Crossings

FROM THE ARCHIVES (Buffy book review)

CROSSINGS

Mel Odom (2002)

RATING: 3/5 Stakes

SETTING: Season Five

CAST APPEARANCES: Buffy, Willow, Anya, Xander, Spike, Willy, Tara, Giles, Dawn, Amy (as rat)

MAJOR ORIGINAL CHARACTERS: Robby Healdton (Xander’s friend); Stephie McConnell (Robby’s girlfriend); Bobby Lee Tooker (demon hunter); Derek Traynor (medium); Dredfahl (villain); Malik (demon); Torqualmar (demon)

BACK-OF-THE-BOOK SUMMARY: “Buffy and Dawn are having difficulty settling into their new roles, now that their mother is gone. Buffy herself is reluctant to cross over to the role of parent, and the two are bickering more than usual. In fact, Buffy’s distraction prevents her from noticing strange behavior among the video-game crowd. One of Xander’s friends goes medieval outside the Sunnydale movie theater, laughing and babbling that he can’t be stopped—he’s only in town on a temporary visa. Puzzled, Anya and Xander investigate. It seems that people who’ve been testing a new video game have been demonstrating creepy tics. As the Slayer attempts to put all of the pieces together, Anya is abducted into an alternate demon universe. Buffy had better figure out how to get her friend back to Sunnydale, before the game is over, for good. . . .”

REVIEW

Crossings is a solid, standard Buffy novel with a straightforward plot. In a demon dimension, a bad guy named Dredfahl hopes to resurrect a powerful demon named Torqualmar by assembling all of the latter’s bones. In other to quicken the search, Dredfahl has hit upon a clever scheme: he uses virtual reality video game testers on Earth as the minds and souls of actual demons in his native dimension, thus increasing the demons’ intelligence and combat ability.

While playing the “game”, however, the gamers’ own bodies on Earth are taken over by the demons’ original minds. As expected, chaos ensues (though the back-of-the-book summary contains a mistake and Xander, not Anya, ends up in the other dimension).

Set shortly after the death of Joyce, author Mel Odom does an excellent job developing Buffy and Dawn’s grief, as well as Buffy’s difficulty figuring out whether she should try to be a sister or a mother (or somehow both). Although more humor would be a plus, the characterization of all the Slayerettes is good, with Xander and Tara getting more of the spotlight than usual for Buffy novels.

Two new characters have potential, although their introduction seems somewhat unnecessary: Bobby Lee Tooker, a southern musician-turned-demon hunter and Derek Traynor, a John Edward-style psychic medium. The action is exciting and easy to visualize, and the heroes figuring out the problem early was actually refreshing. The main downside is the villain, Dredfahl. He has no personality to speak of and his major motivation, resurrecting a powerful demon, is now extremely clichéd in the Buffyverse and should be ruled out of bounds for all future stories.

All in all, Crossings is a middle-of-the-road Buffy book. There are others I would recommend before it, but on its own terms it’s not bad.