Rating: Summary: Punctuation badness Review: Did noone do a spell check, punctuation check, or do any kind of check on this book? It reads like a first draft. Every time the words "The First" are written (even if they don't pertain to the character "The First") the words are capitalized. Quotation marks are missing, words are misspelled, incorrect words: could have been caught if this book was checked.Aside from that...the book is good if you ignore these issues.
Rating: Summary: Chosen For the Trash Bin Review: I love Buffy. I've enjoyed the Buffy novels that I've read. So, I was excited when I saw that The Powers That Be had "chosen" to novelize the seventh season - a great opportunity, I thought when I bought it - not noticing the lack of credited author. I had forgotten Arthur Weasley's advice to Ron in The Chamber of Secrets: Never trust something that can think for itself if you can't see where it keeps its brains. Similarly, never trust a book where the author is too embarrassed to put his or her name on the cover. Chosen fails on every level, starting with the complete and total lack of proofreading. The grammatical and spelling errors are legion, several per page. Such terrible proofing would have earned any high school student a failing grade. For a published work, it shows a disgusting lack of professionalism by the publisher. People probably - and, sadly, should have - lost their jobs over this one. Simon & Schuster should be ashamed for letting Chosen see the light of day. Next is the terrible, oh so terrible, writing. Essentially, the writer (or, egad, writers!) did a cut and paste job on the scripts. "Okay, here's a line of dialogue, some inane filler, another line from the script, something inane here, too, I think." Quite frankly, it would have been far, far more enjoyable to simply have a complete set of scripts rather than this garbage. Contrary to an early reviewer, I doubt very much that Nancy Holder came within ten miles of this project; the "quality" (and I use that term very loosely) of this project is as far below her standards as a Little Leaguer is below Barry Bonds. At most times it reads like a very bad children's novel (and is it a coincidence that the imprint that published it, "Simon Pulse," is part of Simon & Schuster's "Children's Publishing Division"?), but there is too much sex and gore for any child to read. Overall, it seems the publishers have pushed a rush job on us. Nobody involved in the project took the time to do anything right. They were hoping to make a quick eight bucks off of suckers like me and you, and they succeeded with me. Don't be the next victim.
Rating: Summary: Chosen For the Trash Bin Review: I love Buffy. I've enjoyed the Buffy novels that I've read. So, I was excited when I saw that The Powers That Be had "chosen" to novelize the seventh season - a great opportunity, I thought when I bought it - not noticing the lack of credited author. I had forgotten Arthur Weasley's advice to Ron in The Chamber of Secrets: Never trust something that can think for itself if you can't see where it keeps its brains. Similarly, never trust a book where the author is too embarrassed to put his or her name on the cover. Chosen fails on every level, starting with the complete and total lack of proofreading. The grammatical and spelling errors are legion, several per page. Such terrible proofing would have earned any high school student a failing grade. For a published work, it shows a disgusting lack of professionalism by the publisher. People probably - and, sadly, should have - lost their jobs over this one. Simon & Schuster should be ashamed for letting Chosen see the light of day. Next is the terrible, oh so terrible, writing. Essentially, the writer (or, egad, writers!) did a cut and paste job on the scripts. "Okay, here's a line of dialogue, some inane filler, another line from the script, something inane here, too, I think." Quite frankly, it would have been far, far more enjoyable to simply have a complete set of scripts rather than this garbage. Contrary to an early reviewer, I doubt very much that Nancy Holder came within ten miles of this project; the "quality" (and I use that term very loosely) of this project is as far below her standards as a Little Leaguer is below Barry Bonds. At most times it reads like a very bad children's novel (and is it a coincidence that the imprint that published it, "Simon Pulse," is part of Simon & Schuster's "Children's Publishing Division"?), but there is too much sex and gore for any child to read. Overall, it seems the publishers have pushed a rush job on us. Nobody involved in the project took the time to do anything right. They were hoping to make a quick eight bucks off of suckers like me and you, and they succeeded with me. Don't be the next victim.
Rating: Summary: could have been good Review: I probably really would have enjoyed this book if every page didn't have some sort of gramactical mistake. it was pathetic, like they didn't even proof read. basically, the typo that annoyed me the most was every single time the book said the first, it was capitalized. The First.. even when it had nothing to do with the first evil. exampe, not directly from text or anything but to illustrate my point. It was The First of decemember or It was The First time the girls went to the mall stuff along those lines. I wouldn't recommend buying it.
