Seven Seasons of Buffy: Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Discuss Their Favorite Television Show (Smart Pop series) [Paperback]

Glenn Yeffeth (Editor), Drew Goddard (Foreword), David Brin (Collaborator), Sherrilyn Kenyon (Collaborator), Roxanne Longstreet Conrad (Collaborator), Chelsea Quinn Yarbro (Collaborator), Sarah Zettell (Collaborator), Charlaine Harris (Collaborator), Peg Aloi Scott Westerfield (Collaborator), Nancy Kilpatrick Michelle Sagara West (Collaborator)

Book Description

Series: Smart Pop series | Publication Date: September 10, 2003

** COMPLETELY UNAUTHORIZED **

 

This collection of irreverent and surprising essays about the popular television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer includes pieces by leading science fiction and fantasy authors. Contributors include bestselling legend David Brin, critically acclaimed novelist Scott Westerfield, cult-favorite vampire author Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, and award-winner Sarah Zettel. The show and its cast are the topics of such critical pieces as Lawrence Watt-Evans's “Matchmaking in Hellmouth” and Sherrilyn Kenyon's “The Search for Spike's Balls.” An informed introduction for those not well acquainted with the show, and a source of further research for Buffy buffs, this book raises interesting questions concerning a much-loved program and future cult classic.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School--In the foreword to this collection of 22 essays, scriptwriter Drew Goddard asks, "Why do we care so muchabout Buffy?" After some false but mercifully brief starts, the book hits its stride with a succession of passionate, articulate, entertaining, informative, and sometimes-humorous pieces by professional writers who have no inhibitions about explaining what they love about the show--and what they hate. Varying widely in attitude and style, chapters analyze the show's literary qualities from a number of perspectives; delve into its "meaning" through its themes of love and growth; look closely at the dark side of the "Buffyverse" and the complexity of its moral structure; and argue the relative merits of its characters and episodes. Kevin Andrew Murphy's fittingly titled "Unseen Horrors and Shadowy Manipulations" documents instances of censorship and the attempts of network and advertisers to reshape Buffy to suit their purposes. In "Where's the Religion in Willow's Wicca?" Christie Golden provides a much-needed corrective to the mistake the writers made when they called Willow's fantasy sorcery "Wicca" (a real religion). In the final essay, "Slayers of the Last Arc," Nancy Holder shows why some are so affected by the story when she argues that, seen in retrospect, Buffy clearly fits the template of Joseph Campbell's "hero's journey." This outstanding and diverse collection will entertain, challenge, and enlighten anyone familiar with the Buffyverse.--Christine C. Menefee, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

It's over. When the final episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer aired in May, fans celebrated the groundbreaking show and mourned its end. But don't mourn, eulogize. Editor Yeffeth presents a batch of essays from sf and fantasy writers that examine the show's scope, the evolution of its characters, and the affect it had on its many fans. Nancy Kilpatrick sympathizes with Buffy's search for love (and a little lovin'), while Sherrilyn Kenyon sees Buffy as a demasculinizer of the men in her life. Peg Aloi toasts Tara, Willow's quiet, reserved lover. Roxanne Longstreet Conrad insists that it was Xander, Buffy's wisecracking, superpowerless pal, who was actually the most powerful force for good in Sunnydale. Justine Labalestier describes defending the show to critical fans, even as she admits her own dislike of the seventh season. Laura Resnick examines the mixtures of good and evil in even the most heroic Buffy characters. Bright and witty, just like the show they're commenting on, these pieces are must reading for the Buffy -devoted. Kristine Huntley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Smart Pop; First Trade Paper Edition edition (September 10, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932100083
• ISBN-13: 978-1932100082
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #496,484 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

141 of 143 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hands down, the best Buffy anthology that there is, October 14, 2003

By 

Robert Moore (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Seven Seasons of Buffy: Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Discuss Their Favorite Television Show (Smart Pop series) (Paperback)

I have read a lot of serious essays on Buffy: all of the essays on www.buffy.tv, and the entirety of the contents of the collections edited by Kaveney, by South, and by Wilcox and Lavery. But this new collection is far and away the best of the lot. I believe there are two reasons for this. First, the writers of the essays in this volume have the tremendous advantage of being able to look back on all seven seasons of Buffy and speak with some authority on what actually happened. If you read the other collections, there was always constant speculation about what might happen in the future. Now we know what happened. But the second and more important reason this collection is so superb is the fact that it was written almost exclusively by creative writers rather than academics. Although I am an academic myself, too many of the academic essays written on Buffy seem to me transparent attempts to graft unconnected academic interests onto the writers' favorite TV show. The writers here, however, are truly trying to tease out the meaning of the show on its own terms, and not trying to force the themes of the show fit the needs of philosophical, cultural, or feminist theory.

Another advantage of this collection is that just about every selection in the volume is excellent. I might want to differ with a couple, like the one that defends Riley as the best boyfriend for Buffy or the one that lavishes extensive praise on Tara (I don't dislike Tara, and loved her singing in "Once More, With Feeling," but I can't really get excited about her, either; I do, however, really dislike Riley, like a majority of Buffy fans), but even those take up positions that are fun to argue with. Some of the pieces are flat out outstanding, such as an early one that is cast as a essay question on a test in which a demon is asked to explain which is the most powerful force for good in Sunnydale and why (answer: Xander, with an interesting defense). In the other anthologies, there were essays I had to suffer through in order to get to others more to my liking. There isn't a clunker in the bunch here.

