Week 4: chapters 18-Epilogue (pages 335-440)
- Thread starter Taake
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Cohen
Hellhound
I feel like the book had a solid build-up but a very anti-climatic finale. The last half was certainly better paced than the first half of the novel. But the concluding chapter with Faa resolved really quickly. Odom spent 400 pages telling us how powerful he was, but he really was just a chump surrounded by a strong army. It didn't hit the way I wanted to.
Also, for an Angel/Spike crossover, we really didn't see them interact enough. We got like 2 good chapters with them. Spike spent more time with his ghost. And there was an implied curse... but was the curse broken when they helped Lyanka? And Lyanka's spirit stayed on earth instead of going to her home dimension with her family? It just didn't feel as wrapped up as I would have liked.
It also should have just been called an Angel novel, because it didn't really feel like a crossover. It just felt like an Angel book that happened to have
Spike in it.
Also, for an Angel/Spike crossover, we really didn't see them interact enough. We got like 2 good chapters with them. Spike spent more time with his ghost. And there was an implied curse... but was the curse broken when they helped Lyanka? And Lyanka's spirit stayed on earth instead of going to her home dimension with her family? It just didn't feel as wrapped up as I would have liked.
It also should have just been called an Angel novel, because it didn't really feel like a crossover. It just felt like an Angel book that happened to have
Spike in it.
It feels like a book that would’ve been better without Spike in it, he was shoehorned into the plot at best (just like in The Gatekeeper trilogy)
The flashbacks were good, I like the Angelus/William interactions… but in the present both felt shallow in their portrayal and their interactions were few and meh.
I don’t know, I feel like the story had potential, but it all became a nothing burger. Possibly because the pages allotted weren’t enough for two leads
Bright side, this book cured me of the need to collect all the Buffy and Angel books. Definitely won’t be keeping this one, but it was fun to give it a try! The ideas are just, often, more ambitious than the format really allows for
The flashbacks were good, I like the Angelus/William interactions… but in the present both felt shallow in their portrayal and their interactions were few and meh.
I don’t know, I feel like the story had potential, but it all became a nothing burger. Possibly because the pages allotted weren’t enough for two leads
Bright side, this book cured me of the need to collect all the Buffy and Angel books. Definitely won’t be keeping this one, but it was fun to give it a try! The ideas are just, often, more ambitious than the format really allows for
Cohen
Hellhound
I agree. It had a great concept, but the execution wasn't there. The whole novel could have happened without the Spike stuff, and it wouldn't have affected much of the plot. But also, the AI gang was pretty much useless and it was mostly a lot of standing around waiting for (nothing) to happen.
I would have really wanted to see Spike interact with the AI team. That would’ve been fun. I don’t care about the random demons or his ghost woman, really. Get him in a room with Cordy or Gunn, for a couple of chapters, that would’ve been fun!
Cohen
Hellhound
Especially Cordelia, because she has history with him. That would have been interesting. It was published in November 2003, so it was likely written between Buffys7/Angels4 and Angel s5, so I'm sure Odom wanted to make it fit seemlessly with what was known about the plans for Spike coming to LA. But I still would have liked Spike interacting with AI.