My Own Kind of Freedom Review

I was late to the Firefly party. I rectified that earlier this year by watching all of Firefly and Serenity and even posting a review (here). The characters are great and the setting is very interesting. Like many who like the show/movie, however, it is over all too soon. Amazingly, as I was doing a different review, I happened to find on Wikipedia the Firefly media tie-ins list. There I noticed a reference to some books that were commissioned but never, ultimately, approved by Joss Whedon for release. One of those books, My Own Kind of Freedom, was written by Steven Brust and posted online for free. Get your copy here.

For those who don't know, Steven Brust has penned over 20 novels over the years with the most famous being in his Vlad Taltos series about a human assassin and crime boss living in as an alien in an Empire ruled by a race called the Dragaerans. It is great stuff as is the Khaavren Romances set in the same world (though at an earlier time). Finding out about My Own Kind of Freedom, I thought hey one of my favorite authors, a franchise I like, a free book - that is right up my alley, I need to check it out.

Literally, I just finished the book as I am typing this review. First off, if you don't know the Firefly universe, you should start with the television show. Following that, eventhough it isn't approved (meaning Joss Whedon didn't approve the story), My Own Kind of Freedom takes place sometime between the end of Firefly the series and the movie, Serenity. Which, if you know the show should give you an idea of who is in the story. Like any Firefly story, we find the crew taking on a job and things go awry from there.

In this case, Mal and crew have taken a job bringing wood to a major landowner on Hera. Hera being a site of historical importance in the show as the world where the Battle of Serenity Valley took place. Watch the show to get the reference - you can't miss it). It is a typical delivery job, but nothing can go quite as easy as you would hope for the Serenity crew.

What is great about the book is that it feels just like the show. The dialogue, the character's inner thoughts in their point of view sequences, the situations all feel straight out of an episode of the show. Each character feels right and thus the story is exactly what I was looking for, an extension of the show and universe. We even get flashbacks to what some of the characters were like before the events covered in the Firefly series. This is mainly done as a way to introduce some characters important to My Own Kind of Freedom, but also does more to expand our knowledge of these characters we love.

The only nit I found to pick were a couple of instances where some of the point of view sequences are a little different than what I would expect to have going on in the character's heads, but those are few and far between. They also don't detract from the overall tone, feel and story.

If you like Firefly/Serenity and want more, this is the ticket (did I mention it was free?) Think of it as a way to hold you over until the mobile game comes out in 2014. Also think of it as a way to get exposed to Steven Brust if you haven't already and then you can pick up his Vlad Taltos series to give you even more to do to fill your time. My Own Kind of Freedom gets 4 Mick Happies - not quite the original Firefly/Serenity, but a very good addition to it. Too bad there aren't more of these expanded universe novels approved. Guess we will have to settle for that mobile game and the graphic novels.