Customer Reviews

How I Survived My Summer Vacation Vol 1

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

 

 

This book is a collection of short stories set between seasons one and two of Buffy. All six of the stories were excellant. In the first one, Dust by Michelle West, Buffy recieves gruesome visions of death every time she touches a person. Buffy must face her own worst fears, and confront what happened the night she died and was revived. The second story is titled Absalom Rising and is by prolific Buffy writer Nancy Holder. A sorceror named Absalom comes to Sunnydale and rallies what is left of the Master's followers. His plan: have them steal the Master's bones so that they can ressurect him. Now Giles, Jenny, Angel, Willow, and Xander must stop Absalom and his followers without the help of Buffy, who is in LA with her Dad. Next up is Looks Can Kill by Cameron Dokey. A shape-shifter who can assume the shape of any living creature attempts to defeat the Scooby Gang by the tried and true method of divide and conquer. His ultimate goal - to capture Buffy by taking on the shape of one of her friends. The fourth story, No Place Like..., is also by Cameron Dokey. It is set in LA and involves Buffy trying to free the trapped spirits of a group of children. Fifth is Uncle Dead and the Fourth of July. At a Fourth of July parade, a group of zombie soldiers try to take over the town, and Giles, Jenny, and Angel must put the zombies back to rest before midnight - or Sunnydale is doomed. The last story is The Show Must Go On by Paul Ruditis. In this story, the backstage crew (all vampires) of a travelling theater group recreate death scenes from famous plays. The gang has to stop the vamps before they kill everyone in the audience. This is a great Buffy book for you to read on your summer vacation. Which, hopefully, will be exciting, but not have any of the horrifying elements of the Scooby Gang's summer vacations.

"How I Survived my Summer Vacation" is a collection of six short stories about the Scooby Gang's summer after season 1. Although the stories were well-written, there were a few major problems I had reading this book- namely, the lack of Willow and Xander. Of the four books taking place in Sunnydale, only Absalom Rising, by Nancy Holder, prominently features Willow and Xander. In the other three stories, they are either kept in the dark about the demons, busy with other things, or both. Instead, this book has a lot of Jenny Calendar and Giles who, while interesting characters, are not worth devoting a book to in lieu of the other characters.

Another problem with this book was the way it did not fufill it's premise. Buffy rarely has any contact with her father, Angel does not seem to care about joining the Scooby Gang one way or another, and the only reason for the concert mentioned in the book's summary was to keep Willow and Xander out of a story.

The stories written about Buffy are somewhat better on an emotional level, although "Dust" is too confusing to understand until around page 15, which would be fine for a normal story, but results in frustration in a story only 40 pages long. It's climax is also diffucult to understand, so readers are left wondering about many details which are only vagely described.

I think that, while most of the stories were interesting and well-written, some major flaws hinder the reader's enjoyment. It's worth picking up from the library over the Buffy-less summer, but not necessarily worth buying.

This book is a collection of 6 short stories set during the summer following Buffy's sophmore year.Buffy has just killed the master and gone to LA to stay with her father. 'Dust' by Michelle West follows Buffy to LA where she has to battle internal visions and demons. As she gets up close and personal with the future deaths of her friends and relatives her death at the master's hands becomes more real. This is the darkest and most distrubing story. In 'Absalom Rising' by Nancy Holder Vampires steal the master's bones from Giles. Jenny, Xander and Willow come to his assistance. Angel offers his help but Giles has trouble trusting a vampire. 'Looks Can Kill' by Cameron Dokey is my favorite story. A shapshifter bent on the slayer's destruction targets her friends in her absence. Angel, Giles and Jenny track the beast but who do you kill when the beast can look like anyone. "No Place Like..." By Cameron Dokey is a sweet story of redemption and love. Buffy sets out to kill a witch and ends up righting an old wrong. 'Uncle Dead and the Fourth of July' by Yvonne Navarro is a silly adventure for Jenny,Giles and Angel once again. Giles attempt at American history are amusing. The last story 'The Show Must Go On'by Paul Ruditis is a hoot if a bit bloody. Theatre buffs will particularly love it.

All in all a good collection that is true to the mood at the end of the first season and the beginning of the second. The stories are enjoyable whether you know the history or not. But for the true fan the references are very will placed. Angel it would seem is staying close to Xander, Willow,and Giles because they represent a way to keep close to Buffy. In the last story he asks Giles to get a message to her since he hasn't heard from her all summer. Giles is trying to distance Xander and Willow from any danger. And Jenny Calender is falling in love with the stuffy watcher.

I recomend you spend part of your summer vacation reading these stories and I hope since this says volume one that another collection for Buffy's junior summer will follow.

