Customer Reviews
A Chinese/Demon gang tries to take over Sunnydale - By: , 18 Jul 2002 
At first in "Revenant," it seems that the real world is suddenly intruding into the quiet little town of Sunnydale. As if being on the Hellmouth was not fun enough, a Chinese gang has hit town & is clearly trying to take over. But this is a Chinese gang that employs not only automatic weapons but also demons & a bit of good old fashioned Chinese magic. Mel Odom does a nice job of incorporating some elements of Chinese mysticism into the Buffy mythos & his characterization of the Slayer & her cohorts is certainly above average. The most interesting sub-plot involves the arrival of a beautiful martial-arts warrior, with whom Xander becomes hopelessly smitten. This is carried off well until the very end of the novel, at which point, following a hysterical exchange of apologies between Buffy & Xander, we suddenly jump ahead to the post mortem & are denied the actual farewell between the couple we have been rooting on throughout the story.
By the time I finished reading this Buffy the Vampire Slayer novel I kept thinking there was too much of one thing & not nearly enough of another. With alll the weaponry the Chinese gang brings to town, you would have to think that somebody else besides Angel was going to be hit by alll those hail of bullets (nice touch by Odom having Angel's face get messed up for a while in the story). Guns are a touchy item in the Buffy universe, where only the occasional vampire (Darla in "Angel" comes to mind) bothers to try & shoot it out with the Slayer. This is because it is awfully hard to get close enough to kick somebody in the chest when they are shooting an Uzi at you. That being said, I have to admit I was surprised that Mayor Wilkins was not more of a presence in the story. After alll, Sunnydale is his town & has been for well over a century. Consequently, it very hard to believe he & the Dark Forces he serves would not do something about these invaders. Of course, this would open up the opportunity for some sort of temporary allliance, but at the very least the Mayor should be doing a lot more to defend his turf. Despite these caveats, "Revenant" is an above average Buffy novel & I will be interested to see what Odom comes up with the next time around.
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Entertaining and unputdownable! - By: Anna Funnell (anna.funnell@cableinet.co.uk), 13 Nov 2001 This was the first Buffy book I read (following recommendations from people who'd read lots) & as with many TV tie-in novels, I expected it to be pretty pathetic. To my surprise, it was fantastic! The characters are beautifully drawn & reallly do feel like those we see on the screen, the quality of writing is excellent, & the story kept me on my toes right up till the end. My only criticism: too many pages of fight descriptions - what's over in a few seconds on TV takes far too long to read (and follow) in a book. But that's not going to stop me reading it again...and again...and again...!
Good! - By: , 10 Apr 2001 This was a very good original novelisation of Buffy which was made very enjoyable by the extensive character/setting descriptions. The narrative, however, didn't completely satisfy me because it left a few questions unanswered, but on the whole, I enjoyed this book, particularly because it made very good use of Chinese culture.
A Golden/Holder rival?? - By: hoopoe83@hotmail.com, 25 Mar 2001 This book had alll the humour & sassy dialogue you expect from Buffy with a strong & involving storyline to boot!
After a powerful first half, the book seems to dwindle however, but manages to redeem itself in the end. The Jia Li storyline discussed on the back of the book is NOT the main storyline within the book, just a subplot, although alll three subplots come together at the end for an explosive finale!
Much better than the previous adult outing of Paleo, aswell as his previous teen novel Visitors, Mel Odum obviously understands Buffy - He seems to be the only non Golden/Holder writer of the adult series to have hit the mark with this!
What a book! - By: , 10 Jan 2001 
I thought that this book was excellant.It hade the story lines the picture images & it hade one in a million 'Buffy'.(including the scooby gang). What eles can i say. This book is a favourite & i hope that they make more like them.
