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.

Firefly/Serenity Spoiler-Free Review

As a Science-Fiction fan, it is surprising how long I waited to sit down and watch Firefly, the space frontier TV series from Joss Whedon. Over the past year, I have slowly watched all of the Firefly episodes on Netflix on-demand and then followed it up with Serenity, the full-length motion picture sequel to the series.

Firefly is the story of the crew of a Firefly-class spaceship, Serenity, traveling to frontier planets in human-controlled space. Earth is only mentioned as where mankind came from but is never shown in the series/movie. On Serenity, we have Captain Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds (Nathan Fillion), his first officer Zoe Washburn (Gina Torres) and her husband - the pilot Hoban "Wash" Washburne (Alan Tudyk). The rest of the crew includes hired gun Jayne Cobb (Adam Baldwin) and ship maintenance expert Kaylee Frye (Jewel Staite). Also on board is a companion, a kind of escort/courtesan that carries a level of prestige in the future, named Inara Serra (Morena Baccarin) who rents one of Serenity's shuttles. There are other characters added to the ensemble cast over the course of the series as passengers come on-board Serenity.

The crew of Serenity travels between planets and terra-formed moons to trade, do commissioned jobs or smuggle. The controlling government of the area is called the Alliance, having taking control a few years in the past after winning a civil war. A war that Mal and Zoe participated on the losing Independent planet's side. During the show, Mal tries to steer his ship clear of the Alliance and keep himself and the crew off the government's radar.

Firefly does a great job of mixing wild-west feel with space opera elements. You really feel that the crew is working on the fringes of society and just barely scratching out a living. There are also great tension moments brought on by the various bad-guy elements brought into the story. While the tv series is fairly episodic, there are some underlying story threads throughout and these are expanded on and brought to a satisfying conclusion in Serenity.

I can understand why the series and film have such a wide following and why fans were so upset when the show ended after only a few episodes (only 14 episodes were made plus the movie). Luckily, the show did get a follow up movie and has had several prequel/bridge and upcoming comic/graphic novel tie-ins created to expand the story (similar to what was done for Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer series).

Hands-down my favorite character in the series is Kaylee and the way she blends optimism with capability (in how well she keeps the ship humming along despite sometime difficulties in getting parts) - Jewel Staite does a great job in this role. The other actors/characters are also good with Nathan Fillion a believable Captain and Gina Torres very good as his strong 2nd-in-command. The stories are often fun, adventurous and tension-filled. Serenity, the movie, expands things even further in scale and scope while remaining tied tightly to the story-lines that developed throughout the series.

Realistic, gritty, funny and sometimes poignant, Firefly and Serenity are a must watch if you are a space opera or science fiction fan. That they are continuing the story in graphic novel/comic format just means there will be more story to enjoy in the future as you will want to keep coming back to these characters and the setting. Firefly and Serenity get 4.5 Mick Happies. Now if only they would make a Mass Effect-style game set in the universe either letting you travel about like the crew of Serenity or even a more combat-oriented game set during the civil war. I would play it without a doubt.

P.S. Researching links for this review I found out that Steven Brust (a very good author - read the Vlad Taltos series) wrote a Firefly novel, My Own Kind of Freedom, that was ultimately not approved/released, but is available for free via download under a creative commons license from his website here.