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Average Customer Rating: 
Doomsday Deck (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) >
Customer Review #1:
 Total fluff - skip it
I had three problems with this particular entry to the Buffyverse:
lt;br /gt;1. Its short. 193 pages in large print, so you really arent getting your moneys worth. Its a novella at best.
lt;br /gt;2. The author doesnt capture the voice of the characters nearly as well as some of the other contributors, and some items are just wrong (e.g., especially in this Season 3 chronology, Buffy doesnt drive.) The dialogue is lame, with Buffy occasionally sounding like Giles, Anya never sounding like Anya, and a villian that doesnt even acheive the insightful repartee of your cheesy comic book. Try Christopher Golden and Nancy Holder for far superior characterizations and voices that "get" the Buffy tone.
lt;br /gt;3. The story, which had potential in theory, is just plain lame in execution. The characters do stupid things, the conclusion is artificial, and you are left with the thought that these people are no better than the various teenagers offed in any B grade horror flick. Dont waste your money.
Doomsday Deck (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) >
Customer Review #2:
 Better than expected
This book was a lot better than I thought it would be. After reading some of the reviews I wasnt expecting the best Buffy book ever;however,I really enjoyed Doomsday Deck. All the characters act just like they do in the show. Even though Anya wasnt a main character in the third season of Buffy, she still played a nice sized part in this book. I liked that this book explored Tarot cards, which is new to the Buffy universe. Also the plot was really good in this book. The ending was great and I could cleary see every detail. Over all this was an amazing book which I highly recommend to everyone.
Doomsday Deck (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) >
Customer Review #3:
 Jhaemans Review
DOOMSDAY DECK
lt;br /gt;By Diana G. Gallagher (2000)
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lt;br /gt;RATING: 3/5 Stakes
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lt;br /gt;SETTING: Third Season
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lt;br /gt;CAST APPEARANCES: Buffy, Angel, Willow, Xander, Giles, Cordelia, Joyce, Anya
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lt;br /gt;MAJOR ORIGINAL CHARACTERS: Justine Camille (tarot reader and artist); Rob Chambers (photo journalist)
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lt;br /gt;BACK-OF-THE-BOOK SUMMARY: "Its that time of the year for the Sunnydale Sidewalk Art Festival, and Buffy and the gang have been enlisted to help Joyce prepare for the big event. In fact, Xanders especially eager to pitch in, due to the arrival of a major hottie--a young artist named Justine. She specializes in Tarot paintings, and tells Xander that she senses much energy surrounding his aura. Xander naturally assumes his latent psychic powers have been awakened. But Buffys not quite ready to call the psychic hot line. She has a nagging suspicion that something about Justine is not five by five--especially after she reaches for Justines prized Tarot deck, which causes the artist to fly off the handle in a big way. Then theres the fact that vampires appear uncomfortable in Justines presence. One by one, each of Buffys closest friends seem to be surrendering their free will to an unknown, unseen force. . . ."
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lt;br /gt;REVIEW
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lt;br /gt;If nothing else, Doomsday Deck contains a great insight into how Xander perceives his relationship with Buffy: hes like an extra stake in her back pocket, "handy to have around, but not irreplaceable." Xanders sense of himself as a relatively extraneous, snack-gathering appendage to the Scooby Gang was a major aspect of his characterization until the end of Season Six, and author Diana Gallagher portrays this insecurity well in the first half of her novel.
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lt;br /gt;The plot of the book is developed better than in many other Buffy novels. Doomsday Deck acknowledges that the reader will inevitably point to any major new character as the villain of the piece, and instead develops an air of mystery around exactly what her malevolent plans are and how they will unfold. In short, artist and tarot-card reader Justine Camille plans to trap one human soul in each of her 22 tarot paintings to fulfill an ancient books prophecy that doing so will give her hearts desire (in this case, becoming a famous artist in New York). Theres also a rather trite and undeveloped use of Kali (Goddess of Chaos) thrown into the mix somewhere, but the book focuses on Justines visit to Sunnydale and her inevitable conflict with Buffy and Co. Along the way, of course, several of Buffys friends get their souls trapped in the cards and Buffy has to race against time to free them before their bodies die.
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lt;br /gt;The end of the novel suffers from an over-long climax, and the backstory as to how Justine found the book and decided to use the cards should have been fleshed out more (a failing common to many Buffy episodes, where the supernatural villain or device appears out of practically nowhere and is never seen again after the story is over). The dialogue is passable but lacks the witty one-liners of a good episode. On the other hand, the use of tarot cards is integrated well into the story, and many of the readings that Justine performs for the Scoobies are intriguing. Fans of Buffys mom (a.k.a. Joyce) will also be pleased to see the more active role the character takes in helping her daughter. All in all, Doomsday Deck is one of the better middle-tier Buffy books, and a good example of how to successfully use something in a story (tarot) that could easily have come off as gimmicky and stupid.
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lt;br /gt;(c) 2004 Jeremy Patrick-Justice (jhaeman@hotmail.com)
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