Summary: (From
the Book)
Buffy Summers is on the trail of a killer
demon in Sunnydale, and reluctantly accepts the help of Spike. Anything's better
than his moping around. But Spike-as usual-has his own agenda, and it involves
something the demon is carrying: a vial of pure magickal power. Spike knows
plenty of people and demons who will pay top dollar for his vial.
Spike has encountered this power before.
In the good old days in Victorian London, when Spike, Drusilla, Angelus, and
Darla ran through the night in pursuit of dark fun, another evil being was stalking
the streets, dispatching young women with brutal efficiency. But when the so-called
"Jack the Ripper" struck too close to their twisted "family,"
the vampires found themselves on the same side of the Slayer of that time. Working
to bring down Jack, and running afoul of the dark Faery of Celtic time, Spike
and the Slayer formed an uneasy alliance, which followed Spike all through the
twentieth century to present day Sunnydale, now blanketed in a mysterious fog…
Quotable
"I've died twice already, and I'm
not even old enough to drink legally." - Buffy
"I know you won't run. I know I
will probably have to die at your side. I never thought I would say this, but
sometimes I hate being engaged." - Anya
Editorial Opinion
When I heard of this book, I was terribly
excited. A Season Six story focusing on Buffy and Spike? Yes! But I was very
let down not only by the dry storyline, but also to the fact of so many errors.
I stopped counting grammatical errors at ten (though they increased beyond that
number) and found it irritating to muddle through so many. Is anyone paying
editors now-a-days? Seriously, in a published novel this size, there should
be no more than two errors in all! Aside from such grating errors, the storyline
was not believable in the slightest. Both Willow and Spike weren't believable
at all; with Willow still using her magicks when she quit cold turkey in the
series, and with Spike's Big Bad banter with Buffy which he wouldn't have been
saying at the time. Season Four or early Five, yes, but not in this season.
And could he mention he was a vampire any more? I found myself forgetting that
fact about every ten pages.
One saving grace of this book is the introduction
of the Slayer Elizabeth (though I suspect the name was chosen because of the
"Buffy" precursor) whom is so very different than what one would expect
a Slayer to be. Although her Watcher, Sir James, and the Council are ashamed
of her because of her delicate nature to violence, I like the change. We automatically
assume the gaining of the Slayer power gives the young girls a hardness and
fearlessness to them, but it doesn't. That comes from within and, apparently,
Elizabeth doesn't have the nerve. She reminds me of a Victorian "Vi"
from Season Seven (one of my favorite Potentials). The ending was…well,
an apocalyptic battle between demons and the Fae taking place right over Sunnydale
that wasn't because of Willow? Not in Season Six--the season of lame
arch-nemesis..is...es (har, har, Warren) and mundane everyday life trials. This
should have been for a Season Seven setting. I just didn't buy it at all. I
usually like Holder's work, but this book really didn't impress me. In fact,
it lowered my opinion of Holder's writing.