I made of point of finally reading "How I Survived My Summer Vacation, Volume 1" after watching the first season from of "Buffy the Vampire Season" in chronological order, so I could appreciate the attempt of this collection of short stories to answer the question "What REALLY happened that summer after sophomore year?" But it soon became clear that what is involved her is less filling in the gap and more foreshadowing what is to come. It is impossible to read about Giles and Jenny without thinking she is half a year way from having her neck broken by Angelus. The six stories here begin with some notion of continuity, as a demon mage named Absalom has shown up to help the Anointed One after the death of the Master. But that only holds up for half the book. The first story, "Dust" by Michelle West, is the best of the bunch, focusing on Buffy, who is suddenly having visions of the death of everybody she touches, which makes going to live with her father for the summer more difficult than she expected. Nancy Holder's "Absalom Rising" tells of how the Master's minions and Giles, Angel and the Scoobys fought over the Master's bones. Cameron Dokey gets two bites of the apple: "Looks Can Kill" is the second best story in the bunch, focusing on Giles and Angel trying to get along with each other without Buffy to mediate. "No Place Like..." takes us back to Buffy in L.A., where she becomes involved in a nice little ghost story. The last pair of stories try to go for the comedy a bit too much and are hardly worth the effort. "Uncle Dead and the Fourth of July" by Yvonne Navarro finds Jenny dragging Giles to the 4th of July picnic where a group of zombie soldiers show up to have some fun. Then in "The Show Must Go One" by Paul Ruditis has Giles and Jenny going to see a production of "MacBeth" because five of the stage crew are vampires and the other two are Willow and Xander. At the end of this there is but one burning question: Where's Cordelia? Time always stands still between seasons on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," so I am sure we can look forward to future collections of short stories detailing what happened each summer, from the summer Buffy ran away to L.A. to the one she spent in her grave. I am also sure we can look forward to equally mixed bags of good and not so good short stories.

"How I survived my summer vacation" is a collection of six short stories authored by various writers including Nancy Holder and Cameron Dokey. Set between seasons one and two immediately following Buffy's defeat of The Master, the action divides itself between LA and Sunnydale. Two of the stories feature the vampire slayer herself as she spends the summer with her father and attempts to overcome the events surrounding her `death'. The remaining tales take place back in Sunnydale and feature Giles, Jenny, Angel, Xander and Willow battling the forces of evil, including a plot to revive The Master himself.

In "Dust" by Michelle West, Buffy travels to her father's LA home while struggling with intense visions of the deaths of her friends and family. This was probably the darkest of the six stories and is also a little confusing for the first few pages. "Absolom Rising" by Nancy Holder deals with a sorcerer's plan to gather the Master's followers with the intent of stealing their leader's bones. Cameron Dokey's "Looks could kill" is about a shape-shifter who decides to capture Buffy by targeting her friends. "No Place Like..." is by the same author and once again focuses on Buffy in LA as she attempts to free the trapped spirits of children. For "Uncle Dead and the Fourth of July" we return to Sunnydale as a group of zombies attempt to take over the town. In the final story, "The Show Must Go On..." by Paul Ruditis, Giles and the others must save a theatre audience from a vampire crew intent on re-enacting famous death scenes.

This is a perfect read for any summer vacation. The stories are lighter in tone and less scary than most existing Buffy novels. Characters such as Jenny Calendar are given a chance to shine in their own right. My only complaint is the lack of Willow and Xander in any of these stories. I hope this won't be the last volume of Buffy and friends' summer vacation stories. I recommend this book to all fans of the series.

~Jenna~

I enjoyed the book but it had said that it grappled with Angel becoming a permanent member of the gang but I didn't feel like they really did that. I loved how they made Buffy's vision and why she may have changed after killing the Master. All in all it was pretty good though.

It's a Buffy book, without so much Buffy in it! Finally a book that expands on the Rupert Giles and Jenny Calender characters. This book, with it's six interlocking short stories, shares some insight into the "other" characters in the Buffy universe. Buffy fans need not be disappointed as that Buffy has a few short stories to herself. However, it's nice to see the characters, such as Giles and Jenny, independantly and have their own adventures sans Buffy. A must have book for the Giles fans out there.

