Spark and Burn is an original novel based on the U.S. television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Plot summary

Spike was born in the nineteenth century as a gentle, intellectual boy named William. As a young adult, he meets a woman called Drusilla, a mysterious vampire. William eventually becomes Spike.

He travels Europe with a band of vicious vampires, Dru, Darla, and Angelus. They show him his new existence, and from them he finds out about that most serious of enemies to vampires, one girl in all the world chosen to fight the vampires and the forces of darkness, the Slayer.

Having found a soul in Africa in the twenty-first century, Spike is tormented by the first evil and the guilt of his vampiric evils. He recalls many of the events that would lead him to the madness in the hell-influenced basement of the new Sunnydale High School.

Continuity

• Most of the story is supposed to be set during the seventh season episode "Lessons
  Lessons (Buffy episode)
  "Lessons" is the first episode of the seventh season of the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Dawn finds vengeful spirits in the new Sunnydale High while Giles is rehabilitating Willow in England.- Plot :...
  
  ". However the memories Spike recalls span the whole of Spike's history in the Buffyverse
  Buffyverse
  The Buffyverse, also known as the Whedonverse or Slayerverse , is the shared fictional universe in which the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel are set. This term, originally coined by fans of the TV series, has since been used in the titles of published works, and adopted by Joss...
  
  . For example why he was on a World War II sub ("Why We Fight
  Why We Fight (Angel episode)
  "Why We Fight" is episode 13 of season 5 in the television show Angel. Sam Lawson, a mysterious man from Angel's past, arrives at Wolfram & Hart and takes Wesley, Fred and Gunn hostage. In a flashback to 1943, it is revealed that Angel was forcibly recruited by the Demon Research Initiative to...
  
  "), and his earlier memories of the Scooby gang whilst he spied on them in "Reptile Boy
  Reptile Boy (Buffy episode)
  "Reptile Boy" is episode five of season two of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The episode was written and directed by co-executive producer David Greenwalt...
  
  ".

Canonical issues

Buffy books

Buffy novels

Buffy novels have been published since 1998. Originally, under the Pocket Books imprint of Simon & Schuster they are now published by Simon Spotlight Entertainment which launched in 2004...

 such as this one are not usually considered by fans as canonical. Some fans consider them stories from the imaginations of authors and artists, while other fans consider them as taking place in an alternative fictional reality. However unlike fan fiction

Fan fiction

Fan fiction is a broadly-defined term for fan labor regarding stories about characters or settings written by fans of the original work, rather than by the original creator...

, overviews summarising their story, written early in the writing process, were 'approved' by both Fox and Joss Whedon

Joss Whedon

Joseph Hill "Joss" Whedon is an American screenwriter, executive producer, director, comic book writer, occasional composer and actor, founder of Mutant Enemy Productions and co-creator of Bellwether Pictures...

 (or his office), and the books were therefore later published as officially Buffy/Angel merchandise.

Spike comics

• Old Times
  Spike: Old Times (Angel comic)
  Spike: Old Times is a comic based on the Angel television series.-Story description:Spike struggles to protect a man from Halfrek, a vengeance demon who has wronged Spike in the past; she in fact had been the object of his unrequited crush....
  
  
• Spike vs Dracula
  Spike vs Dracula (Angel comic)
  Spike vs Dracula is a comic book limited series based on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel television series. Initially printed between February and June 2006 as five separate issues, the series was collected as a trade paperback in September 2006...
  
  
• Old Wounds
  Spike: Old Wounds (Angel comic)
  Spike: Old Wounds is a comic based on the Angel television series.-Summary:A retired L.A. detective arrives at Wolfram and Hart and says that Spike had been responsible for a murder that took place decades previously. Spike attempts to solve one of the most infamous unsolved crimes that has taken...
  
  
• Lost and Found
  Spike: Lost and Found (Angel comic)
  Spike: Lost and Found is a comic, a story based on the Angel television series.-Summary:A vampire is preying on citizens of Los Angeles in broad daylight making it particularly difficult for Angel and Spike to deal with...
  
  
• Spike & Dru
  Spike & Dru (Buffy comic)
  Spike & Dru is a trade paperback collecting comic stories based on the Buffy The Vampire Slayer television series. The book contains four stories, all starring the characters Spike and Drusilla.-All's Fair:...
  
  
• Asylum
  Spike: Asylum (Angel comic)
  Spike: Asylum is a five-issue comic book limited series based on Angel television series. It was released from September 2006 through January 2007. The five issues were collected together in a single trade paperback in May 2007.-Story description:...
  
  

Spike novels

• Blackout
  Blackout (Buffy novel)
  Blackout is an original novel based on the U.S. television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.-Plot summary:It is 1977, the summer of a brutal blackout, the time of the Son of Sam murders, and a period of brutal fiscal disaster for New York. The slayer Nikki Wood fights against the forces of darkness...
  
  
• Pretty Maids All in a Row
• Spark and Burn

Reviews

• Teen-books.com - Reviews of this book