Christopher Golden pens another of his excellent “Buffy” epics with “The Wisdom of War” (July 2002). While it feels a little too big for its britches as I try to reconcile this story fitting into the TV show’s narrative flow – for example, Xander nearly gets turned into a fish monster in a more serious reprise of “Go Fish” (2.20) and Buffy suffers a life-threatening injury in the final battle – it earns serious points because Golden nails Faith’s characterization in his first crack at writing the rogue Slayer.
The author also digs deeper into the history of the Watchers’ Council and the mechanics of how it operates, and introduces a peace-promoting rival sect called the Order of Sages. In episodes such as “Helpless” (3.12), “Consequences” (3.15), the Faith redemption arc (“Buffy” Season 4/“Angel” Season 1) and “Checkpoint” (5.12), we see Council operatives in action, but their appearances often feel like plot necessities – hurdles to be overcome when Giles and Buffy stand up to the Council’s methods or when Faith is in the Council’s crosshairs. Golden’s interest in the organization was also shown in “Spike and Dru: Pretty Maids All in a Row.”
Here, he uses the Council to fine affect as a player in Faith’s redemption saga, and he gets the Slayer’s speech rhythms down better than Nancy Holder and Jeff Mariotte had done in previous novels. The Council kidnaps Faith from prison, marking the second time she’s been freed, following the “Unseen” trilogy (she’ll also be sprung in spinoff fiction in “Chaos Bleeds” and “Note from the Underground”). Initially, Faith sees working for the Council as a way to put tally marks in her “doing good” column, but that’s too simple. In a book set not long after “Checkpoint,” it’s apparent now that joining forces with Quentin Travers isn’t all that different from being Mayor Wilkins’ right-hand woman.
The conflict between the Council and the Order of Sages – as personified by newcomer Rosanna – parallels a question Buffy must tackle: Is it better to fight off demons first and ask questions later, or to put effort into understanding demons before fighting them? Although “The Wisdom of War” is set in Season 5, it was published after Season 6, so Golden was long since familiar with good demons such as Clem and “Angel’s” Doyle and Lorne. Such characters may have inspired the author to dig into the nuance of the relative merits of demons, something the TV shows rarely tackled head-on.
Ultimately, there’s only one pure evil in “The Wisdom of War”: an ocean behemoth who is a member of the Old Ones. Neither group of demons who are battling each other – the Moruach and the Aegirie – are actually evil. The former, who have the body of Scale Tail from the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” toy line with a shark head — are defending themselves after being driven from their ocean home; the latter are humans who have been transformed, “Body Snatchers”-style, into tentacle-laden fish-people.
Golden builds suspense nicely. On a rare day at the beach for the Scooby Gang — which features such simple moments as Buffy having a case of big-sister-itis over beachgoers ogling a bikini-clad Dawn – Xander breaks his collarbone when he crashes into a sea lion while surfing. Sea lions are filling the shallow waters of Sunnydale’s beaches, scared of something in the deep.
In addition to his excellent work with Faith, Golden does more subtle work with Spike. All other vampires have fled Sunnydale — they are ancient enemies of the Moruach, who view them as delicacies – but Spike has stayed in town. This is at the point in the timeline where he is in love with Buffy but hasn’t admitted it to himself. Golden doesn’t lean into that notion, but it’s there nonetheless, and Spike performs a particularly humiliating act here for the sake of the good guys.
Season 7 later shows Faith’s and Spike’s first formal introduction in the official canon — following their sort-of-meeting in “Who Are You” (4.16) — but “The Wisdom of War” marks the second time in spinoff fiction they fight together; the first is in “Unseen III: Long Way Home,” and a third comes in “Chaos Bleeds.”
So as with all spinoff fiction featuring both Spike and Faith, it doesn’t fit with continuity. And it’s a bit longer than it needs to be at 401 pages, culminating in an extravaganza of a final showdown with a substantial death toll. Still, “The Wisdom of War” is a strong piece of spinoff fiction because of Buffy’s and Faith’s pontificating about their roles in this ancient, never-ending battle between good and evil – and their unusually deep thoughts about nuances within it.
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