I love Buffy books. I love Angel books. I love Christopher Golden and Thomas Sniegoski. When I saw this book, I saw no reason not to buy it...I must say, I have extremely good taste.
This story takes place around the middle of Buffy's sixth season, and Angel's third, when mysterious murders surrounding the community of demon/human half-breeds begin-both in Los Angeles and in Sunnydale. The culprit is the Coalition for Purity-a demonic Nazi-like regime, bent on eliminating all but the pure-blooded demons from the world. After learning that this army is being raised and sent to Los Angeles, Buffy immediately contacts Angel, a vampire with a soul and her former lover, with the news. In a short time, they discover that the general of this army is none other than Axtius, father of Angel's fallen friend, Doyle. And he wants revenge for the death of his son, for which he holds Angel wholly responsible.
The two groups of demon-hunters reluctantly join forces. Immediately they must deal with personality clashes and old disagreements as to who really leads the group. But the worst threat rests on an island miles away from Los Angeles-an island filled with demons that desire a sanctuary; an island that Axtius believes he must destroy in order to achieve true purity. Answering the need for help, the Buffy Gang and Angel Investigations must go to the island, and stop the spread of hate and injustice.
This was a great story. For one, joining these groups together led to plenty of hysterical combinations. Xander and Cordelia, who used to date on the Buffy series, are thrust back together again, with comical results. Gunn and Spike also make an interesting, hate-filled combo, as well as Spike and Angel-both giving us a glimpse as to what we can look forward to in the new season of Angel which now includes Spike. And never mind the cuteness of the friendship that forms between Tara and Fred, whom Cordelia dubs "shy and shyer."
Returning for this story is Harry Doyle, wife of Francis Doyle and esteemed demon archeologist, as well as Charlie Nickels and Elijah Carnegie, two characters that were created for and exist only in the Angel novel series. New to this story, is the character of Calvin, a kid from Gunn's neighborhood whom Gunn has sworn to protect and who keeps on getting in the way of danger.
This story is both humorous and incredibly dramatic calling on a theme of family and the expectations of ones’ father, which play over the length of the book. We follow both teams as they discover that it's not the family that you’re born with that counts, it's the family you build through out your life as well. Whether it contains parts of your real family, or just your closest friends, this book tells us that family is indeed the people who are most loyal to you and whom you will stand by to the very end-a sentiment that rests quite close to my heart as well.
If they DO ever decide to make a Buffy/ Angel movie, this should be it.
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