Tales of the Slayer, Volume 1

This is the first book in a series of stories about previous slayers. I bought the book with some concern, figuring that the entire book would simply dwell on how various slayers died. Fortunately, the book turned out to be much more than that.

There are stories, of course, of slayers dying, but the stories mainly deal with the psychology of the times, the slayer herself, and sometimes her Watcher.

The first story deals with a slayer in ancient Greece and is probably the weakest story in the book. That's not saying it's bad, just that it's not quite as good as the other stories.

The second story deals with the late 1500's in England, and the birth of a slayer in the New World and centers not so much around the slayer herself as around the people's reactions to the slayer, some of those initially very good but ending up almost evil in nature.

The third story deals with a slayer in Hungary in the year 1609. This is a story very much centered on a rather imperfect slayer who does not really listen to what her Watcher is saying, proving that not all slayers are "good" students of their council guide.

The fourth story deals with a slayer during the time of the French Revolution and is one of the strongest stories in the volume, centering equally around the slayer and the conditions in France at the time. This story also shows how people are brought up the official policies of the government, only to find out that those policies may not really be good for the people.

The fifth story deals with a slayer in Kentucky in 1886 and is a good story showing how a young girl must come to terms with being a slayer and being different, and then being shunned by those who accepted her before.

The sixth story takes place in Germany in 1923 and is almost entirely Watcher-centered, this story showing that Watcher's themselves may not always be the paragons of virtue that Giles appears to be.

The last story deals with Florida in 1956 and uses the slayer and her watcher as a way of seeing the evil of racial prejudice in full force in America of that time.

This is basically a really good novel in a number of ways and is worth getting.