Customer Reviews

Firefly Episode Guide: An Unofficial, Independent Guide to Joss Whedon's Firefly

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Perhaps I should have been warned by the 'Unofficial, Independent Guide' in the title, or even the dreadful artwork on the book cover. However, considering how many 'unofficial' books and websites that offer a plethora of insight and information you might not otherwise know about; I ordered it. Thanks, Amazon, for suggesting it.

The best thing that I can say about this book is that despite it being listed as available in 2-4 weeks, I received it almost immediately. Unpacking it and holding it in my hands, the first warning bell began clanging in my head - this was a self-published book. I didn't even have to open it, you could just feel the cheap, "I wasn't paid to publish this, I paid somebody to publish it" quality of the book's printing.

Nonetheless, I pushed forward. First the author correctly suggests that you watch the series, preferably the boxed DVD set of the series. Then she goes forth and word for word steals entire episode summaries from various popular Firefly/Serenity websites that she acknowledges. She then lists like a giant revelation facts that are contained in the episode commentaries.

The only original material in here is what her impressions are: by this she says she means not only her mental reaction to each episode, but also any mistakes, continuity issues (which she gathers entirely from the commentaries), and questionable actions made by the characters. As I read these, I began noticing a trend wherein the author has a pre-adolescent boy's understanding of personal relationships. I know this for a fact as she at times phrases things exactly like my 12-year-old son, or rather like he did when he was 11-years-old. It's at this point I visit the 'about the author page' to discover that this woman is a self-styled movie 'web goddess', whose qualifications are working part time at what she refers to as the best DVD rental store ever. Oh, and she watches all those DVDs and a lot of TV.

The retarded emotional evaluation of the series relationships explained, I continued on my quest to find something worth the money I paid for the book and the time I invested in reading it so far. Sadly, it ended up being amusing only in its blatant errors and pathetic misunderstandings. There are times you snigger, such as when she mistakenly lists the name of a guest character's name with a series character's name. There are times when you feel like Wash as he says in one episode, "Yeah, a lot of people don't get me and Zoe at first." This author not only doesn't get it at first, she doesn't get it ever. Then there are the truly pathetic moments like when she states the main beginning theme of "Objects in Space" as River walking through the boat and hearing the thoughts of the people around her. A paragraph later, back in her "I have never been in a relationship mode", the author then painstakingly tries to work out why the Captain and Inara would just stand there talking for the whole ship to hear about their underlying romantic issues and how they are disjointed and pointless. You want to find the author's telephone number and refer her back to the fact that River is hearing their mental thoughts, they aren't actually having a conversations, they just happen to be next to each other sulking internally about the seemingly doomed feelings. Then you want to sit her down and tell her about the birds and the bees, take away her TV, and send her to some sort of rehab to raise her emotional age to at least young adult level.

Actually, upon reflection, in a lot of ways the author is like River. She observes, but doesn't understand. Sometimes what she says makes sense, but most of the time it's disjointed and random. In the end, however, at least River is intelligent, has interests outside of watching a glowing box, and has an extremely valid reason for her non-sequetors and juvenile misunderstanding of emotions.

The most painfully ironic thing about this book is its publishing date; October 2005 - Serenity, the movie continuation of the TV series was released at the end of September 2005. I believe the author meant to reap benefits of the movie's impossible release, monopolyzing not only on the pre-existing Browncoat fan-base but also on any new fans brought into Whedon's Firefly 'Verse by the fabulous movie. Instead of riding the wave of interest, the author ends up looking even more inane with the additional facts given in the movie, conflicting with her theories and misunderstanding of characters and their relationships as a whole.

I wish I had paid attention to the first reviewer rather than the two who gave this a decent rating, or read the excerpt at the other reviewer did and discovered bad errors.

There is nothing in this book that hasn't been said before, it's a cheaply made book, and the author's personal remarks are often dramatically off the mark.

Don't buy it. Whedon has already had an excellent guide of the first half of the episodes of Firefly published, with the second guide for the rest of the series run to be released soon.

i haven't bought this, but by looking through the excerpt here i noticed not only did the author mess up on zoe's last name but book's first name(both totally incorrect, not just mispelled), and i believe also misspelled kaylee's, but i could be mistaken on that last one. the fact that there are two glaring errors right in the beginning tell me that this is not worth your time because obviously the author did not do her research. all you browncoats out there, and just people curious in firefly, go buy the official companions, they are accurate and have cast and crew commentary(a far better buy).

I almost didn't buy this because of the extremely negative review from TigWolf. Well, I'm glad I did. While not approaching the quality of "The Official Companion" or the focus of the essays in "Finding Serenity" this is a very good read and it shows that at least one Firefly fan can write and get published their thoughts on the best show to ever be on TV. TigWolf - write your own book and let us read it. I'll be waiting...