Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Blood of Carthage

Buffy the Vampire Slayer (trade paperbacks) #6

by Christopher Golden, Cliff Richards, Joe Pimente

The gang is off to college and Buffy's whole world is changing. How much education does a girl who's destined to kill monsters her whole life really need? To quell her confusion, Buffy throws herself into Slaying with wild abandon and disastrous results. Her killing of Sunnydale's answer to big foot may just bring about the rising of the demon Ky-Laag, and the end of the world. And the only group who know what's going on and who want to stop it, the mysterious Blood of Carthage, also want to kill Buffy for starting it all. What's a gal to do? This trade paperback collects issues #21-25 of the monthly series and is its longest and most involved storyline to date. The events in this story will have repercussions in the Buffy-verse for years to come, so do not miss it!

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Horror, Fantasy, Vampires, Graphic Novels Comics

128 pages, 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

[ezgi · Rating 3 out of 5]

"it's hard work, the whole living thing, like one long battle. but what are we without it?"

[Ian · Rating 2 out of 5]

An ancient and powerful demon begins to awaken beneath Sunnydale, forcing Spike to broker and unlikely alliance between Buffy and a cult of demons known as the Blood of Carthage.

There is some mileage to the idea of Buffy and co having to ally themselves with a group of demons to fight a common foe and I liked that Spike is the one to bridge that gap, which fits him tonally at this point in his (un)life.

Unfortunately, there's not much more to like about this book.
The biggest disappointment is how trite and cliche the interactions between the 'Scooby Gang' and the Blood of Carthage are, exploring none of the story potential of their two opposing ideologies being forced into working together.
A close second in the disappointment stakes is Ky-Laag, who is built-up as this ominous and ancient evil throughout the book, only to turn out to be a very generic demon with some very stale villain dialogue.

We're also given a subplot about Buffy doubting whether she should continue with college when her calling is obviously Slaying but at the end of the book all of her doubts disappear just in time to neatly return everything to the status quo so that this 'epic and impactful' story doesn't contradict anything in the TV show and, in fact, is almost like it never happened.

* More reviews here: https://fsfh-book-review2.webnode.page *

[Malcolm Cox · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a full story (as opposed to a collection of stories like in many of the other graphic novels) and sees Buffy, in the execution of her duties, dispatch a demon who happens to have been a guardsman to an even greater evil. Some really interesting ideas here that I've not seen in other Buffy stories where Buffy is forced to team up with with titular group of demons to stop this greater evil from doing its thing. Full of action, intrigue, great character moments, humour and a refreshing story. Slightly too long, though.

[Rhiannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This seems like a bit of a polarising read based on the other reviews on here but I enjoyed it! It felt like a proper Buffy episode for me. Ending wasn't completely satisfying, but I can live with it. Really looking forward to digging into Giles: Beyond the Pale after this!

[Viviana · Rating 1 out of 5]

I may be missing something. Maybe things'll click if I read other Buffy stuff? Maybe the story could be told better, though

[Slayermel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once again Christopher Golden has written a great story, I just could not put it down. He is definitely one of my favourite Buffy writers.

This story takes place during season four when Willow and Buffy start College. Buffy’s having some trouble trying to manage all aspects of her life and finds that she’s spreading herself too thin and not giving school or slaying her best. Buffy makes a mistake that has some dire consequences.

Spike and Dru appear in the story, with Spike having more of a main roll. There are some fantastic new villains, and I just loved how Christopher Golden drops little bits here and there regarding characters you may remember from past stories. Not essential to the current story, but fun for those of us who have read a few and can say “hey, it’s....” :0)

The illustrations are great, and the detail that was put into designing some of the new monsters was awesome.
A definite must read for any Buffy fan.

[kory. · Rating 3 out of 5]

#3 buffy the vampire slayer: spike & dru ★★★☆☆
#19 the blood of carthage ★★★☆☆
#22 buffy the vampire slayer: out of the woodwork ★★★☆☆
#24 buffy the vampire slayer: false memories ★★★☆☆
#27 buffy the vampire slayer: ugly little monsters ★★★☆☆
#29 buffy the vampire slayer: the death of buffy ★★★☆☆

wish there had been more spike, but an interesting story regardless.

[Simon · Rating 1 out of 5]

Meh. I've long been meh about Christopher Golden's stuff, and this is very meh.

Slightly infuriating nods to other Christopher Holden creations in the Buffyverse, original characters from his other novels pop up to show us how cool they are, before disappearing again.

We were not well served by Buffy comics before Season 8 cropped up. I'm not sure I've read any good ones.

[Kirsten · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wow. That was incredibly hard to get through. It felt like forever to just read this one. I didn't like the story at all and it felt like it dragged on and on. I'm glad that's over. Also, ending was crap. Totally crap. Vraka just leaves? No showdown at the end with him and Buffy? What a wimp.

[Susan Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this buffy graphic novel. In particular there are some really cute bits of willow and xander as cute children and of Spike's memories of Vienna.