Firefly: The Serenity Handbook – The Official Crew Member’s Guide to the Firefly-Class Series 3 Ship Book Review

Insight Editions and Titan Books have published a hardback book titled Firefly: The Serenity Handbook – The Official Crew Member’s Guide to the Firefly-Class Series 3 Ship available from numerous online retailers and high street book stores. The Serenity Handbook is based upon the hugely successful Firefly TV series starring Nathan Fillion, Gina Torres, Alan Tudyk, Morena Baccarin, Adam Baldwin, Jewel Staite, Sean Maher, Summer Glau and the late great Ron Glass. Despite only spanning one season of 14 episodes from 2002 until 2003; Firefly lives long in the memory as one of the greatest TV series in history and deservedly continued with a blockbuster film named Serenity in 2005 that starred every core cast member from Firefly and Chiwetel Ejiofor portraying the role of the Operative, although Firefly has not been continued in TV or film form since. Does The Serenity Handbook deliver what it sets out to by producing a detailed official companion to the Serenity ship?

A videogame adaptation titled Firefly Online for PC, Mac, Android and iOS has long been in-development and was last said to have been in active development in March 2016 that stated, “We’re still here. We’re still flyin’. Game is still in development. Stay tuned”, although no further news from the developer has been announced since then. Hopefully a final build will one day see the light of day as the gameplay and accompanying gameplay features look and sound promising. Role-playing game genre gameplay seen the player become a captain of their own ship, while assembling their own crew and completing missions to put food on the table and fuel to keep the engines running in the same method as Captain Malcolm Reynolds, alongside ship customisation and over 200 planets to visit. The entire cast of the Firefly TV series reprised their characters by recording voice-overs, while Wil Wheaton who starred as Wesley Crusher in Star Trek: The Next Generation and is an experienced voice-over artist in videogames and TV series provided the voice-over for the male playable character.

The Serenity Handbook is in genuinely prepared hands as it is written by Marc Sumerak as he is an Eisner and Harvey Award nominated writer and editor. His books include Hidden Universe Travel Guides: Firefly – A Traveler’s Companion to the ‘Verse, Hidden Universe Travel Guides: The Complete Marvel Cosmos, Guardians of the Galaxy: Creating Marvel’s Spacefaring Super Heroes, Ghostbusters: Ectomobile Owner’s Workshop Manual, The Art of Harry Potter, The World According to Iron Man and The World According to Thor.

Firefly creator and writer Joss Whedon has been quoted as unequivocally stating that the ship in which the entire crew travels the universe named the Serenity is actually a “tenth character”; therefore The Serenity Handbook is approached in the sense of being a written dedication to the ship in itself.

Crew profiles are spread throughout the book comprising of two pages per crew member including an autobiographical introduction from their respective viewpoint. Meanwhile, further coverage includes name, birth date, height, weight, hair colour, eye colour, war records, valor commendations, special skills and more besides, alongside a grouping of pictures for Captain Malcolm Reynolds, Zoe Alleyne Washburne, Hoban Washburne, Kaylee Frye, Jayne Cobb, Book Shepherd, Simon Tam, Inara Serra and River Tam.

Ship schematics begin on page 22 covering each unique area of the Serenity until page 41 complete with a thorough diagram that highlights the position of every component within the Serenity. Other important areas of the Serenity are covered in detail through the entirety of the book such as the engine room, gravity drive, the bridge and control panels, crew quarters and passenger dorms, cargo hold and types of cargo, armoury, medical bay and much more besides with written descriptions, onset pictures and artwork.

The quality of writing is amazing as it depicts each character in their own words from their perspectives in a clever, realistic manner from Kaylee’s impassioned introduction to what makes the Serenity so special to each crew profile, every ship component and everything else in between that Firefly fans will certainly respect due to how faithful it is to the subject matter situated within each episode and the film.

The Serenity Handbook is wonderfully presented with an excellent hardback front and back cover design with a top-down view of the Serenity on the front and a synopsis of the book on the back with both front and back covers complimented by embossed writing and design. However, the artistic efforts invested into the design and presentation goes far beyond the front and back covers as every feature has onset or behind-the-scenes photographs and artwork or diagrams.

The Serenity Handbook’s actual value is in the depth of coverage that expresses the crew’s thoughts on the Serenity that keeps them flying and how the ship fulfils it’s duties in harmony with that of the crew. The Serenity Handbook is full of interesting features and views of the Serenity presented in text, diagrams, artwork and photographs throughout each of the 160 glorious pages.

Firefly and Serenity fans can look forward to future Firefly books from Titan Books including Firefly Encyclopedias coverage of the television series releasing on November 6th 2018 in America and December 11th 2018 in the UK, while a novel titled Firefly: Big Damn Hero with Joss Whedon involved as consulting editor releases on November 20th 2018 in America and the UK. Meanwhile, Insight Editions published Hidden Universe Travel Guides: Firefly – A Traveler’s Companion to the ‘Verse in Summer 2018.

Analysis

• Title: Firefly: The Serenity Handbook – The Official Crew Member’s Guide to the Firefly-Class Series 3 Ship
• Writers: Marc Sumerak
• Art: Marc Wagenseil and Ian Moores (Illustrators)/Chrissy Kwasnik (Art Director)
• Publisher: Insight Editions (America)/Titan Books (UK and European regions)
• Length: 160 pages
• Cover: Hardback

Firefly: The Serenity Handbook – The Official Crew Member’s Guide to the Firefly-Class Series 3 Ship can be purchased from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and IndieBound, while you can also find Insight Editions’ official website including a back catalogue of captivating books and product details regarding Firefly: The Serenity Handbook – The Official Crew Member’s Guide to the Firefly-Class Series 3 Ship book.