No Power in the 'Verse

Back in 2015, I purchased the four graphic novels in the Serenity comic line that represented the Firefly/Serenity expanded universe. And that was that - until about two weeks ago I hadn't realised that there was actually a fifth volume, "No Power in the 'Verse" that carried on where the fourth volume finished up.

Anyway, having learned that there was a fifth version, I proceeded to hunt it down - Amazon UK didn't have it for any reasonable price, eBay let me down, so eventually the order went in with Amazon US. And a week or so later, the book arrived, so that was a good choice.

The volume itself is made up of two stories - the aforementioned "No Power in the 'Verse", and "The Warrior and the Wind". Of the two, the latter is actually the better story, consisting of River telling a bedtime story to young Emma. Good stuff, even if it was mostly just another take on what we've already seen.

The main story was fine - it actually felt much more like Firefly than most of the other stories. Except for two things, both of which came right at the end (there are, of course, spoilers ahead!)

My first issue with the story is that it just stops. I think the publishers expected to have a few more volumes to come, but they never quite panned out. That's a bit of a problem, as the book therefore leaves a number of threads just dangling - actually, in much the same way as the show, and indeed it was those very threads that the movie did a good job of tidying up. Oh well.

My second issue was that the book ended with Mal engaged in another of his "my way or the high way" speeches (as in "Serenity"). This time, he's decided to take down the Alliance as a whole. Unfortunately, this just didn't ring true, both because it really feels like something that's just too big for one ship and one crew to deal with (he isn't Luke Skywalker, after all - heck, he isn't even Han Solo), and also because his crew is much more divided over this issue than over the question of Miranda. He's basically trying to browbeat several members of his crew into something that most are lukewarm at best towards, and that some actively oppose.

And then the book just stops.

My understanding is that the new Firefly comic will eventually pick up where these graphic novels have left off, and we'll get some sort of a resolution. Unless, that is, they change their mind and decide to ditch the expanded universe (or, perhaps, Disney decide to pull it in-house - having bought Fox, they now have control over "Firefly" as well). So we'll see. It would be good to see how this cleans up, if indeed it does. Alas, without that, I don't think I can really recommend this book, or by extension the rest of the series.

#10: "100 Classic Stories", by Miles Kelly (a book for Funsize)