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Tales of the Slayer #3
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Tales of the Slayer, Vol. 3
The Slayers' lives are short, and not very sweet. The Watchers' Journals are full of their tales -- their battles, their triumphs, and ultimately, their successors.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer is but the latest in a long line of women warriors stretching back to the dawn of humankind. As long as there have been vampires, there has been a Slayer. Usually called in her teens, the Chosen One leads a brief life full of conflict and doom.
From the Anasazi villages of A.D. 1250 to Shanghai, China, in 1866, from Hollywood in the '40s to Buffy's predecessor in Tokyo of the '90s, Slayers have always risen above their most recent defeat.
Four best-selling Buffy novelists come together in a collection of novellas chronicling tales of Slayers past. Christopher Golden, Nancy Holder, Mel Odom, and Yvonne Navarro each present a new entry in the historic line of Slayers.
336 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 2003
4 people are currently reading
919 people want to read
About the author
Christopher Golden
798 books2,959 followersCHRISTOPHER 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
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
June 6, 2022
This is the third of four original anthologies that presented original stories of vampire slayers in the historical setting of the Buffy universe. There is no editor listed on the book, which I find curious. The first two books contained a variety of short stories, but this one has four novellas, all by writers familiar to Buffy prose readers. There are various references and hints that tie-in with the show, and it's fun to try to pick them out. Nancy Holder's story is set in Tokyo in 1993, with a Slayer shortly before Buffy was chosen. Mel Odom also has an Oriental setting, but is set in 1856. Yvonne Navarro's Dark of the Moon is the earliest, a Native American tale set in 1229. My favorite story of the bunch is Voodoo Lounge by Christopher Golden, which takes us to Los Angeles in 1940.
March 16, 2017
Four fun (and sad) Buffyverse novellas, giving us stories of slayers before Buffy.
January 22, 2020
Unlike the previous two installments, this collection only contains 4 stories (instead of the usual ten.) That works very much to its favor, however, as it means that not only do we get longer stories (which means that we better understand the slayer and her Watcher's motivations in each story a lot better), but we get more complete plot lines to go with them.
Add in to that the fact that these four stories are by four of the strongest Buffy novel writers, and you had me sold from the idea alone.
Dark of the Moon by Yvonne Navarro: For the first time, we get a *real* Native American Slayer story. Not only that, but it also deals with the mystery of the Anasazi tribe (simply known amongst the tribe itself as "The People") of Mesa Verde. I remember learning about this mysterious tribe of Native Americans in grade school and listening raptly to my teacher as she explained that everyone appeared to have vanished. As I got older, I learned that this vanishing was not overnight as my 8 year old mind had assumed when I first heard of it, but I still always theorized and fictionalized certain events of how and why it may have happened. Navarro's "Buffyverse" explanation works quite well, and makes the "truth" of the story even more tragic than regular history would theorize. For the most part, this story is rather straight forward -- a girl brought to the tribe in her infancy with the potential to be a great warrior one day is later made into the Slayer through a ceremony among the shamans of her tribe; however, she is told little about the enemy she must fight and unknowingly leaves vampires in adobes, thinking they are the remains that should be returned to a family. Dark of the Moon sadly does not have the benefit of a Watcher to explain things to her, and this story illustrates in a quite brutal way how doomed a Slayer is that lacks a Watcher with solid understanding. A slightly depressing story to start with, but it packs a punch.
Ch'ing Shih by Mel Odom: The first of two Asian Slayer stories in this collection. I was shocked at how vicious the description of humans killing humans was from the very beginning of this story. While there is, naturally, a vampire causing trouble in the tale of this Chinese Slayer (named Xiaoquin), the English and American mercenaries that are pillaging China and its citizens are equally as terrible in this story, if not more so. Vampires lack souls, which makes their atrocious acts the work of base animals; humans do have souls and act just as savagely, which makes them monsters. While the plot is, as usual with a vampire enemy, very straight forward, the Slayer herself in this story fascinates me. She is a peasant in Shanghai, China, and raised in a society that not only devalues women, it sees them as completely valueless. So the Slayer (who does not believe in the tales of the Slayer that her kind martial arts master told her) picks up these girls of varying ages in Shanghai and hides them in a basement, thieving from the rich to feed them as best as she can. And that's *before* she starts beating people up merely to protect them.
