What do you think?
Rate this book
Buffyverse Novels #55
Angel: The Summoned
Even if it takes an eternity, he will make amends.... Doyle is in the supermarket when the latest vision hits. Fear. Fire. Death. And an ornately engraved ancient amulet. As usual, the Powers That Be are none too specific. When he comes to, he is being tended by an anxious young woman named Terri Miller. A shy girl from a small town, Terri is new to L.A., and feeling like a wallflower in the bright lights of this big city. Soon after her encounter with Doyle, who heads off without more than a perfunctory thank-you, a charismatic young man invites her to a meeting for a club to which he belongs. Meanwhile, Angel and his gang have been turned on to a killer who burns his victims beyond recognition. Several of the deceased have connections to Terri's newfound circle of friends, and Cordelia suddenly finds herself in possession of an amulet that looks awfully familiar....
294 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published November 27, 2001
259 people want to read
About the author
Cameron Dokey
52 books944 followersCameron Dokey is an American author living in Seattle, Washington. She has a collection of over 50 old sci-fi and horror films. Cameron was born in the Central Valley of California. Cameron grew up reading classical literature and mythology, perhaps due to her father, Richard, being a teacher of Philosophy, Creative Writing, and Western Literature.
Cameron has one husband and three cats, and is the author of over a dozen young adult novels. Her favorite read is J.R.R. Tolkien's trilogy, "The Lord of the Rings." Her favorite TV show is "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."
When she's not writing, Cameron likes to work in the garden and is learning to quilt.
Cameron has one husband and three cats, and is the author of over a dozen young adult novels. Her favorite read is J.R.R. Tolkien's trilogy, "The Lord of the Rings." Her favorite TV show is "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."
When she's not writing, Cameron likes to work in the garden and is learning to quilt.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
May 29, 2023
This is chronologically one of the earliest tie-in novels to the Angel television series, which was spun-off from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It's set in the Doyle and Cordelia era, in the first part of the first season. It features a shy, small-town girl named Terri Miller, who falls in with a bad crowd in the demonic big city of Los Angeles. In the meantime, Angel and crew is busy running down a particularly grisly fire-killer. The two stories eventually meet, and it's a very well-crafted, nicely paced and plotted tale altogether.
December 22, 2014
24/1 - This is the next book in my 'read everything on my library shelves' challenge, because it's the next book alphabetically and categorically. Immediately recognised Dokey as one of the multiple authors from the book I was reviewing this morning - The Warren Witches (Charmed). Her unexpected appearance writing for Angel just hours after I finished reading her Charmed story made me think of a British tv phenomenon I've noticed. Others who watch a lot of British tv shows might also have noticed that if you were to watch any three random British tv shows you'll find you are about 90% likely to come across one or more actors who are in two or more of those three shows. I figure there's only a limited number of actors for hundreds of different shows, so you come across the guy from that cop show last night in this sci-fi show with the girl from the period drama you watched on the weekend - it's a bit like that game 'seven degrees of Kevin Bacon'. Hopefully Dokey's Angel story is as good as the one she wrote for Charmed - she got the 'voice' of all the main characters exactly right, unlike another author who writes fanfic for multiple tv shows including Buffy and Charmed. To be continued...
27 pages later - I was all ready to point out the error in the idea that Cordelia might get a phone call that leads to her big break on Doyle's phone when Doyle pointed out the idiocy in the idea first - that was a good trap, I was all riled up and ready to slam Dokey for stupidness in her logic, when I turned out to be the one looking foolish. Although I enjoyed Dokey's writing in the Charmed book, I'm not sure I feel like reading more fanfic right now. I feel like fast forwarding through the shelves till I get to the crime or horror, but then that's the point of a challenge, to challenge yourself to read stuff you wouldn't normally read. I know in my heart of hearts that if I don't read these (mostly Buffy) fanfics now (well, over the next few weeks) I'll probably never get around to them and then I'll never know whether they're worth keeping. To be continued...
25/1 - Anyway, now to discuss the book, so the story starts off with a woman, Ellen Bradshaw, who tells the reader that she only has five minutes to live, till midnight, and is rushing to post a letter that will act as vengeance for her death. She has received a 'mark' that summons her death to her and the only way to avoid her own death is to pass it off to someone else. Ellen can't do it, can't put another person's life above her own (what makes her so special?) and comes to the realisation that she's going to die in the next few minutes. She dies a horrible fiery death at the appointed hour.
