Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Prophecies

The Lost Slayer #1

by Christopher Golden

Buffy Summers' adjustment to life at U.C. Sunnydale has not gone smoothly. She feels awkward, insecure, and a bit jealous that Willow's all over the college life. So when the spirit of deceased Slayer Lucy Hanover appears to Buffy in a dream with news of impending danger, the timing couldn't be worse. Besides, there's plenty of evil afoot as it is. A unified troop of vampires has descended upon Sunnydale, operating with a cohesion unusual to most bloodsuckers. Giles thinks a spell will help the gang combat these foes, but tension between Buffy and Willow gets in the way of demon hunting.

Before long, a single moment of bad judgment catapults Buffy into an alternate future dimension where vampires reign supreme. Imprisoned in the body of her 24-tear-old self, the Slayer must uncover her past misstep and correct it -- or risk facing a terrifying monster that she herself has created...

Genres: Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Vampires, Fantasy, Young Adult, Fiction, Urban Fantasy, Paranormal

144 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

CHRISTOPHER GOLDEN is the New York Times bestselling, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of such novels as Road of Bones, Ararat, Snowblind, Of Saints and Shadows, and Red Hands. With Mike Mignola, he is the co-creator of the Outerverse comic book universe, including such series as Baltimore, Joe Golem: Occult Detective, and Lady Baltimore. As an editor, he has worked on the short story anthologies Seize the Night, Dark Cities, and The New Dead, among others, and he has also written and co-written comic books, video games, screenplays, and a network television pilot. Golden co-hosts the podcast Defenders Dialogue with horror author Brian Keene. In 2015 he founded the popular Merrimack Valley Halloween Book Festival. He was born and raised in Massachusetts, where he still lives with his family. His work has been nominated for the British Fantasy Award, the Eisner Award, and multiple Shirley Jackson Awards. For the Bram Stoker Awards, Golden has been nominated ten times in eight different categories. His original novels have been published in more than fifteen languages in countries around the world. Please visit him at www.christophergolden.com

Reviews

[Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved reading books in buffy the vampire slayer that were not in the TV series.

The characters felt like themselves which I was worried weren't going to come across in the books.

So happy I found these books.

Happy Reading 📗📚📓📒📚📙📕📘📚📙📓📚📗📘📒📚📙📕📚📓📚📙📖

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first in a quadrilogy entitled "The Lost Slayer" begins like your average Buffy plot: new Big Bad shows up in town with freaky acolytes and tries to take on the Slayer. Giles even gets knocked out! But then, in the last chapter the story turns incredibly interesting. I won't spoil it for you, but it's incredibly tantalizing. And nearly impossible to have portrayed on the small screen. A big complaint I've had with several of the Buffy novels is that it's either a novelization of an actual episode with just a little extra thrown in (deleted scenes, if you will) or that it could've been an episode but didn't make the cut, for obvious reasons. But this, this is something different, and I'm very interested as to how it plays out. It's also gratifying that Golden writes these characters so well. You can almost hear the actors voicing the dialogue.

[Isa (Pages Full of Stars) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Recently I've been tidying up my bookshelves a little and found all four books from this series. I remembered how excited I was about them when I first bought them, but sadly, having read quite a lot in the meantime, they seem rather weak to me.

I always appreciate TV series tie-ins, because they give fans new stories with their favourite characters, but I wish they were a little more well-written. The story was interesting but the characters are so poorly developed, only someone who already knows BTVS would know who is who and why they act a certain way.


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[Caroline · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a huge fan of the TV series since it first aired and I decided to reread some of my favourite Buffy novels, since the last time I read them I was a teen.

To my annoyance barely anything happened in the first half of the book that left me skimming through the book and it was definitely dragged and got bogged down alot with exposition to build up the tension and at least open the door to the meaning of the title of the book trilogy, on who this "Lost Slayer is" who is she? Quite easily be either Buffy or Faith.

The other problem I had was the main villain who was supposed to be origin of vampirism or at least one of them, considering the end of the TV series and continuation of the comic series we all know that the origin of vampirism was by Maloker, the Old One who turned the first human into a vampire.

Though I kept in mind this novel was written BEFORE the end of the TV series/beginning of the continuation of the comics series since the TV series ended so the lack of continuity is to be expected, though it DOES make sense that other cultures within the Buffyverse such as one in this novel, there would be different origin stories and mythology to tie in within the Buffyverse by the author to push their story forward.

Though it was good to see familiar character from the novel series i.e. Lucy Hanover to make an appearance and whenever she gives dire warnings to Buffy, you're always waiting for the other shoe to drop as here Buffy's trying to juggle being the slayer as well as being Buffy, whose going to college, keeping up with her studies, getting to class and finishing her assignments on time, so she's bit on edge and trying to keep herself together and yet pushing people away; and we all know how that goes when Buffy pushes her friends away when she's struggling and trying to keep things in order, it never ends well...

