As good as "real" fiction?

[Professor Walsh]

While I'm enamoured with the Buffyverse, there are too many good books in the world to spend time on bad ones. And there's certainly so much neat fan fiction to be had for free that there's no need to spend money on bad books. So I wonder: Are there any of the Buffyverse novels that are really good? Where both the story and the writing is of such high quality that it would be well worth reading even if it had no connection to Buffy whatsoever?

 

[xaphania]

I've read one of the Buffyverse novels, and wasn't very impressed with it - so I have no plans to read any more.

To be honest, there's no point. There's so much awesome fanfic out there that can be accessed for free - I don't see a need to read the novels. Particularly because they're not canon either.

Plus, with fanfic, I'm more likely to enjoy the plots. I like Spike/Buffy, so I tend to stick to that ship when reading fics.

 

[anyatara]

It depends, really. What kind of storylines you're in to, and what you see as being decent. I've read between 30 and 50 of the novels (Not sure on the exact figure) and some I would recommend, where as some I would not. My three favourites are Dark Congress (Post season-seven), Go Ask Malice (Faith's diary pre-Sunnydale) and Queen Of The Slayers [Again post-season seven]. Some of the shorter ones aren't as good, but possibly because the storyline wasn't as interesting. As far as authors of the books go, there are several decent ones, I'm not sure which ones to recommend. It really depends on your preferences.

 

[Cohen]

I've read nearly all of them, not including the novelizations of episodes clustered together (The Xander Years, The Angel Chronicles, etc.). And some of them suck, while others hold you all the way through. Christopher Golden, Nancy Holder, and a few others almost always hold true to the Buffyverse. As far as Angel goes, Jeff Mariotte usually writes good novels. Can't remember which ones he wrote though.

 

[Cohen]

I've read 55 out of 69.
And all the ones (except maybe 2 or 3) I've read.. I own.

 

[Joan the Vampire Slayer]

While I'm enamoured with the Buffyverse, there are too many good books in the world to spend time on bad ones. And there's certainly so much neat fan fiction to be had for free that there's no need to spend money on bad books. So I wonder: Are there any of the Buffyverse novels that are really good? Where both the story and the writing is of such high quality that it would be well worth reading even if it had no connection to Buffy whatsoever?

I too have read one Buffyverse novel which was terrible. I'd reccommend reading some Buffy-related non-fiction. The articles on this site are quite interesting: Slayage: The Online International Journal of Buffy Studies

 

[Kean]

I've read pretty much all of them. I can count on one hand the number of books I read in their intirity. Some a great, they get the characters, the tone the story spot on and then some just plain suck...Seven Crows comes to mind.

Most are readable and good in parts. Although, depending what you are interested in you can find superior fan fiction on the net...for free.

 

[Tueuse de Vampires]

I've read maybe about 20, so by far not all that are out there (though I have some more at home I will read at some point). I read them basically because I think it's part of being a fan and I bought those books cheap on ebay/got them from the library, so it's not lik I had to pay super much money for them.
Also, I will always hold the books dear because they are how I got into the show first (I think I've metioned often enough that I first read the books before I really saw the show (which had something to do with my parents not letting me watch it on TV cos they thought it was unsuitable)).
My favourite ones is probably the Spike and Dru one, 'Pretty Maids All in a Row'. I read it in German (at my library they only had them in German), so I can't judge the writing of that one (in translations it's all different anyway), but the story was all cool. It's Buffy from the bad guys' perspective. So cool.

 

[Professor Walsh]

Cangel, if they had been obtainable in my local library, I'd be less picky. But I'll probably have to order whatever I want to read from abroad, that makes it more of a hassle.

It depends, really. What kind of storylines you're in to, and what you see as being decent. (...) As far as authors of the books go, there are several decent ones, I'm not sure which ones to recommend. It really depends on your preferences.

I'm not overly picky when it comes to storylines or characters, but I do prefer whatever I read to be true to canon. The Faith one you mentioned sounds like my kind of book - Faith's past intrigues me. Other excamples of what I might like is alternate points of view, for example the first season through Angel's/Willow's/Xander's/Giles' eyes, the story of one or several Potentials, Spikes journey as seen by himself ... I could go on, but this may give you a general idea.