Night of the Living Rerun

by Arthur Byron Cover

Book Overview

Another adventure featuring Buffy Summers, the undercover vampire slayer. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0671017152
• ISBN13: 9780671017156
• Release Date: March 1998
• Publisher: Simon Pulse
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 4.2" x 6.8"
• Age Range: 12 to 17 years
• Grade Range: Grades 7 to 12

Customer Reviews

This would be a better Slayer story without Buffy

The thing that made "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" such a great television shows is that it was able to combine action, comedy and drama in such a seemless manner. Once you get past the idea that all that martial arts stuff was needed to drive a steak through the heart of a vamp, the action routines were the best on television. The comedy was character driven to such an extent that a priceless funny moment could be a double-take or a raised eyebrow as much as a quick quip or arcane pop-culture reference. But the heart of the series was the dramatic undertones, always implicit in the fact that Slayers die young and reaching its operatic heights with Buffy's tragic relationship with Angel.All of the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" books, whether original stories or adapted from various episodes, automatically lose the action elements. Break down the fight sequence from the second part of "Becoming" and it is going to lose something on the printed page. So losing one part of the Buffy triad is an automatic given. The problem with "Night of the Living Rerun" is that the story overloads the comedy and comes up way short of the drama. Arthur Byron Cover is not alone in this regard as this my standard complaint with the vast majority of early "BtVS" novels.Forget about the cute title, the heart of this story is a compelling tale: the story of Samantha Kane, the Slayer during the title of the Salem Witch Trials. How does this fit into the Buffy mythos? This happened to be when the Master was accidentally trapped in the other dimension. Buffy keeps dreaming about the past, and when the same thing starts happening to Giles and Xander the set up is for a symbolic replay of the past. I suppose it was too early to have tales of the earlier Slayers without including Buffy and the gang when Cover "Night of the Living Rerun," but I think this particular story idea would have worked better either as a bookend to the final demise of the Master or as some sort of parallel story. Adding these extra layers took away from a fascinating story idea. Eventually, after Season Four, we did learn more about the First Slayer and Buffy's predecessors, and we had the "Tales of the Slayer" collection of short stories, so we did get to the point where the Slayer mythos could sustain its own fiction without the characters from the series. What Cover wrote here was the first look at a past that has been revealed in much more detail over the years since this early "BtVS" novel was written.

I loved the Book

I thought it was one of the best Buffy books. Some of them are boring. I admit, I was confused the first time I read the book, but after a second time, I got little details and loved it. I couldn't put it down!

It went into the characters and gave them a past.

This book was excellent. I have read every Buffy book up to date, and this was one of my Favorites. Also I enjoyed Child of the hunt very much. The reason I enjoyed Night of the Living Rerun because it showed the characters from a diffrent point of view. This book went into their pasts and showed them together. I think my favorite part of the whole book was when throughout the whole book Willow wasn't having any dreams like the others, and then at the very end of the book Willow has a dream that puts her and Xander together in the past. I think that that was an excellent ending to the book, and it was an exellent book. I have gone back and read it two more times. Out of all the books this one is my favorite, because of history it brings out, also I now know alot more about the Salem witch trials then I did before. I love the movie, I love the show, and I love the books, I'm obssed with BtVS!

A Great Buffy Book!

I love the show Buffy the Vampire Slayer so of course I thought it was kinda cool they had a book about it but I wasn't sure. Let me tell you though it was really cool, I think all Buffy Fans should read this book!!!

Rock On Buffy!!

I Love buffy. My room is wallpapered with the show (well..Buffy & Angel) I do everything related. I write my own stories, draw pics..buy stuff, and just about anything else an obsessed fan can do. Sarah Michelle Gellar and David Boreanaz are my favorite people. And Im excited about Angel's own show. The book lost me a little. It was written well but it was a little hard to follow. I would recomend ALL the buffy books. They're great