Customer Reviews

Ghost Roads (Buffy the Vampire Slayer Gatekeeper Trilogy)

5 star:		(40)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The Buffy books aimed for adults have always been good and this trilogy is no exception. If you are a fan of the show, you will appreciate how authentic the story line is. Nancy Holder does it again and truly captures buffy and the gang in full action. You cannot stop reading until you have finished all 3 books. Please start with the first book ,"Out of the Madhouse" and continue the books in order. (Ghostroads is book #2) The story will make sense and i promise that you will be fully satisfied at the end. I only wish that this and other buffy books had a chance to be added as shows for the tv series!

The second book in the Gatekeeper's Trilogy, Ghost Roads is an interesting installment. While Giles, Xander, Cordelia and Willow fight demons at home. Buffy, Oz and Angel take the Ghost Roads to Europe to seek the young heir. An overseas trip is always difficult but traveling with a werewolf and a vampire has a whole new set of challenges. Of course, the closeness of Angel and Buffy brings a new torture to their non relationship. An excellent read. As usual Mr Golden and Ms Holder have written an excellent novel.

Since the characters never get out of Sunnydale, it was cool to read about them in Europe.Angel knows French and Italian (who knew?)Evil acolyte people really do wear funky robes with hoods (who knew?) Xander dies (who would've thought?) But the best part about this book is that Spike and Drusilla are in it.They're some of my favorite characters and they haven't been on the show in a long time.

"The Ghost Roads," the second book in The Gatekeeper Trilogy, is even better than the first volume in this epic Buffy the Vampire Slayer story. The Ghost Roads of the title are a network of inter-dimensional shortcuts that allow Buffy, Angel and Oz to travel quickly to Europe to search for the son of the dying Gatekeeper. What they do not know is that Spike and Drusilla have the boy and are looking to make a deal with the Sons of Entropy. Meanwhile, back in Sunnydale, the Flying Dutchman has appeared off shore causing problems for Giles and the rest of the Scooby Gang. Even worse, the Sons of Entropy have kidnapped Joyce Summers in an effort to force the Slayer to return so Buffy can be sacrificed by Il Maestro to the greater glory of his demon overlord and the end of the world as we know it.

Christopher Golden and Nancy Holder really hit their stride in this original novel. The tendency to work too many quips and one-liners in the first volume, a perpetual problem in these Buffy novels, is reduced to the perfect level. This is due in large part to the fact that the writers have clearly upped the ante on the serious side of the scale. What makes Buffy the Vampire Slayer one of the best shows on television is that in addition to the clever quips and innovative fight sequences there is drama acted out on an operatic level (the highpoint of which was Buffy having to slay Angel). Golden and Holder are working on that level in this book: Giles has to leave behind students to die during an escape, Angel tortures a wounded man to get vital information, and Joyce deals with the idea of sacrificing herself so that Buffy can save the world. Consequently, this is NOT a Buffy book FOR YOUNGER READERS. Things get pretty heavy here and the characters have to deal with these issues.

If anything, Golden and Holder go too far with their characterizations of the Scooby Gang, certainly beyond even where the characters are at the start of Season 5. Willow is still not as powerful of a witch at the start of Season 5 as she is in this story, neither has Xander yet to get past his comic relief stage nor did Cordelia become this accepting of her role in the scheme of things until she ended up working with Angel in L.A. I think they are closer to the mark with Joyce's acceptance of Buffy being the Slayer, but that is due more to the character's relative disappearance from the show in the last year than anything else. Let me make this clear: I consider these all worthwhile character developments and eventually the television version will get there, but Golden and Holder are clearly ahead of the game at this point. However, I fully appreciate the authors taking the characters and their relationships seriously. I would love to see them try their hand at an actual script for the show.

