Review by Frank Plowright

For fans of the Firefly TV show the title alone ought to set the pulse racing. While the Serenity film cleared up most dangling plots from the cancelled series, one remained. There was no doubt Shepherd Book was sincere about his preaching duties, but episodes of the series more than hinted at a past he kept hidden, showing he was a man of influence.

Joss Whedon provides the broad background leaving Zack Whedon to flesh out the details. He opens with a scene occurring during the movie Serenity, but not shown, of the mining colony where Book is staying coming under attack. The story keeps taking further leaps into the past until it’s twenty years earlier and officer Derriel Book is being hauled before his superior and given a dressing down for masterminding the greatest disaster in Alliance history. Four thousand people died. That, however, is just a staging point and further back the story goes, the peeling layers of the onion cleverly re-assess what we’ve already seen.

The result is a thrilling revelation of a man who’s done what he believes to be right, yet it’s taken a severe toll on him that eventually causes a complete realignment of who he is and what he stands for. It’s emotionally taxing, which is a surprise, and superbly drawn by Chris Samnee, whose stunning art emphasises all the right dramatic beats, and the action sizzles as well.

Perhaps the only minor downside is that the remainder of the Firefly cast barely feature, but with a story this good, you’re not going to miss them.

This is also available as part of Firefly: The Legacy Edition. The continuity moves past the movie for the next story Leaves on the Wind.