Afterimage

FROM THE ARCHIVES (Buffy book reviews)

Afterimage

Pierce Askegren (2006)

RATING: 3/5 Stakes

SETTING: Season Two (ambiguous)

CAST APPEARANCES: Buffy, Willow, Cordelia, Giles, Xander, Joyce, Angel, Harmony, Aura, Jonathan, Principle Snyder, Xander’s Dad, Xander’s Mom

MAJOR ORIGINAL CHARACTERS: Balsamo (Caliogstro, evil alchemist); Amanda (Magic Box employee)

BACK-OF-THE-BOOK SUMMARY: “Sunnydale, California, hosts more than its fair share of action and horror. It’s understandable, then, that news of the long-closed Sunnydale Drive-In’s grand reopening with a scheduled night-long festival of classic action and horror movies is met with disinterest or disdain by Buffy, Willow, and Cordelia. Only Xander, who has been spending his afternoons on the drive-in’s work crew, is eager to enjoy the rewards of his effort. Buffy is too distracted to sit and take in a movie, anyway. A frightening encounter with a werewolf ends with its vanishing—not into the woods, but evaporating like a ghost before her eyes. Suspicious people in dated clothing and hairstyles are spotted throughout town but don’t appear to be the usual vampires. And most disturbing, a sleeping sickness begins to sweep over town, leaving those affected in a state of extreme drowsiness-or a coma. It’s no wonder no one notices the distinguished-looking gentleman of indeterminate age. His name is Balsamo. At least, that’s what he’s calling himself this century. But Xander simply knows him as ‘Boss’ and has been promised a prime parking space for the upcoming evening’s spectacle. . . .”

REVIEW

With such a thorough back-of-the-book summary, I almost don’t even feel the need to recap the plot, but here I go anyway: Sunnydale has a new drive-in movie theater and you can bet something bad is gonna happen when it opens (anything new in Sunnydale is almost automatically evil). The man with the plan is a centuries-old schemer better known as the evil alchemist Caliogstro, and the magic crystals that power his movie projector make some of the screen characters become real. Oh, and if you go to see a movie? Good chance you’ll fall into a coma real quick.

Afterimage is well-plotted and paced, with a good lead-up to the mystery and one of the better demonstrations of how the Scoobies do detective work. Although the dialogue is only average, the action scenes are enjoyable and there’s a very sweet scene when Xander, unable to convince anyone to go to the drive-in with him on opening night, decides to ask Jonathan. All in all, an average but satisfying offering.

Simon & Schuster has continued to focus most of its recent Buffy books on the high school years—wouldn’t it be interesting to see them try a more intense, hard-edged, high-stakes novel geared toward adults?