Customer Reviews

Endangered Species

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

For Buffy and Angel fans, this year has been a bit lackluster. While I couldn't point to any particular book and say that it was a total flop, nothing comes to mind as really outstanding. Part of the blame no doubt rests with the changes both television series have gone through. It says much that Dark Horse has decided to shift the BTVS comic series to Buffy before Sunnydale. I cannot say that I am sympathetic, but I do understand.

The best of the Buffy books this year is Chris Golden's 'Wisdom of War.' Andy the politest thing one could say about the Angel series this year is that there was nothing one could identify as 'the best.' Now, Nancy Holder and Jeff Mariotte have come to the rescue with their latest, 'Endangered Species.'

The book's plot is something of a tag team action story. There are three teams of bad guys. The first is Marianna Escobar a vampire who runs an elite hunting island and has a plan for making Faith the next animal on the agenda. Next up is Benedicta, made by Drusilla and every bit as crazy. She and her nasty druid sidekick want to raise the original vampire and have little super vampires by it. And no one should leave out Wolfram and Hart, who manage to collect fees from everyone while working their own agenda.

On the good side is the regular team, plus the Host, Fred, and Faith. New faces are Chaz Escobar - the vampire's estranged husband, and Lohiau, an Hawaiian revolutionary and Kahuna. Between kidnappings and holdups, the good guys are every bit as fragmented as their enemies, as everyone careens around trying to assemble the components of a spell that will either destroy all vampires or end the unlives of vampires everywhere.

This is obviously a story heavy on the action and light on character depth and angst, but it is just what the doctor ordered. Even so, Faith gets a lot of attention and Fred makes her first major appearance in an Angel novel. Both characters are handled honestly, although I think Fred's weaknesses are overplayed. So, lots of action, decent character development, and tight, effective writing. Making this the season's must read for Angel fans.

Endangered Species is entertaining and action-packed fun. Not surprisingly, it's very high on the action and fighting, but pretty low on the character development. But in this story, it seems like it doesn't really matter.

The gang is out patrolling one night when they are cornered by mutated demons... and soon rescued by their creator, Chaz Escobar. Chaz reveals that he was on his private island with his wife, Marianna, who was recently turned into a vampire. The two loved to hunt; they sponsored special gatherings in which a breed of demon, or even human, would be the prey. Marianna, however, escaped from the island and Chaz believes she may be in Los Angeles fulfilling her deepest wish: to capture and then hunt a Slayer. The Slayer in question is Faith, who is still serving her sentence in prison.

Chaz soon reveals, though, that he is searching for a way to cure his wife of her vampirism. To do so he needs the Book of Interregnum, the most evil book ever made. But the way he plans on curing Marianna isn't what's expected: he wants to destroy all vampires. And he's not the only one after the Book... another vampire (incidentally sired by Drusilla) is looking for it to raise the Beast of the First Blood... AKA the first vampire.

Endangered Species has several high points: the return of Faith, who was been absent from the Buffy-verse for years now, several flashbacks to Darla and Angelus's past, and a wonderfully written Hawaiian character who comes to Angel's rescue. There are also a fair share of low points: Faith is actually hardly in the novel, the final battle drags on for too long, and most of the outcomes are very predictable.

Overall, I would recommend Endangered Species. If you're a die-hard Angel fan, you might want to get it right away. If you're just a reader who enjoys the novels, you may want to wait until this one's available in paperback.

This book had the potential to be very interesting, but it did not live up to this potential in the slightest. It baffles me that the publishers choose this particular book to be published in hardcover no less!

The main plot sounds interesting enough. Enter a wicked vampire "queen" that was once a chaste nun(much like pre-vamp Drusilla) with aspirations of world domination via mating with the beast that is the origin of all vampires on Earth. Team that with a world-class hunter hoping to find a cure for his beautiful, vampire wife--or at least take revenge on all vampires for the tragedy that befell his wife. Add Angel and friends--even rogue slayer Faith into the mix and it still ends up being one big snoozefest.

First of all, the character assassination of Angel in this book is the worst I have ever seen in these tie-in novels. One minute he is saying Buffy is his soulmate and true love. The next he is drooling over how beautiful Cordelia is. And just to make sure everyone is as confused as possible, Angel then mentions his obsession with Darla as well. Geez--why didn't they throw in some more women to the mix so that everyone can see how fickle Angel really is. Why focus on building a good storyline when you can just mention in every paragraph how many women Angel has had in his life? The authors also tried to pick up where the season 2 episode "Darla" left off. In flashbacks they try to show what happened with Darla after Angel got his soul back. This was the most horrific characterization of Angel ever! Totally implausible and inconsistent. If Angel was written like this on the actual show I would never watch an episode. Terrible!