Many of the Buffy books read like rejected scripts, storylines they would never bother to film that add little to the characgers or the mythos of the series. The Gatekeeper Trilogy provides two completely worthy ideas that Joss Whedon might incorporate down the line. The first is the role of the Gatekeeper, a magical being who is responsible for binding up various monsters and demons, which is to say a Champion for Good, similar to the Slayer but certainly a unique idea. The second is the Ghost Roads, not just as a rationale for getting the characters out of Sunnydale to find the big bad evil but also as a way for the characters to confront the past, as in the first volume when Angel sees the shade of Jenny Calendar. Again, this is just testimony to the quality of both the conception and the execution of this trilogy.

C. Golden & N. Holder have once again captured the magic of Buffy's world. This novel is in no way only for young adults. It deals with the dynamics of the slayerettes and the growth of evil in the world in a mature yet action-packed novel. While the continunity line is different than the BTVS show it in no way takes away from the story line. BUFFY ROCKS! As does all of the books written by C. Golden and N. Holder for this series. Good slaying. LOVED BUFFY? Read the Laurell K. Hamilton series about Anita Blake vampire executioner. It starts with Guilty Pleasures. 8 books so far in the series. Also L. Hamilton has a web site with ties to the Buffy sites. Check it out! Also read the Vicki Nelson series by Tayna Huff 1st book is Blood Price. 5 books so far in series. Also read Brian Lumley's Necroscope series. Approx. 10 books is series. They Thirst by Robert McCammon% stakes also Under the Fang edt. By same author is amazing. By for now fellow fans

I'll start off by saying I enjoyed the last book, and for the most part enjoyed this book. But their was a few major problems. While in Europe Buffy and friends get attacked by a person with a lot of guns, instead of leaving the guns, which is what Buffy would of done they take them. This is completley out of character for Buffy. After all she's never been big on guns. Another problem is throughout the book Buffy watches humans die with little to no emotion. Sure they are the bad guys but Buffy doe'snt kill humans period. She always finds a way around it. This book does not stay true to the things Buffy stands for, and for that I give it one star. I mean Buffy with guns, come on guys you know more about the Buffyverse than that.

Ghost Roads is a heck of a lot better than Out of the Madhouse- there are actual conversations in this novel & not just a bunch of action sequences piled up on one another.

The plot gets more interesting as Oz, Angel & Buffy follow the ghost roads in search of the heir to the Gatekeeper. Willow, Giles, Cordelia & Xander try to keep things in check back home in Sunnydale. Of course, the Sons of Entropy are out in full force & as a refreshing change of pace Spike & Dru are thrown into the mix.

Typical of the Buffy books, this one is fast & easy to read & 100% avoidable if you haven't seen every episode of Buffy a gazillion times already. I only read them because I'm Buffy deprived- purely a guilty pleasure.

Another hit from the double act who brought you out of the madhouse. I loved this book so much I've already ordered the 3rd book.I only hope spike is in it as he is unintentionally the funniest character in the book!

I am later fan of Buffy...I started to get interested and serious when the feature ANGEL who wouldn't ? Anyhow , being an avid book reader and collector, i started thinking.. hey, they must have a book about this series. It is quiet hard to find them in stock in Brunei but then that is why they invented the online bookstore.Talking about the book , it is the BEST i had ever read and i am happy that all of the characters in the show are there and kicking. The book ,obviously, makes me understand the series and the characters. The story is gripping.. i enjoy OZ and Willow being a spellcaster and Buffy and Angel's dilemma of whether to be in love or not...Heck,,Love conquer all!!{ Or is iT?}. A definite MUST for all Buffy fans. Ciao !!

I must say that I am disappointed in the 2nd book of the Gatekeeper Trilogy. It is a sequel, understandable, but it just didn't have to same excitement as Out of the Madhouse. It is still a relatively good read, great for Buffy fans because Spike and Dru are back. As always, an easy read, done in two days. I still love Buffy, and can't wait for the last book to come out. I am eagerly awaiting what's in store for the Sunnydale gang.