Avoid "Pretty Maids All In A Row".

That's a Christopher Golden one and I agree w/Betsy.

(Aren't there Nancy Springer ones that are supposed to be good?)

See, I LIKED Pretty Maids all in a row. I thought it was fun.

Avoid Book of Fours and Obsidian Fate. I thought the book with Chaos in its title wasn't half bad. It was about Druids and some Vampire trying to open the Hellmouth, but the characterizations were decent.

( Obsidian Fate has the distinction of seeing Angel's darker half spelled "Angeles", but not every time.) The author did seem to have done a lot of research on Aztec rituals that were mildly interesting, though.

The Book of Fours is one huge Apocalypse battle that invests so much time in new secondary characters (only to kill them off right after spending an entire chapter on them) as to have just cliche renderings of the main characters.

That's about all that I have managed to finish, but I still have others sitting around. So far I haven't been too impressed with anything.

This discussion came up on the BetterBuffyFics list the other day....

The Lost Slayer series (Prophecies, Dark Times, King of the Dead, Original Sins) by Christopher Golden

- Buffy makes a decision that propels her into an alternate universe,where everything is turned on its head.

- If you're going to read any Buffy novel, I'd definitely recommend this series. (Originally released in 4 mini-installments, the collected copy will be published in December or January.) Christopher Golden showed why he is the preeminent Buffy writer by creating an AU as compelling as the Wishverse, where Giles is on the dark side.

Sins of the Father by Christopher Golden

- Pike comes to see Buffy and Giles has to battle some personal demons when facing off against his father

The Gatekeeper Trilogy (Out of the Madhouse, Ghost Roads, Sons of Entropy) by Christopher Golden and Nancy Holder

- Buffy and company have to travel along the ghost roads to prevent the gatehouse from being destroyed, allowing demons to flow into the world

- This series introduces the ghost roads concept and slayer Lucy Hanover, which later pop up in other books by Golden and/or Holder

The Book of Fours by Nancy Holder

- Four slayers, past and present, must team up to keep the world going and the Slayer line alive

I've only read the Angel books since they introduced Wesley into the fold (Haunted), and I've enjoyed them so far, although no overwhelming recs yet. Jeff Mariotte is the main writer on this side of the Jossverse. I just got the new Angel hardcover, Endangered Species, by Holder and Mariotte, but haven't started on it yet.

and also this:

If you want to see the canon hindsight/ should you consider when stories are written answered in graphic detail, try reading City Of..., the first Angel novel by Nancy Holder- It was published in 1999, so probably written early in the year and was based on Joss and Greenie's original teleplay, but in the end, just like us, Holder got Jossed but good! Most of her "Angel's beginnings" flashbacks are AU now- It makes for interesting reading...and yes, Spike says "Cor"! ;-)

As far as recs, I haven't been overly impressed with the Angel novels, I've read better fanfic in some cases, especially looking at detail and continuity- Bruja (Odom) and Redemption (Odom) were interesting thoughts- Soul Trade (Sniegoski) was the most adult, and a good read- it was violent enough that I wondered how he got it through the publisher, but then I read Spirit Bear and Fever!, both written for the very young teen and went...oohhhh..., graphic okay, apparently...

The most recent one, These Our Actors, isn't bad, and it has an intriguing theory about what happened to Cecily after William died (not a theory I agree with, really, but not one I've seen pop up in fanfic either). The ending is far too abrupt, though.

Immortal and The Evil that Men Do are both pretty good, and I still like The Gatekeeper trilogy.

The Book of Fours made absolutely no sense at all. Or if it did, I missed it.

(Aren't there Nancy Springer ones that are supposed to be good?)

Nancy Holder, I'm guessing from the following messages? Because I'd be fascinated to see Buffy written by Nancy Springer. Or, even better, Angel. Hello to the slash!

I think the Gatekeeper triology is the best I've read. I'm been pretty disappointed by most of them, especially Pretty Maids All In A Row. it had the capactity to be a really good story, but it wasn't very well handled.

I think the Gatekeeper triology is the best I've read.

I agree with this, and I also enjoyed The Lost Slayer serial novels.

I never read the Lost Slayer books- who wrote them?