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Buffy has a problem with a queen vampire who is around 2000 years old, and her crazy lover. They go in for the magic potion make the town crazy thing, and arena fighting involving innocent victims.They date from the time of Caligula, and have been hunting and killing Slayers for a long, long time. They capture Oz, figuring he will be good entertainment, too.They also have a thing for the summoning of Caligula favorite dark goddess, which is not good.
In this manner she develops the current story and the ancient story until Buffy figures it out then melding the 2 stories until the climatic conclusuion. I enjoyed this book because of the familiar way Nancy Holder tells a Buffy story. She tells the story the same way the TV show does, half by flashback. This story concerns the retelling of the Roman stories of Caligula, Helen, Diana, Meter, Demetrius and Jullian. That's a lot of Roman History.
In The Evil That Men Do, the ashes of Caligula have come to surface in Sunnydale, followed closely by Helen and Julian, two vampires dating back to Caligula's rule. The back cover reads "Evil Dwells Here" and it isn't kidding. This dark, gritty book will keep the reader on the edge of her seat.
But Buffy has been having horrible dreams and they feel prophetic. I loved this story for it's dark turns, the way it really makes the reader fear not only for Buffy, but for everyone she loves. When all of Sunnydale becomes possessed of a madness, it's up to Buffy to make things right once again.
This book is scary in times, with real jeopardy for our heroes, and this book doesn't pull any punches.From the school-yard violence that started everything to the demons and massacre that awaits, not even Giles and Joyce are immune to the troubles in Sunnydale. If her dreams come true, then Angel dies, and she's the one to kill him. What's a slayer to do.I must say I love Nancy Holder's Buffy the Vampire Slayer books, and next to Christopher Golden, I think she writes some of the most believable, true to canon Buffy stories out there.
The moments between Angel and Buffy were touching, yet humorous, and I loved the way that Cordelia became a strong heroine in her own right in this story. A super read for fans of the series who would like to stay in Sunnydale a little while longer.
What could have sparked the random rampage. Or is there another influence. But when Oz's van is discovered on the side of the road, minus one teen wolf, a distraught Willow turns on Buffy, disrupting the investigation. I perhaps shouldn't be quite so harsh, as there is one or two good ideas in the novel, it's just that on the whole the book lacks energy, humor, surprises, creativity, and all of those other things one looks for in a good novel.Helen and Julian, two vampires from the age of Caligula, have waited several centuries for a chance to call forth the goddess Meter and rule the world. Considering the prophetic dreams she's been having, the Slayer suspects possession by an especially malevolent force. As the police follow their typical false leads, the Slayerettes start up their own research into possible paranormal causes. THE EVIL THAT MEN DONancy Holder (2000)RATING: 2/5 StakesSETTING: Season ThreeCAST APPEARANCES: Buffy, Joyce, Willow, Oz, Xander, Giles, Angel, Cordelia, Willy the Snitch, Devon, Sheila Rosenberg, Ira RosenbergMAJOR ORIGINAL CHARACTERS: Helen, Julian (ancient Roman vampires); Jordan Smythe (flunky); Mark Dellasandra (high schooler); Nick Daniels (Bronze manager); Claire Bellamy (Bronze); Diana (ancient Roman Slayer)BACK-OF-THE-BOOK SUMMARY: "After a vicious shooting spree, the town of Sunnydale is shell-shocked. Punchline: An incredibly boring Buffy novel titled The Evil That Men Do.
Their backstory is fairly interesting, even if it takes a while to get moving. close to home."REVIEWSet-Up: What do you get when you mix Nancy Holder, two ancient Roman vampires, and a plot to raise an ancient deity to destroy the world. As for the Scoobies, they're all fulfilling their standard roles: Cordelia gets kidnapped, Oz shapechanges, Buffy stakes. The Slayer continues her search for answers, narrowly surviving an attack by a well-trained and powerful vampire who brought a gruesome death to every Slayer who crossed her path. Buffy Summers can guess. When they hatch their vile scheme in Sunnydale, the water supply gets laced with an "everyone turn evil" drug, turning citizen against citizen as "all hell breaks loose." Seriously.
With the pressure in Sunnydale mounting, the residents' reactions to stress grow increasingly unpredictable. Is this the ancient creature behind the recent influx of evil. it's just plain bad.Our Terrible Twosome of bad guys have standard villain personas: Julian is the suave, cultured, smarmy James Bond movie villain, while Helen is the vicious, want-to-kill-everything-that-moves type of villain. The book just doesn't have much life to it, and should be avoided in favor of the many better ones out there.[.].
Buffy, who was away with Angel returns to find Sunnydale more on edge than its ever been and the town seems to have degenerated into blind madness.Buffy and Giles suspect there's much more to the towns carzed attitude than just being upset over the School shootings and find that a couple of vampires have cooked up a malicious plot in Sunnydale. Seizing on headlines that are all to familiar in this day and age, a popular Sunnydale Student goes on a shooting spree at Sunnydale high after killing his parents. Willow is among the wounded and Oz and Cordelia are missing in action. As Buffy novels go this is one of the darker ones, especially considering the destruction of Sunnydale high episode was delayed due to the Columbine shootings. This certainly gives this story a grimmer tone than many of the other original novels and I would hazzard to guess that they'd never try to do a story like this on TV.A good but decidedly downbeat and dark Buffy story.
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