Tales of the Slayer: v.1: Vol 1 (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

Some of the Slayers and their Watchers described here are barely competent and I couldn't help wondering if we had had a history of such in the Buffyverse then the whole planet would be overrun by vamps by now! The writers also seem to have a perverse desire to finish their Slayer off in one story which is a shame as some of the characters are interesting enough for a second outing.

Also I began to get irritated by the writers consistently pinning their stories to great historical events. I'd like to see them create their own history.

I'll certainly purchase the next volume but here's hoping for a more upbeat approach.


Into every generation a Slayer is born; meet seven of them   January 12, 2002
7 out of 8 found this review helpful

There have been hundreds of Slayers over thousands of years of human history and this first volume of "Tales of the Slayers" begins to reveal the past. We have seen Lucy Hanover in several of Nancy Holder's books, walking the Ghost Roads and doing what she can to help Buffy and the Scoobies in the here and now, but only "Spike & Dru: Pretty Maids All in a Row" by Christopher Golden and Holder's "The Book of the Fours" have dealt with past Slayer in any substantive way. Those were novels and these "Tales of the Slayer" are short stories, a distinction that as I constructed this review.

Like any collection of short stories these tales are a mixed lot and anybody who reads them will like some more than others and visa versa. I liked "Silent Screams" by Mel Odom, set in 1923 Germany, although it, ironically is the story least about a Slayer of the seven tales. At the other end I would put the first tale, "A Good Run" by Greg Rucka, set in 490 B.C.E. Greece, which tells of the Slayer Thessily Thessilonkikki at the Battle of Marathon. While I like the idea of a Slayer obsessed with doing something important and memorable to justify her brief existence, I would have like to have seen something more creative than a footnote to the Greek battle against the Persians, not to mention something dealing with the Greek conception of vampires. But the biggest problem seems to me to be the story is 18 pages long, hardly enough time to set up let alone deliver the payoff. In contrast, Odom's story proceeds at a crisp pace and while it makes an ironic contrast to what Hitler was doing in Munich in 1923 he comes up with an even better twist on the German Expressionistic film movement in general and the classic "Nosferatu" in particular. Yes, it will remind you of "Shadow of the Vampire," but it is making a different point.

I really liked the historical figure who turns out to be the Slayer in Christie Golden's "The White Doe" (and I appreciate the story even more having read the About the Authors section at the back of the book) and the encounter the Slayer and Elizabeth Bathory in Yvonne Navarro's "Die Blutgrafin." Nancy Holder deals with questions of class in "Unholy Madness" while Navarro's second tale deals with the issue of race," both of which touch on the idea that people might not be happy with who the Slayer is and where she comes from (Holder's story also offers the most chilling point in the book, bottom page 119). Doranna Durgin's "Mornglom Dreaming" also has an intriguing premise, a Slayer who does not know she has been called, which is the story I most would have liked to have seen as a novel instead of a short story. Conversely, Odom's tale is perfectly suited to this format. I suppose my compromise suggestion would have been fewer stories developed with more depth (i.e., novellas). Still, these stories reflect what you would hope from such a mixed bag of tales: Slayers learning they have been called and their final battles, with only one tale comfortable with the idea of exploring the middle rather than the beginning or the end. Yes, there is high drama to be found in the birth and death of Slayers, but the mother lode is going to be in between and that is what needs to be mined in Volume 2.


The varied tales of slayers from the past   December 12, 2001
Stacey Frier (Horsham, West Sussex England)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful

This is a wonderful collection of short stories foucusing on past slayers. Some of the stories focus on their calling, their major fights and alot of them, their deaths. Even though you know that one slayer dies before another is called, some of the deaths are still unexpected and disconcerted. The stories are varied, Germany, Hungary, America, England and France and set in different times - the 1920s, the French Revolution, the time of the disovery of America, 800 years BC - there are many different types of slayers but they all share one common denominator - they hunt vampires. My favourite story would have to be about the French slayer, Marie-Christine who was close to the French Queen Marie-Antionette (who is depicted as also being a demon hunter in this story) during the French revolution. Marie-Christine ponders who she is actually fighting for. This seems to be a coomon thread in all the slayers lifes, finding out who they are and trying to accept this and questioning if any of them can really make a difference in their own respective worlds.


not as Buffy-related as the title leads you to expect   December 10, 2001
gail j metcalfe
4 out of 7 found this review helpful

I enjoyed this book as a collection of short stories, but was disappointed that none of the stories linked in with the known Buffyverse. No mention of the Master, Darla, Angelus, Drusilla or Spike, who would have been at least known to most of the slayers portrayed. Well-written, and interesting slayer tales, but ultimately a bit of a let-down.


A superb build up to the modern day Slayer   November 7, 2001
willy_the_snitch@hotmail.com (Birmingham)
16 out of 17 found this review helpful

Having read the first story from this collection, i was hooked there and then. You really do notice that some time and thought has gone into the planning and execution of the book, and the times and places that the stories cover are really clever. It was also nice to see a mix of known Buffy associated writers such as Nancy Holder and Christopher Golden, with writers, that i had not heard of. Anybody out there who is either a Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan or just likes to read short enjoyable stories, with an edge to them, then you really cant go wrong with this collection. Light reading at its best, it really has outshone a lot of the other Buffy related books that have been released of late. After i fininshed reading it, i read it again!!