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Coyote Moon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Book 3)
by John Vornholt
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Simon Spotlight Entertainment (1998-01-01)
ISBN: 0671017144
EAN: 9780671017149
Mass Market Paperback: 164 pages
Reading Level: Young Adult
SKU: MOZ124587
Condition: Very Good
Comments: 0671017144 MMPB free of markings. Cover shows light wear. Spine has a single light crease. Interior has a few accidentally dog-eared pages but shows little use otherwise; overall, a very serviceable copy. Your book will be carefully protected for transit in sturdy, weather-resistant packaging. We are prompt, efficient, communicative.
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
Of Shapeshifters and Skinwalkers....As long as there have been vampires, there has been the Slayer. one girl in all the world, to find them where they gather and to stop the spread of their evil and the swell of their numbers. The seedy carnival looks like just the thing to give Buffy and her best buds, Xander and Willow, a break from staking bloodsuckers. Some greasy food, a few cheap thrills -- what more could a Slayer ask for? But then Buffy senses something evil behind this carnival. Xander and Willow aren't so sure. They don't buy Buffy's notion that the carneys are somehow connected to the corpes turning up around Sunnydale. It doesn't help that her two best friends are each interested in someone at the carnival. Which puts the burden of proof on Buffy. Can she find out what's going on in time to save her friends? Or has the Slayer become the prey?
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Customer Reviews
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Giving My First Time a Second Try
Rating  (3)
Date: 2007-12-09
"Buffy the Vampire Slayer" is the best television show ever aired. That's pretty much all there is to it. I love the series, I love the spin-off Angel - Complete Series Collector's Set and I love the official continuation we've been getting this year through the medium of comics. I've played the video games, I've bought the soundtracks, and I've met James Marster. But yet I had never read an entire Buffy novel. I did start Queen of the Slayers (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), but I had to put it down because of Holder's bad writing. But, with this book, I decided to give Buffy novels a second try.
There were a few things I really liked. The plot is very focused, with every plot thread pulling us in towards the major story, which is a creative one. Skin-walkers were never touched on in the actual show, so it was interesting to see something different pop up here. As a writer, John Vornholt is talented, and he handles the story well. Even during the parts of this book I didn't love, I never felt the desire to put it down or to read something else.
What I didn't like was some of the characterization. Buffy is pretty much in character, though she says a few things that would never come out of the character's mouth, and the term "wiggins" is used too often and also incorrectly. Xander is a caricature of himself and Willow's character is, for the most part, driven solely by her crush on Xander. Giles is the worst. In this book, Vornholt turned one of the most interesting BtVS characters into a stereotypical fuddy-duddy who cowers in the face of danger. Vornholt also misunderstands the fundamentals of the Slayer/Watcher relationship. There are many instances in this short book where Buffy either "puts Giles in his place" or tells him something along the lines of "I thought I told you to ____!" Giles accepts these orders as if he is simply her employee. Even though this book was published early in the series, there was absolutely nothing in the first season of the show to suggest Buffy was Giles' boss, because she just isn't. Another problem with this book was the timeline. While it isn't a big deal, as the book isn't part of the canon, it's annoying that there is no logical way to fit the events of this book into the series. On a stretch, it could take place right before Episode 2:02, but the book implies that Buffy spent the summer in Sunnydale after "Prophecy Girl." Which she, as the fans know, did not.
Characterization and timeline errors aside, "Coyote Moon" was good enough to convince me to give other Buffy books a try.
5/10
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"Yeah, I'm a Freak Like You!"
Rating (3)
Date: 2004-09-03
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
Set in season one of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," author John Vornholt brings two new elements to Sunnydale - a travelling carnival and a pack of strange coyotes. Buffy, Xander and Willow are excited about the presence of a carnival to finish off the summer and soon Xander and Willow are hooked up with two exotic carnies, Rose and Lonnie. Buffy however, is distracted by the presence of a pack of coyotes roaming through the streets of Sunnydale. Although Willow insists that this is a normal occurrence, Buffy isn't so sure, especially when she sees the coyotes hanging around the grave of an old Western cowboy entertainer named Spurs Hardaway.