Across town while doing a bit of late night shopping Doyle has a fractured vision of her death, although he doesn't know that it's a vision of an event happening at the same time, he thinks it's like his other visions - a vision of the future. Angel and Doyle are quite perturbed to find out later (through Detective Lockley, who isn't on the case but has been sticking her nose in where it isn't wanted on behalf of an old friend whose father died, also in unnaturally fiery circumstances) that morning that the woman's fiery death scene has already happened.
Running parallel to that story is the story of Terri who is dreadfully depressed and thinks of herself as invisible to those around her. She moved to LA to get away from her family, who were the ones who put the idea that she's worthless in her head to start with. Her internal monologue sounds just like a demeaning parent and she never seems able to turn it off, it comments on every thing she does, laughs at every little hopeful thought she has. It's always there putting her down, mocking her for thinking a good thing might happen to her, telling her she's useless and should stop even trying. But then along comes Andy, a shining sun to Terri's darkness (or at least that's what Terri thinks). To start with she's suspicious of his motives for talking to her and his explanation that even beautiful people get depressed sometimes (everyone in LA is so focused on your looks they never see the real person beneath). He plays his part as the lure perfectly - reeling her in and then letting her run while pretending to be insulted that she's suspicious of his motives, before catching her for good by paying her the attention she never got from her family or the random person on the street. Within 24 hours Andy has convinced Terri to join him at the next meeting of the Illuminati - a group of 'enlightened' people who were like Terri, before they joined up that is. Now they don't worry what other people think of them and have put their faith in Andy and the leaders of the group to make their lives better, for just a small fee - someone else's life.
Now we're starting to see how the two threads of the story come together - the woman at the beginning of the book, Ellen was a member of the Illuminati and was going to escape the group and expose them, so she was marked for death. Kate Lockley's 'old friend' is Deidre Arensen and somehow she's worked out that all these fiery deaths are connected and that they're being carried out by a fire-demon cult - clearly the same 'group' Terri just joined. Now that we know how all the threads weave together we'll see how it all works out in the end. To be continued...
27/1 - Finally we've got some action from Angel (and by action I mean scenes where he has dialogue). The Summoned has been pretty Angel-free so far, so it's nice to see the main character get some screen time. Mostly the camera's been focused on Doyle and the victims of the Illuminati. Buuuuttt, while we might finally have Angel in the story, he doesn't sound like Angel. Doyle and Angel just had an argument about whether Doyle was pulling his weight with the investigation, specifically getting Terri to trust him and confide in him about the Illuminati, and during the argument Angel used the word 'bent', as in 'Don't get all bent'. There's no way Angel would have used that phrase/word, it's just too contemporary, plus the argument with Doyle over his job performance seems out of character for the usually outwardly calm Angel. Obviously Angel's speech had changed with the times, he didn't speak as if he were still living in the 1700s, but whenever he attempted hip or cool words in the show it was shown as an awkward and humorous moment. That's not how it was conveyed in this scene and it suddenly made Angel seem like he could be any everyday guy, not a 240+-year-old vampire. That's gonna cost The Summoned half a star.
27 pages later - I was all ready to point out the error in the idea that Cordelia might get a phone call that leads to her big break on Doyle's phone when Doyle pointed out the idiocy in the idea first - that was a good trap, I was all riled up and ready to slam Dokey for stupidness in her logic, when I turned out to be the one looking foolish. Although I enjoyed Dokey's writing in the Charmed book, I'm not sure I feel like reading more fanfic right now. I feel like fast forwarding through the shelves till I get to the crime or horror, but then that's the point of a challenge, to challenge yourself to read stuff you wouldn't normally read. I know in my heart of hearts that if I don't read these (mostly Buffy) fanfics now (well, over the next few weeks) I'll probably never get around to them and then I'll never know whether they're worth keeping. To be continued...
25/1 - Anyway, now to discuss the book, so the story starts off with a woman, Ellen Bradshaw, who tells the reader that she only has five minutes to live, till midnight, and is rushing to post a letter that will act as vengeance for her death. She has received a 'mark' that summons her death to her and the only way to avoid her own death is to pass it off to someone else. Ellen can't do it, can't put another person's life above her own (what makes her so special?) and comes to the realisation that she's going to die in the next few minutes. She dies a horrible fiery death at the appointed hour.
Across town while doing a bit of late night shopping Doyle has a fractured vision of her death, although he doesn't know that it's a vision of an event happening at the same time, he thinks it's like his other visions - a vision of the future. Angel and Doyle are quite perturbed to find out later (through Detective Lockley, who isn't on the case but has been sticking her nose in where it isn't wanted on behalf of an old friend whose father died, also in unnaturally fiery circumstances) that morning that the woman's fiery death scene has already happened.
