Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Paperback)

Summary: After the Veruca incident, Oz goes on a search to find a way to tame his inner wolf. As he searches, he goes to new places, makes new friends, and is forced to doge both old and new enemies. Will Oz ever be able to find the peace and balance he needs to come to terms with the animal inside him and with himself?

I will admit that Oz is sometimes out of character with the cursing and all, but this is still an awesome book! I wish that Oz and Jinian hooked up, but you cant always get what you want. I think Christopher Golden is one of the best Buffy and Angel authors ever!

Let's start with Oz himself, our favorite cold-blooded jelly donut. Oz is an intense presence, a sponge who soaks up everything around him, cogitates and usually returns a thoughtful gem of truth. The guy in this novel was fairly chatty, never insightful and kind of dorky.

The story: novels about self-discovery have rules, one of the most important being, the person must discover HIMSELF. Oz does not truly come to know himself during the course of the story. he hops a ship, chats with some folks, meets some demons, gets chased by a werewolf hunter. But he never approaches the elusive self, the animal within. Twice Christopher Golden uses the hoary old werewolf plot device, the full moon countdown..."Dateline: Two Days until full moon". If used properly, this can be an effective suspense builder; we know Oz is a good guy and, in the past, the Scooby Gang has always been there to make sure his honor stays intact and he doesn't kill any innocents. But here, alone, without friends, what will the animal inside do? How will he cope? How will we deal with seeing our boy Oz as a savage killer, remorseful and even more driven to curb his wild side? Well, we won't. Because Golden cheaps out and Oz manages to find someone to lock him up JUST IN TIME! It's a copout the first time Golden does this to us; it's insulting the second.

For some inexplicable reason, Golden introduces us to a hot-tempered Fire Demon chick who rides Oz's coattails to Tibet, where she, too, will learn to control her talents. So, somehow, Golden manages to divert the focus from Oz onto this dull, petty, whiny little sprite without enough sense to duck when people are hurling things at her.

And don't get me started on the Tibetan werewolf monks. Jeez. I'd rather live in any town in any "Seven Samurai" remake than hook myself up to these clowns. It's like they hung a sign on the door that says "Come in and kill us. We'll leave the light on for ya".

The pacing was awful, the writing was awful, the characterization was awful. And, oh yeah, the book was awful.