The next problem was how little Faith was actually in this book. One of the reasons I picked up this book was because of the lack of Faith on the show the last couple of years. While the writing of Faith seemed pretty consistent with the show(unlike Angel), Faith was not really used to the fullest potential. She was actually in the book very little. And when she was it was usually to say she was a slayer and strong. Big deal. Another wasted opportunity.

The other major problem was the lack of a good climax to the story and a boring ending. The villians were original and showed promise, but the whole book felt like it was building to some great finish, but it never got there. The book was set at a sluggish pace and then the "grand" finish was in a few pages and was very anti-climatic. Usually these type of books suffer from a convulted plot so dense with characters one needs a chart to keep track. This book was quite simple to follow, it was just too boring to be worth caring about.

So, in closing I do not recommend this book. I gave it 2 stars because the premise was an interesting one, but it never paid off. Save yourself the time and money. If you read the summary on the dust jacket, you will basically know all you need to know about this book. Very disappointing.

To get to write a hardcover book in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel universe you have to come up with one or more really good ideas, and at face value Nancy Holder and Jeff Mariotte certainly get that far in "Endangered Species." The title refers to both of the book's major plotlines. The first involves an arcane ritual that would end the afterlife of every vampire on Earth and the second concerns a hunting party whose prey is Faith, the incarcerated Slayer. Yes, the latter was already an episode on "BtVS", but Cordelia took Faith's place in that particular outing and the idea is certainly worth revisiting, especially when you are not limited by what can be done on television. But clearly that first idea is the key selling point and makes Angel confront the irony that he might be helping bring out his own demise. However, the thesis of this critique would be that Holder and Mariotte do not really carry off these neat ideas.

The Slayer Hunt plotline is the most disappointing. This time around this idea is set up to be much more in the mode of "The Most Dangerous Game" (in fact, specific reference is made to that title). But when we finally get around to the long awaited hunt I have to say that nothing really happens. There is a lot more running than there is fighting, partially because Faith is not alone in the jungle as she flees the dozen hunters who have paid $5 million each for the opportunity to bag a Slayer. Even when we get down to some actual fighting, the emphasis is on...Wesley. Now, I like Wesley's character and consider his transformation from woefully weak Watcher to rouge demon hunter a masterful revitalization of the character. But in this story Wesley suddenly starts channeling Jim Shooter and insisting that the prey cannot kill the hunters because the hunters are human. Give me a break; better to end up with your head on a wall than hurt a human being who is trying to kill you? I think not, Wes. I was also irritated that we were not getting back to the Slayer Hunt soon enough once we were off to visit the other plot line, although this feeling lessened once I discovered I was not missing much.

The plan to rid the world of all the vampires has some nice complications that up the ante. The ritual actually involves bringing back the Beast of the First Blood, which the psychotic vampire Benedicta and her ancient druid lover Bran want to conjure up they can create a new race of super vamps. But the theory is that if the Beast of the First Blood is slain, all of the vampires who sprung from this original font will become dust in the wind. To make this even more interesting, Angel is aided in this effort by Chaz Escobar, a hunter who has killed every rare animal and demon on the planet apparently. Escobar is interested in the ritual but because he wants to restore his wife Marianna, who is not only a vampire, but also the one who came up with the idea of the Slayer Hunt. This obviously provides the link between the two plot lines.

Ultimately, my main complaint about "Endangered Species" is that a lot of rabbits get pulled out of the hat to resolve each of these plot lines satisfactorily. The best stories in this genre are those where you can look back and see how everything fell into place, but there is no way you can get that feeling from the way this one winds up. I also found the witty repartee to be a bit much, especially with regards to Cordelia, who has to think most of her one liners because she spends most of the climax of the book bound and gagged. "Endangered Species" takes place early during Season 2 of "Angel," when Fred was still afraid to leave the hotel. There is also some decent back story on Darla's attempts to restore Angelus after the Boxer Rebellion episode, which introduces us to Lohiau, the most interesting of the supporting characters.

I really want to give "Endangered Species" a 3.5, splitting the difference between a 3 for the Slayer Hunt and a 4 for the Beast of the First Blood bit. Deciding to round up or down has been difficult, because every time I think the latter could be nudged up a bit I want to start deducting fractions from the former. But even as disappointing as the Slayer Hunt was, it is not really as bad as a 2 and if it was not there at all I would have said this book was a solid 4. Another way of putting this would be, wait for this one to come out in paperback.

I'm having a hard time with this book. It certainly isn't bad, but it's very easy to put down. I've read all the Angel and Buffy books, and this one falls somewhere in the middle. I thought the last book, Vengeance, was far superior to this one. Wish I had waited for the paperback, or download version. Too many flashbacks, too many bad guys. I read these books to read about Angel, and he's not around a lot in this one.