Running parallel to that story is the story of Terri who is dreadfully depressed and thinks of herself as invisible to those around her. She moved to LA to get away from her family, who were the ones who put the idea that she's worthless in her head to start with. Her internal monologue sounds just like a demeaning parent and she never seems able to turn it off, it comments on every thing she does, laughs at every little hopeful thought she has. It's always there putting her down, mocking her for thinking a good thing might happen to her, telling her she's useless and should stop even trying. But then along comes Andy, a shining sun to Terri's darkness (or at least that's what Terri thinks). To start with she's suspicious of his motives for talking to her and his explanation that even beautiful people get depressed sometimes (everyone in LA is so focused on your looks they never see the real person beneath). He plays his part as the lure perfectly - reeling her in and then letting her run while pretending to be insulted that she's suspicious of his motives, before catching her for good by paying her the attention she never got from her family or the random person on the street. Within 24 hours Andy has convinced Terri to join him at the next meeting of the Illuminati - a group of 'enlightened' people who were like Terri, before they joined up that is. Now they don't worry what other people think of them and have put their faith in Andy and the leaders of the group to make their lives better, for just a small fee - someone else's life.
Now we're starting to see how the two threads of the story come together - the woman at the beginning of the book, Ellen was a member of the Illuminati and was going to escape the group and expose them, so she was marked for death. Kate Lockley's 'old friend' is Deidre Arensen and somehow she's worked out that all these fiery deaths are connected and that they're being carried out by a fire-demon cult - clearly the same 'group' Terri just joined. Now that we know how all the threads weave together we'll see how it all works out in the end. To be continued...
27/1 - Finally we've got some action from Angel (and by action I mean scenes where he has dialogue). The Summoned has been pretty Angel-free so far, so it's nice to see the main character get some screen time. Mostly the camera's been focused on Doyle and the victims of the Illuminati. Buuuuttt, while we might finally have Angel in the story, he doesn't sound like Angel. Doyle and Angel just had an argument about whether Doyle was pulling his weight with the investigation, specifically getting Terri to trust him and confide in him about the Illuminati, and during the argument Angel used the word 'bent', as in 'Don't get all bent'. There's no way Angel would have used that phrase/word, it's just too contemporary, plus the argument with Doyle over his job performance seems out of character for the usually outwardly calm Angel. Obviously Angel's speech had changed with the times, he didn't speak as if he were still living in the 1700s, but whenever he attempted hip or cool words in the show it was shown as an awkward and humorous moment. That's not how it was conveyed in this scene and it suddenly made Angel seem like he could be any everyday guy, not a 240+-year-old vampire. That's gonna cost The Summoned half a star.
August 6, 2024
Before I came across this book, I only had one other Angel book and it was the novelization of the first ever episode of the TV series titled City Of: Angel.
I always saw the tie-in books for BTVS and every time I read the description most of the original novels didn't sound interesting to me. I usually only ever purchased the novelizations of the episodes but coming across The Summoned at Half Price Books, I decided to give it a go.
I have read some of the work written by Cameron Dokey and enjoyed it so I figured that this could be interesting. Even though Joss Whedon and David Greenwalt came up with the idea for the spin-off revolving around Angel, I could see potential in some other writer working with these characters.
Looking through these on GR, I found that this was the last one to have Doyle featured as a character before the character's death in the show. The next one immediately goes to Wes and Gunn joining the ranks so I wanted to see just how Doyle could be different through someone else's eyes.
That first season had ten tie-in novels with Doyle as a main part of the action so how does it hold up?
Most of the plot meanders to tie up all the threads so:
Cold Open focus is on a girl named Ellen Bradshaw, rushing to mail a package. At midnight, she is going to die because she has been marked for leaving some mysterious organization.
On cue, a demon appears in a pillar of flame and burns Ellen beyond facial recognition.
In a late night supermarket on a run for Guinness, Doyle has a vision of Ellen burning, a bunch of other faces out of focus and a coin slowly flipping in the air. The searing pain of of the information sent to him by The Powers That Be lands him on his back and coming out of it with a young woman standing over him.
Her name is Terri Miller.
She comes from a small Kansas town to get away from her none too positive mother not helping her self-esteem. Being in L.A. on her own, Terri is mousy and shy and overwhelmed with loneliness but she shows concern for Doyle almost having a seizure in the store, a girl who goes late night shopping to cure the depression.
Doyle, in his custom manner, both slightly thanks but chastises Terri for talking to a stranger. He does have something far more pressing on his mind but does feel bad when he realizes he kind of hurt her feelings. Doyle goes off to phone Angel about the vision...