Rating: Summary: Was the editor slain? Review: I was looking forward to this book simply because I never saw the final season of Buffy and was really curious what happened. So, I bought it and started to read... What a MAJOR disappointment. The story itself probably isn't bad, but the complete lack of any responsible editing before publishing this book is totally disheartening. Anyone, especially in a publishing outfit, who reads even the first few pages of this book will spot dozens of mistakes. Things like mispellings, inappropriate capitalization, poor punctuation or even half-finished sentences frustrate and get in the way of the readers enjoyment from beginning to end. Many of the chapters (each of which correspond to 1 episode from the 7th season) are far too abbreviated to even be fun to read. I am not even halfway through the book yet and already it is very difficult to keep reading becuase I keep stumbling upon sentences that begin but don't end. And the writing style is choppy and simply doesn't flow like a good novel should. It's almost as if the writer was simply copying the scripts and thoroughly abbriviating both scene descriptions and disalong along the way. The final result is a novel that should be wonderful but is decidedly short of that goal. Some serious story editing followed immediately by grattical editing would do wonders for this novel, but as published it's really not worth reading. There is simply too much wrong with it to allow the reader to be immersed in the story. Guess I'll have to get the true enjoyment from the 7th season DVDs whenever they are released because this book did nothing for me.
Rating: Summary: could have been good Review: MAN! I loved this book I'm a huge Buffy fan. The punctuation mistakes and spelling mistakes sucked, but that didn't make the book any less enjoyable. After I read this I HAD to watch the 7th season. I loved it! All except for the end it absoloutley ruled. It's just too bad that Buffy's over the ending would have made an awesome new season. If you haven't read this book you should if you're not a Buffy fan you should be.
Rating: Summary: The Cliffs Notes Version of Buffy's Season Seven Review: Please bear in mind when reading this review that I've been a fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer since the movie first came out. I've watched the show since Episode 1, Season One and enjoyed most of the episodes. As are many other fans, I'm annoyed the show was not taken seriously by the critics and did not receive the Emmys it surely earned. That said, I can't recommend this book with any enthusiasm at all. It is to the episodes it covers as Cliffs Notes are to the chapters of the books they summarize for the lazy or those in too much of a hurry to actually read the book. Yes, it captures most of the dialogue and give a rough idea of the action, but there is none of the sparkle I associate with BTVS. It's a long plod through a momentous season, a trip that makes you wonder at time why you didn't just wait for the DVDs. While the writer(s) that assembled Chosen were obviously working from the scripts in the same way James Blish novelized the original 79 episodes of Star Trek, the book is still a dull slog through one of the more interesting fantasy universes ever created. The bottom line is, if you have seen Season Seven and know it well, this book will function as sort of a DVD player and permit you to view it on the movie screen of your mind. If you haven't, well, you are going to find it choppy and a rough go. As I said before, if I were you I'd wait for the DVD set.
Rating: Summary: Chosen ? Who was the Chosen Editor?! Review: The editor? Hello? The editor ruined a perfectly good book. Names are mispelled, sentances dont make sense etc. The book is a summary of season 7 and was worth all its money however, the editor? Sorry but that just bugs me. I would buy this book if you like Buffy and you loved Season 7. Any true Buffy fan would Buy this book and enjoy. The author summed up the season pretty well, some chapters were too short and others too long. Overall still pretty good.
Rating: Summary: For the love of God get me an Editor! Review: Theory goes Season 7 wont be released on DVD in the US for quite sometime, so why not put the season together in a novel form. Not a bad concept really, but the spelling and grammer are terrible. Its painful to read, halfway through even a horrible write like myself had an urge to bust out a pen and start correcting things. THATS how bad it is. They even miss named episodes, naming Touched as End of Days. Save your money bide your time and wait for the DVD
Rating: Summary: Great idea, wretched execution Review: This was a fabulous idea--translating the entire season into one, huge book. However, the execution is poor, so poor as to almost drown out enjoyment of the 'book'. A previous reviewer mentioned typos etc. They were not kidding: "Phil Newton did not want to let them in. But when Buffy mentioned Cassie, he do so grudgingly..." "I don't want him every again, Buffy thought, as she and Spike patrolled, coming up on the hold that had swallowed Rocky..." (Yes, that's right...every should be ever and hold should be hole.) "We're having a moment, Xander thought, even if it was all about walking Nancy home to make sure she could there in one piece...or at all." "The wood doorframe splintered and the floor beneath them buckled, furrowing in a deadly way straight line heading their way..." And this is just a small sampling of the delights to be discovered within the pages of "Chosen." The thing that makes me so angry is that these errors are very, very unnecessary. It's sheer laziness. Not only do you have a plethora of typos within each short chapter, but the writing itself is incredibly lazy as well. Just subpar. I bought the book, so I'm reading it and trying to overlook lazy writing and even lazier editing. But I will stumble onto sentences that are so nonsensical, until I realize that there's a huge gap missing or that one word was mistaken for another. That really impedes the reading, rhythm, you know? I would recommend other Buffy fans either borrow this book from a friend who's already bought it, or get it from the local library. Don't spend your own money on it though. You might even be better off just hunting up season seven scripts if you're hungry for a recap of the season...
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