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The Unseen Trilogy #2
Buffy the Vampire Slayer / Angel: Door to Alternity
In Los Angeles, Angel and Buffy compare notes and realize that both are dealing with cases of missing teenagers -- most of them children of the rich and powerful. Coincidence? They don't think so. But when Buffy checks in with Giles, she learns that primetime doomsday has hit Sunnydale, taking precedence over the gang warfare in L.A. Back in her hometown, Buffy finds the doorway through which the monsters are gaining allaccess passes to our universe. Renegade scientists have discovered how to open the portals from one reality to the next, which could explain where the teens are hidden. But when you're operating near a hellmouth, opening dimensional portals is tricky you never know who -- or what -- you're going to attract. With the lives of the kidnapped teens and one dangerously talented young woman at stake, Buffy and Angel join forces to do battle in the uncharted dimension....
320 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published March 31, 2000
5 people are currently reading
674 people want to read
About the author
Nancy Holder
354 books2,409 followersNancy Holder, New York Times Bestselling author of the WICKED Series, has just published CRUSADE - the first book in a new vampire series cowritten with Debbie Viguie. The last book her her Possession series is set to release in March 2011.
Nancy was born in Los Altos, California, and her family settled for a time in Walnut Creek. Her father, who taught at Stanford, joined the navy and the family traveled throughout California and lived in Japan for three years. When she was sixteen, she dropped out of high school to become a ballet dancer in Cologne, Germany, and later relocated to Frankfurt Am Main.
Eventually she returned to California and graduated summa cum laude from the University of California at San Diego with a degree in Communications. Soon after, she began to write; her first sale was a young adult romance novel titled Teach Me to Love.
Nancy’s work has appeared on the New York Times, USA Today, LA Times, amazon.com, LOCUS, and other bestseller lists. A four-time winner of the Bram Stoker Award from the Horror Writers Association, she has also received accolades from the American Library Association, the American Reading Association, the New York Public Library, and Romantic Times.
She and Debbie Viguié co-authored the New York Times bestselling series Wicked for Simon and Schuster. They have continued their collaboration with the Crusade series, also for Simon and Schuster, and the Wolf Springs Chronicles for Delacorte (2011.) She is also the author of the young adult horror series Possessions for Razorbill. She has sold many novels and book projects set in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Saving Grace, Hellboy, and Smallville universes.
She has sold approximately two hundred short stories and essays on writing and popular culture. Her anthology, Outsiders, co-edited with Nancy Kilpatrick, was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award in 2005.
She teaches in the Stonecoast MFA in Creative Writing Program, offered through the University of Southern Maine. She has previously taught at UCSD and has served on the Clarion Board of Directors.
She lives in San Diego, California, with her daughter Belle, their two Corgis, Panda and Tater; and their cats, David and Kittnen Snow. She and Belle are active in Girl Scouts and dog obedience training.
Nancy was born in Los Altos, California, and her family settled for a time in Walnut Creek. Her father, who taught at Stanford, joined the navy and the family traveled throughout California and lived in Japan for three years. When she was sixteen, she dropped out of high school to become a ballet dancer in Cologne, Germany, and later relocated to Frankfurt Am Main.
Eventually she returned to California and graduated summa cum laude from the University of California at San Diego with a degree in Communications. Soon after, she began to write; her first sale was a young adult romance novel titled Teach Me to Love.
Nancy’s work has appeared on the New York Times, USA Today, LA Times, amazon.com, LOCUS, and other bestseller lists. A four-time winner of the Bram Stoker Award from the Horror Writers Association, she has also received accolades from the American Library Association, the American Reading Association, the New York Public Library, and Romantic Times.
She and Debbie Viguié co-authored the New York Times bestselling series Wicked for Simon and Schuster. They have continued their collaboration with the Crusade series, also for Simon and Schuster, and the Wolf Springs Chronicles for Delacorte (2011.) She is also the author of the young adult horror series Possessions for Razorbill. She has sold many novels and book projects set in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Saving Grace, Hellboy, and Smallville universes.
She has sold approximately two hundred short stories and essays on writing and popular culture. Her anthology, Outsiders, co-edited with Nancy Kilpatrick, was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award in 2005.
She teaches in the Stonecoast MFA in Creative Writing Program, offered through the University of Southern Maine. She has previously taught at UCSD and has served on the Clarion Board of Directors.
