Blooded (Library Binding)

By Christopher Golden and Nancy Holder (1998)

RATING: 3/5 Stakes

SETTING: Season Two or Season Three

CAST APPEARANCES: Buffy, Giles, Xander, Cordelia, Willow, Angel, Oz, Principle Snyder, Sheila Rosenberg

MAJOR ORIGINAL CHARACTERS: King Lear (vampire), Lord Chirayoju (Chinese Demon Sorceror), Sanno (Japanese Mountain King), Kobo (Watcher), Emperor Kammu

BACK-OF-THE-BOOK SUMMARY: "Chirayoju, a vampire of Chinese lore, and Sanno, the legendary Japanese Mountain King, have been locked in deadly battle for centuries. Literally. An ancient curse imprisoned the spirits of these two warriors in an antique sword. Until the sword arrives in Sunnydale. Freed by accident, Chirayoju searches for a host body that will allow him to continue wreaking havoc among the living and the dead. Now Buffy's on the trail of this legendary vampire . . a bloody trail that leads straight through the heart of the Buffy-Xander-Willow triangle."

REVIEW

The fourth original Buffy novel, Blooded opens quickly with a fun and rousing battle between the Scoobies and a vampire who fancies himself King Lear. Soon after the Whitehats' success, Willow accidentally pricks her finger on an ancient sword while visiting the museum. Not surprisingly, havoc ensues as Willow is slowly possessed by an ancient Chinese vampire named Chirayoju--only things become even more complicated as Chirayoju's ancient enemy, Sanno, decides to possess Xander in order to fight Chirayoju, with Buffy caught in the middle. Golden and Holder worked hard to draw upon Japanese and Chinese mythology, and incorporated several elements into the novel's backstory.

Overall, Blooded is an average Buffy novel. The dialogue is okay with a few good laughs sprinkled in. Perhaps the best part of the novel concerns Willow (pre-possession) where she deals with her sense of vulnerability and inferiority to Buffy after being mugged by some street thugs. Other good moments include Cordelia and Xander's constant bantering, and demon-possessed Willow beating Xander savagely. Unfortunately, the idea of one of the Scoobies being possessed by some sort of demon isn't exactly unique in the Buffy mythos, and the novel has an overly long and melodramatic ending. Blooded isn't a terrible novel, but with better ones to choose from should probably be of interest only to completists.

(c) 2004 Jeremy Patrick-Justice (jhaeman@hotmail.com)

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Blooded is not, by any means, a perfect tie-in. The story drags at times and other reviewers have been justified in noting that the dynamic between the characters does not seem quite right. In fairness to the authors, we really do not know how much information was available to them when they wrote the novel. It appears they knew that Angel killed Jenny Calendar, but not the circumstances surrounding Angel's "resurrection." So, while *we* know that there remained a great deal of distrust between the Scooby Gang and Angel, and that Angel and Buffy themselves no longer slept together (literally slept!) to avoid temptation, the authors probably did not. And so they have Willow, Xander, et al., constantly thinking about how Angel tried to kill them, "but he was Angelus then, so that's okay." Golden and Holder should not have been expected to exactly predict the direction the series was going to go in.

Blooded is, however, an enjoyable, quick and painless read, one which should be enjoyable to all Buffy fans.

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