The Lost Slayer

[Cohen]

This was my favorite Buffy book series growing up and I’m currently re-reading it. It takes place during season 4, after Parker but before Riley so very early on. I haven’t read it in at least 8 years, if not longer.

When I first read the series, i missed the first book so I immediately jumped into the second book. So it’s interesting going back to the first now.

As I’m reading “Prophecies” I can’t help but love Golden for really getting the broken dynamic between the Core Four really well, which flowed into the Yoko Factor at the end of season 4. I love that Golden included Olivia in this, as she was such a mysterious character in season 4 and in my opinion, wasn’t utilized the way she could have been.

Anyway, anyone else read this novel? What are your thoughts?

Going to keep posting as I go through it and any thoughts I have!

 

[Willow Tara]

Those books were the first Buffy books I ever read (except for the SHS-Yearbook. I read that before). I bought a huge box on ebay with german Buffy books in it. And the book series the lost Slayer (in german) were the books I first read. (In the box were all books of the complete book series "The lost Slayer" so I didn't miss anything and could just continue reading after "To be continued".) I was really thrilled, because I had never read such a Buffy book before. The first thing I absolutely loved about it was how the fighting scenes were written. I had never read something that I could really imagine while reading. But with this book it felt like I'd watch it. But it wasn't only the writing of course the story was great. I was maybe 11 when I read those books and after I finished the first book I went downstairs to my parents and told them how awesome this book is. They always wanted that I would read more and were happy that I finally liked reading a book. I am a really really slow reader, but with Buffy books I read sometimes really thick books in one or two days for example the Watchers guides vol 1-3 maybe four or five days. Other books take sooo long for me to finsh because after I stop reading I don't want to continue, but Buffy books sometimes I don't even stop or if I do then I continue reading the next time I can. I don't read many books, but Buffy changed that now I only read Buffy books or comics. And from those a lot and fast. And that all thanks to Buffy and thanks to The lost Slayer. I love this story. Maybe I'll re-read it too when I find the time.

 

[Cohen]

Buffy, Angel, & Charmed books definitely made me become a reader. I don’t think I would have been such an avid reader from a young age if I didn’t have those books. I have loved being able to see these characters in different stories. Some authors have these characters written so well, some could have done better.

Omg! I just remembered complaining about the way Jeff Mariotte wrote an Angel book TO Jeff Mariotte on CoA. I was a hot mess when I was younger! 😂

 

[Cohen]

Just read through book 2 “Dark Times”. First of all, major deaths here! Harmony and Drusilla! Score 2 for Buffy! And I love how she killed Dru in revenge for Kendra. What a great callback.

I am so conflicted on the August/Buffy death match. And I hope there’s more inner conflict in her about killing another slayer. We also didn’t get much inner thoughts on Faith’s death, so I hope there’s more on that.

I tell you, this book makes me want to re-buy all the BtVS books I donated before a move a few years ago. They’re currently sitting in my eBay cart. Haha.

 

[Cohen]

Just finished the rest of the novel! I absolutely loved the Alternate Universe that was described in this novel. Vamp Giles is so scary! It was refreshing reading a novel where the stakes were actually huge! Free from series canon, Golden was able to craft a novel that didn’t rely on established story. So we witnessed some really grueling a gut-wrenching deaths. I felt Willow’s pain as she saw the body of her best friend laying lifeless after the battle. The rage she felt because of all the loss she had endured. I actually loved Anna Kuei, the other slayer in this novel. We got to see a newly-called slayer and witness her wrestling with and accepting her duty. What an awesome story.

 

[FantasticAlice]

I was really impressed. For the last few years I've been raging over Tara and how her ending could have been different.(un wakeable Coma, more heroic death(!) others) and I realised that although I do still have issues with it I've mainly been mad that the show and a phenomenal relationship is dusted. If it wasn't for Bill Potts and the wheels spinning in the 2017-2018 CW shows it would be still really hard. Because Wara helped me come out.

So I did what I always do when reconnecting with youthful joy: hunt down the books and the audiobooks.

Lost Slayer is so brilliant. I devoured it in 3 days. I also found myself musing on Willow's identity and the situation that led her to Tara.

I can't say that future Oz didn't make me sad but Willow being confident, vibrant and basically somewhere between Angel Guest Star Willow and late 7th season Willow had me realize one of the biggest tragedies is...

Willow is still gay. Oh pain and heartache. I don't know if this was ambiguous writing on Golden's part or he wanted to show her as battle hardened but between the third and fourth book it hit me hard.

