REVIEW Death's daughter

I just read Death's Daughter, Amber Benson's new book, and I can't wait for the other books in the series. Not to spoil you too much, but the main character, Callie, is forced to leave her life on Manhattan and return to her old life to save her family. You could find amazon's description in the link above, so no more plot details is needed. I just want to point out that in this book we see how Callie struggles to finish tasks, gains both enemies and friends, while trying to deal with being around her family again. As a matter of fact, she has to deal with simply remembering her family again.

She put a memory spell on herself (I don't know how exactly how it worked, but I think she must have lost all memory of her family, since in the end she mentions how she now will come home for Christmas, like she didn't do that before) and during her adventures on earth and in hell, she must deal with repressed memories and low self esteem, combined with disgust for her father's job.This isn't the "heaviest" book I've read, it's light and fun and has a happy ending, but you do feel for the characters and their lives.

The book does leave me wondering about many things, both about the characters and about how magic works in Callie's world and many questions are unanswered, but hey, it's the first book in a series, it's not suppose to spell everything out to the reader. I can already say that I will be very sad when the third and final book is released.

It's well written, easy to read, not to descriptive but with enough details to let the reader "see" clearly what they're reading about. We read from Callie's perspective, our heroin, who is a bit of a clutz(?) and whiner, but definitely champion material. Through the whole book she's complaining about how she wants to return to her normal life on Manhattan, but she never gives up. True, she breaks down and cries several times in the book and once she actually lied down, not even getting up when her little sister begged her, but considering what the girl had to go through, it's no wonder. I really hope that in the next book some loose ends will be tied(you know, questions answered), because there is some serious family issues that needs to be dealt with, grief-wise. You will know what I mean after you've read the book.

In case you want a signed and/or personalized copy, read Amber's blog.

I would get a signed copy if I didn't live on student loans and already bought the book.

Interviews with Amber(btw, she's adorable), where she talks about Death's daughter and other projects:

Part 1

Part 2

If you've read the book, write a review on amazon and we might see Amber doing the Macarena.

Weekly feature: Excerpt from original script

This weeks episode is Conversations with dead people, when Buffy has a heart to heart with a vamp, Dawn fights of a poltergeist(kinda) and Willow talks to Tara through a ghost. Well not really. She's just talking to the First. But in the original teleplay Tara was suppose to come back and visit Willow in person. However, according to The Watcher's Guide vol. 3, Amber Benson couldn't or wouldn't come. I heard that it's wouldn't. I read that Joss wanted her back as the First (I assume in this episode) but she didn't want to hurt the fans who had already suffered enough through Tara's death. I'm pretty sure I read that in a interview somewhere.

Anyway, here's a brief piece of the original exchange;

Tara: I'm sorry to wake you.

Willow: Ha...

Tara: Ha-what?

Willow: Is that like a dream joke thing? You're sorry to wake me, but I'm clearly not awake and if I was awake and you really were here, would you be sorry to wake me? I mean, after all this time and - oh God, I'm babbling. I'm dream babbling and it's the best dream of my life and I'm wasting it and-

Tara: I just meant, I liked watching you sleep.

Also, although the new big bad has yet to be mentioned by name in dialogue, the script already refers to it as "The First". And in case you don't know, it wasn't Joyce, it was The First. I'm not sure if all the ruckus was The First, maybe a magician helped with the "storm" inside the house, but Joyce didn't talk to Dawn or Buffy in season 7. Jane Espenson (or another writer) has confirmed this. But since I don't have source right now...

A sketch a day keeps the boredom away.

Stephen Mooney, awesome artist of Angel After the fall, and a few other Irish artists have gathered together to bring us one sketch per day on this site.

MY THOUGHTS Missing heart to heart.

Here's a short fanfic. Sort of a "missing scene".

In End of days, anyone think that there's a huge "I told you so" waiting to happen?

Buffy's back in the house, but the Scoobies don't really have a talk about what went down when Buffy got thrown out? I want to think that after Chosen, they had a talk. This might be how it went down;

*Buffy, Willow, Xander, Anya, Giles & Dawn are together in a big hotel room. Buffy is facing the others, arms protectively crossed, a uncomfortable silence is in the room*

Buffy: I think we need to talk.

Xander: Buffy we know we were wrong...

Willow: We're sorry.