She lives in San Diego, California, with her daughter Belle, their two Corgis, Panda and Tater; and their cats, David and Kittnen Snow. She and Belle are active in Girl Scouts and dog obedience training.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
May 19, 2023
This is the second volume of a crossover trilogy reuniting Angel and Buffy the Vampire Slayer... the shows, not so much the characters. Buffy and Angel meet up in the beginning to compare notes, but Buffy soon reunites with her Scoobies in Sunnydale when a supernatural invasion breaks out. It's set between the fourth and fifth seasons of Buffy, which was concurrent with the first and second seasons of Angel. It's very much the middle book of a trilogy, with a kind of slow start and then a cliffhanger stoppage rather than a conclusion of any kind, so one should be sure all three sections are on hand before reading this one. It is pretty interesting once it gets going, and Mariotte and Holder do a fine job of capturing the characters voices, complete with some clever quips and snappy dialog. I particularly liked Spike and Anya. Russian and Mexican criminal gangs, demons galore, and missing teens, oh my... Grrr & arrrgh.
June 4, 2020
Not as enjoyable as first book. Buffy and Angel for the opening scene of the book, but quickly have to go their separate ways. I wanted more Buffy and Angel together, but that's not in this read.
Buffy and Angel meet in L.A., where the previous book left off, and bring each other up to speed with their respective cases. They agree to work together until Giles calls Buffy and tells her that monsters are everywhere in Sunnydale. Thinking this could be the Hellmouth kicking into overdrive, Buffy leaves, but Willow remains behind. In L.A. Angel and his crew encounter crooked cops while dealing with the gang war between the Mexicans and the Russians. In Sunnydale Buffy and her crew battle a neverending onslaught of creatures of all shapes and sizes. It's only in the last third of the book that the plot moves beyond this, as the source of the children disappearances is learned and decision made as to who will stop it.
I was more interested by the Angel storyline than Buffy's simply because the Scoobies were one note in this book: find monsters, fight, go home to rest, go out, find monsters, fight...It just wasn't interesting. Although Anya continued to save these moments with the funniest dialogue in the book. Spike is a close runner up for fun lines.
I wasn't happy that a supporting character introduced in the last book was built up considerably as this novel progressed, only to be dismissed too easily. It left me wondering what this character's purpose was but to fill space. I also wasn't happy with Willow and Tara's scenes which come off purposeless: "Hi" and "Bye" for the most part.
I will read the final book in this trilogy but my hopes are not high.
Buffy and Angel meet in L.A., where the previous book left off, and bring each other up to speed with their respective cases. They agree to work together until Giles calls Buffy and tells her that monsters are everywhere in Sunnydale. Thinking this could be the Hellmouth kicking into overdrive, Buffy leaves, but Willow remains behind. In L.A. Angel and his crew encounter crooked cops while dealing with the gang war between the Mexicans and the Russians. In Sunnydale Buffy and her crew battle a neverending onslaught of creatures of all shapes and sizes. It's only in the last third of the book that the plot moves beyond this, as the source of the children disappearances is learned and decision made as to who will stop it.
I was more interested by the Angel storyline than Buffy's simply because the Scoobies were one note in this book: find monsters, fight, go home to rest, go out, find monsters, fight...It just wasn't interesting. Although Anya continued to save these moments with the funniest dialogue in the book. Spike is a close runner up for fun lines.
I wasn't happy that a supporting character introduced in the last book was built up considerably as this novel progressed, only to be dismissed too easily. It left me wondering what this character's purpose was but to fill space. I also wasn't happy with Willow and Tara's scenes which come off purposeless: "Hi" and "Bye" for the most part.
I will read the final book in this trilogy but my hopes are not high.
June 17, 2024
Normaal gezien ben ik niet het type dat een volgende deel in een boekenreeks lang laat liggen, maar in het geval van deze Unseen trilogie had ik niet heel veel zin in Door to Alternity. Het tweede deel in een crossover reeks tussen Buffy en Angel (twee series die ik een warm hart toedraag) maar The Burning vond ik niet zo’n enorm interessante start. Je voelde aan alles dat het verhaal wat uitgerekt wordt om dit over drie boeken te spreiden en ik hoopte vooral dat het tweede boek wat aan vaart ging kunnen winnen. Spoiler alert: dat gebeurt niet.
