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Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Blackout by Keith R.A. DeCandido
01/12/2006 . Source: Sue Davies 
pub: Pocket Books/Simon and Schuster. 232 page paperback. Price: £ 6.99 (UK). ISBN: 1-4165-2636-6. Buy Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Blackout in the USA - or Buy Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Blackout in the UK  check out website: www.simonsays.co.uk and www.DeCandido.com
I am cursed by books that I want to like. I miss 'Buffy The Vampire Slayer' and like reading around the mythology and side stories. Therefore I am damned. My curiously gets the better of me and I guiltily pick up the books that offer little glimpses into the past and possibly future of the character.
Seemingly set during season six, we start with Spike, now being bigged up as the hero of the piece. Aside from the disquieting notion that this creature should be flamed and shamed, we have the on-going masochistic relationship with the Slayer to think about.
An old acquaintance rolls into town and is curious as to Spike's situation. This causes a flashback of massive proportion which lasts pretty much the whole book. Spike recalls (going all misty no doubt) his time in the 1970s when he commenced his Billy Idol-wannabe phase.
Newly punked Victorian vamp Spike is in the Big Apple for a Ramones Concert and attracts some unwelcome attention from the local Vamps who also happen to be the local mob. He also finds out there is a Slayer in town. Now 70s Spike/pre-up-the-ratings Chip is keen to get a little action with the Slayer involving her death. After all, he has already notched up a Slayer in the Boxer Rebellion.
Part of this story was featured in the season five episode 'Fool For Love' where we find out about the death of the New York Slayer who is mother to Robin Woods, the new Principal of Sunnydale 'Death Trap' School. This sort of fleshes out the relationships; those of the Slayer with her Watcher (a little like Giles) and her young son. It also goes way into Shaft territory and this is where it falls down. There are no big revelations and pared down nothing much happens.
The worst thing for me was the constant allusions to Shaft and all the other Blaxpliotation films of the 70s. I know it was deliberate but in the end I just found it wearing. I got the point where I was counting the amount of times that 'Badass' was said, oh and 'fool', 'craze' and pretty much every other overused word. It was an attempt to cover a fairly weak story with so-called authentic language of the day. The joke wore thin pretty fast for me and I found the plot tedious. The ground was well covered in the TV Series and this dressing up of it is fairly pointless and just a gratuitous exercise.
It did not work and also the retrospective look at Spike's career in a new light was a little over the top. When he was first introduced it was made plain that he was an evil monster. The chip did not change him other than neutering his abilities to eat. This is a rather a fanciful excursion that does not add anything to the series as it stands and the dialogue proved to be a 'baaad' experience, brother.
Sue Davies
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