Title: Firefly: Big Damn Hero
Author: James Lovegrove
Pages: 334
Finished: December 21, 2019
First Sentence: So here's how it is...
Summary: The Serenity Crew take on a shipment of explosives. Before leaving port though, Mal's kidnapped by n'er-do-wells. Meanwhile the Alliance is closing in on the Tams and the cargo is getting more and more unstable.
Background: Back in the early aughts, Joss Whedon had three shows on air: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Firefly. Buffy and Angel were long lived. We watched Buffy as a family, and once it ended, we moved onto Angel. And when Firefly came out, we were hooked.
Of course, it was confusing. Fox aired it out of order. As kids, we assumed it was just the way the show was, though I remember my parents being a bit more frustrated than we were at continuity errors that weren't errors. Just out of order airing. More frustrating for us kids was the fact that baseball playoffs were also happening. Many times, we'd turn on the TV to watch Firefly only to be met with baseball. I've never been a sports fan, but I really hated baseball. Also, the show aired at 7PM on Friday nights. Not a huge issue. I had no life. And we often recorded shows anyway on a good old VHS player so we could watch later and fastforward through the commercials.
Even with all that, we loved Firefly, and were very disappointed when it seemingly disappeared. We bought the DVD set when it came out and watched it fairly regularly. I may say I'm a Trekkie, or a fan of Zelda or any other thing, but my true fandom identity is Browncoat. I've written Firefly fanfic. I've played Malcolm Reynolds in a few RPGs. I LOVE Firefly. And while I harbored secret hopes that it'd be back, (I remember dragging a boyfriend to Serenity when it came out. He wasn't as into it as I was.) I've long come to the conclusion that it's over. I don't want them playing around in the universe on screen anymore. I'm happy for new Star Trek, new Star Wars, new Zelda, and new Doctor Who. But I want Firefly to stay what it is.
But a book? Well, that could be fun. So when I saw this on a recently returned cart at work, I picked it up.
Background: Back in the early aughts, Joss Whedon had three shows on air: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Firefly. Buffy and Angel were long lived. We watched Buffy as a family, and once it ended, we moved onto Angel. And when Firefly came out, we were hooked.
Of course, it was confusing. Fox aired it out of order. As kids, we assumed it was just the way the show was, though I remember my parents being a bit more frustrated than we were at continuity errors that weren't errors. Just out of order airing. More frustrating for us kids was the fact that baseball playoffs were also happening. Many times, we'd turn on the TV to watch Firefly only to be met with baseball. I've never been a sports fan, but I really hated baseball. Also, the show aired at 7PM on Friday nights. Not a huge issue. I had no life. And we often recorded shows anyway on a good old VHS player so we could watch later and fastforward through the commercials.
Even with all that, we loved Firefly, and were very disappointed when it seemingly disappeared. We bought the DVD set when it came out and watched it fairly regularly. I may say I'm a Trekkie, or a fan of Zelda or any other thing, but my true fandom identity is Browncoat. I've written Firefly fanfic. I've played Malcolm Reynolds in a few RPGs. I LOVE Firefly. And while I harbored secret hopes that it'd be back, (I remember dragging a boyfriend to Serenity when it came out. He wasn't as into it as I was.) I've long come to the conclusion that it's over. I don't want them playing around in the universe on screen anymore. I'm happy for new Star Trek, new Star Wars, new Zelda, and new Doctor Who. But I want Firefly to stay what it is.
But a book? Well, that could be fun. So when I saw this on a recently returned cart at work, I picked it up.
Thoughts: As I've said before, I LOVE Firefly. It's the shiniest show in the 'verse even if it only had half a season. My first child is named after one of the characters, and I have most of the other crewmember's names on a list for my second child.
The book... fell flat.
There was lots of good. Characterization was top notch. These are definitely the characters I know and love. I heard their voices in my head so clearly as I was reading. I saw their mannerisms. The dialogue was spot on. Definitely ten out of ten for characters. Even Badger was perfect.
The storyline was decent. I can definitely see this being filmed and made into an episode. There were no problems there.
The issue comes from translating a television show into a novel. Things that can be described with a sweep of a camera are now gigantic paragraphs of adjectives. And not well written, satirical paragraphs that read like poetry. Nope, this is straight up fanfiction writing. In fact, there are descriptions that feel like they're lifted from fanfiction I wrote. Not that I'm screaming plagiarism. There's only so many ways you can describe dusty, out of luck towns. It just read as very amateur.
One of the other issues in translating television to print is suddenly figuring out what characters are thinking. We can guess from a characters expressions and actions, maybe even their dialogue, what they're thinking. But in print, there's actual thought being conveyed. Sometimes I agreed with it, other times, not so much. Like I said, I have my own thoughts on how the characters act and what their motivations are. I have my own fanfiction.
And again, I don't necessarily think this is a bad novel. It just wasn't an episode of the show. And that's where my biggest hang up is. This is fanfiction published in novel format. Heck, I'll probably read the rest of the series even because it's more Firefly. It's easy and quick. And it definitely makes me want to watch the series again.
You can't take the sky from me.
The book... fell flat.
There was lots of good. Characterization was top notch. These are definitely the characters I know and love. I heard their voices in my head so clearly as I was reading. I saw their mannerisms. The dialogue was spot on. Definitely ten out of ten for characters. Even Badger was perfect.
The storyline was decent. I can definitely see this being filmed and made into an episode. There were no problems there.
The issue comes from translating a television show into a novel. Things that can be described with a sweep of a camera are now gigantic paragraphs of adjectives. And not well written, satirical paragraphs that read like poetry. Nope, this is straight up fanfiction writing. In fact, there are descriptions that feel like they're lifted from fanfiction I wrote. Not that I'm screaming plagiarism. There's only so many ways you can describe dusty, out of luck towns. It just read as very amateur.
One of the other issues in translating television to print is suddenly figuring out what characters are thinking. We can guess from a characters expressions and actions, maybe even their dialogue, what they're thinking. But in print, there's actual thought being conveyed. Sometimes I agreed with it, other times, not so much. Like I said, I have my own thoughts on how the characters act and what their motivations are. I have my own fanfiction.
And again, I don't necessarily think this is a bad novel. It just wasn't an episode of the show. And that's where my biggest hang up is. This is fanfiction published in novel format. Heck, I'll probably read the rest of the series even because it's more Firefly. It's easy and quick. And it definitely makes me want to watch the series again.
You can't take the sky from me.
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