I know, I know... I haven't posted a review in forever and I know for a fact that I read almost 30 books in 2008, thanks to my list in GoodReads. Surely some of them were worthy of the InCoHerEnt book review treatment. (And for the record, all books deserve some kind of book review.)
I'm just lazy.
But 2009 is a fresh start and I'm hopeful that I'll get back into the groove. Not sure if this is the right book to get me there.
I can never resist a graphic novel by Joss Whedon. No matter what it is, I must have. I think it comes from missing his television shows so much. This one was like getting a lost episode from the archive that was never filmed but just story boarded. This volume takes three Serenity comics and binds them together to form the Better Days story arc. The basic story: the gang is hired do a heist, they heist, they deliver, but the guy can't pay. He pays them with information on how to find a stash of currency, they find it and there is a lot of it. Now they have someone even bigger chasing after them.
In a lot of ways, this one reminded me of one of my favourite Firefly episodes, "Ariel", and the fall-out in the episode "War Stories". Because of that, I didn't find this turn really gave us anything new. It pokes at the mysteries that I sometimes feel will never be answered. My other problem was that it takes place before the Serenity movie. It was nice seeing Wash and Shepherd again but I want to know what is going on with characters since the movie. It didn't feel like a progression of the story arc, just a retread of old material. It was an okay story, with some laugh-out-loud dialogue, but I didn't have a wow moment.
It would be remiss not to mention the artist, Will Conrad. He's very good at recreating the facial features of our beloved actors who he got spot on, especially the guys. Giving him the benefit of the doubt, the women might have been harder to render with their softer features. Anyway, I was less annoyed here than I normally am with comics where I can compare the art to an actor's face.
So, I can only recommend this to the die-hard Firefly/Serenity fans who are looking for anything new to add to their encyclopedic knowledge of the series. Otherwise, you might be a little disappointed.
