Four Exciting Buffy the Vampire Slayer Tie In Novels

This quartet of Novels that made up the Lost Slayer: Prophecies, Dark Times, King of the Dead, and Original Sins are four effective BTVS Tie-Ins that follow the TV series. These particular novels are set to tie-in to the series at the beginning of the fourth series. Thus along with the regulars: Willow , Buffy, Xander, and Anya we are see Oz and the vampires Drusilla and Spike as major characters. These books are based on the premise: what if Buffy made a very big mistake of judgment and a horrible world was created. In this world Buffy had to fight against her own beloved Watcher., Giles Not only would it tear her up emotionally, he would be one of the most formidable foes because he could anticipate her every move.

The book series was set at the of the fourth season. We saw Buffy attempt to separate life as a slayer from her life with her friends and family. And unfortunately this behavior caused tragic results.

Most of the series involves how Buffy corrected that almost fatal error.

I believe this series is one of the better efforts of the after series Buffy books, and really enjoyed it. I hope I can give you enough of a taste of what happened to entice you to check the series out yourself!

I hope that this review will whet your appetite for this series – I tried to tell you just enough to get your intrigued without giving it all away.

Prophecies : the first book in the series sets the stage

“Buffy’s worst enemy is closer than she thinks.”

In the first novel, we saw Buffy trying to adjust to U.C Sunnydale. Buffy just started at U.C Sunnydale and finding it to be quite the challenge.She is was finally in a center where being academically sharp is important, and although we know Buffy to be very brilliant – her professors do not appreciate her imagination. She was alone – no Angel, and Riley was not yet on the scene . She was unsure where she fit in with the Scoobies, who had been her allies for years. Buffy decided to withdraw and try to do as much as she can by herself, in a poor attempt to protect them. She tries to separate her job as a Slayer from a being a friend. They are hurt by feeling not wanted, and for not understanding why. Ultimately, it ends up hurting them much more than if she had used them as she could have.

Early on we see her being visited by Lucy Hanover, a ghosted former Slayer who appears to Buffy and Willow sometimes with messages. Lucy says that on her travels on the Ghost Roads she has come across a Prophet with a frightening message for Buffy: there is going to be a terrible mistake made and Buffy will be the one to make it.

While she was thinking about that a huge Camazotz demon – god of the bats – comes into Sunnydale. He brought with him incredibly strong Vampires – the Kakchiquels – Thus he had created almost unbeatable foes from their symbiotic relationship. He used strong magicks as well as strength. He also had a sick relationship with his mate for life – Zotzilaha that makes him more tricky to kill.

Camazotz was believed to be the demon responsible for vampires.

Giles wanted Buffy to involve Willow which would have really improved the situation. But she chose not to, which was part of the new isolation of her identity. This was a fatal error.

She did not do that, and the plot to capture and kill Camazotz went very wrong.

Giles was captured when he went to investigate by himself. Even worse his captor who he believed to be a harbor master turned out to be a vampire who had been turned by Camazotz.

The scene fell apart quickly, Giles was captured and held hostage so that Buffy did not kill the Bat King. She escaped and left the scene in a failed effort to seek help from the others. The scene ended with her swimming away for her life – fulfilling the first law of a Slayer – don’t die.

She is able to reunite with her friends as they planned out saving Giles. This time Willow and Anya did the spell and the group made a strong effort.

The only problem was it did not work. And it REALLY did not work.

Buffy was captured. We saw her waking up in a jail cell where she has been for five years. As a prisoner. The plan had been made to keep her as a prisoner rather than kill her that another Slayer would be called.

The book ended as another Slayer is thrown in the cell with her. The only problem was that the other Slayer was not her friend and instead saw the only way out of the dilemma was to kill Buffy!

Dark Times: Part Two of the Lost Slayer

“Buffy’s most frightening nightmares have become a reality…”

Buffy learns that she is called “The Lost Slayer” because it is not known where she is. This novel will shed light on what happened when Buffy ran from the harbor master and she ended up in a cage with another Slayer bound on killing her. The novel is stronger and more effective because it switches back and forth from the time that the Slayer was taken to 5 years later when she breaks away.

The second novel starts as the two Slayers are circling each other in this crazy plan to destroy each other. Well – Buffy escapes from her cell, and eventually out of the prison.

She ran away towards a Sunnydale that is very different than she had left. Rather than vampires being an occasional villain, they ruled the population with the help of scared and opportunist human conspirators. Many ordinary people had been turned into vampires – with the plan to turn even more.

She was able to be rescued by Xander, Willow and Oz – but they are not school children any more. Willow is an uber-witch and leader, Xander was a major military force and Oz has learned how to use his werewolf powers at will. What is even more impressive is that they work for the Watcher’s Council which had joined forces with others to try to alleviate the very real threat they are facing.

Their reality is much bleaker – and the Scoobies are harder and sadder.

Sunnydale is hell on Earth – with vampires winning control, along with a few willing human slaves and the rest of the populace living in terror of the vampires.

And Buffy learned that the threat was so strong because the vampires are serving is Giles who is their King.

King of the Dead – Part Three of the Lost Slayer

Because Sunnydale was directly on a Hellmouth it was a difficult place to begin with.