She's still gay. She's been so focused on the apocalypse and her new role as a sorcery badass that she has never hqd the situation that made her realize it. But wow. Nothing about the apocalyptic future contradicts Willow being gay.

And here's another thing that also went through my head. What if she has realised it and just doesn't believe she will ever find anyone and doesn't want to hurt Oz any more than she already has?

Wow. Because I can speak from experience and say that being out when ypu believe love is a trivial indulgence that you can't have feels both pointless and sad.

Aside from what may have been intentional(but left vague because the series hadn't aired yet) or just a happy mistake I was impressed how well the characters were written.

I am a huge Doctor Who fan and a lot of characters I read about I know their fates and they either have to be written incredibly well or come up with a really terrifying situation so it doesn't contradict onscreen events.

I also think that there couldn't possibly been a better Drusilla.death scene. It fit her so so well. I also loved the "End" of the story effectively happening in the first couple chapters of book 4.

Tie in fiction is a complicated beast. You have an immediately lessened sense of peril and have a lot of restrictions you don't have for original novels. It's not surprising that there are 3 sixth Doctor deaths and original book and audio companions die a lot.

It's Freedom. And most every tie in book for any series has at least one AU story.

Because wow.... so many characters that should never die die. And I was involved enough that if Willow died I would have been angry even though she doesn't and is still insanely alive. She's probably the most long lived gay support character in genre fiction.

But she's still not allowed to die ever. I was mad when Evil Willow died.

Yes I'm silly.

But this was really damn good. I was very impressed. I also really liked the description of smells of vampires blood and flesh it was grisly here and there but we miss stuff like that in Telly.

 

[Octavia]

I have this book sitting on my desk right now. I found it in a box last night. I usually say I want to read a book but can never find it. I have not been reading much fiction lately. The other night I started on the Ellie Chronicles (I am a Tomorrow when the War Began fan, but have never made it through the last 3 books) and again, it was too heavy for me. I might flip over to The Lost Slayer since it is right here right now and all these good reviews make me want to read it.


Golden does seem to be one of the better BTVS-verse authors.

 

[Cohen]

I also found a sense of Willow continuing with the Oz relationship out of obligation over love in the future part of this novel.

As I was watching “Hush” today, I realized that’s Olivia was never mentioned again after Buffy went to the future (unless I missed it). I wonder what would have happened to her after

Spoiler

Giles was turned.

Also, how poignant that in both canon and AU Joyce was dead. Buffy still lost her mother. I agree in that Golden did a good job of weaving parts of Buffy canon into his universe that made fate all the more evident.

I did just finish “Book of Fours” and it wasn’t as compelling. I don’t know if it’s because it was written with Holder, but I didn’t FEEL for the characters as I did for this novel.[/Spoiler]

 

[wolfpuppy]

I am half way through re-reading this now.
I'm a huge fan of Golden's Buffy books - the scope is so big, and he has the time to really explore the characters and dynamics and put them into big epic stories so it feels like a big budget Buffy movie, and Lost Slayer does this possibly better than any of them.
The alternate future gives him a chance to go crazy and break all the toys free of the normal constraints tie in fiction has.
I'm reading the novels in more or less the order they belong, and comics too, in between episodes as I'm rewatching BtVS and AtS, so it gives a deeper feeling to the marathon, like I'm getting "missing" episodes.
Little things like the recurring character of Lucy Hanover does establish the Golden and Holder novels as being their own thing too.

 

[Cohen]

I am half way through re-reading this now.
I'm a huge fan of Golden's Buffy books - the scope is so big, and he has the time to really explore the characters and dynamics and put them into big epic stories so it feels like a big budget Buffy movie, and Lost Slayer does this possibly better than any of them.
The alternate future gives him a chance to go crazy and break all the toys free of the normal constraints tie in fiction has.
I'm reading the novels in more or less the order they belong, and comics too, in between episodes as I'm rewatching BtVS and AtS, so it gives a deeper feeling to the marathon, like I'm getting "missing" episodes.
Little things like the recurring character of Lucy Hanover does establish the Golden and Holder novels as being their own thing too.

Lucy Hanover's recurrence is one of my favorite aspects about the Golden/Holder novels. Golden and Holder do such a great job of world-building within the Buffyverse. These novels excel at that, and now my brain has me thinking about the post-season 7 novel "Dark congress," and I've now put that at the top of my re-read list.