Not only that, but for a portion of this story, the reader is posed an interesting question through the narrative: what happened to Slayers who did not die, but physically could no longer do the work of the Slayer? It was an interesting dilemma and one I think could have done with a longer discussion, but the pitfall of short stories is that you have to keep the plot moving in less than 100 pages. So, it raised the question, but gave a short, somewhat pithy answer.
In a short story though, we got a lot of Chinese history, and reminders that misogyny and racism are not new in any culture of the world. They've always been here, and they've always sucked.
Voodoo Lounge by Christopher Golden: TINSELTOWN!! Sorry, I love classic Hollywood, and this story was an absolute revel. In 1940, Eleanor Boudreau is the Slayer and is visiting Los Angeles for the first time ever, and she is looking for a man. A specific one, of course; she's not looking for a hookup or to make it big on the Hollywood screens, though she loves to go to the movies. She eventually finds herself in a seedy club that is an even mix of famous Hollywood stars and executives, sitting right beside demons and vampires. (I kept picturing the club Lorne owns in Angel, "Caritas," but obviously from before Lorne crossed over from Pylea.) Eleanor quickly finds herself involved in a gumshoe style mystery -- what happened to the missing Watcher she came to Hollywood to find, and what (or who) is killing non-violent demons not far from the Voodoo Lounge?
It's a fun little adventure whose one pitfall is that Golden indulges his obvious fanboy love of classic movies a little too much at times. I mean, who wouldn't freak out about meeting Clark Gable? But Eleanor meets numerous actors and actresses over the course of one night, and she thinks numerous times "This is my favourite!" even though she thought the same thing about a completely different person five minutes before. As a fangirl, I can definitely understand it (cos I have a lot of favorites), but it gets distracting in the story. And I also was greatly distracted the whole story by Eleanor dumbfoundness about meeting an unnamed actor at the beginning of the story, but Golden NEVER TELLS US WHO IT IS. I get that it's a writing ploy so that, if you know any famous actors from the period, you can put any actor's face you want to in there, but I wonder how Golden was picturing as he penned the scene. Cary Grant? Jimmy Stewart? Franchot Tone? Lionel Barrymore? Inquiring minds want to know...
The Code of the Samurai by Nancy Holder: This story was set in 1993, and given that we know Buffy was called in 1995, I wonder if this is the Slayer that directly preceded Buffy or if there were a few in between. How long did 15 year old India last as the Slayer? Given how well she fought a 300 year old samurai vampire I would think she would survive for a bit. It would seem kind of lame if she can best such an ominous foe and then killed by a baby!vamp or something.
I enjoyed this subversion of the classic story about the 47 Ronin. It's always interesting to take a traditional hero story and ask the question of, "What if they weren't really the heroes we painted them to be?" This story attempts to do that and accomplishes it quite well. It even includes a detailed explanation of seppuku, which is a tradition that Holder wrote about in a previous Buffy novel "Blooded," which was one of my favorites way back in the day. Stories about samurai beliefs and tradition are obviously very fascinating and important to Nancy Holder, and she treats it with reverence in this work, even while turning a hero story into an unwilling villain story.
All in all, this was a fun collection of short stories that had a lot more to sink one's teeth into in terms of lore and Slayer character than the previous collections had allowed. A series of fun adventures for a weekday afternoon.
Add in to that the fact that these four stories are by four of the strongest Buffy novel writers, and you had me sold from the idea alone.
