Cursed

FROM THE ARCHIVES (Buffy book reviews)

CURSED

By Mel Odom (2003)

RATING: 3/5 Stakes

SETTING: Season 6 Buffy, Season 3 Angel (not harmonized)

MAJOR ORIGINAL CHARACTERS: Tarl Dannek (gangster); Arrag, Doxxil, & Muullot (Quorqoth demons); Lord Hyde-Pierce (gentry); Lyanka, Gitana (gypsies); Chavula Faa (demon villain); Tobar (henchman); Bill Wynowski (lawyer).

CAST APPEARANCES: Spike, Angel/Angelus, Gunn, Wesley, Cordelia, Connor, Drusilla, Darla, Lilah Morgan, Fred, Lorne

BACK-OF-THE-BOOK SUMMARY “Sulking around the Slayer in Sunnydale, the vampire Spike has often run into demons intent on punishing him for throwing in with the White Hats. But when there are hints of a more organized campaign dedicated to vanquishing the vampire with a chip in his head, Spike sets off on the trail of whoever’s put a hit out on him. Meanwhile, in the City of Angels, the vampire with a soul finds that the search for a mystical object is tied to his days as the vicious Angelus. Then Spike—his former partner in carnage—arrives in L.A. Each nursing a grudge, and with the specter of Buffy in both of their (cold, dead) hearts, the two vampires reluctantly work together . . . until their torturous past catches up with them!”

REVIEW

Cursed is one of the handful of books in the Buffy/Angel crossover series of novels. The crossover is somewhat one-sided, however, as Spike is the only character from Buffy’s cast to make an appearance. The book picks up directly after the episode in which Buffy tells Spike that their relationship is over. Spike, hoping to win Buffy back by putting her financial troubles at ease, decides to take part in a demon-ran heist to obtain a valuable, rare artifact called a Foundation Stone.

It turns out, in the way these things often do, that the Foundation Stone is actually just one of a set of seven that (when put together) open a mystical portal to another dimension. A powerful demon named Chavula Faa has spent decades trying to assemble all seven stones so that he can subjugate this other dimension, and Spike gets himself into all sorts of trouble. While all of this is going on, Angel is set on the trail of the stones as well. Near the end of the book, they meet up and help a group of gypsy-type demons called the Kalochner stop Chavulaa Faa.

Although the plot’s a bit on the hokey side, Cursed is a half-way decent novel. There are some nice actions scenes and the characterization of Spike and Angel are pretty good (though they’re not nearly as much fun when together as they are on television). The main villain, however, is not particularly interesting, nor are the tedious flashbacks to the nineteenth century. Given the overall disappointing line of Buffy and Angel novels, Cursed falls squarely in the average category.