If I had a complaint--though I really don't--it would be that too many of the essays are fixated on the romance aspects of Buffy. I would estimate that well over half of the essays primarily are focused on one or more of the romances in the series. My own interests have always focused on the ethical aspects (e.g., did Spike's actions in Seasons 5 and 6 give him something like a soul before the shaman gave him one at the end of Season 6?, or on the extraordinary optimism that pervades the series that people can grow and become more than they are, that leopards can indeed change their spots), but clearly anyone who hates romance is not going to enjoy Buffy for very long. My lone complaint is that there isn't a bit more diversity of subject matter. There are just a few too many articles focusing on romance than I would have liked.

Still and all, this is a great, great book, and although I have frequently noted in other reviews that anthologies by their very nature are inconsistent and uneven, this one breaks that rule. It starts off great and stays that way all the way through. I can't imagine anyone with any interest in Buffy at all, not loving this collection.

75 of 85 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 23 Writers Contributed, October 29, 2003

By 

Jacqueline Lichtenberg "sf/f writer" (Arizona) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Seven Seasons of Buffy: Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Discuss Their Favorite Television Show (Smart Pop series) (Paperback)

23 writers who have numerous other books available here on amazon contributed to this volume. To decide if you really need to own this book, check them all out -- read what folks say about their other books or read excerpts of their writing. Everyone in this anthology finds something intriguing, interesting, inspiring or curious about Buffy The Vampire Slayer. They're not all totally worshipful of the show, but as professional writers with sharpened critical faculties, they all found something to get deeply involved in thinking about.

That alone tells you something about the quality of Buffy The Vampire Slayer's writing. OK, sorry -- that's a hobby horse of mine. I wrote the article contending that this show is actually drawing television writing another step along the way to becoming Great Literature. Excerpts (with the publisher's special permission) of all the articles are in Writers In Residence at simegen dot com. Here is a list of the contributors. Use Amazon's new Search Inside feature by typing in each author's name without quotes around it. Once you see what they've been writing, you'll want to know what they think of Buffy The Vampire Slayer even if you haven't been watching the show.

Contributors in no particular order:

Peg Aloi, website Witch's Voice and poetry

David Brin, bestselling author of Kiln People

Margaret Carter, academic and author, The Vampire in Literature: A Critical Bibliography plus several novels.

Roxanne Longstreet Conrad, Author, Copper Moon and Bridge of Shadows

Jenny Crusie, bestselling author of Faking It and What the Lady Wants

Christie Golden, contributor, Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Tales of the Slayer, Vol. 1 and author, The Last Roundup

Charlaine Harris, author of the acclaimed Dead Until Dark and Club Dead

Nancy Holder, co-author, The Watcher's Guide and Angel: The Case Files

Sherrilyn Kenyon, author of the bestselling Dark Hunter series

Nancy Kilpatrick, Arthur Ellis Award-winner and author, Bloodlover

Marguerite Krause, author, Blind Vision

Justine Larbalestier, academic and author, The Battle of the Sexes in Science Fiction

Jacqueline Lichtenberg, author of the cult favorite Sime~Gen series

Jean Lorrah, winner of award-winning Blood Will Tell

Carla Montgomery, winner, Writers of the Future

Kevin Andrew Murphy, author of Fanthom: The World Below and Drum Into Silence

Laura Resnick, award-winning author of In Legend Born

Lawrence Watt-Evans, veteran fantasist and author, The Dragon Society

Michelle West, author of Sea of Sorrows

Scott Westerfield, author of the acclaimed Risen Empire

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, author of popular St. Germain vampire series

Sarah Zettel, author of Fool's War

23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, but full of little errors, January 11, 2005

By 

Eric Laugel "it7276" (West Chester, Ohio United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Seven Seasons of Buffy: Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Discuss Their Favorite Television Show (Smart Pop series) (Paperback)

I really wanted to give this book like 3.5 stars, but I figured I'd round down instead of up since everyone else is praising it. First off, I did find many of the articles interesting, particularly the article about "Insiders vs. Outsiders." And the comical, albeit cheesy, faux-college-essay describing why Xander is the M.P.I.F.F.G. (Most Powerful Individual Force for Good) was also enjoyable and thought-provoking.

Those points aside, this book seemed to endlessly repeat itself. The first time someone explained why Angel, Riley, and Spike were bad partners for Buffy, it was quasi-interesting. By the third or fourth times, it was a broken record. Each author might add a slightly different take, but it was all basically the same. The book is littered with many other repeated themes that make the book not as fun to read as it could have been. Also, with the exception of the introduction and the Xander Essay, this book can be very dry at times. This is a shame, because the humorous intro and Essay are over within the first 20 pages, and the rest can be dense at times.

The thing that really surprised me was how many small errors there were in this book. It really seemed like no one ever proof-read this book before sending it to the printers. One of my major beefs is an author who claimed to be a huge fan referring to Machida (the snake demon from Season 2's "Reptile Boy") as "Mikusa." This is just sloppy work, and a real fan would have taken the two seconds to look up the demon's name online if they weren't sure about it.

The bulk of the errors are in the numbering of the episodes, and the fact that episodes may be credited as happening at multiple times. Depending on what you read in the book, the episode "School Hard" was either episode 2-3(which it was), 2-5, or 2-15. And the "Becoming" episodes, which were episodes 2-21 and 2-22, happened either in the second season, the third season, or the sixth season. And one of the times "Becoming, Part One" was in the third season (3-21, it was called), Jenny Calendar was still alive (even though she died in 2-17...or as that author would have said, 3-17). And occasionally, it just seems that the author of a particular piece, and the (possibly invisible) proofreader were just lazy:

"The second-season finale is titled 'Becoming' (3-21, 3-22)..."

If you can get this book at a library, I won't try and dissuade you from checking it out, because it does have some interesting ideas and doesn't talk down to you. However, its redundancy and errors keep this from being a book I would even give 4 stars to.