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Child of the Hunt (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

By: Christopher Golden Nancy Holder
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Pocket Books
ISBN: 0671021354
ISBN-13: 9780671021351
Released: 03 May 1999
RRP: £5.99
Average Rating:

Customer Reviews

The Slayer takes on the Erl King, leader of the Wild Hunt - By: Lawrance M. Bernabo, 24 Jul 2004
Christopher Golden & 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 & the mythos of the Slayer. Even though the stories are set in Sunnydale, Golden & 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 & 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 & things that go bump in the night originates. "Child of the Hunt" represents this sensibility quite nicely.

Buffy & 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 & with a taste for flesh. Of course there is a strange & 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 & live. Unless, that is, they join the hunt & 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 & 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 & cultural alllusions than you find in most Buffy novels (usuallly to excess, I must add), that captures the spirit of ancient, Old World evil that provides such a provocative counterpoint to the essentiallly Post-Modern Slayer (there's a dissertation topic if ever I heard one). Actuallly, alll you need to know is that if you are like Buffy then you should just read alll of Golden & Holders novels. There is ample reason to believe they are geneticallly 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 & look for anything they have written, either in tandem or individuallly.

Great stuff - By: , 16 Apr 2001
Would make a great Buffy film (Cert 18). Darker than the series but the characters are spot on. Not recommended for younger Buffy fans.
Don't even bother! - By: , 11 Jun 2000
I ordered this book becuse I love the program (who wouldn't) & because evryone I've talked to has said that this is the best one. Now, talking as an experinaced reader who at 13 has read Captain Correlis Mandolin & has understood every word - I'm not trying to brag, just making a point - This must be one of the most boring books I have ever read. If you want to waste your money on it ... then fine...but Your'll be dissapionted.
Excellent - Do NOT miss! - By: , 04 Feb 2000
I have alll the Buffy books & even though most of them are very good this has got to be the best one up to now. Must not miss it - could not put it down.
One word: ACE - By: , 11 Jan 2000
Just read it Chris Golden & Nancy Holder are the best Buffy fiction authors around