Monolith
by John Passarella
List Price: US $5.99
Released in June 2004
Published by Simon Spotlight
323 pages.
NOTE: This story takes place between Spin the Bottle and Rain of Fire in Angel Season Four.
When a giant monolith suddenly arises in the
middle of Hollywood, the public are amazed but assume it is a publicity stunt
for the latest movie. However, Angel and the gang know that the monolith has a
much more frightening meaning; the beginning of the Apocalypse. Soon, the gang
are racing against time to stop the monolith, which is the gateway to a hell
dimension waiting to unleash hell onto earth. With demons already leaking
through the monolith, the gang will have to put aside their differences to work
together to stop this Apocalypse. But can they overcome their jealousy, betrayal
and mistrust in time?
Monolith by John Passarella is a well written Angel book. Passarella
writes the characters excellently and is able to understand their motivations
and feelings to convey them well through the book - so as you read, you can
actually hear the characters saying the words. The language is good and the
dialogue has Angel's characteristic snappy comebacks that'll make you laugh.
Monolith is set in Season 4 between Spin The Bottle and Apocalypse Nowish
and John Passarella effectively captures all the struggle and friction between
the group that time. While there isn't much focus on Cordelia and Angel, which
is good as it becomes a tired issue on both the show and other Season 4 books,
it explores the Conner/Angel, Gunn/Fred, Gunn/Fred/Wesley quite well.
The plot is fairly straightforward and unlike other Buffy and Angel books it
doesn't delve too much into mythos and information that often complicates the
story to the point where we can't tell what is happening. The book also escapes
from another Buffy and Angel common flaw. It wisely avoids too much action and
fight scenes and the language is varying enough that sequences are kept
interesting such as Conner's chase with the demon across LA, which would be
otherwise boring.
Overall, Monolith is a well written book that characterizes Angel and the
gang excellently. The main highlight is the characterization and the language.
The only downside is that the plot is too ordinary (yes, Apocalypse by dimension
opening is too common to me) and boring. Plot originality would have made the
story more interesting.