I think it just covers seasons 3 and 4. And the final Watcher's Guide is the worst of the three. No new interviews and a bunch of essays that have been tacked on at the end. The only one of interest is Little Willow's one.

Simon | July 01, 22:26 CET

Hear hear, Watcher's Guide Volume 3 was a huge dissapointment after such a long wait, the episode guide misses key bits, and is written by someone who is very anti-Spike (when writing an episode guide, he should have tried to remain nuetral), and gets some bits plain wrong (I know a lot of people have a problem with it, but Spike went to Africa with the intention of getting a soul). Volumes 1 & 2 were episode guides, and more, this one is just a below average episode guide, you'd get a better one cutting the reviews out of old issues of SFX and sticking them together, wait that's a bit harsh.

Haven't read the essays yet, the only part I really enjoyed of the book was the section on Pop Culture references by the Trio in Season 6.

I hope the second Casefiles is more like the first 2 watcher;s guides, and they're going to need a hell of a lot of material to pad out Volume 3.

Ghost Spike | July 01, 22:36 CET

I know they had already announced a date before ATS was cancelled but I'm surprised they didn't push it back to include season 5

garda39 | July 01, 22:40 CET

It's the same writer here as in The Watcher's Guide Vol. 3. So it's probably bad. But I think it will include season 5 though.

stiansaint | July 02, 01:34 CET

Hey all. You're all talking about how bad the 3rd Watcher's Guide is, I'm wondering one thing (because I was thinking of purchasing it but maybe I won't...) does it at least have the music guide that the 1st 2 books had? That is, the lists of the songs/artists that were used on the show and which episodes they were in?
Thanks

forcorreo | July 02, 01:45 CET

OK, this is a bit random, but sorta follows on from forcorreo's question. Does anyone know where to find a list of the musicians who performed on "Once More With Feeling"? I haven't seen that info anywhere. . . and *please* don't tell me it was all Chris Beck on some electronic gizmo. Then I'll know that my ear truly has given up and I'm ready for the St. Joss Retirement Home.

SoddingNancyTribe | July 02, 01:53 CET

forcorreo There is no music or band feature in the third volume.

SoddingNancyTribe Do you have the OMWF CD? As there are productions credits at the back of the CD booklet.

Simon | July 02, 02:05 CET

Simon, I do have the CD, and I have looked for the credits in the booklet, without success. So either I'm going blind as well as deaf, or ? (defective booklet? whatever). Thanks for the advice though.

SoddingNancyTribe | July 02, 02:27 CET

It's possible that the book will have season 5, after all the novelisation of season 7 of Buffy came out very quickly after it finished on TV. On second thoughts maybe that isn't the best example, you can feel the quality of writing go down as the book goes on and can fully understand why Nancy Holder wanted her name taken off it.

I reckon best would be for them to delay the book a bit to allow for a decent Season 5 guide, also to listen to people's comments about the latest Watcher's Guide and get somebody else to do the Angel book.

Ghost Spike | July 02, 02:39 CET

Thank you Simon. Bummer. Now I know I won't buy it.

SoddingNancyTribe- Do you have the Once More with Feeling Script Book? Cuz there's some description there of the players. They mention that Chris Beck and Jesse Tobias both played some actual instruments, they mention a guy named Josh Freese as having played some guitar, and Steven McDonald as having played some bass.

forcorreo | July 02, 02:55 CET

If it did include season five, you would think that Spike would feature somewhere on the cover... but hopefully it does

aapac | July 02, 04:07 CET

Never fear, Gentle Readers, Nikki Stafford has an Angel book coming out.

For those of you that don't know, she wrote "Bite Me", a great book about BtVS. I know it has its critics, but it remains my favorite of all my Buffy books.

And yeah, gotta agree with you all about Vol. III, I bought it without even looking at it first, anxious to complete my collection. Foo. Errors galore. One of the most glaring to me was when he said that Cassie told Spike that Buffy would "tell him" in CWDP. No she didn't. That was in the first Cassie episode, when Spike helped rescue her from the idiot frat boys.

Small I know, but it bugs me just the same.

