8/2 - While reading this I'm coming to think that the reason I didn't particularly enjoy the previous Buffy book I read was because I felt like the show was in its heyday during Season 1-3 - after they left Sunnydale High the show lost something that couldn't be recreated at university or at work, nothing was ever quite the same again. If the show was at its best during the first three seasons, then it follows logically that, for me, the best books would be the ones set during the same time frame. The previous book, Mortal Fear, was set sometime after Buffy started working at the new Sunnydale High as the guidance counsellor and after Xander and Anya's breakup - a storyline I didn't like at all in the show because I really wanted Xander to end up happy, and without Anya I didn't think he was.The 'bad guy' of Resurrecting Ravana is an interesting idea. The Rakshasa, who are shapeshifters and can change to look like anyone but often choose children as they tend to be universally protected, create discord between best friends, which ends in one friend killing the other and then finding a hidden place where they lie down and are very speedily devoured by the Rakshasa, leaving only a perfectly cleaned set of bones. There's a bit of unnamed racial profiling, Willow actually says that it's mean and not fair, when it's determined that the Rakshasa are Hindu Gods and of course that means that the new Indian guidance counsellor is suspect number one. To be continued...13/2 - This is getting better as I get towards the end. All the favourites are here, in their best incarnations (except for Spike) - Willow and Oz, Xander and Cordelia, Giles, Joyce, and Angel (just not with Buffy, which is a little sad to think about every time he pops in to save Buffy from the sudden glut of vampires). The bad guy is a Hindu god/demon and Ethan Rayne, one of my all time favourite baddies (after Spike), is involved. I have over the last 50 pages or so I've become quite annoyed with everyone's (especially Giles') obtuseness when it comes to Phyllis and the identity of her mystery man. I mean it's so OBVIOUS and really bugging me that no one else has a clue. 'Lloyd' is desperate to get his hands on the Ravana statuette and is wooing the only woman who can get him access to it; Ethan is in town, he's always looking for more power (well that's what he wants every time he pops up), and he specifically told Giles that he's 'in love' (I don't quite understand Ethan's decision to tell Giles that, unless it was a pointed clue from the author to who 'Lloyd' really is). Anyone else see the coincidences that really aren't? The idea that Phyllis' 100+ year old grandfather is still alive is quite interesting and something that should have been more fully investigated. Considering his interest in the occult, especially the dark side, I imagine it's not machines that are keeping him alive (as Willow supposes), but potions, a demon, or spell. To be continued...14/2 - Happy Valentine's everyone (not that this book has more than a few lines that could be considered romantic)!! I KNEW Phyllis' love interest would be Ethan! Why didn't that occur to any of the characters? I don't think that really made sense. This got three stars, but it's really three and a half (as shown on BL) because I thought the familiar Buffy characters were there, sounding like themselves.
