Dusted: The Unauthorized Guide to Buffy the Vampire Slayer [Paperback]

Lawrence Miles (Author), Lars Pearson (Author), Christa Dickson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 2003

The ultimate guide for every Buffy fan, the unauthorized (but highly professional and sexy) Dusted details and reviews all 144 episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer in exhaustive detail-with story summaries, quotes, notes on magic, character development, a rolling Slayer Kill-Count and more. Jointly written by Lawrence Miles (Faction Paradox), Lars Pearson (Wizard magazine) and Christa Dickson (Metaphorce Designs), this beefy guide also contains information on the Buffy comic and novel series, plus heaps of behind-the-scenes details on this phenomenal TV show.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Lawrence Miles (Faction Paradox), Lars Pearson (Wizard magazine) and Christa Dickson (Metaphorce Designs) remain utterly haunted by their high school experiences. Only one of them attended an institution where students blew up the chemistry lab trying to make homemade rocket fuel.

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Mad Norwegian Press (November 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0972595902
• ISBN-13: 978-0972595902
• Product Dimensions: 10.4 x 6.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #313,669 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Another good Buffy episode guide, January 1, 2004

By 

Sean Brady (Victoria Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dusted: The Unauthorized Guide to Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Paperback)

This is a good Buffy The Vampire Slayer episode guide. Like Keith Topping's excellent Slayer books (also available from Amazon and still the best books about the series) the authors express their personal opinions about each episode as well as providing interesting notes about characters, trivia, etc.

I have one nitpick about the book. We're informed on the spine and front and back covers that the book is unauthorised...and then again inside the book at the bottom of every second page. It's barely distracting, but it does seem like overkill.

I definitely recommend this to Buffy fans who are looking for a well written book that covers the entire series as well as the various spin-off novels and comics based on the series. I did find myself disagreeing with many of the opinions expressed about the last couple of seasons, but I see that as a positive as I enjoy having my views challenged.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A thorough guide to all seven seasons although negative in tone, September 13, 2005

By 

saskatoonguy (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dusted: The Unauthorized Guide to Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Paperback)

Fans looking for a guide that covers all seven seasons of the series have either this book or Keith Topping's guide to choose from. In their introduction, these authors take a nasty swipe at their fellow Brit, Keith Topping (although not using his name), in saying that they won't mention trivial continuity glitches or list every pop reference. Instead, these authors like to discuss how an episode contributes to character development and fits into larger story arcs, and the underlying moral or lesson of each episode.

Overall, this guide is awfully negative, and the downbeat tone gets irritating after awhile. I can agree with Miles that the series went downhill after Season Three (high school angst is more traumatic than postsecondary angst). But whereas I loved the Trioka, at least in their earlier appearances, and the evil-Willow arc, this guide is utterly scathing toward those story elements. I was curious how these authors would react to my favorite episodes, and very often they loathed them, such as "Fear Itself," "Superstar" ("extremely stupid"), "Gone," and "Grave" ("genuinely awful"). Nonetheless it's interesting to read another perspective, and a book can still be fun even if I disagree with the authors.

There are one or two pages per episode - actually quite a bit because each page is large and the book uses a fairly small font - plus numerous sidebars and material covering novels, comics, music, etc. The overuse of brackets is quite irritating; the authors seem incapable of writing more than ten words without putting a tangential thought in brackets.

20 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars No reason to buy this book, January 17, 2005

By 

G. Simons - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dusted: The Unauthorized Guide to Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Paperback)

I think this book is horrible. To start with, it's a poorly written book. There are blatent typing errors all over the place, and even the basic sentence structure is so bad it's distracting from the text. The guide reads like someone without any basic grammatical knowledge trying really hard to impress readers. And the worst part is that there are three authors. I remember in grade school being reminded to proof read papers before handing them in. You'd think one of the three of them would have thought to do this.
My second problem is that the authors' biases actually get in the way of the information they are presenting. The sections on the first three seasons are tolerable, because the authors liked seasons one through three. But there is no point in reading past that. The authors basically argue themselves into a corner after they decide that "Fool for Love" ep. 5.07 is the last good episode in the series. For the remainder of the book, the focus of the "episode guide" becomes the authors justifying their position, and the behind the scenes information and such (that should make up the majority of this book) suffers for it. They suddenly become unable to find the real meaning behind any episode and actively downplay any positives in any of the episodes from halfway through season five to the end of the series. By season seven, the authors are reduced to arguing, I didn't see any meaning in that episode...it must be about nothing...it was bad. The old, I didn't get it, it sucks approach to criticism. If you want to be taken seriously as a critic, prove to me that you understood something first, then tell me why it wasn't good, otherwise don't waste my time with poorly supported opinions.
Content wise, the worst portions of this book was the glitches section. What the authors do is state something from an episode that could potentially be a glitch in the storyline, then immediately (usually parenthetically in the exact same sentence they mentioned the glitch) come up with a reasonable explanation why what they just said might not actually be a glitch. If they have successfully argued themselves out of considering something a glitch, then why am I reading about it in the first place. When writing a book like this, one should decide ahead of time what does or does not constitute a glitch, then present the end result. Don't tell me why it's a glitch, then immediately tell me why it might not be.
The other part (small as it may be) worth mentioning is when the authors state that an actor in a show using a bad British accent is as offensive as portraying African Americans as uneducated, grammatically challenged, menial laborers. Little bit of a leap, I'd gamble (and speaking of grammatically challenged...see above).
Having read this book, I can't think of anyone who would actually want to read it. If you are a Buffy fan and interested in episode facts, behind the scenes info, and little known scoop, there are plenty of other places to find it that don't involve wading through poorly supported criticisms. With a simple internet search, I was immediately able to find three outstanding episode guide websites which do a much better job of presenting the same information as this book, minus the inaccuracies "Dusted" didn't bother to check up on. This book would be great for anyone who doesn't like "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," but then, if you're not interested in the series or don't like it, why would you read a whole book about it. Thus, there is no reason for anyone to read this book. Fans can do better, and non-fans shouldn't care. In my opinion, this book has no audience.
Finally, as a side note in my own defense. I didn't buy this book, it was given to me by a friend who I introduced to the Buffyverse,who knows one of "Dusted"'s authors from Dr. Who conventions. Needless to say, at least one of the authors will be getting a personal negative critique come this year's convention.