Willowy | July 02, 06:52 CET

Keith Topping's books on Buffy and Angel are definitely my favorites. No pictures or any of that stuff, but I think they are the most perceptive and detailed episode guides. Topping's ep guide to Buffy Season 7 (called Last Days of Sunnydale, I think), comes out any day now.

fruit punch mouth | July 02, 08:07 CET

Ha! I love that screen name, fruit punch mouth!

I tried to get Keith Topping, but Barnes&Noble didn't have it and Hastings in this town is a huge joke. I've heard good things. And I thought his addendum was already out? Maybe I'm mistaken...

Willowy | July 02, 08:19 CET

Slayer Last Days of Sunnydale is indeed already out you can get it on Amazon and there's a new Buffy Trivia book by Keith coming out in August too


seconding your comments on The watchers guide , some of the essays were interesting but overall it was a huge disapointment

debw | July 02, 08:47 CET

If it's any explanation, the author of BTVS WG V3 (!), Paul Ruditis, did a similarly horrendous job with the Star Trek: Voyager companion. It's good to see his incredibly below average (when compared with the ST:TNG Companion and the DS9 Companion) work there was rewarded with him getting the opportunity to turn in yet another below average episode guide. And now he's spreading his unique brand of barely-saw-the-show-and-probably-wrote-the-book-from-reading-network-publicity-material "writing" to the Angel universe? Great, just great. He must be stopped! :)

jenolen | July 02, 14:32 CET

I'm surprised they allowed the third volume to become so far removed from the first two. They are supposed to be a set after all. Seems to me from what i've read here that this one could be considered a totally different entity.

I'll still buy it no doubt, being a Buffy/Angel completist. I'm not going to let a substandard author get in the way of my supporting the continued existence of the slayerverse by buying all the merchandise i can afford. Just hope that the second Angel guide isn't as bad as you all predict, i really love the first one.

Disciple of Spike | July 02, 14:53 CET

Bummer, I was really looking forward to the third Watcher's Guide. The first one is within one of the first WHedonverse purchases as a fan. ANd after the second Watcher's Guide and the Monster Book my standards were set higher.
I haven't even got my copy of the first ANgel Casefiles: is it good?
I guess I'll be saving some money and purchase the DVDs sets first. And buy these books later, mostly for the same reasons as Warlock.

[ edited by Numfar PTB on 2004-07-02 14:06 ]

Numfar PTB | July 02, 16:06 CET

So, if you were going to start from scratch, would you get the Topping books or the Stafford books? Any reason to get them both (i.e., do they complement one another)?

I have the first two Watcher's Guides and the Angel: Casefiles; and while they're good, they're not something I want to re-read much -- I just use them as reference material.

The Topping books sound like they're just fun to read.

[ edited by bookrats on 2004-07-02 18:26 ]

bookrats | July 02, 20:23 CET

Well I like the Topping books personally but to be fair the Stafford books are fun too . Very different styles and formats. But it's the Topping tomes I turn to when rewatching the episodes or just for a fun read . And there's going to be an omnibus edition of the Slayer Guides ( The Complete Slayer) out in the autumn .


(Oh and just to make my bias clear Keith has asked me to thank fruit punch mouth for his/ her kind comments)

debw | July 02, 20:40 CET

And there's going to be an omnibus edition of the Slayer Guides ( The Complete Slayer) out in the autumn .

Excellent! Then I'll wait for that and pick it up then. Thanks!

One question: any word as to whether Topping's Hollywood Vampire will be updated for Season 5 of Angel? (Or whether he's working on a Firefly book?)

[ edited by bookrats on 2004-07-02 21:25 ]

bookrats | July 02, 23:22 CET

I haven't heard for definate about Hollywood Vampire being updated but i have absolutely no doubt that it will be within a year or so. The first five seasons of Buffy all ended up in a single book so i would imagine that all five seasons of Angel will as well.

No idea about Firefly though, sorry.

Disciple of Spike | July 02, 23:33 CET

Keith says that he's hopeful of being in a position to announce another
Angel book shortly, but, at the moment, nothing had been confirmed.

no news on Firefly sorry

debw | July 03, 17:26 CET