Dark of the Moon by Yvonne Navarro: For the first time, we get a *real* Native American Slayer story. Not only that, but it also deals with the mystery of the Anasazi tribe (simply known amongst the tribe itself as "The People") of Mesa Verde. I remember learning about this mysterious tribe of Native Americans in grade school and listening raptly to my teacher as she explained that everyone appeared to have vanished. As I got older, I learned that this vanishing was not overnight as my 8 year old mind had assumed when I first heard of it, but I still always theorized and fictionalized certain events of how and why it may have happened. Navarro's "Buffyverse" explanation works quite well, and makes the "truth" of the story even more tragic than regular history would theorize. For the most part, this story is rather straight forward -- a girl brought to the tribe in her infancy with the potential to be a great warrior one day is later made into the Slayer through a ceremony among the shamans of her tribe; however, she is told little about the enemy she must fight and unknowingly leaves vampires in adobes, thinking they are the remains that should be returned to a family. Dark of the Moon sadly does not have the benefit of a Watcher to explain things to her, and this story illustrates in a quite brutal way how doomed a Slayer is that lacks a Watcher with solid understanding. A slightly depressing story to start with, but it packs a punch.
Ch'ing Shih by Mel Odom: The first of two Asian Slayer stories in this collection. I was shocked at how vicious the description of humans killing humans was from the very beginning of this story. While there is, naturally, a vampire causing trouble in the tale of this Chinese Slayer (named Xiaoquin), the English and American mercenaries that are pillaging China and its citizens are equally as terrible in this story, if not more so. Vampires lack souls, which makes their atrocious acts the work of base animals; humans do have souls and act just as savagely, which makes them monsters. While the plot is, as usual with a vampire enemy, very straight forward, the Slayer herself in this story fascinates me. She is a peasant in Shanghai, China, and raised in a society that not only devalues women, it sees them as completely valueless. So the Slayer (who does not believe in the tales of the Slayer that her kind martial arts master told her) picks up these girls of varying ages in Shanghai and hides them in a basement, thieving from the rich to feed them as best as she can. And that's *before* she starts beating people up merely to protect them.
Not only that, but for a portion of this story, the reader is posed an interesting question through the narrative: what happened to Slayers who did not die, but physically could no longer do the work of the Slayer? It was an interesting dilemma and one I think could have done with a longer discussion, but the pitfall of short stories is that you have to keep the plot moving in less than 100 pages. So, it raised the question, but gave a short, somewhat pithy answer.
In a short story though, we got a lot of Chinese history, and reminders that misogyny and racism are not new in any culture of the world. They've always been here, and they've always sucked.
Voodoo Lounge by Christopher Golden: TINSELTOWN!! Sorry, I love classic Hollywood, and this story was an absolute revel. In 1940, Eleanor Boudreau is the Slayer and is visiting Los Angeles for the first time ever, and she is looking for a man. A specific one, of course; she's not looking for a hookup or to make it big on the Hollywood screens, though she loves to go to the movies. She eventually finds herself in a seedy club that is an even mix of famous Hollywood stars and executives, sitting right beside demons and vampires. (I kept picturing the club Lorne owns in Angel, "Caritas," but obviously from before Lorne crossed over from Pylea.) Eleanor quickly finds herself involved in a gumshoe style mystery -- what happened to the missing Watcher she came to Hollywood to find, and what (or who) is killing non-violent demons not far from the Voodoo Lounge?
It's a fun little adventure whose one pitfall is that Golden indulges his obvious fanboy love of classic movies a little too much at times. I mean, who wouldn't freak out about meeting Clark Gable? But Eleanor meets numerous actors and actresses over the course of one night, and she thinks numerous times "This is my favourite!" even though she thought the same thing about a completely different person five minutes before. As a fangirl, I can definitely understand it (cos I have a lot of favorites), but it gets distracting in the story. And I also was greatly distracted the whole story by Eleanor dumbfoundness about meeting an unnamed actor at the beginning of the story, but Golden NEVER TELLS US WHO IT IS. I get that it's a writing ploy so that, if you know any famous actors from the period, you can put any actor's face you want to in there, but I wonder how Golden was picturing as he penned the scene. Cary Grant? Jimmy Stewart? Franchot Tone? Lionel Barrymore? Inquiring minds want to know...
