Life on the Hellmouth -- a.k.a. Sunnydale, California -- has always involved a steady parade of demons intent on ruining Buffy Summers's nightlife. Staying at the top of her game means Buffy's racked up some powerful enemies.

Now an old nemesis has returned: Ethan Rayne, a college "friend" of Giles's, has arrived in Sunnydale, and this time he actually wants Buffy's help. Not surprisingly, he's run afoul of The First -- an ancient evil that predates humankind. And now The First has made Ethan a deal he can't refuse: ultimate power. All he has to do is lure Buffy into battle.

With their sanity on the line, the gang is going to need all the help they can get. Enter Spike and Faith...

"...Xander nodded as the local vampiric mascot of the Maagic Box, William the Bloody, better known to his friends and enemies alike as Spike, came up into the main store from the basement. His sharp-featured face was set in a carefully neutral expression. Spike was a vicious murderer and supernaturally strong. That he was also a vampire didn't even begin to make his presence easier to accept. His only saving grace was that he was now a "neutered" vampire. Not all that long ago, a group called The Initiative had caught the bloodsucker and put a chip in his skull that made it almost
impossible for Spike to actually attack a living person. All he had to do was take a violent action toward any human being andhe would get a nice, crippling migraine. Xander Harris had been on the receiving end of a few Spike attacks in his day, and he had also dealt with the people he cared for being kidnapped and grievously injured by the blond-haired, punked out creep...." (P. 8).

The foregoing was enough to make me, a loyal fan and watcher of both BVTS and Angel, and a big fan of Spike, want to puke.

This book (according to the front cover) takes place during Season 6 of Buffy. Obviously, its not the same universe shown onscreen. The Spike described in this book is NOT the character that many of us have grown to care deeply about. Its a total distortion of Spike's character, and -- since the book is in no way presented as an "alternative universe" story, a
fraud. And an insult to us, the fans.

The real (not revisionist)history is this: In Season 4, Spike realized that he was in love with Buffy.

In Season 5, Spike began, with great effort, changing his behavior to win her love. Buffy relied upon him to protect her mother and her little sister, when they were threatened by the hell-god Glory, who was searching for her "Key". Of course, the "Key" was Dawn. Spike did so, even to the extent of allowing himself to be tortured almost to death rather than reveal to Glory that Dawn was the Key. He fought at the side of Buffy and her friends and helped them escape from Glory, and from the Knights of Byzantium. Just before the final battle against Glory was to begin, Buffy told Spike that "we're not all going to make it," and Spike said "I always knew I'd go down fighting." Buffy told Spike she was counting on him to
protect Dawn; his response: "To the end of the world, even if that is tonight." And he tried his best, risking his life to save Dawn. When he failed, and saw Buffy lying on the ground dead, he crumpled to the ground and cried in agony.

In the first two episodes of Season 6, we learned that Spike has fought with the "Scooby gang" during the 147 days that Buffy has been dead and has served as Dawn's primary protector. When Willow is able to bring Buffy back to life with a spell, he becomes her primary confidante, friend and supporter. He
continues to be deeply in love with her and she begins to, reluctantly, reciprocate. The middle of season 6 brings a musical episode, which ends with Spike saving her life once again (while everyone else looks on and does nothing) and ends with a passionate kiss.

Of course, we now know that a great deal more happened in the second half of Season 6. Spike and Buffy had a torrid love affair (with much mental and physical abuse of Spike by Buffy), culminating in a disastrous 10 second confrontation that may or may not have been an attempted rape of Buffy by
Spike, who was so used to acquiescing to Buffy's taste for sexual violence and dominance games that he didn't realize (for all of 10 seconds) that this one time, "no, don't" really mean't "no, don't." Nevertheless, Spike was so traumatized by what he had done, that he went on a quest to regain his
soul, and did so in the last episode of the season. And of course, we now know that in the seventh and final season, Spike returns to Sunnydale, driven to madness by guilt for the crimes he committed as a vampire and tormented by the First Evil. Buffy, learning that he now has his soul back, rescues him from the school basement and he becomes her strongest ally in
the fight against the threat posed by the First Evil, and she begins to return his love. In the last episode of the season and (and of the series itself), Spike dies heroically, saving the world from destruction by the First Evil.

Certainly, neither the writers nor the publishers of this book knew what would happen in the remainder of Season 6 (its unclear when in this season the story in this book supposedly occurs) nor what would occur in Season 7.