*Giles is cleaning his glasses*

Buffy: No. I won't say 'I told you so'. Because you probably think that it's luck. Luck that I was right. Luck that I didn't die, luck that...

Giles: No. It's wasn't luck.

Buffy: Maybe you don't think that. Still... We have problems, don't we?

*they look at each other, insecure, not knowing what to say, and the screen goes black*

I hope they had a talk. Otherwise, some issues are unresolved. That Buffy was right about the schyte might not mean that Willow and the others are confident in Buffy. But, since about 18 months passed between Season 7 & Season 8, I think they worked things out.

Smile Time cover for issue 3

I loooove David Messina's cover for issue 3 of Smile Time. That's the picture to the left, which was inspired by the ad to the right, which was a promo pic for season 5 of Angel.

I "borrowed" the pictures from Chris Ryall's blog, and if you want to read a little more about what he has to say about the Smile Time-covers, click here.

Below are some of the other covers for Smile Time.

Covers for issue 1:

Cover for issue 2:

MY THOUGHTS I can't stay away from original scripts.

On this site a fellow fan shared the original Buffy-get-out-of-the-house-scene from the Drew Z. Greenberg full-white draft for the episode Empty Spaces(so it's not a absolutely sure source)

Here's the aired version and in this thread's first post you find the original.

Here are my views on the changes;

I think I like Willow's ”She's tired”-approach more in the original script than the quieter nicer way on screen. Of course, Willow treating Buffy like a 7 year old would be strange.

I'm not sure if I like Xander's blame in the original script or not(okay, he lost an eye, crankiness and blame is expected) but it's great that he says;

"Even when you get mad at us for not working hard enough at a plan which doesn't exist, because you don't know what you're doing. We keep following you, even then.”

Because it's true. Buffy has put a lot on them all this season.

****

I love that Buffy mentions Ben to Giles. Even tough it didn't make it to the screen, this for me settles the question if she knows that Giles killed him or not. I heard from a fan that in the original script for Lies My Parents Told Me, Giles tells Buffy about Ben in the graveyard, to show her that sometimes you have to make the hard decisions(he's trying to make her see why Spike has to die).

I don't get what Giles means by this tough;

"GILES (more intense) Or Molly? Or Xander? And it goes even further back than that, doesn't it?

BUFFY Giles.

GILES (seething) You act alone, and people get hurt, right? People like Jenny.”

He's the one who got involved with Jenny, he's the one who told her about the Hellmouth and let her into his life. Sure, Jenny was sent there by her people to watch Angel, so she wanted to be there from the start, but still. Sure, it was Buffy's ex that killed her, but it's not like Giles told Jenny to go somewhere safe.

I'm glad this part didn't make into on screen. Man, I would have loathed Giles(even more than I did after he tried to kill Spike that is.

***

This part, from the screen but not in the original script, is gold;

"BUFFY: No. You don't get to vote until I've had my chance to pal around, you know, get everybody drunk. See, I didn't get this was a popularity contest. I should have equal time to bake them cookies, braid their hair?

FAITH: Learn their names?

BUFFY: You're just lovin' this, aren't you?

FAITH: You have no idea what I'm feeling.

BUFFY: Come in here, take everything that I have... You did it before. Did you tell them that? Did you tell them how you used to kill people for fun? Hey, you guys think that's nifty?"

Buffy's a bitch in this scene, but I think this adds to Buffy's character, her loathing for Faith that just won't go away. It isn't pretty, but it's real.

***

I think that over all, the aired scene is better. Because it makes me less pissed of than the original script. More sad than annoying. Anya's Stargate line should never have been cut tough. There must have been time limits that made them not air it. Of course, a joke might not be fitting in such a emotional scene, but I love the line.

Weekly feature: Excerpt from original script

I found this funny piece of direction in The Casefiles volume 2 and decided to show it to you guys, even tough it's not exactly a line cut due to length(and I don't understand it completely).

It's from the episode Billy (Angel, Season 3) when Billy makes men go mad(but not in the sexy way. Unless you're into that, which is a personal choice, I guess).

"Angel's penchant for quick exists is exemplified in this piece of stage direction from the shooting script:

WHOOSH-Angel's off into the night.
WESLEY'S POV
The dark figure of Angel just disappearing over a roof (or around a corner. Point is, he ain't Superman, but we get that the cat can cook when he wants to.)"

*googling "the cat can cook"*

I feel so Swedish right now. What does it mean?