[SpookyxSpice · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fast paced, quick read. Thankfully this "The Lost Slayer" is broken up into 4 short books all roughly 130 something pages. The final book in this story is a tad longer, but we'll get to that when I reach it.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5. Seems like it could have been an actual episode of the show (in the best way). This book has no business being as well written as it is. Props, Christopher Golden.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Lost Slayer is a novel in four parts which were published serially in separate volumes in the fashion of King's The Green Mile. Golden did an excellent job of keeping it all moving, establishing everything in the first volume, tying it all up in the last, and introducing the situation without tedium in the later ones. The story takes place in a future mirror-world, much like the famous Star Trek universe reached by the faulty transporter or perhaps more like one of the X-Men arcs where the past must be changed or the present saved in order to fix the future. The characterization is delightful and plausible, if somewhat reminiscent of the world created by Anya the demon in the episode where she granted Cordelia's wish that Buffy had never come to Sunnydale. (Especially Giles!) The serial nature of the original publication was excellent in that it re-created the episodic nature of the series in having to wait for the resolution to the cliff-hangers. This was one of the best Buffy novels.

[Metalfist · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ik stond voor mijn boekenkast die voor een groot stuk is gevuld met ongelezen boeken en eerlijk waar, ik vond niets waar ik zin in had. Wat ik dan echter vaak durf doen is teruggrijpen naar boeken waar ik erg warme herinneringen aan heb en hoewel ik regelmatig nog wel eens een Buffy the Vampire Slayer boek lees, was de Lost Slayer reeks wel al erg lang geleden. Ik vermoed zelfs dat dit indertijd mijn eerste kennismaking was met het boekenuniversum van Buffy.

Hoewel ik de reeks al in geen jaren meer heb gezien, is het wel gek om te merken hoe die personages na al die jaren nog altijd in mijn hart zitten. In de eerste pagina’s is het even aanvoelen waar we juist zitten qua tijdsperiode, maar Christopher Golden weet snel en eenvoudig de tijdslijn te situeren. Buffy en Willow studeren net aan UC Sunnydale? Dan zitten we ergens in seizoen 4. Misschien één van mijn minder favoriete seizoenen (ik was niet zo’n fan van heel dat Riley gedoe), maar Prophecies is verder vintage Buffy. Ik betwijfel of het echt nodig is om in 4 aparte boeken op te delen, maar die climax met Buffy die in de toekomst is terecht gekomen is en blijft geweldig. De verdwijning van Giles, de strubbelingen tussen Buffy en Willow, Anya en Xander die weer gewoon Anya en Xander zijn, … Het komt allemaal netjes samen in een heerlijk einde waarin we ook meteen leren dat Faith gestorven is.

Golden maakt hier meteen ook weer duidelijk waarom hij één van mijn favoriete schrijvers in het Buffy universum is. Ik heb deze reeks zelf in één grote omnibus waardoor je eigenlijk automatisch aan het volgende boek begint en dat is altijd een goed teken. Er zijn ondertussen flarden verhaallijn terug gekomen, maar ik denk dat me nog een aantal leuke avonden te wachten staan.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a huge Buffy The Vampire Slayer fan and I'm a fan of how Christopher Golden writes Buffy books. He captures the essence of the characters. I can always hear the characters saying the words and never feel that they're acting out of character.

The Lost Slayer was a quick and enjoyable book to read. It feels like the 2-parter stories from the tv series. In part one, Buffy runs into a group of vamps with bat tats on their faces and glowing orange eyes. They creep her out and seem to have power over her. This can only mean trouble and a new bad has come to town and all while she's trying to have a normal college life too. The research begins as she calls upon Giles, Willow, Xander and Anya but reluctantly because she's been struggling internally with having to handle the responsibility of being the Slayer and not "The Slayer with Friends" along with her college struggles. They learn that the bat face vamps worship a god Camazotz who's come to town for nothing good of course. If that isn't enough, Buffy is visited by the ghost of Lucy Hanover, a former Slayer, who warns her of impending doom told to her by the Prophet!

Is it more than she can handle? Will she let the Scooby gang help or is she too determined to do it all alone? You'll have to read and find out how it all goes wrong.....

[Fantastic Alice Fox · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic Book. A great re introduction to the Buffy mythos and although the prose is at times clunky I loved the little details like "smelled of old blood" and the "stench of burning flesh" Paraphrased but this is stuff you don't think about when watching the series.

Book 1 is bog standard Buffy universe stuff and is much like a prequel for the series. There's a mystery with a new kind of vampire, some really scary moments where I wondered how badly a main cast member would be hurt and of course the lead in to the post apocalytic nightmare that will be the bulk of the next 4 bo0ks.

Future Imperfect novels have a deep fascination for me as I am a huge Doctor Who fan. Everything from dark terrifying futures that have to be averted to simply a historical setting with one person not of that world.

This is 'our' Buffy in a future world. But only 5 years forward so characters we know show up but they have been changed by this dark world.

This was also done in The Wish and Dopplegangland to a much darker extent but I feel this book really rings out and enfleshes this world of darkness.

Also....Really irritated at all the spoilers people are posting for the full series.

I should be able to read a review for book 1 in a FOUR PART series without getting major twists ruined.

