Visitors

FROM THE ARCHIVES (Buffy book reviews)

VISITORS

By Laura Anne Gilman & Josepha Sherman (1999)

RATING: 2/5 Stakes

SETTING: Third Season

CAST APPEARANCES: Buffy, Xander, Willow, Giles, Angel, Cordelia, Oz, Joyce, Ethan Rayne, Devon, Jonathan, Principal Snyder

MAJOR ORIGINAL CHARACTERS: Gerald Panner (Watcher); Sheila, C.B., Rebecca, Elaine, Miriam (student teachers)

BACK-OF-THE-BOOK SUMMARY: “The paranormal forces centered in Sunnydale attract the vilest kinds of evil: vamps, demons . . . and student teachers? An invasion of collegians testing their teaching prowess on Buffy and her peers coincides with the arrival of a supernatural stalker. The Slayer feels the evil entity watching her every move, and she’s not the only one. But researching the best is going to be problematic with the student teachers setting up shop in Giles’s home turf--the school library. When the stalker starts to take his malicious game to the next level, Buffy finds herself face to face with a being unlike any she’s ever encountered. But can she figure out its weakness before she is forced to participate in its dance of death?”

REVIEW

For the first few years of the line’s existence, the Buffy books were subtly separated, on a list of books inside the front cover, into “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” books and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer adult books”. In reality, it’s difficult to tell the difference between “adult” books and non-adult books as the cover designs, plots, and other details of the books seemed largely identical.

Although the distinction was later abandoned, Visitors is a good example of a Buffy book intended for the teenage crowd--it’s relatively short, uncomplicated, and straightforward. In fact, the entire plotline of Visitors could easily have been condensed into a short story for one of the Tales of the Slayers types of book: a korred (a mythological creature with goat feet and a penchant for making people dance to their deaths by playing the flute) comes to Sunnydale and starts stalking Buffy, while the arrival of several student teachers makes the Scooby Gang wonder if there is some connection between the two events.

Unfortunately, an appearance by trouble-maker extraordinaire Ethan Rayne and a spy from the Watcher’s Council end up being tangential to the plot and unsatisfying. Visitors develops very, very slowly, and the tepid would-be climax is not worth the wait. However, there are some great moments with the characters, such as Willow getting spastic on caffeine or the group’s fear that they will drift apart when college comes. The dialogue is strong and Buffy and her friends are portrayed “accurately.”

It’s hard to think of anything else to say--simply put, not much happens in the novel. Plot-wise, Visitors is one of the weakest of the Buffy books, but the “quiet” moments are written well enough that there is still some entertainment to be found within.