In tegendeel zelfs, ik heb even getwijfeld of ik dit niet halverwege opzij zou leggen om iets anders te lezen. Gewoon omdat er zo weinig tempo in zit. Het helpt natuurlijk niet dat Nancy Holder en Jeffrey J. Mariotte nog eens een derde verhaallijn introduceren. Ze maakten nu al regelmatig de switch tussen Sunnydale en Los Angeles en nu komt daar ook nog eens de flashback naar Vishnikof bij. Het lijkt in ieder geval wel dat het volgende deel een interessante richting uitgaat met de alternatieve wereld waar Buffy en Angel in terechtkomen. Hopelijk daar wel iets meer gedetailleerd qua beschrijvingen, want nu bleef ik wat op mijn honger zitten met betrekking tot hoe de monsters eruitzien. In een film of serie ben je gebonden aan visual effects en in een boek ben je dat natuurlijk niet, maar Holder en Mariotte slagen er niet in om echt een duidelijk beeld te scheppen waar de Slayer en haar kompanen het tegen aan het opnemen zijn. Ik denk dat het toch ook wat interessanter had geweest om minder personages te introduceren. Je krijgt twee reeksen met een hoop reeds bestaande personages (Buffy, Angel, Willow, Tara, Cordelia, Xander, Anya, Riley, Spike, Gunn, Wesley en Giles) en dan ook nog een hoop nieuwe personages zoals verschillende bendeleden (waar ik eerlijk gezegd echt niet meer wist wie nu weer wie was) en zelfs de Russische maffia.
Ik hoopte op een boek dat de verhaallijn definitief in gang ging trappen, maar ik krijg eigenlijk het tegendeel… Zo’n typische tweede deel in een trilogie die eigenlijk vooral opbouwt naar de onvermijdelijke grootschalige climax. Door to Alternity eindigt dan ook met een gigantische cliffhanger en het is de vraag wat Buffy en Angel gaan vinden in de alternity. Misschien deze keer toch geen half jaar tussen beide boeken laten, maar het gaat toch een beetje een opgave worden.
In tegendeel zelfs, ik heb even getwijfeld of ik dit niet halverwege opzij zou leggen om iets anders te lezen. Gewoon omdat er zo weinig tempo in zit. Het helpt natuurlijk niet dat Nancy Holder en Jeffrey J. Mariotte nog eens een derde verhaallijn introduceren. Ze maakten nu al regelmatig de switch tussen Sunnydale en Los Angeles en nu komt daar ook nog eens de flashback naar Vishnikof bij. Het lijkt in ieder geval wel dat het volgende deel een interessante richting uitgaat met de alternatieve wereld waar Buffy en Angel in terechtkomen. Hopelijk daar wel iets meer gedetailleerd qua beschrijvingen, want nu bleef ik wat op mijn honger zitten met betrekking tot hoe de monsters eruitzien. In een film of serie ben je gebonden aan visual effects en in een boek ben je dat natuurlijk niet, maar Holder en Mariotte slagen er niet in om echt een duidelijk beeld te scheppen waar de Slayer en haar kompanen het tegen aan het opnemen zijn. Ik denk dat het toch ook wat interessanter had geweest om minder personages te introduceren. Je krijgt twee reeksen met een hoop reeds bestaande personages (Buffy, Angel, Willow, Tara, Cordelia, Xander, Anya, Riley, Spike, Gunn, Wesley en Giles) en dan ook nog een hoop nieuwe personages zoals verschillende bendeleden (waar ik eerlijk gezegd echt niet meer wist wie nu weer wie was) en zelfs de Russische maffia.
Ik hoopte op een boek dat de verhaallijn definitief in gang ging trappen, maar ik krijg eigenlijk het tegendeel… Zo’n typische tweede deel in een trilogie die eigenlijk vooral opbouwt naar de onvermijdelijke grootschalige climax. Door to Alternity eindigt dan ook met een gigantische cliffhanger en het is de vraag wat Buffy en Angel gaan vinden in de alternity. Misschien deze keer toch geen half jaar tussen beide boeken laten, maar het gaat toch een beetje een opgave worden.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 19, 2021
Door to Alternity is the second book in the Unseen trilogy by authors Nancy Holder and Jeff Mariotte.
While comparing whats going on in Sunnydale and L.A., Buffy and Angel realize that their are both dealing with cases of missing teenagers. They are working together for a while but soon Buffy gotta head back to Sunnydale cause monsters keeps coming and coming. In L.A. Angel and his crew are dealing with the war between the Mexicans and Russians. They will finally discover the source of the missing children and will need to send people to rescue them.