Terri is heading to her car, shaken by Doyle's speech to her and without purchases, where she is approached by a young homeless man named Septimus. He is not a bad guy because Terri usually buys him some sandwich meat and bread and cheese but forgot and Septimus goes on his way.
Another man approaches Terri when her key gets stuck in her car door.
This one is blond and handsome and says his name is Andy. He tells Terri that he notices something in her that he can relate to and she doesn't buy it at first because he is so good-looking but Andy says being good-looking is just as much a curse as being crippled with shyness.
That hooks Terri along with Andy's charismatic smile and he asks for a ride to a club meeting, saying that she can come to the next meeting if she would like. Terri says yes and the following night, Andy takes her to the meeting where she joins up.
A woman who is already a member disrupts the meeting by telling any newcomers to turn back now because the price they must pay is too high. She is escorted out of the hotel and we will soon learn, just like Terri, what she really meant...
Doyle and Angel arrive at the scene of Ellen Bradshaw's incendiary death to see Detective Kate Lockley is also there even though this is not her case. Another detective, Tucker, is the lead of this investigation which is just the latest in a string of fiery deaths. They call the fatal arsonist The Krispy Kritter Killer to Angel's disgust and my own I might add.
We learn Kate is giving information to an old college friend named Deirdre Arensen because her father Martin was one of the Triple K victims. He was one of those people who are hired to "deprogram" cult members and in the end it cost him his life because it really was a demon-worshipping cult.
A fire demon and if you betray the cult, you are marked for death at midnight by a coin with his symbol upon it. The only way to escape is to give the mark to someone else and if you do so, he will reward you with everything you could ever want...
All of these threads tie together when Kate brings Deirdre to Angel for help and Cordelia arrives just after the meeting. Arms loaded with office supplies, she drops her purse and a coin rolls out onto the floor. Angel tries to keep Dierdre from touching it but she doesn't listen and so now instead of Cordelia being marked...it's Deirdre.
Bad enough but Angel has learned that if the demon collects a certain number of souls, he will completely manifest and destroy the world...
Just how did Cordelia get the amulet you ask?
From her new neighbor accidentally dropping it while moving in and we all come back to how Terri fits into this story...
I won't reveal too much more but there is a body count, twists and turns that I didn't even see coming, some Wolfram & Hart involvement with more of a focus on Doyle than Angel.
Helping the helpless and good enough that I could see the plot as an Angel episode properly in my head while reading it which is what counts the most. The Summoned is a pretty decent story that I may just seek out other Angel tie-in novels in the future.
I always saw the tie-in books for BTVS and every time I read the description most of the original novels didn't sound interesting to me. I usually only ever purchased the novelizations of the episodes but coming across The Summoned at Half Price Books, I decided to give it a go.
I have read some of the work written by Cameron Dokey and enjoyed it so I figured that this could be interesting. Even though Joss Whedon and David Greenwalt came up with the idea for the spin-off revolving around Angel, I could see potential in some other writer working with these characters.
Looking through these on GR, I found that this was the last one to have Doyle featured as a character before the character's death in the show. The next one immediately goes to Wes and Gunn joining the ranks so I wanted to see just how Doyle could be different through someone else's eyes.
That first season had ten tie-in novels with Doyle as a main part of the action so how does it hold up?
Most of the plot meanders to tie up all the threads so:
Cold Open focus is on a girl named Ellen Bradshaw, rushing to mail a package. At midnight, she is going to die because she has been marked for leaving some mysterious organization.
On cue, a demon appears in a pillar of flame and burns Ellen beyond facial recognition.
In a late night supermarket on a run for Guinness, Doyle has a vision of Ellen burning, a bunch of other faces out of focus and a coin slowly flipping in the air. The searing pain of of the information sent to him by The Powers That Be lands him on his back and coming out of it with a young woman standing over him.
Her name is Terri Miller.
She comes from a small Kansas town to get away from her none too positive mother not helping her self-esteem. Being in L.A. on her own, Terri is mousy and shy and overwhelmed with loneliness but she shows concern for Doyle almost having a seizure in the store, a girl who goes late night shopping to cure the depression.
Doyle, in his custom manner, both slightly thanks but chastises Terri for talking to a stranger. He does have something far more pressing on his mind but does feel bad when he realizes he kind of hurt her feelings. Doyle goes off to phone Angel about the vision...
Terri is heading to her car, shaken by Doyle's speech to her and without purchases, where she is approached by a young homeless man named Septimus. He is not a bad guy because Terri usually buys him some sandwich meat and bread and cheese but forgot and Septimus goes on his way.
