This was something a little off the beaten path for a Buffy novel, as Buffy and most of the rest of the cast from the show doesn't really appear in the main story at all. The novel springs off of a brief story element from one episode of season five (later picked up in one episode of season seven) about Spike fighting an African-American slayer named Nikki Wood in New York in 1977.
Being a book taking place in New York in the late 1970s, and featuring a main character who is black, the book is *very* heavily influenced by blaxploitation cinema (Shaft and Cleopatra Jones and whatnot). There's plenty of talk about how The Fuzz is nothing but a bunch of jive turkeys, and most of the vampires in the city seem to double as gangsters and pimps. Basically, if you like that type of film, and have any interest in the Buffy 'universe', you should be able to get a huge kick out of reading it - DeCandido really seems to relish in being able to tell this type of story. I also appreciate the fleshing out of slayers other than Buffy herself - there's this grand fantasy universe that's been created by Whedon, and it annoys me sometimes that it focuses too much on a single blonde girl in California. ( )

A definite change of pace, as DeCandido tells the story of the Slayer, Nikki Wood.

"As for the coat--hell, baby that was her look. You didn't mess with the look. Besides, she used the coat to cover he moves, like Batman did with his cape in the comics. In fact, that was how she saw herself: as Cleopatra Jones and Batman all rolled up in one cool package."

This Slayer is different, as she learned late, and has a child. It seems like DeCandido uses the child, Robin, to write a love letter to his comic geek childhood growing up in New York.

Nikki's mortal problem is that Spike is in town, with a big head, and getting annoyed when the Ramones aren't on at CBGB's and being annoyed by local hood vamps.

At the end, we see Robin's motivations for moving to Sunnydale to become a principal.

http://superprose.blogspot.com/2006/1... ( )