Endangered Species was a follow up to their pervious series Unseen. Which I know a lot of people didn't like, but I thought it was cool. Endangered Species however is a lot more of a gripper then Unseen was. The plot goes something like this. This vampire named Marinna likes to have people pay her to hunt demons on her island, were her home is located. And she has a speical hunt in mind, a Slayer hunt. She gets W&H to get Faith transfered to a 'rehab falictaly'. Meanwhile Marinna's husband Chaz is looking for her in LA, and he goes to Angel for help. He has been looking for a way to cure her of being a vampire. Plus Chaz has found a spell to rise The Beast of the first Blood. Father of all vampires. If he can kill the Beast it will get rid of all vampires. This surprises Angel, and after much thought decsides to help him in his quest. On top of all that this vampire Mary Kelly who has made her own vamp-religon is also trying to raise the Beast so she can mate with it and have, new more powerful vampires. Will she be succssful in making this new race? Will Angel kill all vampires even himself? Will Chaz cure his wife? Or will she hunt Faith down and Slaughter her? Read the book.
Holder and Mariotte did a wonderful job! Cordelia and Faith had really funny lines! The plot had some twist and turns I did not expect. Holder and Mariotte did awsome job with Faith as always. Better then Golden did with her in his Buffy effort 'Wisdom of War.' Not that I don't like Golden or that book. It's just when I was reading this and Unseen Faith sounded more like herself then she did in Golden's book. I hope these two right more Angel and Buffy stuff. They are really great.

If you're reading this, then you've probably bought some of the Buffy and Angel books before, and you're no doubt thinking of adding this one to your collection. If you merely want to get this book because you've already got all the others, then fair enough. If, however, you're considering buying this book for your reading pleasure, then I'd strongly advise against it.

The plot is serviceable enough, and if you generally enjoy the storylines in the Buffy/Angel books then you'll probably find it to your liking. The problem, however, is in the quality of writing. Both authors are very well established, and have their names on a lot of good books (including other Buffy and Angel novels), so I was amazed by how lacklustre the writing was in this case.

First of all, even a hack writer should know that you shouldn't make a habit of using the same word repeatedly in adjacent sentences (let alone in the same sentence). You should have noticed that my repeated use of the word 'should' sounds unpleasant. Well, get used to it - the book is full of examples like that. Once or twice it would have been acceptable, but this problem crops up again and again. Someone should buy the authors a thesaurus.

Secondly, the authors frequently invade the narrative with a paragraph of inane thoughts by one of the characters. Angel, for example, might suddenly think of how much another character means to him, because of how they blah blah blah. A little introspection is fine, but too much of it ruins the flow of the plot, and makes the book easy to put down. There are also several points at which the authors decide to recount a tale from the TV show, for no particular reason. A character will be doing something, and start remembering (at length) something which occurred in a previous episode - even if it is completely irrelevant. Again, this spoils the flow of the plot. If we wanted to hear a synopsis of various episodes that have nothing to do with the novel, we'd go and buy the "Angel Casefiles" (the watcher's guide to the series).

This book was an effort to read, like wading through a swamp. Life is too short to waste your time with bad literature. There are a million excellent books out there, so read some of them instead.

Enjoyed revisiting a favorite show and beloved characters. Moved a little slowly, but still a worthy and enjoyable read. I plan to look for more novels based on this tv show.

Definately one of Nancy Holders best, she portrays the growing Cordy/Angel relationship with realism and dignity. He acknowledges her past during high school and sees just how much she's matured over the past few years. I especially liked Nancy's portrayal of his past relationships with Buffy and Darla, although the mention of Darla as his obsession was a bit late for the time period (though not ludicrously as in her hideously written 'Heat' novel).

Also, Faith's return was well incorporated, and I just loved the dynamic between her and Wesley. Personally, I feel that this is how season 3 and onward of ATS should have been portrayed, you know, before words like Kyrumption and Moira were being thrown around. They could have just as easily said spark and maturity.

Overall, a good read and one that doesn't kill the plot or run rampant over the characterization (Unlike the Heat Drek).

this book starts out with cordelia having a vision that faith is in mortal danger from an unknown enemy. when the gang investigates, the run across a man named chaz who is trying to find a way to cure his wife from being a vampire. in the past these 2 have set up elaborate hunts for various species and his wife's next game is a slayer herself. on the road to figuring all of this out, they run across another vampire who was turned dby drusilla who has a game plan of her own with the help of wolfram and heart. with all of these characters as villians, you know that this has to be a great book. it is long but well worth the read.