Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Tales of the Slayer, Vol. 3

Most of the reviews have had people complaining that the book only had 4 Stories.... For the previous books people complained that some of the Stories didnt go into Detail enough... This book may have only had 4 stories but they went into Detail about their lives, instead of just their deaths or one of the many Big Battles that they Fought... Plus, it may have only had 4 stories but it was longer than the first book and I think the second Book as well (cant find the second one right now though) The first Book was only 276 pages worth of stories, the third was 319 pages worth of stories.

I have to say, I liked the fact that these stories were more Detailed than the ones in the other Books. You learned more about the Slayer in the stories, who she was, what she was like, what she thought of things, how she reacted to her calling.. Etc. Etc... I really liked that.

The first story, while I thought it was good it wasnt my favorite... I think that it could have been written better but I still enjoyed it. It took place in 1229 A.D... I liked the Descriptive Detail that was given of things. It was almost like you were there. They described the Smells, the way things looked and how they felt, What life was like back then and the way people lived and their Traditions, what it was like suddenly being the Slayer after waiting for many many years for it to happen... What it was like being the Slayer back then and not knowing much about the Vampires, such as their weaknesses.
It kinda gave the Impression that she was the First Slayer or at least the first Slayer in a very long time... I dont know what I think about that.

The Second Story I think was my favorite. I really liked the Story of Ching Shih. Not only did it go into great Detail about the Slayers Life but it went it detail about how life was for people back then... In particular women... It went into detail about how she reacted to being told that she was the Slayer. About the relationship between her and her Watcher. It also went into some Detail about her past, before being Called.... Which I really liked and enjoyed.... The way that they described the fights that they were involved in was great, I could actually picture the fights in my mind.... Again I REALLY enjoyed this story.

Really quick though, to the person that said her name meant "Moon Kissed Petals", maybe the reason that you didnt like the story was because you didnt read it thoroughly... That name was a name that was used to refer to another little girl, a thief in the Tavern... Not only that but the girl who used it, made it up, it was fake. I suggest reading it again.

I liked the third story as well. I think that it probably came into a close second whenever it came to being on of my favorites... Again, I liked the fights.. I liked that the Slayers Watcher was a woman, a very capable woman who could also hold her own in Battle... I liked the way that the Slayer thought, what she thought of her calling, how she missed certain things back home, and how they mentioned "Kakistos" in this story (The Vamp that Faith was afraid of whenever she first came to Sunnydale)... I also liked the fact that she was willing to Compromise with Demons, that she knew not all of them were evil and that she wasnt interested in killing the ones who were harmless... She reminded me of Buffy ALOT.

I havent gotten through #3 Voodoo Lounge yet, not sure what I think of it.
#4 The Code of the Samurai is set in Tokyo December 1993, just before Buffy. The Slayer here is an American girl whose Naval Officer father has just been stationed in Japan, she makes some friends and together they wipe out a band of centuries old Vampire Samurai. That one was written well enough but I just didnt like it.
If there is a fourth volume I hope they get back to the mini story concept and get some show writer contributions.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Tales of the Slayer, Vol. 3 > Customer Review #3:

---

Interesting

Originally when I purchased this book I was a little disappointed to find only four stories when the other volumes contained many more, but after reading them I found I enjoyed them being longer thus able to go into more detail and the other books seemed to lean more towards the slayers deaths while this book told more about their calling and life. That said I was still only able to give this book three stars simply because I absolutly hated the first story...Im not sure if I could accuratly describe why I think its just about personal preference (Yvonne Navarro who wrote this story also wrote "White Doe" which was I think in the second book, and which I also didnt enjoy). I really enjoyed the second story (about the slayer in Shanghi) although at the beginning I didnt think that I would, I liked that it had a bit of a "moral" to it and it had some interesting plot twists, the third story I enjoyed (more so perhaps because I had read SpikeandDru, which is the book in which Eleanor Bordreou(sp) was called) the fourth story was interesting because it was the slayer right before buffy, I really enjoyed the fact that the last two stories were somehow tied into other novels in the buffyverse, personally I enjoy that sense of continuity. If you are a big obsessed Buffy fan (much like I) then you of course will like these books, if you enjoyed the first two Tales of the Slayer than you will probably enjoy this volume, if you cant sit still long enough to read something longer than ten pages long or you have no interest in Buffyverse than yeah this book is definatly not for you :)

---