Paleo [Paperback]

Yvonne Navarro (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: POCKET BOOKS (SIMO) (October 2, 2000)
• ASIN: B000K7YHLQ
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)

More About the Author

I was born back in the early days when black and white photographs were considered normal instead of artsy. As a child I always thought I'd grow up to be an artist, and I was was convinced I'd spend my life doing line drawings of long, leggy models like the ones in the daily newspapers. Life, however, did not cooperate: a foul-up in grammar school resulted in a transfer to a local high school instead of the technical, arts-heavy one I'd planned to attend.

Following that was a move that really made things start winding around. By the time I returned to Chicago for the second time in 1981, I'd worked as a waitress, a nurse's aide, a bookkeeper and gift shop cashier, an accounting clerk, and a secretary in everything from office furniture stores to a hotel to a journalism society. In 1981 I came back to my old job in a Chicago law firm and settled down in the Windy City for awhile. In 1982 I tried to write because my mother said "You could do this." The seed had still been planted, and I sold my first story in 1984. Since then I've written around a hundred stories, most of which have been or are scheduled to be published.

My first novel, AfterAge, was published in 1993 and was a finalist for the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel. In 1995 my second solo novel, deadrush, was published, and it also was a finalist for the Bram Stoker Award, this time in the category of Superior Achievement in a novel. Final Impact, the third solo novel, was published in 1997, and won both the Chicago Women In Publishing's Award for Excellence in Adult Fiction and the "Unreal Worlds" Award for Best Horror Paperback of 1997 from the Rocky Mountain News. Since then I've published several more solo novels, Red Shadows (a follow-up to Final Impact), DeadTimes, and That's Not My Name, her first suspense novel. That's Not My Name, Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Paleo, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Willow Files, Vol. 2 all won at the Illinois State level of the IWPA 2001 Mate E. Palmer Communications contest (two first place and one second place, respectively), plus I somehow swept all three awards of the Short Story category with "Ascension," "Divine Justice," and "Santa Alma." I've also written a number of media tie-in novels, including several Buffy the Vampire Slayer novels, Hellboy, Elektra, and Ultraviolet. Full info about all her books can be found on her website along with a lot of free excerpts.

I moved to my beloved Arizona in 2002 and currently work on historic Fort Huachuca. in southern Arizona. Numerically, I'm up to about twenty novels and one non-fiction book, with those never-ending plans for more. I love heat, Godiva chocolates, and Great Danes.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Demon-Powered Dinos, October 10, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Paleo (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) (Mass Market Paperback)

Remember Buffy's battle with the Mayor a' la Snake? She had all of Sunnydale High and a lot of dynamite to back her up. This time the action pits the Buffinator against all the muscle of T-Rexes, and all the craftiness of a conniving demon. And this time, Buffy's more on her own. This is not to say the Scoobies, especially much-missed Oz aren't players, but the action here is top-notch. Yet what makes this book really roar are the original plot and character development. This isn't just a make-a-buck story plugged into an episode outline. The author has really developed the new characters while incorporating our standard faves, and she knows how to make rising action carry a plot. A must-read for die-hard Buffy fans, those just arriving at Sunnydale, and everyone looking for a novel this Halloween season.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Navarro knows her Buffy!, July 25, 2001

By 

Slayerman2001 (Ohio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Paleo (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) (Mass Market Paperback)

After reading a few reviews here at amazon, I decided to pick up Paleo at my local book store. I am a huge fan of Buffy books and needed to add it to my collection.

What a wonderful surprise! Yvonne Navarro really knows her Buffy as far as the mythology. She built an intriguing story that had everything we expect from Buffy, including dinosaurs; and she executed it well.

At first look I thought this story was going to be very Buffy-light. The first half of the story focuses on Kevin Sanderson and Daniel Addison. Kevin recently moved to Sunnydale from Chicago due to his father's increading health problems, and hates the change. In Chicago he was big in dinosaurs and he can't seem to find anyone in Sunnydale he shares his interest; until the fatal day Daniel gives Kevin's Earth Studies class a lecture on dinosaurs.

Daniel is a college student who works at the Sunnydale Museum. While doing some busy work he comes across a long-deceased paleontologists charred journal. Within the contents, a spell that can ressurect dinosaurs. Once four dinosaurs *are* resurrected, the one who ressurected them will be granted a single wish. Being greedy, Daniel wants to try and bring some dinos back to life. But how?

When Daniel finds out Kevin snagged a dinosaur egg from one of his many paleontologist expeditions, he convinces the high school student to help him with his "experiment". Once the first dinosaur is resurrected, things go haywire. After saving a neighbors pet dog from a Timimus, and later killing a T-Rex in the alley behind The Bronze, Buffy realizes she must battle a possible army of prehistoric beasties.

The secondary story of this novel ties in with the main plot. A young woman is interested in becoming the Dingoes Ate My Babies band manager. She is a smooth-talker and has Oz, Devon, and the rest of the band very interested. Of course not everyone is as they seems!

Navarro does a wonderful job explaining the battles in these stories. She has a very precise way of wording things so there is no doubt of what is happening. She also does a great job at sticking to the story. She doesn't get wrapped up in plot upon plot, and she moves the story along at a steady pace.

My only major complaint is I didn't feel the Buffy characters were in this book. It could have worked just as well if it were anyone. At times the characters acted illogically for our favorite Scoobies, and there were times Navarro didn't quite capture their voices correctly, especially with Oz and Angel. There were also times she resorted to the "Xander is a goofball" theory, which kept him rather one-dimensional.

However, I was able to overlook these discrepencies because the action was so wonderful; and her moral of being a leader, not a follower, is very tried and true. Oz has a great part in this book and is actually in the center of the action, not standing aside and observing. If you are an Oz fan and miss him, this book is for you!

Dinosaurs truly make a great villian for Buffy, and the twist Navarro threw in was an extra delight to the reader. I'm definitely glad I added it to my collection!

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A Disappointing Read, September 27, 2000

By 

"careyleah" (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Paleo (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) (Mass Market Paperback)

I've read a good chunk of the Buffy novels that are out there, and I have to say, this one was disappointing. It seemed that the author did not have a firm enough grasp on the Buffy-verse characters to write them with the truth or reverence that true fans have come to expect from these novels. The aw-shucks, dino-rific! focus was more appropriate for younger Buffy readers/watchers, while the gore factor was unnecessarily high. If you're dying for a Buffy fix, this'll do, but I'd recommend rereading your Watcher's Guide, or picking up something by the always satisfying Christoper Golden and Nancy Holder.