The Book of Fours

Template:Buffybooks The Book of Fours is an original novel by Nancy Holder based on the American television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Taking place during Buffy's third season, Faith and Buffy are the current Slayers and when mayhem caused by tidal waves and burning forests begin to erupt in Sunnydale as well as vicious attackers appearing with ceremonial axes, the gang knows that something is up. A woman named Cecile Lafitte has sent her Servants to kill the Slayers with special axes, Faith being the Slayer of Fire and Buffy being the Slayer of Air. Each Slayer has a special axe made to destroy the Slayer of that particular element. There are four axes in total; air, fire, water and earth. Should Faith and Buffy both be killed then it's believed that the line of Slayers would die out forever. Cecile wants to bring forth the Gatherer, and the only way to do so is to have the Slayers killed, which would feed the demon enough power to bring him forth into the world. Meanwhile, Willow ends up in the hospital with major brain trauma while Giles figures they need answers from the Watcher of the Slayer that preceded Buffy, India Cohen.

Behind the Scenes

• Tagline: 'To combat a quartet of unnatural disasters, four slayers must band together: Buffy, Kendra, Faith and India'.
• India Cohen was the Slayer that preceded Buffy. She is seen on the front cover of the book, the third from left. The character also appears in Tales of the Slayers, Volume III, in the story The Code of the Samurai.
• Kendra's Watcher Sam Zabuto is killed in this novel.
• To battle ther Gatherer a spell is used that allows India and Kendra to possess Willow and Cordelia's bodies and allow them to fight alongside Buffy and Faith; it is never specified if the decision for Cordelia to host Kendra is a deliberate reference to the fact that the actres who played Kendra originally auditioned for the role of Cordelia before Charisma Carpenter received the part.