Buffy the Vampire Slayer : Tales of the Slayer - La série

Into every generation, a Slayer is born. One girl in all the world, to find the vampires where they gather, and to stop the spread of their evil and the swell of their numbers. In our time, that girl is Buffy Summers. But Buffy is merely one Slayer in an eternal continuum of warriors for the Powers That Be. We've known of others: The Primal Slayer, who stalked the earth and the forces of darkness in fierce solitude...Nikki, the funky hipster whose demise at Spike's hands lent an urban edge to his wardrobe and a bigger bounce to his swagger. Slayers by nature have a limited life expectancy; for each one who falls, another rises to take her place. Tales of the Slayer, Vol. 1, chronicles Slayers past who have influenced -- and are influenced by -- the traditions and mythologies of yore. From ancient Greece, to aristocratic Slayers holding court in revolution-era France, to the legend of the Bloody Countess Elizabeth Bathory, to 1920's Munich, each girl has a personal history, a shared moral code, and a commitment to conquer evil, regardless of the cost.... Contents: A Good Run, Greece, 490 B.C.E. / Greg Rucka The White Doe, London, 1586 / Christie Golden Die Blutgrafin [The Blood Countess], Hungary, 1609 / Yvonne Navarro Unholy Madness, France, 1789 / Nancy Holder Mornglom Dreaming, Kentucky, 1886 / Doranna Durgin Silent Screams, Germany, 1923 / Mel Odom And White Splits the Night, Florida, 1956 / Yvonne Navarro

"Sacred duty, yadda yadda." -- Buffy Summers Buffy the Vampire Slayer has always held an irreverent attitude toward her calling, but ultimately she understands the ramifications of her destiny and is prepared to die to protect the world from Evil. In fact, she has died. Twice. "I remember the drill. One Slayer dies, another is called." -- Buffy Summers It's an ancient tradition, steeped in lore, mythology, and fateful prophecies. Slayerdom consists of a Council of Watchers, a continuum of slayers, an archive of journals, and even a handbook. "Handbook? What handbook? How come I didn't have a handbook?" -- Buffy Summers But first and foremost, it begins with a girl. One girl in all the world. A Chosen One. Now, catch up on other Slayers past and present, in the second short-story collection, Tales of the Slayer, Vol. 2! "[Another] Slayer? I knew this, 'I'm the only one, I'm the only one,' thing was just an attention getter." -- Xander Harris With contributions from Scott Allie, Laura J. Burns and Melinda Metz, Max Allan Collins and Matthew V. Clemens, Greg Cox, Kara Dalkey, Jane Espenson, Rebecca Rand Kirshner, Todd McIntosh, Michael Reaves, and Kristine Kathryn Rusch.

The Slayers' lives are short, and not very sweet. The Watchers' Journals are full of their tales -- their battles, their triumphs, and ultimately, their successors. Buffy the Vampire Slayer is but the latest in a long line of women warriors stretching back to the dawn of humankind. As long as there have been vampires, there has been a Slayer. Usually called in her teens, the Chosen One leads a brief life full of conflict and doom. From the Anasazi villages of A.D. 1250 to Shanghai, China, in 1866, from Hollywood in the '40s to Buffy's predecessor in Tokyo of the '90s, Slayers have always risen above their most recent defeat. Four best-selling Buffy novelists come together in a collection of novellas chronicling tales of Slayers past. Christopher Golden, Nancy Holder, Mel Odom, and Yvonne Navarro each present a new entry in the historic line of Slayers.

"I can't be...just a person, I can't be helpless like that...."-- Buffy, "Helpless" At eighteen, each Slayer must face a terrifying trial: the Tento di Cruciamentum. This time-honored, albeit cruel, rite of passage forces each Watcher to drain the Slayer of all her physical powers and then send her to vanquish a powerful vampire using only her wits. When Buffy Summers underwent her Cruciamentum, she managed to defeat Kralik, a vampire who had been committed to a sanitarium as a human for torturing and murdering more than a dozen young women before he was turned. However, not all Slayers have been so cunning. Tales of the Slayer, Vol. 4 chronicles the Cruciamentum of eight earlier Slayers. From Prohibition Chicago to beatnik New York City, from the sideshows of a traveling carnival to a small Irish farm, from the fifteenth century to the twentieth, the Cruciamentum has tested the prowess of Slayers throughout history. Each of them has had to fight: for her job, for the lives of those she loved, and for her own existence.... Contents: It's All About the Mission, Harlem, New York, 1973 / Nancy Holder Undeadsville, New York, 1952 / Michael Reaves Alone, 1876, Ireland / Scott Allie Sideshow Slayer, Duluth, Minnesota, 1911 / Greg Cox Survivors, Chicago, 1919 / Kristine Kathryn Rusch Back to the Garden, 1969 / Robert Joseph Levy The Rule of Silence, Seville, Spain, 1481 / Kara Dalkey Two Teenage Girls at the Mall, Keller, Nebraska, 1981 / Jane Espenson