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halcyon_rising's review against another edition
4.0
Dit is het eerste Buffy-boek dat ik in jaren lees, en ik moet zeggen dat ik heb zitten genieten. Er was waarschijnlijk constant een creepy smile op mijn gezicht af te lezen omdat ik na jaren eindelijk weer herenigd was met één van mijn favoriete TV-shows ooit.
In dit boek is Buffy nog een beginnende Doder, en zijn Willow en Xander nog maar beginnende Scooby's. Het plot is geschreven aan een goed tempo, en gebruikt Samhain as baddie van deze week. Het zou leuk geweest zijn om hem op het scherm gezien te hebben met zijn brandend hoofd, maar je kan niet alles hebben. ;)
Wat ik wel hopelijk snel kan hebben, is het volgende avontuur in mijn handen om dat te herlezen. Hopelijk weer met een glimlach op het gezicht!
Veel leesgenot.
In dit boek is Buffy nog een beginnende Doder, en zijn Willow en Xander nog maar beginnende Scooby's. Het plot is geschreven aan een goed tempo, en gebruikt Samhain as baddie van deze week. Het zou leuk geweest zijn om hem op het scherm gezien te hebben met zijn brandend hoofd, maar je kan niet alles hebben. ;)
Wat ik wel hopelijk snel kan hebben, is het volgende avontuur in mijn handen om dat te herlezen. Hopelijk weer met een glimlach op het gezicht!
Veel leesgenot.
takin492's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
0ivy0's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
tense
4.0
A fun Halloween read following the scooby gang and the goings-on in Sunnydale. It was ridiculous but fun (just like the show) including the pumpkin king, zombies and vampires (of course). We had a cameo of Principle Flutie and another character named in episode one as well as a trip to the bronze.
Quips, puns and violence - exactly what I was expecting.
Quips, puns and violence - exactly what I was expecting.
chucks_library's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
This is a fast paced Buffy story based on a Halloween legend of a scarecrow coming to life when it rains on Halloween. Of course like any legend in the Hellmouth this is true and is actually Samhain the spirit of Halloween. Alongside this we have some zombies and vampires too. I thought this was a great quick read, it feels like an episode of the show. It is very dated and some of the conversations felt forced. This is only the second book from the entire collection and this is the first original story so the authors were finding their footing. I still think its a great read especially for the Halloween season.
jamiezaccaria's review against another edition
4.0
A happy union of two awesome things: Halloween and Buffy.
wombat_88's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
mariepty's review
dark
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
littlepanda's review
3.0
First Buffy book and it is okay, not the best written novel but still good plot.
scoobygirl93's review against another edition
4.0
note to self: actually read this on a rainy halloween :)
alexampersand's review against another edition
2.0
Oh dear. This book honestly verged on painful to read at times. It very much felt like someone had been given a very brief concept of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and then come up with an unrelated story.
It's obviously set early in the show, so the only characters that really feature are Buffy, Willow, Xander, and Giles (and a brief appearance by Cordelia early on), and sometimes the dialogue is nailed, but other times they seem to speak entirely out of character. But a major frustration of the dialogue is that the authors obviously got the memo that the dialogue in the show is witty and full of pop culture references, and so they go VERY HARD on that here. Almost every other line features some dry, sarcastic, witty comment, and there is a pop culture reference on almost every other page, and it's honestly just too much. It feels shoehorned and unnatural.
Moving onto the plot itself, I don't think the central plot of Samhain and the Pumpkin King is necessarily bad per se, but it feels like it would have worked as a 45 minute episode, which from looking at the other Buffy novelisations would have made it around a 60-70 page book. Instead, it just feels so dragged out. Unrelated vampire confrontation very early on. Another unrelated vampire confrontation with Giles, Xander, and Willow in the school. And then Giles having some very convoluted magical spell to cast in order to defeat Samhain. It just feels a bit... much.
Then there are some issues that bugged me as an obsessive fan of the show, which maybe are not so much of a bother for people who don't know it inside out. But the timeline doesn't line up!! Setting it at Halloween means it has to take place in October. Several vampires mention The Master, so this clearly takes place during Season 1, meaning it must be Halloween 1996. But Buffy also mentions that she's 16, which means it has to take place after January 1997, her 16th birthday. MAKE IT MAKE SENSE!!! Then there's also the scenario where the vampires can't get into the school to attack Willow, Xander, and Giles, and they hypothesise that it's because they haven't been invited, even though it's stated on the show that public places are open for vampires (and in fact we see many vampires enter the school many times during the show).
From my childhood days of being obsessed with sucking up every bit of Buffy information that I could, I'm well-acquainted with the names Christopher Golden and Nancy Holder, as they've written probably more Buffy books than any other authors, so I had high hopes here, but sadly those hopes have very much been put on ice. However, I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, since this was presumably written very early on in the show's airing - it looks like this was published in November 1997, a couple of months after Season 2 started airing, so I'm assuming it was written as Season 1 was still airing. This also possibly explains some of the inconsistencies I pointed out above. The show itself slightly contradicted itself as it got further on and established more of its own lore, so I guess we can forgive a slight stumble here. Fingers crossed the books start to get better from here!
It's obviously set early in the show, so the only characters that really feature are Buffy, Willow, Xander, and Giles (and a brief appearance by Cordelia early on), and sometimes the dialogue is nailed, but other times they seem to speak entirely out of character. But a major frustration of the dialogue is that the authors obviously got the memo that the dialogue in the show is witty and full of pop culture references, and so they go VERY HARD on that here. Almost every other line features some dry, sarcastic, witty comment, and there is a pop culture reference on almost every other page, and it's honestly just too much. It feels shoehorned and unnatural.
Moving onto the plot itself, I don't think the central plot of Samhain and the Pumpkin King is necessarily bad per se, but it feels like it would have worked as a 45 minute episode, which from looking at the other Buffy novelisations would have made it around a 60-70 page book. Instead, it just feels so dragged out. Unrelated vampire confrontation very early on. Another unrelated vampire confrontation with Giles, Xander, and Willow in the school. And then Giles having some very convoluted magical spell to cast in order to defeat Samhain. It just feels a bit... much.
Then there are some issues that bugged me as an obsessive fan of the show, which maybe are not so much of a bother for people who don't know it inside out. But the timeline doesn't line up!! Setting it at Halloween means it has to take place in October. Several vampires mention The Master, so this clearly takes place during Season 1, meaning it must be Halloween 1996. But Buffy also mentions that she's 16, which means it has to take place after January 1997, her 16th birthday. MAKE IT MAKE SENSE!!! Then there's also the scenario where the vampires can't get into the school to attack Willow, Xander, and Giles, and they hypothesise that it's because they haven't been invited, even though it's stated on the show that public places are open for vampires (and in fact we see many vampires enter the school many times during the show).
From my childhood days of being obsessed with sucking up every bit of Buffy information that I could, I'm well-acquainted with the names Christopher Golden and Nancy Holder, as they've written probably more Buffy books than any other authors, so I had high hopes here, but sadly those hopes have very much been put on ice. However, I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, since this was presumably written very early on in the show's airing - it looks like this was published in November 1997, a couple of months after Season 2 started airing, so I'm assuming it was written as Season 1 was still airing. This also possibly explains some of the inconsistencies I pointed out above. The show itself slightly contradicted itself as it got further on and established more of its own lore, so I guess we can forgive a slight stumble here. Fingers crossed the books start to get better from here!