How I Survived My Summer Vacation

(labelled as "Volume 1", though no further volumes were released)

By Cameron Dokey, Nancy Holder, Yvonne Navarro, Paul Ruditis, and Michelle West

RATING: 4/5 Stakes

SETTING: Between Seasons 1 and 2

T.V. CHARACTER APPEARANCES: Buffy, Angel, Giles, Xander, Willow, Joyce, Hank Summers, The Anointed One, Jenny Calendar, Absalom, Deputy Mayor Allan Finch, Principal Snyder

SIGNIFCANT ORIGINAL CHARACTERS: Amber Thierson (Hemery friend); Mrs. Aragon (L.A. shopkeeper); Patrick Beverly (vampire); Samson Murray (undead General); Elisabeth (actress); Jay Nichols, Corvelle, Kevin (vampires)

BACK-OF-THE-BOOK SUMMARY: "When sophomore year ended with Buffy's defeat--just barely--of the Master, she headed off to spend the summer with her father in L.A. The theme was R&R, parties, and an occasional shopping spree. But things that go bump in the night don't take vacation. So Buffy's trying desperately to keep a lid on things in L.A.--and to keep her secret identity from her father. Meanwhile, back in Sunnydale, trouble keeps popping up in the darnedest places. Giles wants Willow and Xander to have a `normal' summer, so he and Jenny Calendar, whose budding romance is progressing to full bloom, attempts to stave off the forces of darkness sans Slayer and Slayerettes. And Angel, grappling with Buffy's brush with death, must decide: Does he want to be a more permanent member of the Scooby Gang? Concerts. Picnics. The resurrection of an ancient monster or two. Just your typical fun in the sun."

REVIEW

How I Survived My Summer Vacation is a collection of six original Buffy stories set between Seasons One and Two. This is the period where Buffy has left Sunnydale to live with her Dad for the summer, leaving her friends to mind the store. Two of the stories in this collection are Buffy solo stories set in L.A., while the other four focus on the remaining White Hats: Giles, Jenny Calendar, Xander, Willow, and Angel.

"Dust" by Michelle West is a nice continuity-implant that helps to explain just why Buffy was in such a bad mood when she returned to Sunnydale at the beginning of Season Two. Just as she's getting ready to head to L.A. to see her Dad, the Anointed One hits Buffy with a magical curse: every time she touches someone, she flashes to a vision of that person dying. Separated from her friends, trying to adjust to living with her Dad, and being unable to even walk down the street without worrying about bumping into someone and envisioning their death are the themes of this story--one definitely worth reading.

Nancy Holder's "Absalom Rising" shows the Scoobies trying to figure out what to do with the Master's bones, while the Anointed One and Absalom try to get them back. There's a lot of running around, but since we know the bones get buried (since they're dug up in the first episode of Season Two), there's not a lot of excitement.

"Looks Can Kill" by Cameron Dokey is the typical "villainous shape-changer comes to town" story, even going so far as to include a big finale where the villain has assumed the form of a hero during a fight, and now said hero's friends have to figure out which one is which. It's a little better than it sounds, but no points for originality here.

I really liked Dokey's other contribution, however, "No Place Like . . ." This one sees Buffy encountering an aging Mexican shopkeeper whose daughter died years before---but the little girl's spirit is trapped and Buffy has to find a way to set her free. There's a really nice use of Buffy's cousin Celia (from Season Two's Killed By Death), and a story that's resolved through brains instead of violence.

Yvonne Navarro's "Uncle Dead and the Fourth of July" was a story that would have been just plain fun to see on the screen: a famed, crazy, and over-the-top General is raised from the dead and amasses a patriotic zombie army to keep Sunnydale safe from "enemy forces." Giles promptly raids a costume store to go undercover as an "Allied" officer, but things do not go as planned . . .

Finally, there's Paul Ruditis's "The Show Must Go On." A repertory theatre has stopped in Sunnydale for a couple of weeks, and Xander and Willow get hired on as stagehands---unfortunately, the rest of the crew are vampires. Although the idea isn't brilliant, it's executed well, as there's a lot of comical running around backstage because Angel, Giles, and Ms. Calendar don't want Willow and Xander to know what's happening.

All in all, this is a nice collection of stories, and the sort of project I wished had been repeated for other summer breaks. The timing of this one was probably the problem, however: it was released in August of 2000, which means it came out after Season Four! Way to seize the momentum, Pocket Books!

It's a Buffy the Vampire Slayer tie-in book. And the first one I've read. I don't know how it compares to the others, but it was a rather interesting experience. I counted one mention of Cordelia in the entire book - I thought she'd deserve more mention than that?

The book is made up of six short stories, and the first story confounded me at first, but as it went on, it seemed to have a storyline that was present, but by the fifth story it had disappeared.

I, on a whole, would not recommend this book unless you are a die-hard Buffy fan that has to read the novels too. I think I'll just stick to the tv show from now on, unless I get really bored.

I actually liked this book because it brought back memories of the Buffy of old. I know the tv series is in its fifth season but this book fills in some of the gaps. It is interesting to see Buffy hanging out at her Dad's house, the Buffy and Angel angst, the relationship with Giles and Jenny Calendar, all the Buffy gang of old before so and so left and so and so died, etc. I have a pretty extensive "Buffy" library and I am glad that I added this one to the pile.