Book 33
Fray by Joss Whedon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Had I rated this when I first reviewed it way back when it probably would have been five stars but now many years later I find myself struggling to separate it from how the Buffy the Vampire Slayer show ended, not to mention the comic books. It put a pall on this for me because in order to get Fray's dystopic, magic-less universe Buffy, Willow and the rest had to end up the villains in their own story and that makes me sad.
Putting that aside and judging this on its own merits isn't easy but for those not in the know, this is a tale set within the Buffyverse only a few centuries from now in your cut and paste sort of dystopia (one of the reasons I don't like them, they all seem so homogenous). Melaka Fray is a street kid in Manhattan, a city now run by mutant gang lords and the underground is filled with Lurks (i.e. vampires). Problem #1 I had was why are the vampires so different and so much 'less' than they were in Buffy's time. Hell Darla and Angelus were alive as long as it's been time wise between Buffy's day and today in theory so what mutated them? We don't know and it was a problem for me.
Mel is a thief, trying to escape her past which we slowly learn has to do with her twin brother, Hrath. Her older sister is now a cop living in worry she'll have to arrest Mel who is very good at her job. What no one knows is Mel is so limber, so strong and so quick to heal is because she's the first Slayer to be Called in centuries.
For murky reasons (another problem for me is why did the demons send Urkonn to her side to help train her? Yes, there were some vague reasons but it seemed not enough somehow), a grotesque demon, Urkonn, has been sent to help Mel become the Slayer (in lieu of a Watcher). She's an incomplete Slayer, minus the dreams and sense of connectivity to the Sister Slayers before her. While this has a fascinating reason that should have been exploited more in the story, it also fell a little flat in another respect as neither Buffy nor Faith ever seemed to have much in the way of Slayer dreams to the point it was remarked on by their Watchers.
Speaking of the Watchers, that's another place that just didn't work for me. Frankly it would have been more interesting to have had them just give up on Slayers and disband or simply have Urkonn beat them to her. Instead in a mere couple centuries of waiting, the Watchers have gone insane. We meet only one who kills himself at her feet. Um....right? Not so much (or maybe I should be thankful that the millions of faithful waiting for their savior to return aren't insane which seems to be the premise here).
That aside, I did love Melaka. She's tough, she's smarter than she realizes and she's compassionate in a world that does not reward empathy. She makes for a good leader and a great hero. The story is compelling. Those above quibbles aside, it is good story telling, very good really. You end up rooting for Mel quickly. There is a good deal of pathos here and it works in this setting. I'm glad I reread this. You assume that Mel will survive to the end but it's written in a way that you're not sure she can possibly make it.
It was left open for a sequel which to my knowledge never happened (or if it did, I missed it). I would have liked to have seen more, even though I'm still very salty about Buffy and Willow being the ones to doom the world to this horrible existence.
The art in this is great. I will give Whedon thanks for putting an edict out against the usual giant boobs and idiot poses we get in comic book art. Mel is realistic looking. And while I love her ombre hair, I will say it was also eye rolling. She's a street kid without so much as a shower to her name but she has the means for a fancy dye job? Ah well, it does look cool.
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