Vampires never die—and neither do stories about vampire slayers. The latest addition to the Buffy the Vampire Slayer (pictured above) universe is an upcoming trilogy of YA novels by Kendare Blake (Three Dark Crowns) that will follow Frankie Rosenberg: Willow’s daughter, budding witch, and slayer.
In Every Generation will be published by Disney Hyperion, and is the imprint’s first crack at playing in the 20th Century Fox sandbox since Disney bought Fox in 2019. But it’s not the first time YA novels have ventured into the Buffyverse; in 2019, Simon Pulse published Kiersten White’s Slayer, the first book in a duology which took place after the “Season 8” run of the comics and involved new characters.
White’s book won’t be quite so far off from the series, though the synopsis is a little perplexing:
Frankie Rosenberg is passionate about the environment, a sophomore at New Sunnydale High School, and the daughter of the most powerful witch in Sunnydale history. Her mom, Willow, is slowly teaching her magic on the condition that she use it to better the world. But Frankie’s happily quiet life is upended when new girl Hailey shows up with news that the annual Slayer convention has been the target of an attack, and all the Slayers—including Buffy, Faith, and Hailey’s older sister Vi—might be dead. That means it’s time for this generation’s Slayer to be born. But being the first ever Slayer-Witch means learning how to wield a stake while trying to control her budding powers. With the help of Hailey, a werewolf named Jake, and a hot but nerdy sage demon, Frankie must become the Slayer, prevent the Hellmouth from opening again, and find out what happened to her Aunt Buffy, before she’s next. Get ready for a whole new story within the world of Buffy!
“It’s time for this generation’s Slayer to be born” sounds a little bit like the series wants to reset what Buffy and Willow did in the finale: unleash the Slayer power from its patriarchally imposed limitations, and let every potential slayer come into her power regardless of generation. Limitless Slayers are a lot to wrangle, but that choice was one of the most powerful things the show ever did. I hope this is just cover copy vagueness, not a reset.
In Every Generation will be on shelves January 4, 2022.
“New Sunnydale?” Who felt nostalgic enough about that town to found a successor?
Also, putting all the Slayers in the world in one place once a year seems like a spectacularly poor decision, strategically speaking. Especially given what happened to the Watcher’s Council.
I’m going to assume that “All the slayers are dead,” is going to be a fake-out, if only because opening a successor series to a well-loved property by killing a good chunk of the characters from that property in (I’m just spitballing here but maybe a fiery explosion?) seems like a spectacularly harsh move, but I’ll admit I would still be more interested in seeing “What’s it like becoming a Slayer among Slayers,” for a book set in BtVS’s future. We’ve got millenia of past slayers to explore “What’s it like becoming a Slayer alone.”
I wonder if Miss Rosenberg is the adopted daughter of Willow other biological daughter? (This isn’t a particularly important question, but it is mildly interesting to wonder). It’s also interesting to wonder if Xander & Dawn (not Slayers themselves, but most definitely Slayer-adjacent) will be caught up in this Mysterious Event.
As for who would be nostalgic enough for Sunnydale to build a New Sunnydale? I’m going to assume those demons and/or vampires who survived Miss Summer’s incumbency in that particular ‘burg and are looking forward to having the place to themselves, now The Slayer has decided to go globe-trotting (With the Hellmouth collapsed in on itself it won’t be quite the same, but what other order of being could possibly have mixed-to-positive memories of Pandemonium, South California?).
Also, is the Power of the Slayer actually their own? Given it originally derives from what looks suspiciously like a carefully-invoked demonic possession, it’s hard to see being Called as the awakening of an inner power (as opposed to a classic Horror Movie Curse-with-short-term-benefits imposed by some external power).
If nothing else, it’s interesting to wonder if the Great Calling painted all these newly-minted Slayers with the Massive Occult Crosshairs traditionally radiating from the Chosen One (and also just how many Slayers can be supported at a time by this particular enchantment – is there an upper limit on their numbers? Does each of these new Slayers possess all the powers of the Chosen One or are some of them limited to strength, others to prophetic dreams, while yet others get the full suite? Is there consciousness lingering from the demonic entity that was used as the catalyst for the original empowerment? Have any new Slayers tried to hand back their rather dangerous new gifts? On a related note, has any bright spark employed the formula used to ‘prepare’ the Slayer for her Cruciamentum to strip malevolent or unstable Slayers of their superhuman physical powers?).
On a related note, I’ve long thought that Miss Summer’s calling-out of the Shadowmen was not unjustified but … well, I’ve never quite been able to accept it without a certain element of discomfort; after all, those terrible old men made their magic at a time when the Old Ones (pure demons of terrifying power) still prowled the Earth and Humanity might not even have had access to bows & arrows, much less rocket launchers.
It’s fair to call them out for inflicting a demonic possession (or something disquietingly like it) on a lonely young woman; it’s also fair to point out that their doing so created a legacy that would keep Humanity alive long enough to develop cities, electricity, showers, feminism … and doubtless a comparable degree of development in the Sorcerous Arts that would allow Miss Summers & her friends options the long, long dead Shadowmen could scarcely have dreamed of.
New Sunnydale doesn’t make a lot of sense, but clearing the decks of other Slayers does.
Let’s be honest from a publisher side do you really want to make a series that has been off the air since before most of your target market was born required to enjoy (and purchase) your new series? Slap the Buffy brand on the cover for the parents and make it as accessible as possible for the 12-18 demographic.
Right up there from the writer side having a organization that is supposed to be “big good” but leaves fate of the world stuff in the hands of your shiny new YA protagonist means that “big good” isn’t actually good or that “big good” is really bad at their jobs. Better to just not have a “big good” around. (Also at this point a Slayer Academy series would read like a ripoff of a dozen other YA series already on the market.)
That said I think the current run of comics took a better approach when they just rebooted the universe, reset everyone to high school students, and went in their own direction. It gave them the freedom to drop the John Hughes stuff, stalker Angel, and a lot of other bits that had aged badly.
@@.-@. tarbis: From what I’ve read of it, the reboot you mention has some good ideas but didn’t really hook me. A major problem was the fact that the artist didn’t ‘recast’ the various characters, which made it much harder to accept the series as a thing unto itself (as opposed to a Funhouse Mirror-version of the original).
I would also like to point out that there’s no inherent reason for a new audience largely unfamiliar with the franchise to find it any harder to accept a post-Season 8 Status Quo than it would be for audiences in 1997 to accept the post-feature film status quo – all they have to do is accept that the characters (and, of course, the setting) have a history beyond what is immediately relevant to the plot, sit back and (hopefully) enjoy the current story on its own merits.
Going back tot a the death-loving “one girl in all the world” premise would be sick a nd repulsive. the idea of some 3,000 Slayers in the world at one time makes sense in both the occult and the gothic traditions. One girl in all the world is Silve rAge superhero nonsense
@6. DaddyCatALSO: I’d have suggested it’s more Bronze Age than Silver Age (remember, the Silver Age was carefully designed to be as un-occult as possible), but I do tend to agree that following the consequences of having many, many Slayers at once would probably be more interesting – not least since the long history of the Chosen One allows for old school TALES OF THE SLAYERS to be told at convenience, should one feel a need to tell them.