Celtic mythology regarding the Fromhoire and the Tuatha gets muddled. "Blood and Fog" even has a lecherous little leprechaun who has taken an interest in Willow, which has nothing to do with Jack. As it is, the most chilling point in this novel is when we learn what Willow does to protect Dawn. Several others have comments on the canonical violations of this novel, which is surprising given Holder is the principal author on both volumes of "The Watcher's Guide" published to date, so I will not add to that debate. I will just say that Simon & Schuster should have a better spell check to run books through before they publish them.

"Blood and Fog" will be one of the most disappointing "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" novels ever, mainly because when you take into account the hook and the author you would have such high expectations. The cover art is very striking and the title is perfect for the hook, but ultimately the story is flawed in its conception. The great irony is that is the hook was removed and the name Jack the Ripper had never been mentioned, I would have rated "Blood and Fog" higher.

Rating:
Summary: This book would have been better without Jack the Ripper
Review: Getting the go ahead to write "Blood and Fog" had to be a piece of cake simply because of the hook, which appears on the cover: "Buffy and Spike are on the trail of Jack the Ripper!" For Spike this will be the second go around with the original Ripper (not to be confused with Giles). The story is set in the sixth season of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," which means Buffy and Spike are dealing with what constitutes dating on their part while Willow is going through Wicca withdrawal and still separated from Tara. However, all of this matters only in terms of an attempt to presage the appearance of Darth Rosenberg at the end of the season, and while I think the nod towards that confrontation provides one of the best moments in "Blood and Fog," it is not the main game this time around.

Ironically, while Jack the Ripper is the hook for Nancy Holder's novel, it is ultimately as unnecessary as the vermiform appendix. I am by no means an expert Ripperologist, but I have worked my way through the superb website of evidence regarding the murders and I know enough to be well aware that what the Hughes brothers provided in their adaptation of Alan Moore's "From Hell" is, by Ripper standards, a PG version of what really happened (they left the audience off easy). Consequently, I know that besides invoking the name of Jack Ripper there is nothing substantial about the Whitechapel murders worked into this novel beyond the setting. This is of some importance since it gives Spike and Dru, along with Angelus and Darla, ample reason to cross paths with Jack. If anything, given the purpose for Jack's killing spree, the historical escalating of eviscerations makes no sense in terms of Holder's narrative.

At this point I should admit that I have something of a prejudice against science fiction and fantasy stories that turn Jack the Ripper into an inhuman monster. When Robert Bloch came up with "Wolf in the Fold" for the original "Star Trek," that was fine. After all, Bloch wrote a "real" Ripper story with "A Toy for Juliette." But Jack was human, which is what makes him such a horrible figure. If there is a more gruesome murder than what he did to his "final" victim Mary Kelly (Holder provides a massive example of understatement by referring to her as having been "gutted like a fish"), then I do not want to know about it and I especially do not want to see any photographs. Jack the Ripper was a human being and the idea that the Slayer of that time, Elizabeth, would be restrained by her Watcher from going after the Ripper because he was (presumed) to be human, has plenty of story potential.

That aside, the important thing here is that in telling the story of an eternal conflict between two sets of Irish faery, the Fromhoire and the Tuatha, Holder makes playing the Jack the Ripper card unnecessary. All it really means is that the name itself inspires some notion of fear in Buffy, but they the faery induced fog does that all by itself, so that pretty much makes the Jack the Ripper point moot. Clearly the creature that Buffy faces is not the Jack the Ripper of legend, which, again begs the question why bother to waste him in this novel? If Holder had written a novel about Spike and the rest of the vampire quartet in Whitechapel in 1888, dealing with a human evil whose viciousness was beyond even that of Angelus, that could have been a pretty good "BtVS" novel, even if Buffy never made an appearance in the main narrative (I assume she would be in the prologue/epilogue). I have no doubt that Spike could carry a book pretty much on his own.

The other problem with having Jack the Ripper in this story is that the Celtic mythology regarding the Fromhoire and the Tuatha gets muddled. "Blood and Fog" even has a lecherous little leprechaun who has taken an interest in Willow, which has nothing to do with Jack. As it is, the most chilling point in this novel is when we learn what Willow does to protect Dawn. Several others have comments on the canonical violations of this novel, which is surprising given Holder is the principal author on both volumes of "The Watcher's Guide" published to date, so I will not add to that debate. I will just say that Simon & Schuster should have a better spell check to run books through before they publish them.

"Blood and Fog" will be one of the most disappointing "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" novels ever, mainly because when you take into account the hook and the author you would have such high expectations. The cover art is very striking and the title is perfect for the hook, but ultimately the story is flawed in its conception. The great irony is that is the hook was removed and the name Jack the Ripper had never been mentioned, I would have rated "Blood and Fog" higher.