This might be my favorite in the series so far. A little bummed that the cover art has a giant spoiler. But that's what I get for waiting for the trade paperbacks instead of reading issue-by-issue.Other reviewers have expressed disappointment that this wasn't climactic enough, or that certain plot points weren't fully fleshed out. I see where they're coming from, but this is solid middle-of-the-season-arc writing. I feel a huge payoff coming in later issues. (Of course, I'm thinking in tv-season terms.) This was some excellent stuff. ( )

Despite the last three volumes having different writers they've all held deliciously true to the Buffy-verse while not letting the storyline becoming dull or repetitive. With this addition the story moves the focus back to Buffy and to the large story arc, Buffy vs the mysterious Twilight. Except it moves at this plot from a side arc rather than straight forward.
It cannot be coincidence that a temporal anomaly sucks Buffy into the future right when Twilight has been trying to convince her of the futility of her spell to make all the Potentials into genuine Slayers. Whoever Twilight is, they are fighting to kill Buffy, to destroy the spell so the balance between good and evil will be restored.
So whether the anomaly and Buffy being present is due to Twilight's interference or not, Buffy landing in a future words where a Slayer is at war with her twin, who has been turned into a vampire, seems only to reinforce Twilight's attacks on Buffy's resolve.
But the main player in this tale doesn't appear to be either the strange, lonely Slayer, her vampire twin with the Slayer's memory, or Twilight. Instead the direct story behind Buffy's time trip is sadder and closer to home than Buffy could guess.
While ultimately a sad volume, so much is left undone, unexplained, unseen or heard that it takes from the depth of the final scene. Readers can only hope that the Buffy-verse continues its habit of baiting, teasing and most of all, delivering. ( )

Summary:Time of Your Life combines what's previously happened in Season Eight with what happened in the Fray comics, and assumes you've read both - not much explanation is given for folks who haven't. If you haven't read Fray, put down this review, don't even think about picking up Time of Your Life, and go read it. It's short; I'll wait.

Okay, everybody caught up? In Time of Your Life, Buffy is caught in a temporal disturbance that winds up transporting her to the future Manhattan, where she meets the Slayer Melaka Fray. Once there, she's forced to wonder: What happened between her time and Fray's time? How did they get from a world with hundreds of Slayers worldwide to only the single Slayer, with no sense of her history or heritage? What role did Twilight play in the creation of this future? And how - and why - is Buffy in the future, anyways? The arc mostly focuses on Buffy and Melaka's stories, but back in the present day, we do get some nice moments from the rest of our regulars, including a magical attack on the Scotland fortress, and Dawn learning yet another reason why it's a bad idea to mess around with a Thricewise. The volume rounds off with a one-off story involving Buffy dreaming she's back in high school.

Review: Woohoohoo, boy, do things get *interesting* in this volume! I can't really talk about how they get interesting without spoiling the major reveals, but suffice to say there are plenty of twists, turns, flip-flopping of sides, and familiar faces showing up (although not always in the context I had expected.) It's not clear how (or if) the main plot is related to Twilight's aims, and it still feels like we're in the set-up phase of the season... many more questions (and "it's a long story"s) are being presented than are being answered. Of course I've got faith that Joss knows where this whole thing's going, and is going to tie the pieces together eventually, but it definitely makes me antsy waiting for the next installment.

The way this installment ties together the present-day Buffyverse with the bleak future mapped out in Fray makes me wonder if Joss actually had Season 8 in mind back in 2002/3, when Buffy S7 was airing and Fray was being published. There is a long way to go between the hundreds of Slayers that Buffy and Willow raised, and Fray's world of half a Slayer, and it just seems to jive so well with Twilight's goals that either it was planned long in advance, or else there's some well-designed retconning in play. Stories involving time travel and mucking about with the future/past have to be done really carefully to avoid gaping plot holes, and I'm reserving final judgment on this one until I see how it all pans out, but so far, so good.

I think my least favorite part about this volume was the artwork. Judged on its own merits, it's totally fine, but in the context of previous volumes, it's not quite as good. Karl Moline, who also did the pencils for Fray, drew the majority of this volume, and it looks to me like he was trying to split the difference between the style of Fray and the style of the rest of Buffy Season 8. The result, however, is that a lot of the characters aren't immediately recognizable, or that they're only identifiable because of their eye-patch, or hair color, or clothing. There were even a few times (including one big reveal) where it took me several panels to figure out who a character was supposed to be. Regardless, though, Time of Your Life is a fascinating addition to the story, and now I can't wait for the next volume to come out. 4 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: Buffy fans will be devouring this volume with or without my recommendation, I'm sure, but I wasn't kidding: read Fray first! ( )

I enjoyed reading this issue, but it was still the least satisfying volume of the series so far. It consists as usual of a four-issue arc followed by a standalone one-shot. "Time of Your Life" is an appropriate title: the main arc takes Buffy forward in time, while the one-shot takes her back to Season 1, in a print realisation of the never-completed Buffy: The Animated Series.

The one-shot is superb, but, despite some interesting moments and Dawn's star turn as a ... spoiler alert ... centaur, the main arc didn't engage me. It plunges Buffy into the world of future Slayer Melaka Fray, and little concession is made to people like me who haven't read the Fray comics. The action - leaping from air-car to air-car - would have looked great on TV, but in the confines of a comic it was underwhelming.

Not the team's best work, then, but it hasn't dampened my enthusiasm for the Buffy: Season 8 comics as a whole. ( )

If you don't know how the television series ended, you may not want to read this review.

Buffy is transported forward in time when she and Willow travel to New York in search of more information on the scythe.

If you haven't read FRAY, Joss Whedon's first comic book venture, you probably want to take care of that before you read this one. Melaka Fray plays a large role in this story arc, and much of the action builds directly off of what went down in her own book. Buffy's story is central, of course, but everything that happens to her is integrated with everything that happens to Mel. You could probably enjoy TIME OF YOUR LIFE without having read FRAY, but I think you'll get more out of the book if you've read them both.

Buffy's presence in Mel's world leads to a really, really, really exciting plot twist that has to do with Twilight's aims... but I'm afraid it'd be pretty spoilerish for those of you who haven't read FRAY, so I'll resist the urge to discuss it. Let's just say that Joss thickens the plot but good. He ups the stakes, twists everything around, and leaves us (meaning me) pretty damned eager to get our hands on the next volume.

And on top of that, there's some more insight into what's going on with Dawn, Willow has some awesome scenes, and we get one hell of a WTF moment with Twilight. Personally, I'm not so convinced that we're seeing what we're seeing, if you know what I mean, but that didn't stop me from spewing a few profanities. 'Cause if we are seeing what we're seeing, this is pretty well the best thing in the history of the earth. Seriously, people, it delighted the hell out of me. Angst! Turmoil! I love it.

This's awesome stuff, my dears. Bring on PREDATORS AND PREY!

(A slightly different version of this review originally appeared on my blog, Stella Matutina). ( )