But this book was released in July, 2003 -- after Season 7 was completed and represents itself as occurring at some point during Season 6. It is a despicable act to release this distortion. I am so angry that I will never again buy another one of these books, and I am widely circulating this
report so that others will do likewise. Why should we, the fans, spend money on distortions that seriously misrepresent the characters that we have grown to care so much about? Why should we continue to pay the publishers and "owners" of these characters) to disrespect us? If they want to publish Buffy fiction, there are hundreds of them on the net. And the skills and talents of many of the fanfiction writers far exceed those of most of your writers. Perhaps the publishers need to learn from them. I certainly have.


Spuffers, how I loathe thee.   July 28, 2003
 7 out of 11 found this review helpful

Why is it that Spike fans feel the need to defend their precious Spikey Wikey and completely skew the reviews for a good book? Especially when they haven't even read a tenth of it! It boggles the mind.

'Chaos Bleeds' is the novelization of the new console game by the same name. Billed as an 'untold episode' of BtVS during Season 6, the premise involves the different planes of reality bleeding into one another, while some old friends (and enemies) return to 'Dale (FAITH!!). Saying anything more would spoil the plot.

This isn't the best Buffy book, but it's definately entertaining. Any fan should give it a read.

Apparantly, there's some controversy about how Spike's portrayed here. I honestly don't see the problem. This book takes place during Season 6, when Spike was a SOULLESS DEMON. He was EVIL!

Am I the only one that remembers Spike's betrayal in Season 4? He teamed up with Adam and tried to turn the Scoobies against each other, so he could have the chip removed. The only reason he helped them in the final battle was because Adam turned on him!

Why can't people see Season 5 Spike for what he was, as well? He was a stalker! He was never in love with Buffy, he was obsessed with her. Spike snuck into the Summers' house and stole Buffy's panties. Spike had a sex robot built that looked like Buffy. He tried to present himself as a good guy in order to get in her pants, people. Love and lust are two entirely different things, and what Spike had was an unhealthy obsession based on lust.

Season 6 was a very dark season, and the Spike/Buffy "relationship" was never meant to be viewed as a romance. Spike played the role of the abusive boyfriend, and that was shown time and time again through every metaphor possible. Buffy had just been ripped out of Heaven by her friends when they brought her back to life. She was horribly depressed, and was desperate to FEEL again. That's why she kissed Spike after the musical, and began having sex with him. The "relationship" was mutually abusive, but most of it came from Spike, not Buffy. He goaded her into violence, tried to make her believe that she "came back wrong", distanced her from her friends, and told her that she "belonged in the dark with [him]". Once Spike realized he could hit Buffy, the first thing he tried to do was attack an innocent girl, and was only thwarted by the still operational chip. When Buffy finally broke it off with him, even taking responsibility for her own actions, he attempted to rape her. Tried to "make her feel it", he claimed. And I don't know about you, dear reader, but Spike didn't sound very traumatized when he spouted he'd "give the [] what she deserved".

So yeah, describing Spike as a "vicious murderer" and "blond-haired, punked out creep" is accurate at this point. Season 7 has NOTHING to do with this book, since the video game was in production before Season 7 even premiered.


Now That You've Played the...   November 7, 2003
 6 out of 6 found this review helpful

In a wry reversal of literary tradition (remember the days when the book was written first and the film second) Chaos Bleeds is a book based on a console game that is based on a television series. Given this wierd architecture I'm not sure what precise definition of 'successful' should be applied. Is the novel a good extension of the show, a fair representation of the game, or, last but not least, is it a good novel on its own.

Set in the Spike-just-got-his-chip era, the book opens with a short attempt to set the scene, followed by a battle, and then followed by a battle, and then a short cut scene, and then another battle... You get the picture - the primary purpose of Chaos Bleeds the novel is to provide a virtual reality version of Chaos Bleeds the game. If a novel could ever be considered a 'virtual reality' experience.

So while there really is a story arc, there is nothing so complicated as a plot. Is this a bad? Not really, Moore does concentrate a bit on character development, so personalities come through in a way that the game simply cannot do. And it is genuinely interesting to learn the motivations behind some of the madness of the game itself. And Moore writes as well as could be expected, given the literary constraints.

As a general rule, story telling games like the Shadowrun series translate into novels best. I think this is the first time an action game has attempted the transition, and it is almost a success from a pure readibility viewpoint. Unfortunately, the hectic pace of the game is less engaging when replayed in text. The book is hard to put down not because it is a fascinating story, but because the reader is provided with very few logical breaks in the action. So I find the book likeable, but I'm not at all sure that I would want to repeat the experience. Any more than I would look forward to the Playstation version of War and Peace.


