A collection of essays about Firefly, Joss Whedon's much-lamented science fiction Western about pirates. (Which, much as I love it, probably tells you a little something about why it's much-lamented).

It's a bit of a mixed bag, all things considered. Some of the essays are excellent; they're thoughtful, penetrating, and full of good insights about the show's themes and production values. Others are, um, rather less impressive.

As always, let's focus on the good stuff right up front. And really, there's enough good stuff herein that you Firefly fans are gonna want to get your hands on this. I was particularly taken with the behind the scenes stuff, but I also enjoyed several of the essays that delved deeper into the characters and their motivations. My favourite piece, though, was Jewel Staite's list of her top five favourite moments from each episode. Many them are also mine.

Now, the bad stuff. There's a fair amount in here that falls into the, "I don't want to be branded as a slobbering fanperson, so I'm going to trash an aspect of the show just to prove how serious I am" camp. Many of these essays do raise valid concerns, (ie, where are all the Chinese folks in this American/Chinese future?), but the persistent negativity didn't really fly for me. I wasn't too big on the humorous essays, either, and there were a couple of pieces that were so stylistically awkward that I couldn't read them in their entirity. Social scientists, take note: when you summarize literature--which does include film and television, in this day and age--you always do so in the present tense. It's, "Inara teaches Mal to swordfight," not "Inara taught Mal to swordfight." Past tense summaries are almost always awkward and annoying, and they tend to read like fan fiction. (This is especially true when you try to include dialogue, as many of these writers do).

But, like I said, there's enough good stuff herein that you Firefly fans should try to get your hands on this. It's not a perfect book, but it's worth your time.

(This review originally appeared on my blog, Stella Matutina). ( )

FINDING SERENITY collects critical essays about the teleivision show FIREFLY. I looked briefly at the book when it first came out, being a Browncoat myself, but thought it was too much complaining that the show got canceled and too little actual criticism.

More recently I borrowed it and read it, and the first part of the book reinforced my original reaction. Getting into the middle of the book though there are some good essays, though nearly every essay is either just complaining or about feminism. That's still disappointing, because the show is so much more than that.

There are outstanding essays here, and more than a few terrible ones. Then there are some silly ones that are entertaining, but do not have any real lasting value. I certainly don't mind humor: FIREFLY had a lot of it, but it was humor with a purpose, and a lot of the humor in the book does not.

So in the end everything averages to a three star rating. The good is very much worth the read; the bad is . . . bad. ( )

Firefly is one of those shows that you either love or hate. There's really no in-between. Finding Serenity is a collection of essays devoted to the fantastic show (show only, because this came out before the movie). Some essays were weak, while some I just plain disagreed with. Some I didn't care about (I'm not a big Star Trek fan, so the few essays that compared the two shows were off-putting), while others I found fantastic (Firefly vs. The Tick!). This book brought me right back into the 'verse, to the point where I wanted to pull my dvd set off the shelf. ( )

I admit it, I am a Browncoat. I loved Firefly and was devastated to see it go. For those like myself, the "essay" that outlines various "emails" sent by a fox executive makes this book worth reading. It is hysterical and outlines the many problems Firefly encountered, as a scifi show that pretty much ignored everything Star Trek taught us about the future.

Sociologists may appreciate the more academic views on how Firefly failed/succeeded with various race and gender tropes. And how the successes may have contributed to it's downfall. ( )

I loved the firefly series even though I came to it after its short run on television. The essays in this book offer a deeper insight into some of the themes of the series and some are critiques about the show and its short run, some are funny some are more serious and some are better than others but if you liked firefly or serenity then you should read this book. ( )