But the altered reality that Buffy escaped back to was Hell on Earth. Most of the humans in Sunnydale had left like when Katrina hit, the ones that were left cowered in their homes or had sick symbiotic relationships with the vampires. A group of vampire wannabees had swarmed to the town because of a naive lust for the danger of the vampires.

The tension mounted as Giles was shown as being more and more evil. He fought amazingly strong vampires – like Spike, and with his own am cunning and the help of the other vampires he has on his team he is able to dominate all. Giles led the vampires as the King they had never had. Stronger and brighter than the Master, he was able to organize the vampires as had never been done before, and he was working systematically to infiltrate government and business so that he eventually would dominate the world.

We see Giles as Lord: diabolical, and cunning like nothing Sunnydale has seen.

We see the new Council – with a British head but with Willow as the real power. We learn who the players are now – Willow, Xander and Oz. In this book Oz is still with Willow – but their relationship has been shattered because of a terrible fight where Oz had to kill Willow’s parents – who had been turned into vampires – in order to protect Willow.

Anna the new Slayer. Xander is hardened because he lost his precious Anya in an attack from Spike that also killed Buffy’s mother, and Oz is sadly detached because he had to protect Willow from two terrible enemies – her own parents who had been turned into vampires.

Spike rebelled against Giles and decides to give information to the Council. That of course ended up with him being in a dust pan, but before they kill him they learn how many politicians, police and other people of power are being turned into vampires under Giles leadership.

We see his plan to control the World unfold: the police and Mayor of L.A are being turned, with more to be turned every day.

And we learn that although Giles is not totally happy that Buffy is back with her gang and has escaped as long as she has – he is not sad about it either. That is because Giles is toying with Buffy in a sick cat and mouse game. And even more nefariously – he eventually wants to turn her into a vampire.

This included being confronted by Giles in her own room. But it appeared that he was just there to taunt her. And although there was a major altercation between our team and the vampires – the final battle was yet to be fought.

Buffy tries to fit into the new version of vampire fighters, like the Council , Watcher,and Slayer used to be – only this time it is with the Scoobies with Willow in command.

The tension mounts as they learn that the vampires are expanding quickly – and the US government is aware. They have promised to attack Sunnydale and LA if the vampire problem can’t be solved – regardless if some humans were killed.

Buffy is afraid that Giles is so talented and cunning that even a full on army attack would not kill him. It is a devastating thought that Southern California could be blown to smithereens – and Giles still is not killed.

The third book King of the Dead of the Lost Slayer ends with a violent and dramatic fight to the death between the vampires and their human compadres, and Buffy and our Council.

Original Sins : the Thrilling Conclusion of The Lost Slayer

“Can Buffy defeat a foe who not only knows her techniques but helped her develop them?”

This novel concluded the Lost Slayer series.

We learn what Giles has done with Angel – showing even more of his evil. Giles did not kill Angel, he didn’t trap Angel in a cell like he did Buffy. Instead he had him suspended by space – motionless forever with a stake inches from his heart. Giles is hoping that he can tempt Buffy to join his side by releasing Angel, but our heroine instead is able to give up the man she loves to save the world.

So Buffy loses Angel. And that is not all – Xander is taken from the fold in battle. Willow weeps as she discovers his body. She has held it together until this point but she could not bear losing the friend that she had kept since kindergarten.

The vampire fighters continued to fight the vampires, but it became harder and harder to prevail over them. She and Willow and what is left of the Council continues to fight, but they are becoming disheartened.

Buffy knew that if she could re-write the past and fix her original sin -she and the world would be in a much better place.

Eventually they are able to do that with the help Lucy, a ghosted former Slayer. Lucy had been featured in other Christopher Golden Buffy novels. She is able to help bad ass witch Willow perform a spell that was able to stop the wicked demon Camazotz . Buffy’s original sin had been trying to do it all herself rather than binding together with her group as she had previously.

Weaknesses of the Novels

There just is no comparison to the series and the novels or the comics that came after. However if you are a fan you will want to read all of the novels just to be close to the characters again.

Also, in particular the point of this novel is that Buffy’s giant mistake was in trying to do it all by herself. That seemed a bit gimmicky. I have often felt that the series was rough on Buffy, i.e bringing about the demon Machida when she went to a frat party , and changing Angel to Angelus when they made love. Can’t a girl just have fun?

Plus in these novels Buffy was actually trying to save her friends by protecting them – her error was not nefarious.

Strengths of the Novels

One strength is that they were written by Christopher Golden who knows the series and the characters like the back of his hand.

Even the dialects are right on – I can imagine Spike saying everything he said. And as a fan of the series I appreciated Easter eggs like when Drusilla is killed by Buffy and Spike says ” if only vampires had ghosts.”

Watching the Scoobies develop into even more fierce warriors was fascinating, especially uber-witch Willow.

The demon villains of the Mayan deities Zotzilaha and Camazotz who were believed to be the creators of vampires was fascinating. As were the euber-vamps bat-faced Kakchiquels who protected them. Both a fascinating addition to the monsters in the Buffyverse.

The novels are short enough to keep your attention and riveting so that you want to go from one to the other. You truly want to know the conclusion.

The Lost Slayer Books by Christopher Golden are Collectible, and are Hard to Find

I have found all four novels – and do recommend them. You can find them easily at my eBay store.

The Lost Slayer 1 – 4 Buffy the Vampire Slayer Novels By Christopher Golden