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Title: Resurrecting Ravana by Ray Garton ISBN: 0-671-02636-4 Publisher: Simon Pulse Pub. Date: 01 January, 2000 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $5.99

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Average Customer Rating: 3.85 (20 reviews)

Rating: 3
Summary: A decent Buffy novel...
Comment: This is an original novel based on the WB show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This was my first time to read a Buffy novel by this author, and I was impressed with his writing style and content. Although I wasn't as impressed with the characters' voices, I thought he did a good job overall.

The plot revolves around a Hindu statuette that, with the proper preparation, will lead to mass destruction (always a key of the Buffy stories). Buffy and the Scooby gang are charged with locating and destroying the statuette before the demon is released. As if this wasn't enough, small monsters called the Rakshasa are causing inexplicable feuds between bestfriends, husbands and wives and parents and children. Often, the feuds lead to murder, where the Rakshasa "mysteriously" appear and devour the murderer. The book

I absolutely love the adult series of the Buffy original novels and can't wait to read another Buffy book by Gharton!

Rating: 2
Summary: Garton needs to be more aware of his source material
Comment: This book is an example of one of my greatest pet peeves. I think it behooves any author of a media tie-in to be well-versed in the show, movie, etc that they are writing about. The story is interesting, and the writing isn't totally horrible (though if I came across one more adverb I was going to scream, he said frustratedly) but the characters and situations are just not what we have come to expect from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I give some leeway for this, because there just isn't anyone with the flair for dialogue that Joss Whedon and the Buffy writers have, but there is no excuse for being unaware of certain basics of the show or the monsters you've chosen to use.First, there is a whole section at the beginning of the book about "hell-hounds". These are NOTHING like the hounds in the show. Given the release date of the book, it's possible that Garton never saw the hell-hounds in the Prom episode. Even at that, however, he describes creatures that are basically identical to werewolves and never explains how they are different. Also, Buffy goes after them with... get this... a silver-tipped stake. Does Garton not realize that Buffy uses weapons aside from stakes? Wouldn't a silver dagger or a silver-tipped crossbow bolt make more sense? Even a silver steak knife?

Then he introduces the raksasha. These are demons from Hindu mythology, and are pretty scary in their own right. But Garton describes them as tiny, while in the myths they are often taking the form of humans and tigers. Paintings show them as being the same size as people. Also, he has them getting into peoples dreams and causing them to murder friends and loved ones and then the rakshasa attack and eat the killer. In the myths they ate the dead body or bodies that were left after the attack. A minor point, but important. Basically, I think it would have been better to create an entirely fictitious monster than to risk offending people by getting their sacred stories wrong.

As for the characters, they are poorly done. Aside from certain over-used catch phrases and occasional glimmers of catchy dialogue, there was almost nothing in these characters that reminded me of the folks in the show. I have had people read lines to me that were cut from episode scripts (lines that I'd never heard in other words) and I have almost always been able to identify what character spoke them without being told. They all have very distinct "voices" which are very recognizable. None of this came across in the book. Also, many of the characters' actions were just... well... out of character. Especially Giles and Joyce.

All this aside, though, I enjoyed the book for the most part. But an interesting story does not make up for ignoring your source material when you are writing a tie-in novel.

But that's just me. I could be wrong.

Rating: 4
Summary: Superior Buffy book
Comment: I've been reading (sporadically) the Buffy paperbacks in the order of publication. I'm 2/3 through this one (the 9th) and it's by far the best yet. (Gatekeeper Trilogy would've been up there if it had been condensced into one volume.) Don't know if Ray Garton has penned more Buffys since but I'd stop the reading in order of publication date to read his. And I'll check out other non-Buff novels by Garton as well.
Oh, I'll revise my rating to 5 if the conclusion is on a par with the rest of the book.

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