Customer Reviews

Portal Through Time (Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Simon Spotlight))

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Ambitious novel in which Buffy and her friends must travel back in time to avert Slayer murders that will affect the present timeline and result in the Master's rising. Alice Henderson's deft touch brings humor and pathos to the various linked subplots, describing the tumultuous times with clarity and a historian's vision. Our heroes find that time travel is not terribly convenient (or predictable) -- both good touches! -- and that gallivanting in early history can make for a really bad day. While all the settings are nicely realized, it isn't until the Shiloh battlefield (during the US Civil War plot) and its description that one realizes the extent of the waste of human life as Americans have felled their fellow Americans: friends, neighbors, and even members of the same families. Henderson's portrayal of the slaughter and its aftermath hits home hard and gives this novel a poignant subtext even beyond the usual philosophical perspective. This is one Buffy novel to savor for the writing and for the details, not just for the action (which is certainly fast and furious, too). Excellent addition to the canon, and destined to be considered one of the best. Highly recommended to Buffy fans and non-fans alike.

Those of us who are still mourning the end of our favorite show ever, a loss which ocurred in 2003, can take solace in the fact that the novelizations based on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" continue well past the show's end -- and they're still good!

"Portal Through Time" takes Buffy and Scoobies on a wild adventure through history. After Buffy defeated the Master and ground his bones to ash, she thought that was the end of it -- but she was mistaken. A few loyal followers of the Master have discovered a way to rip a hole in the fabric of time, and travel back in the past to try to change the outcome of the Master's demise. After killing Buffy herself at a point in time before she became the Slayer didn't have the desired effect, they discovered that in order to stop her from destroying their Master they need to go farther back in time and kill past Slayers in order to create a chain of events that would change history forever! Buffy and company must follow these rogue vampires back in time and stop them from succeeding!

Like the recent Buffy novel "Bad Bargain", this book is actually set during Season 2, just prior to Angel's shift to evil. However, unlike "Bad Bargain", this book also doesn't have the added fun of alluding to future events from the show. Instead, it likes to throw a few references to things and events that took place before this novel, in reference to it's place on the season 2 timeline (which, by my estimate, must be just after the episode "Bad Eggs", but before "Innocence"). Even though it would have been nice to see the extra effort of adding those little winks and hints to the story, I can also see how it would have been quite difficult to do while taking on this gargantuine storyline.

The book itself is very entertaining, and I tend to be a little critical of my Buffy novels. It also helps if you're a bit of a history buff, like myself, because the majority of the book deals with certain people, places, and events that are important to our history -- such as the Roman invasion of the British Isles, the ancient Sumerian city of Uruk and it's most famous king, Gilgamesh, and even the American civil war and the bloody battle of Shiloh. These historical aspects are all beautifully incorporated into the novel, but are also kept light enough so as not to alienate readers who don't have a partcular likeing for history (I'm an anti-math girl myself). With the elements of time travel, this novel is a lot of fun!

At times the dialogue seems to regress into a sort of clipped, amateur version found mostly in Buffy fanfiction, but I think most of that is due to the efforts of the author trying to re-create the Season 2 atmosphere. When it comes to writing a book based on such a popular TV show, I imagine it's quite difficult for an author to write a novel where they needed to, for the most part, completely ignore all the character development that takes place *after* the setting of their novel. If you think about it, the dialogue of the characters in season 2 is *quite* different than the dialogue in season 7.

Forgiving the occasional mistep with the flow of the dialogue, I think this was a great Buffy novel, and fellow fans will enjoy it!

If you don't like SPOILERS, don't read on... Near the end of the story, when Buffy actually gets to battle Angelus and Darla (which was a genius twist, btw!), the Scoobies were wondering how to save Angelus from getting killed so as not to alter the future. The solution Henderson gave was for Buffy to write a letter to him which says that he shouldn't go with Darla to a fight in the alley if he values his life. It was signed, a friend. And yes, Angelus chose not to go with Darla. If Henderson wanted to remain true to Angelus' character, she would know that he just won't back away from any fight, most especially that "an unknown friend" wrote it. Angelus should have been suspicious and knowing his arrogance and particularly since he was supposed to bag 2 slayers, he wouldn't give up that easily. He should have at the very least tried to see who wrote the letter... Well, the book was off to a good start but the ending wasn't done masterfully. Still, since I love collecting Buffy books, this is still worth a read. I would've given it 3.5 stars... due to the ending. The time portal concept is a good one but if you look throughout the book, there are still some inconsistencies with regard to the "rules" of time travel. For one, the author said that no matter what time they followed the vamps, it wouldn't matter coz they would arrive at almost the same time as the vamps. But when you think about it, it should matter because if the vamps already did something to alter the future, then it goes to show that the present that they are now in would have changed. So that means that the sooner the gang followed the vamps, the better to not alter the future. But, if you really don't get too technical about it, the storyline is still good.

This was an interesting look at four different time periods from the past through the eyes of Buffy, Giles, Willow, and Xander. My favorite part was where Buffy had to deal with Angelus from the time of the French revolution. Exciting and well written! I only wish that Angel could have traveled back with them.

Alice Henderson is a true Buffy writer. This is a very clever premise and AH's writing captures the total totality that is Buffyness. She is the SLAYER!

I loved this book, a little confusing in the beginning but once I got through it. It was smooth sailing. I wish they would have made this book into one of the episodes it would have been awsome.

Alice Henderson captures the spirit of the TV show better than anyone. Portal Through Time is not only a great Buffy book, it's also a great read in general. The pacing kept me turning pages long past when I lay down to sleep. I can't wait to read more of her work.

This is an awesome book. I really enjoyed the Civil War scenes. It was a fast-paced page-turner. The main character, Buffy, traveled through time saving historical slayers from time traveling assassins. Each time period was well written with a suspenseful, thought-provoking ending. This is well worth picking up.

The first few seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer have always been my favorite, so I'm particularly interested in books set during those early years. Henderson fixes this tale during Buffy's junior year at Sunnydale High, which means we get plenty of Giles, Xander, Willow and Angel along with the Slayer (the only disappointment is that Oz has not entered into the Scooby Gang picture yet).

This is a rousing, rollicking tale that takes the gang back into the past to save four of Buffy's Slayer predecessors from time traveling assassins. But although this is technically a Young Adult book, author Henderson pulls no punches with a lot of the violence, which is entirely appropriate, as Buffy finds herself at various points in the middle of a Roman invasion of a Druid stronghold, the French Revolution, and the American Civil War, and there's no sugarcoating the inhumane butchery that real life battle inflicts. It's a stark parallel to Buffy's usual 'dust the vampires' comic book-style look at death, and it adds an added depth to the story.

But what makes the book really work for me is that Alice Henderson has found the "voices" of Buffy and her friends, and it's a delight just to read the dialog between them. This is a terrific story, very deftly crafted by a very talented author.

I thought that the plot jumped around a lot; nothing seemed to conclude. The characters were moving through time; I would have preferred a series of novels, one dealing with each time period, to one book that tried to cover so much.