Seven Crows (Buffy/Angel Crossover) [Paperback]

John Vornholt (Author)

Book Description

Series: Buffy/Angel Crossover | Publication Date: July 7, 2003

Buffy and Angel join forces once again to repel an evil that crosses both borders and time...and the presence of Buffy's other ex-boyfriend Riley racks up the tension even more. One for sorrow, two for mirth; three a wedding, four a birth; five for silver, six for gold, seven crows a secret never to be told...In a small town on the borders of Arizona and Mexico, Agent Riley Finn and his wife Sam are on the trail of a far-from-ordinary smuggling ring. To their surprise, their call for reinforcements is answered by Riley's ex-girlfriend, the Slayer, Buffy Summers, and Angel, the vampire with a soul. Tempers flare in the heat of the day -- and night -- as bodies begin to turn up out in the desert. Some are drained of blood, while others have met their deaths in another manner altogether. Curiously, the area seems to have an abundance of crows, and more are arriving all the time, like ominous portents of some unknown doom. But even Mr Secret Agent Man finds it hard to concentrate on the job at hand when his wife and Angel team up to go undercover.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

John Vornholt is the author of several bestselling Star Trek novels including two of the hugely successful four-volume Next Generation/Deep Space Nine DOMINION WAR sequence. He lives in Tuscon, Arizona.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Pocket Books (July 7, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743468651
• ISBN-13: 978-0743468657
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 3.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,634,268 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Ugh! Riley, shut up about the crows!, August 1, 2003

By 

"celes1" (Havre de Grace, Maryland United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Seven Crows (Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel) (Mass Market Paperback)

Riley Finn and his wife, Sam, have been called in by the government to investigate some killings along the Mexican border. Shortly after their investigation begins, they are kicked off the case and told it is closed. This doesn't sit well with the Finns so they decide to call Buffy and Angel for backup. Now the foursome have to fight off vampires, shape shifters, pushy strippers, and the west Nile virus!

The basic idea of this book had me excited because I'm one of the few people on the planet that actually like Riley. The plot was an ok idea too but the problem was that the book was pretty boring. There just wasn't enough character interaction. As a matter of fact, Buffy and Riley are hardly in it. Buffy mostly just drives the van as Riley babbles on about crows. Sam and Angel do most of the work. I hated Sam on the show but she was ok in this book although her flirtation with Angel was just gross. This isn't really a bad book but it's just too boring for me to entirely recommend.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Six Vampires, Five Werewolves, and a Partridge in a..., December 29, 2003

By 

Marc Ruby™ "The Noh Hare™" (Warren, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Seven Crows (Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel) (Mass Market Paperback)

Riley Finn and his wife and fellow agent Sam find themselves out of their depth. Illegal immigrants are being eaten, drugs are being imported, and the local law has managed to get them called off the case. The solution is to hire a couple of mercenaries. Actually, Sam hires Angel and Riley hires Buffy - creating ome of the more awkward reunions in the history of Verdura, New Mexico.

Soon all four are scouring both sides of the border trying to track down a pair of vampires while being harassed by a sheriff who knows exactly what Angel is and doesn't much care for it. But nobody is quite sure what the sheriff is, only that he is somehow tangled up in a suspicious land deal. Thus we have all the makings of a classical occult western soap opera starring two of our favorite destroyers of bad guys. How can we lose.

Well, we don't lose, but John Vornholt never quite gets the sparks to fly in traditional Angel/Buffy style. The reader keeps expecting something to explode, and instead, the plot continues its merry way with scarcely a ripple. In truth, this story could just as easily have starred any four people and been just as good. But by using this particular cast Vornholt raises expectations and then doesn't follow through.

Still, there is nothing inherently wrong with the story itself. It starts with an interesting premise about alternate uses for illegal immigrants, although I would have liked a bit more detail on the skinwalker side of the story. Vornholt has been a successful Star Trek novelist for some time now, and may simply need to get his bearings a bit better in the wild world of Buffy.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing . . ., July 17, 2003

By 

wingman11 (Flushing, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Seven Crows (Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel) (Mass Market Paperback)

Although I am a fan of both television series, this is the first novel I've read about either Buffy or Angel. I selected this book to start with because I was really interested in how Angel and Riley would interact considering their first meeting in season 4 of BTVS. And how Buffy would deal with her two past loves and seeing Riley and his wife again after meeting them in season 6.

I polished off this book within two days and, overall, I did enjoy the book but I have to say that I would have rated this book higher if this were purely an Angel novel. My impression is that the author had intended it to be an Angel novel to begin with and then thought to himself "I could probably sell more books if I made this a crossover story with Buffy". So with that in mind, it seemed to me that the author simply inserted Buffy into an already written Angel/Riley story. And Buffy had almost nothing to do!

Most of the action revolves around Angel and Riley's wife, Sam. The fact that Samantha was given a prominent role in the story was actually very enjoyable. But the scenes with Buffy were so atypical of the "Vampire Slayer". Buffy walks on the beach. Buffy drives the van. Boring! For most of the book, Buffy's character could have been replaced by anyone with little affect on the storyline. The fact that Buffy IS the Vampire Slayer had almost no bearing on the story at all.

And I have to agree with one of the other reviewers: the story plot was so mundane that it certainly didn't live up to what I considered (or hoped to be) a titanic team-up of characters from the Buffy/Angel universe. Hopefully another author will take these characters and write something more befitting of their potential.