"I Can Feel This Place Unravelling..."   July 5, 2004
 4 out of 4 found this review helpful

Forms of entertainment are a funny things these days: first there was literature, and then movies that were either original, or based upon the earlier books. Now it's common to go to the movie theatre in order to watch a movie based on a theme-park ride ("Pirates of the Carribean") or a computer game ("Lara Croft"), or read a book based on a television series (titles from the "Charmed" series). "Chaos Bleeds" is another bizarre first: a book based on a video game based on a highly popular television series.

Even if the words "based on the video game" wasn't stamped on the cover of this Buffy the Vampire Slayer novelisation, I suspect that most shrewd readers would guess that this was not your average "Buffy" book, given the sheer amount of action and fighting that takes place in it. In fact the lack of character interaction, the simplistic "find-the-body-part" narrative and the sense of surrealism that the other dimensions create adds to the atmosphere of the hack-and-slash world of video games.

Buffy and the Scooby Gang are drawn into a massive arena of fighting when an old nemesis Ethan Rayne re-appears in Sunnydale and breaks to them some rather appalling news: he has made a deal with the entity known as the First Evil in a bid for power. The deal is that the two adversaries will choose five champions and pit them against each other. Ethan has chosen Buffy, Spike, Willow, Faith and (in the absence of Oz) Xander, who must fetch the five body parts of Cassandra Rayne, Ethan's ancestress who holds the key to destroying the First. But the First has his own champions, and has bent the rules a bit by selecting them from other dimensions, which means that previously defeated foes are now back in action: Kakistos, Adam, Anyanka, Drusilla and more. A little help comes from the wooden-dummy Sid, who apparently didn't get heaven-sent after killing the last demon in Season One's episode "The Puppet Show", and instead shows up to inform the Slayer about Hope's Dagger, the only weapon that can defeat the First.

It is an interesting concept, and a good way to reintroduce popular characters that no longer have a place on the television show (I'm just sorry they didn't include more - what about Angelus? Darla? The Mayor? Snyder?), but it's perfectly obvious that its true format belongs on the Playstation/X-Box/Nintendo/whatever console. Page upon page is packed full of characters fighting: kicking, punching, stabbing, running, elbowing, shooting, head-butting...and needless to say reading action sequences are utterly boring compared to watching them on the T.V. (or in this case *controlling* them on the T.V.).

Furthermore, "Chaos Bleeds" does some serious damage to the continuity of the show: it's set in Season Six (ie, Joyce is dead, Tara's still alive, Spike's chipped), and is seemingly unaware that Buffy goes up against the First once more in Season Seven, where she certainly makes no mention on the show of this particular run-in with the First, nor her triumph over It. Neither does it try to explain how Faith gets back into prison or what actually happens to Ethan (easily one of the show's most popular villians) after all this occurs.

Which is a shame, since James A. Moore is otherwise so careful throughout the book not to contradict anything that has previously happened on the show, which is to the book's detriment. He almost seems afraid to gives us any new information on the characters that could have churned up my interest in the book's progression - for instance, he often mentions Faith's first Watcher (all we know about her from the show was that she was female and died messily at the hands of Kakistos), yet he doesn't take the opportunity to tell us anything more about her - not even her name! I've always found this to be an untouched mystery well-worth exploring, but Moore seemed reluctant to give us anything on the character's backgrounds that hadn't already been mentioned on the show (and was therefore already known to 99% of the readers).

Maybe I'm being a bit harsh in my assessment - for all I know Moore was drafted into writing this novelisation, but the fact remains that it is a somewhat confusing and irrelevant addition to the stock of Buffy-inspired books.


No Giles/Ethan? Shenanigans!   July 31, 2003
 3 out of 5 found this review helpful

After investigating the source of a severe vampire attack at the magic box, Buffy discovers some very strange occurrences. Such as Sid the dummy and Kakistos, the ancient vampire that killed Faith's first watcher, mysteriously coming back to life. Things get even worse when Ethan Rayne shows up. He's apparently run afoul of the First and has named Buffy, Faith, Spike, Willow, and Xander his protectors.

I usually don't read Buffy fiction but I couldn't pass this one up because I'm a huge Ethan Rayne fan. Alas, this book was disappointing to say the least. The bulk of the book is made up of very boring fight scenes that go on for far too long. What little plot the book contains is completely ridiculous and would severely mess with the continuity of season seven. The Ethan parts were pretty dissatisfying as well, especially since there was no Ethan/Giles interaction. A little humor would have gone a long way towards making this book tolerable but most of the jokes were just not funny. The only good thing I can say about this book is that everyone seemed to be in character to a certain degree. Still, avoid this one at all costs!