After some research, Buffy and Giles learn that Spurs claimed to be able to change into any animal after learning the Native American skills of "skinwalking", and after she finds some conclusive evidence, Buffy realises that the carnies are the pack of coyotes that plan to resurrect their old leader under the Coyote Moon. Finding some surprising aid from an elderly carnie named Hopscotch, Buffy rushes to find Xander and Willow and convince them of their dates' true identities. But now the werecoyotes are on to Buffy...
"Coyote Moon" is a reasonably entertaining Buffy-book, nothing spectacular, but retaining a sense of coherency and interest - plus a few unforseen twists and a good use of the werecoyotes' powers (that is, they don't just have them for the sake of having them - they *use* them to add to the completion of the story). One thing of interest in particular stuck out for me which may or may not have been intentional - right before Buffy sees the coyotes for the first time, she feels a cramp in her stomach. This harks back to the "Buffy" movie, starring Kirsty Swanson, told that cramps in her lower abdomen foresaw the arrival of danger - to which she replied, "Great, my secret weapon is PMS." This Slayer power was disregarded in the television series, but Vornholt's little comment suggest it was not completely forgotten.
If you are a fan of the show, you'll know how terrible Buffy is at lying and undercover work, whether it was the hopelessly obvious trench-coat and sunglasses she wore in "I Robot, You Jane", or the babbling she did at the door of demon-Ken's Family Home in "Anne" before she just gave up and slugged her way in. Here, John Vornholt instigates this lack of talent wonderfully, as throughout the course of the story Buffy has to scrabble for excuses and alibis, leading her to pretend she's about to throw up, claim that Xander is her boyfriend, and insist that she's a witch at different points throughout the story.
There is however some rather sloppy writing and characterisation in the story, which prevents it from being a must-read Buffy book. For example, Vornholt describes Buffy awakening at four in the morning to the sound of coyotes killed a small domesticated dog. She rushes out to comfort the weeping owner, and then is said to be "amazed that nobody else had come out to witness this dramatic scene." Er, it's four in the morning, Buffy - they're all asleep! Later, at the climatic finish in the graveyard Willow watches the bear-skinned corpse of Spurs Hardaway break through his grave. On him the pelt ripples as he begins to morph into the body of a bear, but Willow thinks: "it must be static electricity." For heaven's sake, she's just seen the carnies change into coyotes and the corpse rise from the ground - why is she *still* trying to find a rational explanation? Oy.
This leads to my second complaint, and that's the characters of Willow and Xander. This is set in season one, and therefore it's assumed that the events that took place in "The Harvest", "Teacher's Pet" and "The Pack" have already occurred. Since these episodes also included dates luring them to the cemetery, a femme-fatale shapeshifter, and people getting possessed by the spirits of animals, Willow and Xander's behaviour throughout the book come across as thoroughly stupid. Are we really meant to believe that after all their experience they're going to go with two suspicious carnies to a graveyard in the middle of the night? No way.
Last of all, the ending is rather anti-climactic and abrupt. Buffy kills the head-villain within one paragraph and with no trouble at all, and the final resolution of the situation makes no sense. Standing in the remains of the carnival, Buffy claims that with Spur's death the power of the skinwalkers is gone. How she knows this, or how this actually occurs is not explained, and is further complicated by the fact that she then turns to see a coyote (implied to be Hopscotch) on the crest of a hill. So...how come the curse wasn't broken for him? In both cases, we are severely short-changed when it comes to the ending.
So despite great descriptions of a carnival, a reasonably interesting premise, and a funny sequence involving a heckling clown and a dunking pool, I'd give "Coyote Moon" two and a half stars. Read it if you're in a hurry or just want some extremely light holiday reading.
