Customer Reviews

Heat (Buffy/Angel)

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(33)

 

 

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.

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.

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".

I bought "Heat" hoping to find the same type of story that I loved of the "Angel" TV Series. I found the story to be very bland and blah. "Angel" was my favorite show of all time, but "Heat" did not capture any of the excitement that I miss in the show. I just couldn't get into at all and was barely able to finish reading it.

I have never watched "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" so I was very unfamiliar with the characters. Crossover books don't work well for people who only watched one show.

I will try reading one of the books that focuses more on "Angel" next time.

Different people love different things and have different tastes. Obviously a lot of people loved "Heat", but it just isn't the type of book that I enjoy reading.

As a huge fan of "Buffy" and "Angel" books, I have always enjoyed reading books written by Nancy Holder. Unfortunately, this book does not measure up to her earlier books. She seems to still be writing the same tired, cliched stories that she wrote years ago. The book definitely feels very stagnant and dated.

As an "as yet" unpublished author, I understand that sometimes writers go through dry periods or slumps. I can only hope that Ms. Holder's future books will live up to the standards of her earlier writing.

I don't particularly care about whether Buffy's with Spike or Angel. But I do care that this book is so clumsily written and plotted. I found a ton of errors that had been missed in editing. I didn't recognize Buffy or Angel at all. Ironically, unlike some of the reviews here, I thought Spike was actually fairly well-written. But Buffy and Angel? No. Just no. Their priorities, their manner of speaking, their interactions with other characters...all completely unbelievable. They're back to the characters they were in S3 of BtVS. And whether you're a shipper or not, you simply can't deny that both of them have changed drastically since those days, and their relationship with each other simply isn't the number one concern for either of them anymore. And that focus in the book just takes you completely out of the story.

I am amused by these accusations of "smear" campaigns though. You people do realize that Holder's a published author and people are allowed to hate her writing and rant about it right? And even if their only complaint was the Buffy/Angel stuff (and most people have more complaints than that), that's still a totally valid reason to give a book a negative review. That's sort of what you ask for when you write a published novel. And well, frankly, those reviews are probably useful to a lot of people who may be thinking of buying this book. If you can't stomach Buffy/Angel, you're really, really not gonna want to spend money on this. And that is something buyers should be aware of.

I hope that readers will not judge Nancy Holder by "Heat". It is definitely not one of her better works.

The characterizations of both Buffy and Angel are consistent with Seasons 1-3, but completely inconsistent with Season 7. Joss Whedon said that Season 7 is about the "beautiful" and "romantic" relationship of Buffy and Spike. He also said that Buffy grew up and moved on from Angel and that Buffy loved Spike. (That is Joss Whedon's opinion, not mine.) For that reason, this book should be labeled as AU or should have been set in an earlier season.

The story drags and simply did not hold my attention. Truthfully, I only skimmed through parts of "Heat" because it was so dull. It also bothered me that Nancy Holder showed her complete lack of understanding of Asian culture. If she didn't want to take the time to research, she should have left that part out of the book.

I think die-hard fans of the Buffy/Angel romance will love this book even though it is inconsistent with what we saw on screen. I would never recommend it to anyone else.

As a non-shipper, I found "Heat" to be very dull and filled with errors. Nancy Holder keeps the characters and stories stagnant and boring. She completely ignores 4 years of character growth and development. This book is nothing but teenaged romantic drivel that I find completely boring and annoying. The so called story is completely overshadowed by the mushy nonsense. The Buffyverse should be about more than that.

Besides, Samurai are a part of Japanese culture, not Chinese. A minimum amount of research would have prevented that error.

If your a C/A or B/S shipper, don't go anywhere near it. If you're a B/A shipper, chances are you'll already have brought it by this point in the review. If you're neither, then I'd advise you to give it a go.
Reading all these negative reviews, I'm a little disappointed. It seems to me like B/A shippers loved it, C/As and B/Ss hated it, and all other parties found it OK. I'll always be partial to B/A, and that side of me wants to say it was the best book I've ever read....but from an objective POV I can see that it wasn't. But it wasn't bad either...certainly not as bad as some people think it was, at least. It was a good book, and on the kind of epic scale that you'd expect from Nancy Holder. It had it's flaws, obviously. But all in all, it was worth buying.
It really is amazing how much more you can enjoy this book if you approach it with an unbiased mind, don't think about ships too much, and don't obsess over the relationships in it but rather pay some attention to the actual storyline...which I'm sure most of the people who left negative reviews on here didn't.

I bought this book because I thought it would be about the adult Buffy of season 7 and Angel of season 4. I was so disappointed by this book. Buffy and Angel had both moved on to more adult relationships. It seems that Nancy Holder stopped watching "Buffy" after season three. Nancy, if you read this review please only write Buffy stories set during seasons 1-3 and let some one who has watched the entire series write the later season.

This book was awful.