Books

Books : reviews

Joss Whedon, Brett Matthews, Will Conrad.
Serenity: Those Left Behind.
Dark Horse Books. 2006

rating : 3.5 : worth reading
review : 25 February 2007

This graphic novel fills in the gap between the end of the TV series Firefly, and the spin-off film Serenity, explaining how and why some of the characters ended up where they did by the beginning of the film. It manages to pack a lot of plot, and some backstory, into a few pages, using the usual comic book highly abbreviated style, leaving more implied than said. The artwork is also very good, blending the actual characters' features into the comic book style, with a few more detailed pictures interleaving the story.

Joss Whedon, Brett Matthews, Will Conrad.
Serenity: Better Days.
Dark Horse Books. 2008

rating : 4 : passes the time
review : 23 December 2008

A further episode in the lives of the crew of Serenity, before the events of the film. Here, as the result of a payoff for a heist, they discover that they are all super-rich. This is not necessarily a good thing. And, of course, it cannot last.

Again, the comic-book style manages to pack a lot into a few pages -- here, rather too much, leaving the several converging plot strands and back-stories rather under-written in places.