Another man approaches Terri when her key gets stuck in her car door.
This one is blond and handsome and says his name is Andy. He tells Terri that he notices something in her that he can relate to and she doesn't buy it at first because he is so good-looking but Andy says being good-looking is just as much a curse as being crippled with shyness.
That hooks Terri along with Andy's charismatic smile and he asks for a ride to a club meeting, saying that she can come to the next meeting if she would like. Terri says yes and the following night, Andy takes her to the meeting where she joins up.
A woman who is already a member disrupts the meeting by telling any newcomers to turn back now because the price they must pay is too high. She is escorted out of the hotel and we will soon learn, just like Terri, what she really meant...
Doyle and Angel arrive at the scene of Ellen Bradshaw's incendiary death to see Detective Kate Lockley is also there even though this is not her case. Another detective, Tucker, is the lead of this investigation which is just the latest in a string of fiery deaths. They call the fatal arsonist The Krispy Kritter Killer to Angel's disgust and my own I might add.
We learn Kate is giving information to an old college friend named Deirdre Arensen because her father Martin was one of the Triple K victims. He was one of those people who are hired to "deprogram" cult members and in the end it cost him his life because it really was a demon-worshipping cult.
A fire demon and if you betray the cult, you are marked for death at midnight by a coin with his symbol upon it. The only way to escape is to give the mark to someone else and if you do so, he will reward you with everything you could ever want...
All of these threads tie together when Kate brings Deirdre to Angel for help and Cordelia arrives just after the meeting. Arms loaded with office supplies, she drops her purse and a coin rolls out onto the floor. Angel tries to keep Dierdre from touching it but she doesn't listen and so now instead of Cordelia being marked...it's Deirdre.
Bad enough but Angel has learned that if the demon collects a certain number of souls, he will completely manifest and destroy the world...
Just how did Cordelia get the amulet you ask?
From her new neighbor accidentally dropping it while moving in and we all come back to how Terri fits into this story...
I won't reveal too much more but there is a body count, twists and turns that I didn't even see coming, some Wolfram & Hart involvement with more of a focus on Doyle than Angel.
Helping the helpless and good enough that I could see the plot as an Angel episode properly in my head while reading it which is what counts the most. The Summoned is a pretty decent story that I may just seek out other Angel tie-in novels in the future.
October 5, 2017
One of my favorite TV horror series was Angel (the vampire with a soul). Since I discovered that there was a series of books based on the show, I've been checking out used book stores and Amazon to find these novels. The Summoned is a great read. Angel, Doyle, and Cordelia find themselves helping LA Detective Kate Lockley solve the case of a serial killer who is burning people to death. It appears that the killer is actually a Fire Demon who is hoping to take over the world. This book has a great cast of side characters, and not one, but two surprises at the end. If you enjoyed Angel, or you just enjoy horror stories, this is a must read book!
July 31, 2025
Had a great time with this book - in some ways I think maybe I'm enjoying the Angel books mroe than the Buffy books, if only because they seem less concerned with convoluted ancient demon plans, and mroe straightforward investigations and mysteries. But similar to Bruja, this one once again was a fun little mystery novel with some supernatural elements; I could honestly take or leave the Angel characters (I'm not super invested in the show or the characters, other than Cordelia my love) but was really here just for the mystery side!
April 9, 2010
This is probably more of a 3.5 star book, mainly due to the slow start that didn't build up until close to the halfway point. I almost stopped reading because it hardly featured the main cast, Angel (duh), Doyle and Cordelia, in that first half. Luckily that was rectified later and it ended up being an enjoyable read. The characterizations were fine; they didn't seem off, but they weren't particularly on either. Even though I'm not big on cult storylines, what twists there were made up for that fact so I didn't mind it so much. The end was somewhat abrupt, but it did end on a high note so that's a mark on the pro list. All in all, a good and entertaining entry in the Angel book series.
September 10, 2008
Decent effort. Terri and Septimus were interesting original characters, the fire demon cult was an interesting concept, and having the cult leader turn out to be the lead investigator of the case was a good twist. Diedre being the summoner was a bit disappointing though, and I'm not sure why.
I did love that they killed the demon with fire extinguishers (kind of reminiscent of Buffy killing the Judge with a rocket launcher - using something that was recently invented to kill a demon who last rose before these things were around).
I did love that they killed the demon with fire extinguishers (kind of reminiscent of Buffy killing the Judge with a rocket launcher - using something that was recently invented to kill a demon who last rose before these things were around).
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Read
August 23, 2008isbn,original
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews