Chaos Bleeds [School & Library Binding]

J. Moore (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 2003

An old nemesis has returned, Ethan Ryane, and this time he actually needs Buffy's help. He's run afoul with The First and now The Fist has has made Ethan a deal that he can't refuse, ultimate poewr. All he has to do is lure Buffy into battle! Ages 13+.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

James A. Moore has written numerous dark fantasy novels for other publishers. CHAOS BLEEDS is his first Buffy novel and his first book for Pocket. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• School & Library Binding
• Publisher: San Val (August 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0613664833
• ISBN-13: 978-0613664837
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,805,411 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Now That You've Played the..., November 6, 2003

By 

Marc Ruby™ "The Noh Hare™" (Warren, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Chaos Bleeds (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) (Mass Market Paperback)

In a wry reversal of literary tradition (remember the days when the book was written first and the film second) Chaos Bleeds is a book based on a console game that is based on a television series. Given this wierd architecture I'm not sure what precise definition of 'successful' should be applied. Is the novel a good extension of the show, a fair representation of the game, or, last but not least, is it a good novel on its own.

Set in the Spike-just-got-his-chip era, the book opens with a short attempt to set the scene, followed by a battle, and then followed by a battle, and then a short cut scene, and then another battle... You get the picture - the primary purpose of Chaos Bleeds the novel is to provide a virtual reality version of Chaos Bleeds the game. If a novel could ever be considered a 'virtual reality' experience.

So while there really is a story arc, there is nothing so complicated as a plot. Is this a bad? Not really, Moore does concentrate a bit on character development, so personalities come through in a way that the game simply cannot do. And it is genuinely interesting to learn the motivations behind some of the madness of the game itself. And Moore writes as well as could be expected, given the literary constraints.

As a general rule, story telling games like the Shadowrun series translate into novels best. I think this is the first time an action game has attempted the transition, and it is almost a success from a pure readibility viewpoint. Unfortunately, the hectic pace of the game is less engaging when replayed in text. The book is hard to put down not because it is a fascinating story, but because the reader is provided with very few logical breaks in the action. So I find the book likeable, but I'm not at all sure that I would want to repeat the experience. Any more than I would look forward to the Playstation version of War and Peace.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars "I Can Feel This Place Unravelling...", July 5, 2004

By 

R. M. Fisher "Raye" (New Zealand = Middle Earth!) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Chaos Bleeds (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) (Mass Market Paperback)

Forms of entertainment are a funny things these days: first there was literature, and then movies that were either original, or based upon the earlier books. Now it's common to go to the movie theatre in order to watch a movie based on a theme-park ride ("Pirates of the Carribean") or a computer game ("Lara Croft"), or read a book based on a television series (titles from the "Charmed" series). "Chaos Bleeds" is another bizarre first: a book based on a video game based on a highly popular television series.

Even if the words "based on the video game" wasn't stamped on the cover of this Buffy the Vampire Slayer novelisation, I suspect that most shrewd readers would guess that this was not your average "Buffy" book, given the sheer amount of action and fighting that takes place in it. In fact the lack of character interaction, the simplistic "find-the-body-part" narrative and the sense of surrealism that the other dimensions create adds to the atmosphere of the hack-and-slash world of video games.

Buffy and the Scooby Gang are drawn into a massive arena of fighting when an old nemesis Ethan Rayne re-appears in Sunnydale and breaks to them some rather appalling news: he has made a deal with the entity known as the First Evil in a bid for power. The deal is that the two adversaries will choose five champions and pit them against each other. Ethan has chosen Buffy, Spike, Willow, Faith and (in the absence of Oz) Xander, who must fetch the five body parts of Cassandra Rayne, Ethan's ancestress who holds the key to destroying the First. But the First has his own champions, and has bent the rules a bit by selecting them from other dimensions, which means that previously defeated foes are now back in action: Kakistos, Adam, Anyanka, Drusilla and more. A little help comes from the wooden-dummy Sid, who apparently didn't get heaven-sent after killing the last demon in Season One's episode "The Puppet Show", and instead shows up to inform the Slayer about Hope's Dagger, the only weapon that can defeat the First.

It is an interesting concept, and a good way to reintroduce popular characters that no longer have a place on the television show (I'm just sorry they didn't include more - what about Angelus? Darla? The Mayor? Snyder?), but it's perfectly obvious that its true format belongs on the Playstation/X-Box/Nintendo/whatever console. Page upon page is packed full of characters fighting: kicking, punching, stabbing, running, elbowing, shooting, head-butting...and needless to say reading action sequences are utterly boring compared to watching them on the T.V. (or in this case *controlling* them on the T.V.).

Furthermore, "Chaos Bleeds" does some serious damage to the continuity of the show: it's set in Season Six (ie, Joyce is dead, Tara's still alive, Spike's chipped), and is seemingly unaware that Buffy goes up against the First once more in Season Seven, where she certainly makes no mention on the show of this particular run-in with the First, nor her triumph over It. Neither does it try to explain how Faith gets back into prison or what actually happens to Ethan (easily one of the show's most popular villians) after all this occurs.

Which is a shame, since James A. Moore is otherwise so careful throughout the book not to contradict anything that has previously happened on the show, which is to the book's detriment. He almost seems afraid to gives us any new information on the characters that could have churned up my interest in the book's progression - for instance, he often mentions Faith's first Watcher (all we know about her from the show was that she was female and died messily at the hands of Kakistos), yet he doesn't take the opportunity to tell us anything more about her - not even her name! I've always found this to be an untouched mystery well-worth exploring, but Moore seemed reluctant to give us anything on the character's backgrounds that hadn't already been mentioned on the show (and was therefore already known to 99% of the readers).

Maybe I'm being a bit harsh in my assessment - for all I know Moore was drafted into writing this novelisation, but the fact remains that it is a somewhat confusing and irrelevant addition to the stock of Buffy-inspired books.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Chaotic and Unfulfilling, March 10, 2005

By 

Janet Morris "fuzzypinkslippers" (Huntsville, AL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Chaos Bleeds (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) (Mass Market Paperback)

I understand that this book was based on a game, so I want to give it some credit for not being amazingly bad, but it wasn't actually very good. It was tolerable.

The storyline could have been better developed. Again, I understand this was based on a game, but that doesn't mean it has to only go by what happens in the game. The author could have gotten a little more creative with it.

There were points where the story was confusing and complicated in the beginning, but it got too rushed towards the end. There was a lot of time spent talking about Kakistos, who was basically a minor character, but not much time spent talking about Ethan, Cassandra, or even the First, all of whom should have had bigger parts in this book.

There were also some points where things just seemed to simple. When Buffy was looking for her friends in the alternate reality, she found them too fast. That may have been how the game unfolded, but in book form, it really made the story seem weak.