While comparing whats going on in Sunnydale and L.A., Buffy and Angel realize that their are both dealing with cases of missing teenagers. They are working together for a while but soon Buffy gotta head back to Sunnydale cause monsters keeps coming and coming. In L.A. Angel and his crew are dealing with the war between the Mexicans and Russians. They will finally discover the source of the missing children and will need to send people to rescue them.
July 5, 2019
I read the trilogy in rapid succession so I'll just post the one review.
A decent romp with the Scoobie gang. At it's best characters were well portrayed and their interactions interesting. Unfortunately, the story dragged at times, and could easily have been edited (for the better) into a tale half as long.
Beware, the events take place between seasons 4 & 5 (IIRC) and are replete with spoilers.
Read in 2019, a fun revival for fans of the show's golden era.
A decent romp with the Scoobie gang. At it's best characters were well portrayed and their interactions interesting. Unfortunately, the story dragged at times, and could easily have been edited (for the better) into a tale half as long.
Beware, the events take place between seasons 4 & 5 (IIRC) and are replete with spoilers.
Read in 2019, a fun revival for fans of the show's golden era.
July 7, 2023
Didn't realize this was part of a trilogy. I do not have the net title and it definitely ends in a cliffanger. Angel, Wesley and Cordelia tackle a mystical portal problem from LA while Buffy, Riley, Willow, Anya, Spike and Zander attack the problem from Sunnydale. Too many gruesome hard to picture monsters come out of the portals while many young people get sucked into them. Me+ican and Russian gangs battle for turf and a mad scientist attempts to restore the Soviet Union.
October 10, 2021
Oof, took forever to get through this one. Part 2 of 3….just getting us set up for the finale. Russian and Mexican gangs ; portals to different worlds; missing rich kids. Angel and Buffy to the rescue!
December 31, 2023
obsessed with how much buffy has to convince herself that she is In Love With Riley and Absolutely Not Attracted To Angel
April 16, 2024
This one was non-stop acting. Sadly, Buffy and Angel's reunion was short-lived, but I'm excited to see them together again in the final book in this trilogy.
February 12, 2025
Awesome book
February 4, 2025
Lord, this one was... a struggle.
For starters, the plot was almost non-existent. I truly do not know why this was a trilogy, when this entry into the series consisted of almost entirely filler. Eventually we find out the reasons behind everything that's been going down, but it didn't require 300 pages for us to get there. Instead it's full of the Scooby gang just venturing out and fighting some demons and then regrouping, talking about the demons, and then going out again. And we have some flashbacks throughout 20 years of Russian history and scientists carrying out experimental physics tests, something that just felt too science-fiction for Buffy. And the final missing piece to all of this? Some gang warfare!
So all in all, a pretty uninteresting combination.
Add into that some incredibly uncharacteristic dialogue (Giles and Wesley greeting each other with "God save the Queen"? Willow acting as though she can't tell the difference between Giles and Wesley? Anya just making constant blunt references to sex?) and it was very hard to push myself through.
...
ORIGINAL REVIEW (3/5)
Read 27/03/2013 - 29/03/2013
I really wanted to enjoy this one more than the first, and some parts were better. Unfortunately, the parts that mildly irritated me in the first book became even more grating this time round.
Firstly, Anya's speech. As a general rule, I was impressed with how all the characters were written, and how the authors got 'into' the characters that are so beloved and so recognisable. The exception to this is Anya, who just felt incredibly uncomfortable. Rather than being adorably clueless and blunt like in the show, a lot of her 'bluntness' felt very forced, and like it was stuck in where it didn't fit, just to try and get a laugh.
Another thing that seemed odd in this book was that people would appear to just come and go for no real reason. Buffy and Riley were out doing recon, returned to Giles' house for literally a paragraph or something, before going back out again. It almost felt like there were a lot of scenes that were 'forced' just to bring cohesion, since there are lots of story threads going on in different areas of L.A/Sunnydale (another example - Gunn decides he needs to travel to Sunnydale, meets Buffy and fights some vamps, and then immediately decides to return to L.A. again... I just think, why bother moving him at all?
The final thing that irritated me was the inclusion of so many un-Buffy-esque elements. As mentioned in the review for The Burning, I'm not a fan of Buffy fighting and investigating gangs. And while there are supernatural elements to the gang's activity, there is still a whole intricate subplot involving actual gang warfare, which felt a little alien to include in the Buffyverse.
