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A review by alexampersand
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 8 Library Edition, Volume 4 by Georges Jeanty, Scott Allie, Karl Moline, Jane Espenson, Joss Whedon, Brad Meltzer
4.0
I debated (again) whether to give this 3 or 4 stars. Parts of it deserved 4. Parts deserved 3. Parts deserved 2.
The volume picks off exactly where Volume 3 left off (if we forget the silly Harmony storyline exists) - Buffy discovering she can fly. The discovery of her superpowers is interesting and adds an interesting element to the story and the premise of the series. Her discovery of where they are coming from also feeds in nicely to the moral questioning running through Season 8, giving a nice sense of continuity.
And then we get to the reveal of Twilight,and what happens afterwards. And I am so torn, because parts of the story work so well and parts of it are ridiculous, but they were all jumbled up together. I love the idea that Buffy and Angel have been chosen by the universe, and that it has been destined all along for them to do this. I love a good long game. However... I hate their magic sex. It seemed weird and unnecessary and a way for Joss&co to feature steamy scenes that wouldn't have been allowed in the show. But then, I loved the concept of this magical eden world. I loved Buffy and Angel in unison, and I even loved Buffy having to debate saving her friends (although it was no real debate, let's be honest.)
And so the final arc comes. And it felt a little bit messy. I don't fully understand the concept of the seed and magic and why the universe created a new universe. But I can more or less roll along with it.
The conclusion itself is incrrdibly satisfying, for me. Especially after reading Joss's afterword, explaining how they learnt from Season 8, and so Season 9 will go back to basics a bit. I'm quite excited to see where they go.
And on a 'why, book editors, why?' note, I wish they had placed Riley's one shot somewhere else. Before the Last Gleaming arc maybe? It was fairly dull as it was, but it felt like the final issue shod have been the finale, with a nice ending and potential lead in to Season 9. Tonally it was weird to have an uninteresting Riley flashback after that.
The volume picks off exactly where Volume 3 left off (if we forget the silly Harmony storyline exists) - Buffy discovering she can fly. The discovery of her superpowers is interesting and adds an interesting element to the story and the premise of the series. Her discovery of where they are coming from also feeds in nicely to the moral questioning running through Season 8, giving a nice sense of continuity.
And then we get to the reveal of Twilight,and what happens afterwards. And I am so torn, because parts of the story work so well and parts of it are ridiculous, but they were all jumbled up together. I love the idea that Buffy and Angel have been chosen by the universe, and that it has been destined all along for them to do this. I love a good long game. However... I hate their magic sex. It seemed weird and unnecessary and a way for Joss&co to feature steamy scenes that wouldn't have been allowed in the show. But then, I loved the concept of this magical eden world. I loved Buffy and Angel in unison, and I even loved Buffy having to debate saving her friends (although it was no real debate, let's be honest.)
And so the final arc comes. And it felt a little bit messy. I don't fully understand the concept of the seed and magic and why the universe created a new universe. But I can more or less roll along with it.
The conclusion itself is incrrdibly satisfying, for me. Especially after reading Joss's afterword, explaining how they learnt from Season 8, and so Season 9 will go back to basics a bit. I'm quite excited to see where they go.
And on a 'why, book editors, why?' note, I wish they had placed Riley's one shot somewhere else. Before the Last Gleaming arc maybe? It was fairly dull as it was, but it felt like the final issue shod have been the finale, with a nice ending and potential lead in to Season 9. Tonally it was weird to have an uninteresting Riley flashback after that.