Queen of the Slayers (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) (Paperback)

Holder is arguably the best person to write such a novel this side of Joss Whedon as the co-authors on the first two volumes of "The Watcher's Guide" and the first book of "Angel: The Casefiles," in addition to having co-written "The Gatekeeper" trilogy with Christopher Golden, and a bunch of "BtVS" novels by herself. "The Evil That Men Do" would be the best of that bunch. I would be curious to know how much consulting she did with the Powers That Be (Did they sign off? Or are these characters all up for grabs now?), but you really have to judge "Queen of the Slayers" on its own terms. The fact that it is an oversized paperback is a clear indication Holder and the publishers are going for something big.

The premise is that with the Sunnydale Hell mouth closed and hundreds of Slayers waking up around the world Buffy has reason to believe she is finally getting a break. But they are not going to get off of that school bus before bad things start happening again. The Hellmouth near Cleveland is now open for serious business and not all of the stuffed shirts of the Watchers Council are dead. They want to collect the new Slayers and get back to business as usual, which Buffy does not want. However, many of the Potentials turned Slayers are flocking to the side of the Immortal in Rome, so Buffy and the Scoobies are off to Europe. Meanwhile, the forces of darkness are out to get Buffy and turn Earth into a Hell dimension. In the forefront of this effort are Ethan Rayne's god Janus and the vampire siblings Cesare and Lucretia Borgia, who want to come back to Rome and rule once again.

First, let me say that turning your daughter into a Vampire Slayer is something that every parent should get the opportunity to do. After all, the kid has to be on their best behavior while you are writing the book or else mommy is going to have horrible things happen to you. Beyond that, Holder has some problems with fitting characters into the limited continuity we have from the final season of "Angel." The idea of the Immortal is just not as impressive as meeting the actual guy and the Andrew who whines his way through this novel is not the one that leads the operation to get Dana the insane Slayer from Angel in the episode "Damaged." I also think it is really overkill to have all of these Big Bads in this one novel. It would work better to choose between the trio headed by Janus and the Borgias; I would go with the latter because the idea of Lucretia Borgia wanting to be both a vampire and a Slayer is a fun idea.

Buffy as a reluctant queen is certainly worth pursuing, and Holder does a really nice job with Faith and Kennedy in terms of the supporting characters. Not that the two of them end up together even though Kennedy and Willow are having some post-apocalyptic problems with their relationship. If you want to deal with this it really needed to be more than a minor subplot, which is why I ended up thinking that "Queen of the Slayer" really should have been a trilogy. This is especially true when you realize that what Holder is writing is Season 8 of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," in which case 337 pages is not enough (especially stacked next to the "Chosen" paperback). New Slayers show up and are dead in a few pages, key machinations are taking place off stage, and even Belle never really has a big moment (did mommy take it away from her?).

As for the conclusion, you have to grant that Holder is going for something special and that she is hamstrung not being able to go beyond the series finale of "Angel" the way she does with "BtVS." Add to this that she really cannot spell out how what she suggests is happening (and could happen) could be happening. But it is certainly a hopefully note to end on. Even jaded fans who find "Queen of the Slayer" rubbing them the wrong way will find some choice moments to enjoy (e.g., Willow updating Oz on what happened after he left Sunnydale). At the very least fans have to read this one to see what they think about it, because this could well be a pivotal "BtVS" novel.

Obviously this is not the "last" original "BtVS" novel; Nancy Holder has "Carnival of Souls" coming out next March. But since we do not know what that or any of the other upcoming "BtVS" novels are about it could well be that "Queen of the Slayers" represents a new end point, at least for those writing such tales. If any other author goes beyond Season 7 do they have to deal with what Holder has presented here? Or will the idea be to go back and fill in the gaps, because if so, I have a really great idea for a "BtVS" novel about Dawn.

One major Complaint is with the Final Battle in the book, In my opinions it goes against what Buffy stood for. All major fans of the series will understand what I mean when they read the book.

So apart from what I've mentioned above, I felt it was a good story and I really enjoyed it and give it 3 out of 5