UNSEEN - The Burning I Nancy Holder & Jeff Mariotte
UNSEEN - Door to Alternity II by Nancy Holder & Jeff Mariotte
Pocket Books (Simon & Schuster) - June & August 2001
ISBN 074341893X (I) - ISBN 0743418948 (II)
Paranormal / TV tie-in / Buffy the Vampire / Angel

Reviewed by Rachel A Hyde, MyShelf.com
Buy a US Copy of The Burning I / Door to Alternity II
Buy a UK Copy of The Burning I / Door to Alternity

This is the first crossover story which links up both Buffy and Angel and for once the writers have left the Doyle days behind and set it between the fourth and fifth seasons of Buffy and the first and second seasons of Angel. Things start in a small way when Willow's wealthy Mexican college friend Salma de Natividad comes to the gang for help when her brother Nicky runs away from home to join a street gang and appears to have an interest in black magic. Simultaneously in Los Angeles Angel Investigations Inc are finding that teens - most of them from wealthy families - are being abducted and seem to be just vanishing. So where do the Russians fit in, and why does Sunnydale seem to be awash with more than the usual number of monsters?

There seems to be enough plot in here to fill a trilogy and as Mexican gangs, shady Russian scientists, wannabe vampires, vanishing teenagers and holes into other universes at first appear to be disparate but then converge the pages keep on turning. As usual there is plenty of action in this novel and an entertaining, fast-paced tale even if nothing new is learned about any of the characters (a flaw in all the Buffy/Angel novels). Well worth a read if you are a fan of the series and keep your eyes open for the finale of the trilogy Long Way Home which is out in September in the US, and in October in the UK.