Nemesis was a fine read, but ultimately I found it disappointing. Nemesis starts with two parallel stories the ultimately converge Fred has been contacted by an old friend from Grad school. When they plan to meet her friend is gunned down in the middle of a restaurant. Meanwhile a supernatural entity takes out an entire club full of bad guys.
Angel and Gunn set out for the "Nemesis" that killed a club full of baddies and end up tangled up with a bunch of sorcers in a sort of anti-Hogwarts where powerful mages hold each others children hostage. But, hey, they do educate them in the process.
While Angel and Gunn are trying to find "Nemesis" Gunn indulges in some very out-of-character complaining about his relationship with Angel and pens a ridiculous comic book parody of Angel. A convenient, if ridiculous, plot device.
While Gunns characterization is completely off the wall, most of the other characters are drawn very accurately, as one would expect from two writers so experienced with Angel and Buffy.
Overall, its a solid and engaging book, but the plot was a bit convoluted. At times I found myself looking back as I tried to figure out if Id missed something.
If youre a fan who wants to read everything or even most things in the Angel cannon, read this book. Youll still enjoy it. If youre looking for ONE Angel book to read, pick another one.
another novel in the Buffy-verse by the husband and wife team, this one nearly as unwieldy and wrong as Mortal Fear. Again we get unnecessary comics references, this time with Gunn uncharacteristically penning one in response to stereotyping. The plotting of the novel itself also runs more like a comics script than a novel, with far too much attention to physical detail and motion rather than essential plot elements. They could also have used a thesaurus, or just cut down on the use of "suddenly".. To be fair, this is the only novel Ive come across that gives significant attention to Fred, and for that it deserves applause. At the same time, nearly all of the characters come across as characatures; the writers obviously know the show and details about the timeline and cast interaction, but manage to completely miss the essence of each. The story also rapidly gets divorced from its "end of season 4 setting" - aside from Wesleys estrangement, theres little that couldnt happen at any other time, and it seems odd for the crew to ignore everything else.Ill admit Im being a bit harsh, but only because there is so much untapped potential in the book - the plots intricate and appropriately tricky, and the characters seem like old friends, but everything is just off enough to prevent true greatness. As such, it remains an above average episode novel, but fails to achieve the tight writing of the television show.
Entertaining, but could have been much better