The Code of the Samurai by Nancy Holder: This story was set in 1993, and given that we know Buffy was called in 1995, I wonder if this is the Slayer that directly preceded Buffy or if there were a few in between. How long did 15 year old India last as the Slayer? Given how well she fought a 300 year old samurai vampire I would think she would survive for a bit. It would seem kind of lame if she can best such an ominous foe and then killed by a baby!vamp or something.
I enjoyed this subversion of the classic story about the 47 Ronin. It's always interesting to take a traditional hero story and ask the question of, "What if they weren't really the heroes we painted them to be?" This story attempts to do that and accomplishes it quite well. It even includes a detailed explanation of seppuku, which is a tradition that Holder wrote about in a previous Buffy novel "Blooded," which was one of my favorites way back in the day. Stories about samurai beliefs and tradition are obviously very fascinating and important to Nancy Holder, and she treats it with reverence in this work, even while turning a hero story into an unwilling villain story.
All in all, this was a fun collection of short stories that had a lot more to sink one's teeth into in terms of lore and Slayer character than the previous collections had allowed. A series of fun adventures for a weekday afternoon.
June 4, 2008
The third book in this series is a collection of four novellas and as such goes into much deeper detail. I really liked this collection and if you take a peek at my Buffy collection you would not be too surprised to learn that more and more detail is something that i love. I want a PhD in Buffy studies someday and my slayer timeline is getting filled in.
September 20, 2020
Oh wow! I love the TOTS series, and this has to be my favourite so far. I was a little disappointed to see that there was only 4 stories in this anthology, but all 4 were highly entertaining. I love East Asian culture, and to have two of the tales set on this region, China and Japan, I was ecstatic. I've rated each short story individually, but I absolutely loved this collection in it's entirety.
Dark of the Moon: 4 Stars
Ch'ing Shih: 5 Stars (favourite)
The Voodoo Lounge: 4 Stars
The Code of the Samurai: 5 Stars
Dark of the Moon: 4 Stars
Ch'ing Shih: 5 Stars (favourite)
The Voodoo Lounge: 4 Stars
The Code of the Samurai: 5 Stars
January 24, 2024
I didn’t find this book as gripping as the previous two, despite the fact there were only 4 stories with more details. I liked the fact we got more to read about individual Slayers, but I struggled to keep interested a bit with this one. Still good stories though, just 3 of the 4 were quite similar.
June 24, 2018
I love these creative glimpses into the slayers throughout history. Christopher Golden's contribution was my favorite.
October 27, 2018
another great selection of stories of Slayers past. Only 4 this time which is a shame. But some great names from the Buffynerse contributing.
November 7, 2020
I love Buffy, and this collection is fabulous fun!!!!!
August 24, 2024
Another one bites the dust
November 6, 2015
Three volumes into this series and some trends are appearing. First, I think some of the authors are basing their stories more off the movie than the show (dreams and birthmarks playing big parts in the film but hardly at all on the show). Whereas the first book dealt a bit with slayers last missions, most of these stories deal with inexperienced slayers. The biggest difference with this collection is fewer but longer stories (4 stories at 220 pages instead of 10 stories at 250 pages in volume 2). Here's how I'd rank them from worst to best:
Dark of the Moon - A very average story about a Native American slayer's first mission; this one was a slog until the end when some family drama entered the story.
The Code of the Samurai - A story about an American slayer during the 1990's fighting the 47 Ronan from Japanese myth. This one felt like the author enjoyed "Shogun" a bit too much but I liked the flash back story about Asano's seppuku.
Voodoo Lounge - This story about early Hollywood and a popular demon bar felt the most like the tv show I loved. The female watcher (a potential slayer who never got the job) was my favorite watcher from any short story so far.
Ch'ing Shih - The longest story yet, this felt like it could have easily been stretched into its own book. Instead, the story took several turns I didn't see coming, and both the watcher and slayer ended up being characters I was invested in. The overly happy ending keeps it from matching the best stories from volume 2 though.