Similarly, the Alternity plotline felt very sci-fi, which isn't something that is overly explored on the shows much. Admittedly, there is a lot of crossover between sci-fi and fantasy, but Buffy and Angel do normally fit comfortably on the fantasy side. The psychic abilities, and talk of portals sounds very fantasy, but when you add in a USSR organisation creating a piece of hardware that opens up portals to alternate realities, it does get very sci-fi-ish as opposed to the fantasy side, which, again, feels a little uncomfortable to have Buffy stuck in the middle (although less uncomfortable than gang warfare).
Other than that, though, the characters are enjoyable enough to read, and the general plotline, although weak in parts, is definitely not unreadable.
For starters, the plot was almost non-existent. I truly do not know why this was a trilogy, when this entry into the series consisted of almost entirely filler. Eventually we find out the reasons behind everything that's been going down, but it didn't require 300 pages for us to get there. Instead it's full of the Scooby gang just venturing out and fighting some demons and then regrouping, talking about the demons, and then going out again. And we have some flashbacks throughout 20 years of Russian history and scientists carrying out experimental physics tests, something that just felt too science-fiction for Buffy. And the final missing piece to all of this? Some gang warfare!
So all in all, a pretty uninteresting combination.
Add into that some incredibly uncharacteristic dialogue (Giles and Wesley greeting each other with "God save the Queen"? Willow acting as though she can't tell the difference between Giles and Wesley? Anya just making constant blunt references to sex?) and it was very hard to push myself through.
...
ORIGINAL REVIEW (3/5)
Read 27/03/2013 - 29/03/2013
I really wanted to enjoy this one more than the first, and some parts were better. Unfortunately, the parts that mildly irritated me in the first book became even more grating this time round.
Firstly, Anya's speech. As a general rule, I was impressed with how all the characters were written, and how the authors got 'into' the characters that are so beloved and so recognisable. The exception to this is Anya, who just felt incredibly uncomfortable. Rather than being adorably clueless and blunt like in the show, a lot of her 'bluntness' felt very forced, and like it was stuck in where it didn't fit, just to try and get a laugh.
Another thing that seemed odd in this book was that people would appear to just come and go for no real reason. Buffy and Riley were out doing recon, returned to Giles' house for literally a paragraph or something, before going back out again. It almost felt like there were a lot of scenes that were 'forced' just to bring cohesion, since there are lots of story threads going on in different areas of L.A/Sunnydale (another example - Gunn decides he needs to travel to Sunnydale, meets Buffy and fights some vamps, and then immediately decides to return to L.A. again... I just think, why bother moving him at all?
The final thing that irritated me was the inclusion of so many un-Buffy-esque elements. As mentioned in the review for The Burning, I'm not a fan of Buffy fighting and investigating gangs. And while there are supernatural elements to the gang's activity, there is still a whole intricate subplot involving actual gang warfare, which felt a little alien to include in the Buffyverse.
Similarly, the Alternity plotline felt very sci-fi, which isn't something that is overly explored on the shows much. Admittedly, there is a lot of crossover between sci-fi and fantasy, but Buffy and Angel do normally fit comfortably on the fantasy side. The psychic abilities, and talk of portals sounds very fantasy, but when you add in a USSR organisation creating a piece of hardware that opens up portals to alternate realities, it does get very sci-fi-ish as opposed to the fantasy side, which, again, feels a little uncomfortable to have Buffy stuck in the middle (although less uncomfortable than gang warfare).
Other than that, though, the characters are enjoyable enough to read, and the general plotline, although weak in parts, is definitely not unreadable.
December 22, 2017
Not a bad sequel
May 3, 2021
I discussed this book in my March 2021 Wrap-Up on booktube!
April 17, 2012
Just finished this book. And like I've mentioned before in updates. It's the first 100 pages (give or take) that are a bit of a struggle. But after that I get totally engrossed in the books. They're entertaining, exciting. And I definitely like that they use "the Buffy-language". The characters act and talk just as in the series and as how we know & love them. Again I find the ending interesting, and cant wait to start in book 3. I'd really recommand these books to a (more serious) Buffy/Angel fan.
July 2, 2013
I did not like this book at all. Book 1 was pretty good, however this one (book 2) was terrible. It's all about gang issues, very little on demons, vamps, etc. I only finished this book so I could read book 3 and finish the series. Would not recommend anyone who is new to buffy and wanting to read the books, because it would turn you off real quick.
August 22, 2016
Started off slow but picked up by the end.
February 25, 2019
The story is moving ahead
January 2, 2022
Second in crossover trilogy. Gunn shows up in this one. Anya and Spike still coming out with great retorts. Fun read. Will try to get to #3 soon.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews