I read this last year and thought it was about time for a re-read. I have to admit I'm a relative newcomer to Firefly. I saw the film, Serenity, a few years ago but somehow never caught the tv series until just before Christmas last year. I was so-so on the film (partly because the sound-mixing was sadly sub-par, and it's hard to enjoy something when you can't hear what people are saying over the ambient noise). But the series got me hooked. I love its mix of sci-fi and western, and how it relies on clever plots rather than shiny sci-fi graphics, weird aliens, or technobabble. I knew it had been cancelled going into it, but I still wanted more - hence, I picked up the three graphic novels covering further adventures of the crew, both in-between the series and the film, and after the film.

This particular entry takes place in between series and film and explains when Inara and Book left the ship. It also takes our intrepid crew through their usual day-to-day heists gone wrong and gutsy gunfights and fancy flying to extricate themselves from a sticky situation. Great art style throughout captures all the familiar quirks of the characters I loved from the series, and the ship in gorgeous detail. Dialogue was spot on, but I wouldn't expect anything less since series creator Joss Whedon was deeply involved with these three tales. I guess my one complaint was that it felt pretty short - not long enough to have been an episode on the show - and obviously I wanted more, being a fan of the series. Worth picking up though, especially for fans, but I'd recommend it to non-fans too.

8 out of 10