Angel: City of (Angel) [Mass Market Paperback]

One of the things that I didn't notice when watching the show, and even on the first reading of Nancy Holder's excellent rendition, is that Angel really does recapitulate is initial time in Los Angeles. Not quite as down and out, obviously, but footloose and unsure of himself. He wants to do something, but his past seems to keep his present from happening.

Not just his immediate past with Buffy, but his whole experience as a vampire, from Darla and Drusilla onwards. So my first reaction, which was that the script has way to many flashbacks was right, but for the wrong reason - something has to wake Angel from this reverie before he falls into complacent, bad habits and yields to the temptation of human blood. Of course, that is Doyle's purpose.

Holder manages to fill in the inner details of motivation that are missing from the screenplay. When we watch we have only the spoken word and the expressiveness of the actor to work with. What we have here is a novelization that really does dig beneath the surface to uncover something of the inner workings of Angel's mind - as well as provide an impressive amount of history.

I've read my share of novels based on scripts, and, too often, they simply attempt to redeliver the dialog with barely narrative to fill in the action. Holder goes well beyond this simple approach, and this story would live on its own, even if the series premiere never had happened. Whether you saw the season start or not, 'City of' is worth reading.

But I digress this is a novelization of the first episode of ANGEL and I loved it. It detailed the past of Angel or Angelus. It was well-written and simply yet convincingly written. I highly recommend it for those of you who miss the TV show.

Much of Angel's love story is given, painful background that lead to him having to leave. The reader is also treated to a deeper insight as to how painful that breakup was for Angel to endure. We were also given a glimpse into his creation (although this story differs slightly from the one that was later given in the television series) and we are treated to some new, previously unmentioned exploits of SPIKE and DRU, back when they bathed the world in blood.

The title of the book is Angel, so unfortunately, we see little of Doyle, but we are shown a tad bit more of Cordy. Still many of the Buffy/Angel characters appear, even Jenny Calendar, Willow, Darla, the Master, Giles, Xander, and more.

A worthy investment for the details that are included in the book, but not the television show.