Dark of the Moon - A very average story about a Native American slayer's first mission; this one was a slog until the end when some family drama entered the story.
The Code of the Samurai - A story about an American slayer during the 1990's fighting the 47 Ronan from Japanese myth. This one felt like the author enjoyed "Shogun" a bit too much but I liked the flash back story about Asano's seppuku.
Voodoo Lounge - This story about early Hollywood and a popular demon bar felt the most like the tv show I loved. The female watcher (a potential slayer who never got the job) was my favorite watcher from any short story so far.
Ch'ing Shih - The longest story yet, this felt like it could have easily been stretched into its own book. Instead, the story took several turns I didn't see coming, and both the watcher and slayer ended up being characters I was invested in. The overly happy ending keeps it from matching the best stories from volume 2 though.
April 24, 2014
My actual rating is 3.5 stars.
A book that is based from the lore from the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This novel has none of the main characters from the show but there are several easter eggs that reference the show and a story about the first slayer that did appear in several episodes. This is a collection of four novellas of different slayers in different time eras and different settings. It could be classified as historical fiction.
I liked this collection as it gave me a slayer's perspective besides Buffy and Faith. The one story that stands out was “Ch’ing Shih” by Mel Odom. This was told by the slayer herself and was exceptional. It was the reason I bumped up my rating. The other stories were likeable but never grabbed me to the point where I could not put the book down. I do like the idea of different slayers and their personalities.
If you are a fan of the Buffyverse, I believe you will like this collection.
A book that is based from the lore from the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This novel has none of the main characters from the show but there are several easter eggs that reference the show and a story about the first slayer that did appear in several episodes. This is a collection of four novellas of different slayers in different time eras and different settings. It could be classified as historical fiction.
I liked this collection as it gave me a slayer's perspective besides Buffy and Faith. The one story that stands out was “Ch’ing Shih” by Mel Odom. This was told by the slayer herself and was exceptional. It was the reason I bumped up my rating. The other stories were likeable but never grabbed me to the point where I could not put the book down. I do like the idea of different slayers and their personalities.
If you are a fan of the Buffyverse, I believe you will like this collection.
February 3, 2016
Stories inspired by the TV series.
Since I don't normally write reviews unless I have something specific to say, here's the break down of how I rate my books...
1 star... This book was bad, so bad I may have given up and skipped to the end. I will avoid this author like the plague in the future.
2 stars... This book was not very good, and I won't be reading any more from the author.
3 stars... This book was ok, but I won't go out of my way to read more, But if I find another book by the author for under a dollar I'd pick it up.
4 stars... I really enjoyed this book and will definitely be on the look out to pick up more from the series/author.
5 stars... I loved this book! It has earned a permanent home in my collection and I'll be picking up the rest of the series and other books from the author ASAP.
Since I don't normally write reviews unless I have something specific to say, here's the break down of how I rate my books...
1 star... This book was bad, so bad I may have given up and skipped to the end. I will avoid this author like the plague in the future.
2 stars... This book was not very good, and I won't be reading any more from the author.
3 stars... This book was ok, but I won't go out of my way to read more, But if I find another book by the author for under a dollar I'd pick it up.
4 stars... I really enjoyed this book and will definitely be on the look out to pick up more from the series/author.
5 stars... I loved this book! It has earned a permanent home in my collection and I'll be picking up the rest of the series and other books from the author ASAP.
February 25, 2019
Cool to read some histories of Slayers
February 7, 2017
Dark of the Moon 4/5
Ch'ing Shih 4/5
Voodoo Lounge 5/5
The Code of the Samurai 2/5
Ch'ing Shih 4/5
Voodoo Lounge 5/5
The Code of the Samurai 2/5
Read
August 23, 2008isbn,original
December 25, 2014
This was actually pretty entertaining. If you like BtVS, you'll probable enjoy this book
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews