Reviews

Adult/High School-Short stories featuring the Vampire Slayer in different times and places, framed by two tales of the most recent incarnation, the valiant and irreverent Buffy Summers of Sunnydale, CA. If Buffy finds it difficult to carry out her mission, it is even more of a challenge to lead the double life of a Slayer within the conventions of court life in Japan in the year 980, in a small village in Brittany in 1320, or on a pirate ship in the Caribbean in 1661. Other stories take place in London, New York, Chicago, and Atlanta. These "heroic girls" sometimes doubly defy convention, as when the pirate and the Civil War soldier pass as men, or the villager falls in love with her Watcher and has a forbidden baby. In one deceptively simple tale of North versus South set in flapper times, the Slayer takes a narrative backseat to an unbeatable vamp of a human sort. Some of the authors, such as Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Kara Dalkey, will be familiar to fantasy readers; those writing of present-day Sunnydale worked on this series and bring dialogue and characters vividly to life; all offer intriguing, authentic-feeling, and mostly well-crafted takes on the Slayer legend. While Buffy's appeal to teens is obvious, enterprising teachers might also find some of these tales useful in sparking the imaginations of reluctant readers or history students.-Christine C. Menefee, Fairfax County Public Library, VA Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.