15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A less than stellar start to the "Wicked Willow" trilogy, June 19, 2004
This review is from: Wicked Willow I: The Darkening (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) (Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Simon Pulse)) (Mass Market Paperback)
"The Darkening" is the first book of the "Wicked Willow" trilogy by Yvonne Navarro which asks the question, "What if Evil Willow was never stopped?" The story begins with Willow inspecting Warren's skinned corpse at the end of "Villains." Buffy, Xander, and Anya show up to see Willow's handiwork but before the wicked witch of Sunnydale can say "One down, two to go" she experiences a split second of weirdness and things become very different. Instead of going after Jonathan and Andrew, Willow decides to banter with Buffy over Warren's fate, turning her cold fury into hot rage in the process. Nothing is going to stand in the way of her revenge.
Okay, so we have a reasonable set up to explore the path not taken. However, the problem is that is Wicked Willow is at DEFCON 5 at this point and we are still in the prologue of the first book of a trilogy, then it is going to be hard to keep escalating from here to the end, seven or eight hundred pages later. So instead, Navarro executes a sharp turn, which is sort of necessitated because if Evil Willow is never stopped then the world ends. Now Willow's immediate plan is no longer revenge, but resurrection, despite rather impressive indications that Tara cannot be brought back from a natural death. However, this decision undercuts the entire set up. Willow wins the initial battle between Buffy and Giles, but this time the victory is quicker and more significant. Then we settle into something of a waiting game where interesting new developments, such as Willow's selection of a pair of pets, really does not go anywhere. Navarro comes up with a great character idea in Ross, but abandons him as well. At the end, when the characters take stock of their situation and reaffirm their goals, I did not get the sense that we had moved much beyond where we essentially started.
Season Six of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" just came out on DVD so the way the unexpected way the season finished, with Darth Rosenberg turning out to be the surprise Big Bad at the end and with the world being saved this time around by Xander and the memory of a yellow crayon. The whole point of telling an alternative version of a story is to come up with something special and Navarro has not really let the cat out of the bag on what that would be here. Ironically, given that Evil Willow wanted to end the world, the alternative has to be something else, which, by definition, would tend to be less significant.
I also have a continuity question with "The Darkening" in that it is suggested that Dawn no longer has memories of the Scoobies that predate her appearance in Season Five. If there was something in "BtVS" that suggested that was the case I must have missed it. Then there is the idea that Dawn, who finally gets a moment to do something in "Grave" because there is really no other choice, would be sent off to be part of a battle on purpose, which I do not buy. Then there is the issue of Tara's Ghost, which I suspect is more than it appears to be. After all, I do not think she really sounds like Tara and since she is the biggest change between this alternative story line and the original I am both wary and suspicious.
However, the most problematic character in the book is Anya, which makes sense because she is the most problematic character in the series and in the "BtVS" original novels. The Anya who talked Xander into attending the Prom during Season 3 ended up replacing him as the comic relief in the series and the idea that she would not stop talking about their sex life was done to death (and beyond). Anya's lack of the social graces was also overplayed: she had been a vengeance demon for over a millennium, so how come in all that vengeance mongering she failed to pick up on any contemporary social conventions? But here the question is her feelings for Xander, which seem to be rather different from what they were in the final three episodes from Season Six. Navarro is trying to take more advantage of Anya being a demon again, and I keep tyring to figure out if she is going to be playing a pivotal role in what is to come.
The goal of the first book in a series such as this is have us wondering what will happen next, but with "The Darkening" I am still trying to figure out what is going on in the first book that provides a great hook for the next volumes. When I compare what we had at the end of either of the first two volumes in Michael Golden's "The Lost Slayer" serial novel, what we have here does not even compare. There may well be something suitably wicked coming this way and it could be set up by what is here, but we have yet to come to the point in the "Wicked Willow" tragedy where we get hooked big time. I give this one the benefit of the doubt only because I cannot imagine the editors would give the go ahead for a "BtVS" trilogy that would not justify being told in more than one book. But at this point the best that can be said is that the pieces are being moved into position for something bigger and better.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Worst Buffy serious ever, January 26, 2005
This review is from: Wicked Willow I: The Darkening (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) (Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Simon Pulse)) (Mass Market Paperback)
This is BAD rewrite of the Season 6 finale when Willow went bad.
She sets up a place of her own and hangs out with other witches (who arent really witches) and does nothing. She is supose to be all evil but it's not happening. Tara's ghost starts hanging out with her too, and then Willow send all kinds of stupid monsters to attack the Scoobies.
Then blah blah blah it drags on and then finally a few months later she is rescued by Xander just like in the Tv series. The whole part in between is a huge waste of money and time.
Don't buy this book, at least not new. Wait for the newer ones to come out, they might be better.
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16 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Prue Drivel, June 21, 2004
By A Customer
This review is from: Wicked Willow I: The Darkening (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) (Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Simon Pulse)) (Mass Market Paperback)
Negative stars.
The Dark Magic Willow was a bad enough idea, to take a bad idea and run with it is far worse. But not only is the concept bad, the writting is on the level of Fan-Fiction. I was shocked to learn that Ms. Navarro had written other books because this looks like a first attempt to me.
Save your money and time. Even if you like Willow there is none of the Willow we knew here. Even for an AU.
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