A review by halcyon_rising
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Portal Through Time by Alice Henderson
2.0
*posts 14-year-old review - yikes*
Also: so harsh.
Portal Through Time is the book that I've spent the last 3 days reading.
I've read quite a decent chunk of the Buffy books already, I think, but is this one of the 'better' ones? No, I don't think so.
Why not? Well, I thought the writing style was pretty 'simple' in the beginning, and I was bothered with it. In fact, I went as far as thinking that, since it says the author 'started writing at the age of six', this was it. I even went to the lady's site to see if she was actually still six, or close to it. Pretty bad, yes?
Fortunately for her, when she started to get to the action-part, it lifted up a bit. Good. But don't expect endless sword fights from her, in excellent quality. You won't get this.
Okay, so what's the book about then? Lucien, a vampire who misses his master, The Master, has managed to get his hands on two artifacts. One that throws you into the past, and one that can bring you back to the future, or something alike. Anyway, if blended together, you have yourself a time travel device that opens up a portal to wherever the spell says it should go, what date, year. Think Sliders.
So, in an attempt to get his Master back, Lucien thinks he should go back into the past to slay himself a future Slayer, namely Buffy at the age of 14/15. He actually manages that, or his rent boys do it, and goes back to the future, expecting his Master to be back. Only to hear that another Slayer named Kafara has come to Sunnydale to try and close the Hellmouth/stop the Master from arising, and in the process released him with her blood, but when vampires found her she was sired, and during her very first night she dusted him, and took control of things herself. Woopsie.
Perhaps we should try that again, but axe her (yes, like that) at the age of 2 or 3 instead. Done. Woopsie. The girl that was the Slayer when the Master should have been reborn did go to Sunnydale, but instead of acting, and risking him having access to her throat/blood, she just sat in her hotel room, waiting for the moment to pass. The day after she went with her Watcher to bomb down his location. Woopsie.
Another person gives Lucien and co the advice to either go make sure that Slayers in the past live longer than they're supposed to, therefore disrupting the Slayer lineage, or kill them faster, in an attempt to have fate skip Buffy Summers instead. I don't see how one could be certain Buffy will be skipped like this, the next one might fall very quickly, but yeah.
There's 4 Slayers they're targeting, each well documented ones. Incinii, the Welsh 60 C.E. Slayer that lived during an attack from the Romans on her Druids, then there was a Sumerian Slayer by the name of Ejuk from Uruk 2700 B.C.E., Agatha Primrose lived during the Civil War of 1862 in Tennessee, and finally there's Marguerite Allard of 1792 aka the French Revolution.
Naturally we're all going to be seeing those in the book. One could say it's a mini-Tales of the Slayer book in that regard. There's a few funny things that happen along their journeys, like when Xander is in Sumer watching statues, he thinks one looks funny and starts laughing, which of course wakes it up, or rather Namtar, god of the plague.
Perhaps the end part of the book is the best, where they're going to 1792 and meet Angelus and Darla. I cried out a 'Buffy can't meet Angelus in the past' when I read it, but through bad luck Buffy had no chance but to kill Angelus to protect the Slayer. Of course we know that things couldn't stay like that, so they travel back to Sunnydale anno 1998, which is totally overrun, ruled by vampires, all because Angel was never there to tell 16-year old Buffy about the Master in the first place. So this is what Lucien wanted all along. But then they travel back again, and fix things by having Buffy send a note to Angelus not to go with Lucien's people into the alley where Buffy saves the Slayer and kills Angelus. Hence the day is saved.
I couldn't understand why Angelus would listen to a note that said 'don't go out there, signed a friend' but ah yeah, the book needed to be done, so there it was. The end.
Read it? Liked it? Agree? Disagree?
Also: so harsh.
Spoiler
Time line: during season 2.Portal Through Time is the book that I've spent the last 3 days reading.
I've read quite a decent chunk of the Buffy books already, I think, but is this one of the 'better' ones? No, I don't think so.
Why not? Well, I thought the writing style was pretty 'simple' in the beginning, and I was bothered with it. In fact, I went as far as thinking that, since it says the author 'started writing at the age of six', this was it. I even went to the lady's site to see if she was actually still six, or close to it. Pretty bad, yes?
Fortunately for her, when she started to get to the action-part, it lifted up a bit. Good. But don't expect endless sword fights from her, in excellent quality. You won't get this.
Okay, so what's the book about then? Lucien, a vampire who misses his master, The Master, has managed to get his hands on two artifacts. One that throws you into the past, and one that can bring you back to the future, or something alike. Anyway, if blended together, you have yourself a time travel device that opens up a portal to wherever the spell says it should go, what date, year. Think Sliders.
So, in an attempt to get his Master back, Lucien thinks he should go back into the past to slay himself a future Slayer, namely Buffy at the age of 14/15. He actually manages that, or his rent boys do it, and goes back to the future, expecting his Master to be back. Only to hear that another Slayer named Kafara has come to Sunnydale to try and close the Hellmouth/stop the Master from arising, and in the process released him with her blood, but when vampires found her she was sired, and during her very first night she dusted him, and took control of things herself. Woopsie.
Perhaps we should try that again, but axe her (yes, like that) at the age of 2 or 3 instead. Done. Woopsie. The girl that was the Slayer when the Master should have been reborn did go to Sunnydale, but instead of acting, and risking him having access to her throat/blood, she just sat in her hotel room, waiting for the moment to pass. The day after she went with her Watcher to bomb down his location. Woopsie.
Another person gives Lucien and co the advice to either go make sure that Slayers in the past live longer than they're supposed to, therefore disrupting the Slayer lineage, or kill them faster, in an attempt to have fate skip Buffy Summers instead. I don't see how one could be certain Buffy will be skipped like this, the next one might fall very quickly, but yeah.
There's 4 Slayers they're targeting, each well documented ones. Incinii, the Welsh 60 C.E. Slayer that lived during an attack from the Romans on her Druids, then there was a Sumerian Slayer by the name of Ejuk from Uruk 2700 B.C.E., Agatha Primrose lived during the Civil War of 1862 in Tennessee, and finally there's Marguerite Allard of 1792 aka the French Revolution.
Naturally we're all going to be seeing those in the book. One could say it's a mini-Tales of the Slayer book in that regard. There's a few funny things that happen along their journeys, like when Xander is in Sumer watching statues, he thinks one looks funny and starts laughing, which of course wakes it up, or rather Namtar, god of the plague.
Perhaps the end part of the book is the best, where they're going to 1792 and meet Angelus and Darla. I cried out a 'Buffy can't meet Angelus in the past' when I read it, but through bad luck Buffy had no chance but to kill Angelus to protect the Slayer. Of course we know that things couldn't stay like that, so they travel back to Sunnydale anno 1998, which is totally overrun, ruled by vampires, all because Angel was never there to tell 16-year old Buffy about the Master in the first place. So this is what Lucien wanted all along. But then they travel back again, and fix things by having Buffy send a note to Angelus not to go with Lucien's people into the alley where Buffy saves the Slayer and kills Angelus. Hence the day is saved.
I couldn't understand why Angelus would listen to a note that said 'don't go out there, signed a friend' but ah yeah, the book needed to be done, so there it was. The end.
Read it? Liked it? Agree? Disagree?