Child of the Hunt

Child of the Hunt
Written by Charles Golden and Nancy Holder

Publication: September 1998

Plot: Buffy and the rest of the Scooby gang discover an evil force is at work in the Renaissance Faire that is visiting Sunnydale...

Review

Warning: This is not a drill. There are major SPOILERS just ahead for "Child of the Hunt." If you've not read it yet, I'd recommend turning back now...

In short: Longer doesn't mean better...

First of all, let me admit up front that I have not read any of the previous Buffy fiction efforts, though from members of this group I've heard good things about them. A part of that may be due to the fact that they are shelved in the young adult section of the book store, a section that I rarely, if ever wander into looking for reading material.

So, a couple of weeks ago when I stopped in at my local B. Dalton to pick up my copy of Imzadi II (great book BTW!), I decided to quickly scan through the other books on the off chance something caught my eye. Lo and behold it did--a Buffy book in the same section as the Star Trek novels. I pulled it off the shelf and was surprised by the length of the novel. It looked to be double that size of the usual Buffy books I'd seen. After reading the back, I decided to add it to my purhcase that day and left the store happy.

I will admit to you right now, though, that Imzadi II was first on my reading list. :-)

So, last week, in the final stages of Buffy withdrawal, I finally opened the cover of this book and started reading.

And maybe it's because I've read a couple of really great books before this one, or maybe I was just expecting too much, but Child of the Hunt really failed to make much of an impression on me.

I think part of the problem is a similiar one that faces DS9 and X-Files novels--namely that the respective shows have on-going storylines that make it hard to place novels in. For one thing, you can try to go into the future a bit and then have the novel completely invalidated by an episode that airs later. Or you can tell a standard story and refer occasinally to past events, but have the novel seem dated when it comes out. With X-Files, the novels have been much been the standard monster of the week books and that's what I felt we got here with Child of the Hunt. It was your basic monster of the week plotline. And those types of novels can be fun, don't get me wrong. If you get the events around them right and the characters and have an interesting story to tell.

Golden and Holder make a valiant attempt to place the story in the current Buffy continuity. In fact, this novel is set well into season three, as seen by their references to events such as Buffy's leaving and eventual return. However, this rapidly gets annoying because Golden and Holder have to be so vague about details and events. There are endless scenes where Buffy or Joyce think about the horrible time she spend while she ran away. However, since we know that Buffy ran away and worked as Anne for a while diminishes this a great deal. Also, Angel's in the story and large chunks of the story deal with Buffy and Angel. But it's so vague. Angel went to hell and came back is often referred to but it's made frustrating because you'd like some more definition. It gets old quickly of Buffy and Angel looking at each other longingly but knowing it can't go anywhere. I realize this is a valid point the first two or three times it's made but by the sixth or seventh I was ready for the plot to start moving again.

The plot is the other main downfall of this novel. The main plotline is that a Renaissance Fair has shown up in Sunndydale and the gang decides to attend. Of course, Buffy soon discovers that there's more to the fair that it appears and that an evil force has come to Sunnydale. In the end, Buffy must fight to stop it and help save the life of a young boy named Roland who is abused. There are a couple of plot twists along the way, but nothing you can't see coming a mile away. Indeed, the final twist at the end is foreshadowed very early in the book and I easily guessed it a long time before the ending. (Again, I may be spoiled here having read two Peter David Trek novels before this which always take your expectations, give them to you and then rip out the carpet!) Along the way, there are some side tours such as long passages about homeless kids and the pain it causes. But after seeing Anne, I've got to admit the series did a far better job with this plotline than this novel did.

But the biggest problem with the novel is the characters. They are all over the map. For one thing, Cordy seems back in season one characterization. Another is that Golden and Holder try to invent a supporting cast for the novel, most of which are forgetable after you put the book down. The characters that they invent aren't so much characters as they are cliches--from the tortured mother to the suicidal, alcoholic father of a runaway. Dialogue at times is stilted and the action at times will grind to a complete halt as one character or another is forced to try and explain what on the name of God's green earth is going on.

So, you may ask, why did I bother to even finish reading this book? Well, to be honest, because the opening is so good. Despite all it's faults the first hundred pages are quite interesting. Golden and Holder capture the Scooby gang (Cordy aside) rather well. There is some good exchanges betwen the gang and at times I could hear the regular cast saying these lines in my head. A very nice touch. Espeically good is an early plotline about Giles' wishing Buffy would leave the Slayerettes behind because of the dangers they face. It's interesting, but it's brought up and them dropped after page 100 when the gang attends the fair and the evil mean, ugly guy shows up. And there are some nice moments seeing the parents of the Buffy crew. It's nothing earth shattering, but it's nicely realized.

However, as I've said before, the final pages are not so good. Part of it is that once the Scooby gang splits up, the fun banter we got early on is gone and it often takes pages and pages to get back to what the main action of the novel is.

So, overall my opinion of this novel is that it's a good try, but not quite there yet. It's similar to some early Trek novels I read that tried really hard but threw too much into the book in an attempt to up the page count a bit. I'd prefer a shorter page count with better characters and a tighter story any day.

My overall analysis--if you love Buffy, I'd give it a whirl. Turn the brain off and have fun with it. The first hundred pages are excellent. The last 200 or so are, well, tedious.

Not a great start to the adult Buffy fiction line...

My rating: 5.5 (out of 10.0)