|
|
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Slayer takes on the Erl King, leader of the Wild Hunt, 24 Jul 2004
Christopher Golden and Nancy Holder write the best Buffy the Vampire Slayer novels, not just because they are good writers but because they completely understand both the characters and the mythos of the Slayer. Even though the stories are set in Sunnydale, Golden and Holder have a keen appreciation for the Old World-ness of the Slayer's world. This is not just a question of Giles coming from England, Angel from Ireland and Jenny from the land of the gypsies, but rather a recognition that when you are talking about ancient evil you have to skip across the ocean because that is where our sense of vampires, demons and things that go bump in the night originates. "Child of the Hunt" represents this sensibility quite nicely.Buffy and her cohorts are enjoying a traveling Renaissance fair that has come to Sunnydale, but while they enjoy most of what they see they do not like the way the visitors treat Roland, their court jester. That is not the only significant development in town, for roaming the countryside are the minions of the Wild Hunt, in the service of the Erl King and with a taste for flesh. Of course there is a strange and terrible secret that links Roland to the eerie visitors. The Slayer wants to get involved, but Buffy must beware the awful curse, which dictates that no one can see the face of the leader of the Wild Hunt and live. Unless, that is, they join the hunt and take an oath to serve the Erl King. This is not a story about the end of life as we know it, like a Buffy season finale or Golden and Holder's justly celebrated Gatekeeper Trilogy, but then that is not the point. This is a more intimate story, where Buffy is fighting to save Roland more so than she is to stop the Erl King. Consequently, there is a complexity here that she just do not find in your average Buffy the Vampire Slayer novel. This is a serious story, with less of the humorous lines and cultural allusions than you find in most Buffy novels (usually to excess, I must add), that captures the spirit of ancient, Old World evil that provides such a provocative counterpoint to the essentially Post-Modern Slayer (there's a dissertation topic if ever I heard one). Actually, all you need to know is that if you are like Buffy then you should just read all of Golden and Holders novels. There is ample reason to believe they are genetically incapable of writing anything less than a great one. When you go to download a "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" book, make it easier on yourself and look for anything they have written, either in tandem or individually.
|
by Keith R.A. DeCandido
by Christopher Golden
by Christopher Golden
by Diana G. Gallagher
