Heat (Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel crossover) [Hardcover]

Nancy Holder (Author)

Book Description

Series: Buffy-Angel | Publication Date: June 29, 2004

Buffy and Angel both battle the same ancient evil, a Possessor who was once Qin, First Emperor of China, and who is now attempting to usher in the Year of the Hot Devil and drive humans out of this dimension.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Best-selling author Nancy Holder has published sixty books and more than two hundred short stories. She has received four Bram Stoker awards for fiction from the Horror Writers Association, and her books have been translated into more than two dozen languages. She has written or cowritten twenty Buffy and Angel projects. A graduate of the University of California at San Diego, Nancy is currently a writing teacher at the school. She lives in San Diego with her daughter, Belle, and their growing assortment of pets.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 464 pages
• Publisher: Simon Spotlight Entertainment (June 29, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 068986017X
• ISBN-13: 978-0689860171
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.9 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (85 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,077,168 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Okay, enough with the giant "BtVS"/"Angel" crossover novels, July 23, 2004

By 

Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

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This review is from: Heat (Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel crossover) (Hardcover)

It is getting harder for me to finish reading some of the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" books I have been reading as of late. Part of the problem might be the prolonged depression now that all of Joss Whedon's series are no longer in production, but I think that there are some larger concerns to be considered, and Nancy Holder's "Heat," which involves both "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel" provides an appropriate context for ruminating in search of some deep thoughts.

In the episode "She" from the first season of "Angel" he met up with Jhiera, an inter-dimensional hunter who was trying to protect the women of her culture from being stripped of their emotions. Angel feel victim to her heat (hence the title of this novel) but returned to her own dimension. Now Jhiera is back and looking for a young woman who could be the key to stopping an inter-dimensional war that involves not only the terra-cotta army of Chinese warriors you might remember from President Ronald Reagan's visit to China and other news stories, but a powerful ancient Chinese sorcerer. The terra-cotta warriors just happen to be on display in Sunnydale, right near the good old Hell Mouth. Ironically, given the penultimate line of dialogue on "Angel," there be dragons involved as well.

Several things kept occurring to me about both this particular novel and other "BtVS"/"Angel" novels as I read "Heat." First, there always seem to be continuity problems with these books in terms of events. "Heat" takes place during the seventh and final season of "BtVS" and fourth season of "Angel," at a point when the First is playing with Buffy and Cordelia is with Connor instead of Angel. Yet none of these rather significant developing story lines matter much to this narrative. I have found the best "BtVS" novels have been those written pretty much outside the show's continuity, such as "The Gatekeeper Trilogy" and "The Lost Slayer" serial novel, and I would not mind stories that plugged holes in the show's chronology. But stories like this, which are sort of in limbo, strike me as being problematic.

Second, having now read a couple of "BtVS"/"Angel" crossover books I really find them problematic because the cast of characters involved is just too large. Giving everybody something to do means few people get anything substantial to do in terms of the story. Holder approaches this problem by coming up with a solution that involves everybody to pair up and go off to do something. There are a couple of interesting moments with some of these pairings (e.g., Anya and Connor, Wesley and Willow), but these are just passing moments as we jump from scene to scene as the complicated end game plays out. Holder is usually pretty good at capturing the characters, and "Heat" is one of the few times I have not been bothered by Anya, but she is just juggling too many characters. I really do not want to see another one of these crossover novels unless the focus is on just a few characters: I would love to see a Willow & Wesley novel. Not just because Alyson Hannigan and Alexis Denisof are married, but because of the fascinating character arcs they have gone through over the course of these series.

Third, all of the Chinese stuff about Qin, First Emperor of China, the Year of the Hot Devil, the terra-cotta warriors, Flamestryke and the rest are really interesting, but I am not sure they had to be part of a "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" novel (it makes more sense for "Angel"). Overall the best parts of "Heat" are those involving these Chinese elements when the crossover casts are not even around. I had a similar concern with Holder's "Blood and Fog," where Jack the Ripper was worked into the plot even though he was not necessary and the story would have been better without. This time I found myself thinking that the novel would have worked better if it had nothing to do with either series or just involved the "Angel" crew.

There is a justification for this being a Buffy and Angel novel, which is where we start off in the Prologue to "Heat." But that connection is pretty much lost until we get to the end of the novel. At that point Holder provides a pretty good scene with Buffy and Angel dealing with their plight as star-crossed lovers in an unfair universe. But by that point my immediate thought was, okay, we have these pretty good scene that could be potentially great and all we have to do is jettison all of the Chinese elements that are the main plot of this novel, keep the focus essentially on just these two characters, and come up with a better way of setting up this payoff.

Mabye the problem is that hardback "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and/or "Angel" novels have to be big in scope and that one of the ways of doing that is to bring both casts together, which is not working well, and/or to have another Armageddon as the threat. At some point we have to pass the threshold for playing that particular card and I am inclined to look over my shoulder to make the case we are long past that point. Then again, with both series over and done it could just be that the spark is gone. Whatever the case, it has been a while since I was really excited about one of the novels based on the hit television series created by Joss Whedon & David Greenwalt.

33 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Completely boring, June 30, 2004

By 

Eddie Robbins "eddierobbins" (30028) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Heat (Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel crossover) (Hardcover)

Now that both shows have ended, I have been anxiously awaiting the release of "Heat". I am extremely disappointed because there doesn't seem to be a story in this book. Nancy Holder substituted story telling with overblown, immature romantic angst which is completely inconsistent with any of the characters that I love.

The only word that can truthfully describe "Heat" is boring.

I couldn't care less who Buffy loves. I only care about good story telling. The only people who could enjoy this book are people who only care about whether or not Buffy and Angel end up together. If you actually care about interesting plot and character development, then this book is not for you.

31 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing, July 2, 2004

By 

kelly (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Heat (Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel crossover) (Hardcover)

As an avid reader and a fan of both "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel", I was deeply disappointed in this book. "Star Trek" has maintained an active fan base partially because of the high quality of novels. I hoped that with the Buffyverse coming to an end, we would find the same quality in this novel.

I was very disappointed to realize that "Heat" is nothing more than the same stagnant material from several seasons ago. This book is just a retread of stuff that became boring in Season 3 of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."

Hopefully, new books will be released soon with new authors and fresh ideas. Nancy Holder is a good writer, but apparently she cannot get beyond the first 3 seasons of "Buffy".