The graphic novels that tell the story between Firefly and Serenity
Rating: Young adult-adult
Genre / themes: Sci-fi, theft and petty crime, spin-off of Firefly.
Art level: Good. Colour.
Star Rating: 3.5/5 Stars. (plus a bonus 0.5 for being Firefly related)
Number of Books: Three so far, but I'm counting The Shepherd's Tale (a prequel) separately for the purposes of this review. So, two in the 'sequel' series.
Other notes: Picks up right after the last episode of the Firefly television series. Written by Joss Whedon and one of the writers of Firefly. Not mindblowingly awesome, but pretty darned good. With the exception of The Shepherd's Tale
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My Review of Books 1 and 2
Unlike the Buffy books, the two Firefly spin-offs - actually designed to fill in the gaps from the cancelled episodes - are worth reading for their own sake. The art is pretty good, the wit is witty, the criminals are criminal and our heroes are... well, the criminals.
It's the same familiar cast of Captain Mal Reynolds, his crazy crew, and the two stowaways, Simon and River. They pick up odd jobs, get in trouble with the law, and try and keep River away from the government.
The series is oddly constrained by the fact that it has to keep everyone alive and in the state they were at the beginning of Serenity, but does well enough within those boundaries. The first book is a good bridge/introduction between the Firefly television show and the film Serenity, with Agent Dobson (the Alliance spy from the very first episode) reappearing, and Inara leaving at the end of the book - although the second book is better.
Book Three Review
Art level: Bad, monotonous colour.
Star Rating: 2.5/5
I recently had the chance to read Serenity: The Shepherd's Tale (in the library, of course). It was very disappointing, and I'd give it 2.5 stars. While the cover is nice enough, and it was a hardback, I got through the whole story in less than ten minutes. I'm a fast reader, but I expect my graphic novels to last me at least twenty!
While it does give you Shepherd Book's backstory (which did affect how you see him, next time you watch him onscreen), it does it in a way that leaves you feeling cheated. Basically, it is in the format of flashback, after flashback, each only a couple of pages long, jumping further back into his life. And each flashback is just too short. The narrative would have worked better in the correct order, as you could have watched Book grow and change, but the authors clearly wanted the cheap tensions of the 'sudden reveals'. Also, the art felt very dirty, which was probably intentional, to give it a 'gritty' feel. But the result, to me, was a book that looked ugly and slapdash.
And it could have been awesome. Despite the fact that they packed in more than they needed, it could have been an epic story. Only buy it if it's cheap, and you need to complete the set.
The Serenity Graphic Novels So Far
