Product Description

He wrote the hit movies Toy Story and Speed, created Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel and is behind the bestselling comic Fray. This is the first and only book to cover Joss Whedon's entire career! Compiled with his full co-operation, it covers his school days in England, via his first TV job writing Roseanne, all the way up to Buffy season 7. As well as interviewing Joss at length, author Candace Havens has talked to virtually every member of the Buffy and Angel cast and crew (including Sarah Michelle Gellar and David Boreanaz) and the book is packed with amazing behind-the-scenes secrets from both shows! Illustrated throughout with rare shots of the Buffy/Angel stars!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #844666 in Books
• Published on: 2003-08-21
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 176 pages

Review
'This is possibly the finest book of the century! It's exactly like A Tale of Two Cities, but with 30 percent more me.' - Joss Whedon

Michael Logan, TV Guide
"Smart, surprising and vastly entertaining—just like "Buffy" itself. Even Sunnydale know-it-alls will adore this book."

Mike McDaniel, Houston Chronicle
"A fabulous service to the millions of fans of Joss Whedon, one of the most original writers working today."

Customer Reviews

Good bio.
When a cultural phenomenom emerges, such as BUFFY, it is natural for fans to wonder about the person who engineered it. This books answers many questions that may have arisen.

Though the book's title is about Joss Whedon, most of its verbage is spent on probing his creative process rather than his life. There is some biographical information about his childhood and college years, but that is more as a point of explaining where some of his material might have originated. With careful analysis, the reader learns why they probably enjoy his shows so much, and the elements that have created several television shows that will leave their landmark upon cultural history.

Told lightly, but not too much so, this book will be engaging rather than plodding and boring, as so many biographies tend to be. Even those reluctant to read bios will find this one enjoyable and well written. Producers of other sci fi shows should use it as guidance for creating better, more consistent shows in the future.

Joss Whedon: Resident Genius
Buffy. Angel. Firefly. Toy Story. These are the most popular things associated with Joss Whedon. He created the biggest TV phenomenon of the century - Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and wrote a number of screenplays for films.
Here for the first time is a book all about Joss. It tells us how he came up with the idea for the Buffy movie, how that got turned into a TV series, and all about his spin-off Angel. This book contains a lot of facts that many will not know, as well as some never-before-seen pictures.
The author, Candace Havens was lucky enough to visit the sets for Buffy, Angel and Firefly and her accounts of these experiences are very interesting.
This book contains interviews with the genius himself, as well as spotlights with writers and the odd actor. It tells us pretty much everything we need to know about Joss and the creation of Buffy, and i recommend every Buffy fan has one of these in their collections!

A complete waste of time
This book is a work of amateurish rubbish. While the author can correctly claim to have exclusive interviews (thanks to brief chats she had on the sets of Buffy, Angel and Firefly with the actors) presumably her time with them must have been extremely limited - as all we learn is that Charisma Carpenter hoped to have better clothes for her character in Angel series 1.
The majority of the book won't tell Buffy or Angel fans anything they don't know already. The fact it was written before the end of series 7 also means its dated and ultimately lacks any kind of useful perspective from which to view the series as a whole - which she doesn't attempt, prefering to rehash a series of interviews from magazines and websites.
There's nothing here that can't be found on one of the dozens of Whedon fansites - so save your money!