General Info on Buffy Books?

[palabravampiress]

Forgive my ignorance, but...

I've never read a Buffy-based book. How does this franchise work in the grand scheme of things? It's somewhere between canon and fanfic, yes? I mean, how is it even legal to sell these books? Does Joss approve them? And most importantly... are they usually worth the read and available at Vromans, to which store I have recently received a gift card? :-)

[Joyce Summers]

Okay.

Yes, Joss does approve them. And then so do Fox.
This makes them debatable as canon. On the one hand they are official Buffy merchandise making them official Buffy stories thus theoretically making them Buffy canon. On the other hand some of the stories don't fit in the season they're meant to. Season 3 ones sometimes don't involve Cordelia and Xander splitting up, or mention Faith at all. However, the books will refer to the events of previous books as THOUGH they are canon which is even more confusing.

For example in Primeval, the author refers to the events of Obsidian Fate and Immortal. And in Ressurecting Ravana the author refers to the events of The Gatekeeper Trilogy, seemingly saying yes this is canonized. And what with Joss recently confirming the canon of comics by integrating Antiques and Fray...well, anything's game. Most of these stories are so good though, that I just want to view them as canon either way. Haha.

And I do think they are worth the buy, especially for the reasonable price. I mean some are really erm...not good, haha but the huge majority are fantastic. Anything pre-season 6 by Nancy Holder and/or Christopher Golden are excellent. (I say pre-season 6 because any stories after that seem to lose hold of the characters a little) And anything by Diana G Gallagher I always found particularly enjoyable.

[Keanoite]

I second everything Joyce said. The really great books seem to be set during season 3, Immortal and Sins of the Father are the extremely enjoyable and so well written they feel like the show.

I found that of the novels set later in the series the ones that seem to work best are the crossovers with Angel. I would check out Heat, The Unseen Trilogy and Monster Island (really good Angel/Spike banter in this one).

[Allycat]

No, they are not canon. They are merely published fanfic approved by FOX and Joss' office (doesn't even have to be the man himself). Having said that, to get approved, they need to be of a sufficiently high quality level, which sets them apart from your standard internet fanfic.

And for any fanfic writer looking to get their story published. I don't think you should send it to FOX. The publishing house which owns the license to Buffy/Angel novels usually asks authors (who have proven themselves previously with original works) to do a novel.

[palabravampiress]

Thanks, guys!

Oh... and I'm not going to try to publish Buffy fiction. Nope. No way, no how. I am too intimidated by Joss Whedon, who has achieved Shakespeare and Jane Austen level greatness in my mind, but is still active and lacks the comforting appeal of having long lapsed into the public domain. If I were going to try anything, it would be an Indra book, (because I love her to bits and pieces) but I am still far too intimidated to attempt to play in Joss Whedon’s sandbox in any sort of serious or professional manner.

But I won’t lie. I sometime fantasize about accidentally meeting Joss at Starbucks and having him ask me to join his writing staff in any capacity whatsoever. I then fall to my knees and bow, repeating the phrase “I’m not worthy! I’m not worthy!” I do that last part in the fantasy, not in real life whenever and wherever the fantasy strikes.

[Lyri]

I think most of the novels out there are a good read, and are worth taking the time to read.

As Joyce said, most of them don't hold true to the canon of the shows, and this is most noticable in 'Spike and Dru: Pretty Maids All In A Row' during which we see Spike killing a Slayer in the 1940's. We know this isn't true, as he only killed two Slayers, so there is a lot of artistic license there.
Other slips include things like Faith but no Wesley, Cordelia and Xander still being together late in S3, Faith breaking out of jail numerous times to help both the LA gang and the Soobies.

The novels I would recommend would be 'Spike and Dru: Pretty Maids All In A Row' despite the obvious mistake, it's still a great read. 'The Lost Slayer' is an amazing alternate reality Sunnydale. And it has possibly the BEST Buffy Baddie of all time. And 'The Book of Fours' is a great read, bringing Buffy, Faith and Kendra face to face, plus the Slayer before Buffy, India Cohen.

If you're looking for something a little different, but not really involving the gang, you should look at the 'Tales of the Slayers' novels. I think there's about 4 of them now. Each book contains several short stories by different writers, including a few of the shows writers, each story deals with the life, or death, of a different Slayer in a different time. Well worth a look.

[Joyce Summers]

I'm so glad most of you said you agreed with me, haha. Makes a girl smile :D

And actually what Lyri said about The Lost Slayer- she's right. It has an excellent, excellent baddie. And I'm sure you would adore it Palabra. ;)

[Blondie Bear]

Just when I considered starting on these things, my local Barnes & Noble quits carrying them! Typical. . . .

[Keanoite]

I'm so glad most of you said you agreed with me, haha. Makes a girl smile :D

And actually what Lyri said about The Lost Slayer- she's right. It has an excellent, excellent baddie. And I'm sure you would adore it Palabra. ;)

Again I second what Joyce says:D...I'm pretty sure PV will be in absolute fan heaven with this baddie;)

[babyo0ogirl]

I'm going to read "Heat" this week on my vacation. Up til now, I've only read I think the first 4 (Halloween Rain, Coyote Moon, Angel Chronicles 1 & Night of the Living Rerun). Those ones were ok, but not fantastic. I have higher hopes for "Heat".

[Danielt88]

Yeah some of the short novels aren't as great but I still think not bad all the same. The Unseen Trilogy, Book of Fours and The Gatekeeper Triolgy are some of the best ones, certainly that I've read, and I shot through those because I couldn't stop reading. I personally view them as canon because I love the show so much I want more stories to add to the whole picture whilst I suspect they are technically not. Still, all the same, the beauty of the books is that if you don't like one you can always discredit it as part of the story! Also, definitely Nancy Holder and Christopher Golden are good authors.

[Rowan Hawthorn]

I hate to be the dissenter here, but, IMO, every one of the novels I've read pretty much stunk. "Queen of the Slayers", for example, was such a jumbled-up mess, and the ending should be used in writing class as an example of how not to tell a story. Now, I blame the publisher at least as much as the authors, for shoehorning the series into the "young adult" category, but the end result is what counts.

As far as the canonicity, they're not canon; if I remember right, the only input Joss had on them was to look over the proposed outline to see if the authors were touching on anything that was planned for the actual series - it wasn't like the Season 8 comics, where he actually gives the authors an outline of what's supposed to happen. Authors were only allowed to contradict canon if they "put all the toys back in the box" at the end, so to speak. Having said that, I consider the "Tales of the Slayer" series to have some of the best writing of any of the tie-in books.

[Rowan Hawthorn]

WA: This is true... <whimper!>

[Lily]

I've always loved the books, since being in Australia they often took BtVS off tv for long periods of time for no reason so the books used to get me through the time in between, and some of them have a note at the beginning that says where they fit in to the canon time-line so that helps. I've always thought of them as completely canon and just ignored the bits that don't quite fit (much as when it happens in the show!). I agree with all who said the Gatekeeper Trilogy is excellent too.