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The Skinwalkers Come to Sunnydale
Rating  (4)
Date: 2004-06-29
3 out of 3 customers found this reveiw helpful
COYOTE MOON by John Vornholt is the third Buffy The Vampire Slayer book and the second all-new adventure. Like the previous volumes this was a very well-done book. I don't know if the series has a better bible than others but so far all of the characters act just as they would be expected to on the show.At the end of Summer a carnival comes to Sunnydale. Shortly after that, coyotes are seen closer to town than usual. Buffy starts to get the wiggins about the carnival and finds some minor evidence that they are involved in something not normal. Eventually a plot involving werecoyotes and skinwalkers is revealed. Unfortunately for the townsfolk the plot involves the carnies seducing and slaughtering a number of Sunnydale's young folk. In the end Buffy triumphs and curses are lifted. While this volume is quite good it is not canonical. The events take place at a time that we now know Buffy was not in Sunnydale. This puts it in a class with many of the Star Trek books. So if you consider this an old episode you missed then it works out quite well. Unfortunately these books are a little hard to find because they are being marketed towards young adults (hah, my 78 year-old father is one of the show's biggest fans).
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Tony Hillerman lite
Rating  (5)
Date: 2004-05-11
I savored this book a little longer than the previous 2. I loved the scene where Willow was playing poker. This book is Tony Hillerman lite. If you've read any of his mysteries, you'll know what I mean.
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Jhaeman's Review
Rating (3)
Date: 2003-12-27
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
COYOTE MOON
BY JOHN VORNHOLT (1998)RATING: 3/5 Stakes SETTING: First Season (summer) CAST APPEARANCES: Buffy, Xander, Willow, Giles, Cordelia ORIGINAL CHARACTERS: Rose, Lonnie, Hopscotch (werecoyotes); Dr. Henshaw (friendly doctor); Spurs Hardaway (villian) BACK-OF-THE-BOOK SUMMARY
"The seedy carnival looks like just the thing to give Buffy and her best buds, Xander and Willow, a break from staking bloodsuckers. Some greasy food, a few cheap thrills--what more could a Slayer ask for? But then Buffy senses something evil behind this carnival. Xander and Willow aren't so sure. They don't buy Buffy's notion that the carneys are somehow connected to the corposes turning up around Sunnydale. It doesn't help that her two best friends are each interested in someone at the carnival. Which puts the burden of proof on Buffy. Can she find out what's going on in time to save her friends? Or has the Slayer become the prey?" REVIEW Coyote Moon, the second original Buffy novel, is a solid if unspectacular story about the arrival of werecoyotes in Sunnydale (disguised as a carnival) and their attempt to resurrect their long-dead leader. Buffy spends most of the novel attempting to gain proof of the carneys' true nature (with Giles' help), while Xander and Willow are seduced by two of the carneys. Xander's terribly luck with the ladies holds out, as his new girlfriend Rose simply wants him and Willow to be the human sacrifices necessary to resurrect Spurs Hardaway, a Buffalo Bill Cody type of Western performer who died exactly a century ago and discovered the secrets of "skinwalking" from an unnamed plains Indian tribe, which allowed him and the other performers to become an animal by donning its skin. After being captured by the werecoyotes, Buffy manages to escape with the aid of Hopscotch, a renegade werecoyote who wants her to stop the resurrection because he was the one who secretly killed Spurs Hardaway to begin with. In her own inimitable style, Buffy manages to arrive at the resurrection just in time to drive a silver knife through Spur Hardaway's werebear form and save the day.
The novel has some strong elements. Xander's teen lust for Rose is depicted well, as are the feelings of love and hurt that Willow feels everytime Xander fails to notice how much she loves him. Also well played is a scene where Buffy interrupts a Xander-and-Rose makeup session, prompting Xander to tell Buffy off. Other highpoints include Xander trying to grow a goatee (failing miserably) and some interesting use of Native skinwalker stories.
Overall, Coyote Moon is a competent addition to the Buffy line and has the feel of a first season episode. It's by no means a page turner, but it also doesn't prompt groans of dismay like some other books in the series.
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