[Kaylee Harkness · Rating 2 out of 5]

Book one in a four part serial.

Takes place near the start of season four of the show.

Overall a huge amount of detail to battles that was unnecessary as we already know with media tie in works there’s little to no stakes to the main characters. So a huge drawn out battle feels skippable and pointless.

Additionally the characterization of Buffy herself is rather cold and harsh. The others are caricatures of themselves coming off even cartoonish, especially Cander.

Giles calling out for Angel to help him and save him feels exceptionally out of left field and felt like the author never watched the show in that moment. Season four tensions with Angel were high as he was beginning his new life in Los Angeles. He was no one’s favourite person.

Rough start but interesting set up for alternative dimension.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting first part in a multi-book story. I have a couple minor quibbles. Buffy is stated to be nineteen toward the end of the story (her nineteenth birthday occurred in "A New Man", halfway through season 4), but the Historian's Note at the end of the book says the story occurs early in season 4. It undoubted occurs after "Living Conditions" (when Willow moves into Buffy's dorm room) and before "Wild at Heart" (when Oz leaves), but "Wild at Heart" is over two months before "A New Man". Buffy was still eighteen at the time. Also, it was established in "The Initiative" (the episode after Oz left) that he had lived in a dorm room on campus, but the novels portrays him as living in an off-campus apartment.

[Dale · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm fascinated by media tie-ins like this, based on a property I'm very familiar with, which allows me to see the characters and other elements of the established world in a different way, in this case via the novelist's toolbox, including things like internal POV. Golden has a good handle on the speaking patterns of the characters, which is crucial for something like BTVS where the dialogue as written and performed was a big part of the overall vibe of the show. I'm looking forward to the next installment in the series, which I assume will flesh out a bit more the vampire-ruled future introduced at the very end of this book.

[Sidney · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s October so that means I work at getting a handful of Buffy books off my shelf. This one being the first of many, it’s the first of four in a series that has Buffy saving the world again....in a different reality or Buffyverse. Buffy and her gang are up against a demon-god called Camazotz, a bat like thing that has many vampire minions. Only 134 pages so started and finished in one seating. On the the next.

[Electroclan17 · Rating 3 out of 5]

[3.25] I enjoyed the story but I think since it's supposed to be an alternate timeline to season 4 and I haven't even seen season 1 I didn't really feel connected to any of the characters. The story explained enough of who was friends with who, etc. without me getting confused but I wasn't as connected with the storyline. Reading this book made me think of when I read that Supergirl book except I felt the opposite with that book. I knew the characters already and knew their backstories.

[Jonelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was like going back in time. Familiar characters, total nostalgia and a super fast read. This book takes place in season 4, the beginning of the college years. The mood of this book is very ominous. Reading it is spookier than watching this as an episode of the actual show.

Overall, it was fun.

[Sarah Ehinger · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can see why they packaged these into a single large novel. "part 1" is not really a standalone book in my opinion (probably why it was referred to as a serial). It is the set up to a story that I hope will be completed in the four parts that make up the lost slayer. Good start.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Took a while to finish because of time not because of want. Wached the entire series of Buffy and Angel also.

Really enjoyed the detail and story. The ending was super interesting. This story is not in the TV series and as enjoyable. Ready to see what happends next!

[Antonia Kane · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this series years ago and since I’ve been in a Buffy rewatch lately I thought I’d give it another go.

The story is okay. The writing isn’t my favorite. I’ll read the next one and the. We’ll see if I go on from there.

[Jaden Bise · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

I’m a sucker for anything alternate realities.. and i ate this up. it makes me wish they made this book into an arc on the actual show. i’m very excited to see how the rest of the series in this alternate universe takes place

[chisholm · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOST SLAYERS READS ARE GOOD IN GENERAL BUT WITH CHRISTOPHER GOLDEN AT THE WHEEL ITS SO MUCH BETTER.

[Myz · Rating 5 out of 5]

On retrouve bien l'humour de la série ! De plus, on est plongé très rapidement dans l'intrigue et ça se lit tout seul :)

[Kristin · Rating 3 out of 5]

It feels like a storyline that would be on the show. the author's bio at the back states he is American but he calls a sweatshirt a "jersey" which seemed weird to me. On to part 2....

[Donna Halloran · Rating 3 out of 5]

fine, but wasn't desperate to keep reading series so that is suspicious that it wasn't that great

[Véronique Laplante Grenier · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have already had read all the books in the Lost Slayer and decide to read them again. Really loved that serie.

[Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Intriguing indeed. A kind of average story for most of the book that suddenly becomes a lot more interesting. Will be reading the next one very soon!

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

My absolute favorite buddy book series!!! 😍😍

[Queerclusive reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

Story wise bit more epic than an average Buffy episode, but written very much like the show, tone, script all felt like Buffy! Can't wait for book 2...

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Took me a long time to get through this, mostly because my hyperfocus on this disappeared. The set-up also was this entire book, so I'm hoping the others get to the point.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting twist at the end, straight into the next book to find out what the hell is going on.