Keep Me in Mind

FROM THE ARCHIVES (Buffy book review)

Keep Me In Mind

Nancy Holder (2005)

RATING: 2/5 Stakes

SETTING: Season Two

CAST APPEARANCES: Buffy, Xander, Willow, Giles, Joyce, Cordelia, Harmony, Snyder, Oz, Ethan Rayne, Jonathan, Devon, Amber, Jenny Calendar

MAJOR ORIGINAL CHARACTERS: George Handley (intern), Lars Von Teufelsblut (sorceror), Der Luger (demon)

BACK-OF-THE-BOOK SUMMARY: “Ethan Rayne returns to Sunnydale and unleashes a long-trapped evil sorceror from Middle Ages Bavaria. As if that and Ethan’s true motivation weren’t enough to keep Buffy from her chemistry home-work, she soon finds herself encountering a seemingly endless parade of old adversaries out to settle the score.”

REVIEW

Keep Me in Mind is the second in the “Stake Your Destiny” line of choose-your-own-adventure Buffy novels. The plot (if one can call it that) involves Ethan Rayne working with an evil sorceror named Lars Von Teufelsblut (I kid you not) and a demon named Der Luger to free something-or-other trapped in an ancient time capsule. Somehow the magic goes all ka-blooey, and manifestations of old Buffy enemies and allies start popping up all over the place, making for a very trippy read as it’s never quite clear who is actually present and who is simply a figment of a spell gone bad. I’m not opposed to the “Stake Your Destiny” books. The Suicide King, for example, is a pretty interesting read. Keep Me in Mind, however, is an incoherent mess of recycled dialogue and characters, with a recurring didactic tone about the importance of training. There’s a few good moments of light, sassy fun and an interesting framing sequence, but on the whole this book should simply be skipped.