Serenity [Kindle Edition]

Keith R. A. DeCandido (Author), Joss Whedon (Collaborator)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Five hundred years in the future, Captain Mal Reynolds, a hardened war veteran (on the losing side), ekes out a living pulling off small crimes and transport-for-hire aboard his ship, Serenity. He leads a small, eclectic crew who are the closest thing he has left to family -- squabbling, insubordinate, and undyingly loyal.

When Mal takes on two new passengers -- a young doctor named Simon and his unstable, telepathic sister, River -- he gets much more than he bargained for. The pair are fugitives from a coalition that dominates the universe with unlimited wealth and power -- and that will stop at nothing to control River and her abilities. The crew of mercenaries, used to skimming the outskirts of the galaxy unnoticed, soon find themselves caught between the unstoppable military force of the Universal Alliance and the cannibalistic fury of the Reavers, savages who roam the very edge of space. Caught up in the fight to stay alive, they don't yet realize that their greatest danger may be on board Serenity herself....

About the Author

Keith R.A. DeCandido was born and raised in New York City to a family of librarians. He has written over two dozen novels, as well as short stories, nonfiction, eBooks, and comic books, most of them in various media universes, among them Star Trek, World of Warcraft, Starcraft, Marvel Comics, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Serenity, Resident Evil, Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda, Farscape, Xena, and Doctor Who. His original novel Dragon Precinct was published in 2004, and he's also edited several anthologies, among them the award-nominated Imaginings and two Star Trek anthologies. Keith is also a musician, having played percussion for the bands the Don't Quit Your Day Job Players, the Boogie Knights, and the Randy Bandits, as well as several solo acts. In what he laughingly calls his spare time, Keith follows the New York Yankees and practices kenshikai karate. He still lives in New York City with his girlfriend and two insane cats.

Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 305 KB
• Print Length: 272 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1416507558
• Publisher: Pocket Books (August 30, 2005)
• Sold by: Simon and Schuster Digital Sales Inc
• Language: English
• ASIN: B000FCKCFG
• Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (69 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #68,859 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

More About the Author

Keith R.A. DeCandido was born and raised in New York City to a family of librarians. He has written over two dozen novels, as well as short stories, nonfiction, eBooks, and comic books, most of them in various media universes, among them Star Trek, World of Warcraft, Starcraft, Marvel Comics, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Serenity, Resident Evil, Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda, Farscape, Xena, and Doctor Who. His original novel Dragon Precinct was published in 2004, and he's also edited several anthologies, among them the award-nominated Imaginings and two Star Trek anthologies. Keith is also a musician, having played percussion for the bands the Don't Quit Your Day Job Players, the Boogie Knights, and the Randy Bandits, as well as several solo acts. In what he laughingly calls his spare time, Keith follows the New York Yankees and practices kenshikai karate. He still lives in New York City with his girlfriend and two insane cats.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

156 of 159 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An overly-straightforward adaptation of the screenplay, September 14, 2005

By 

David C. Hill "*** Dave" (Centennial, CO USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Serenity - The Future is Worth Fighting For (Pocket Star Books Media Tie-In) (Mass Market Paperback)

A decent, but almost blandly faithful, rendition of the screenplay in novel form. For three-quarters of the book, the only differences between the two are the insertion here of scenes (from the TV show) of the Battle of Serenity Valley, and Simon trying to convince his parents that something is wrong with River, and even that is played with very straightforwardly.

The problem is, with an adaptation of a movie like this, what the fans (or even the interested) want is something that provides some extra depth, added details, background from Joss translated into novel form, whatever. Instead, we get something that neither adds to nor detracts from the movie -- the screenplay without the visuals, which ends up making it fairly ho-hum. Even in the last quarter, when we begin to get some perspective work, the book remains fairly unilluminating.

My recommendation? Purchase "Serenity: The Official Visual Guide" -- and get both the screenplay *and* copious photos *and* notes from Joss.

35 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Tragic, January 3, 2006

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V. Patel (United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Serenity - The Future is Worth Fighting For (Pocket Star Books Media Tie-In) (Mass Market Paperback)

DeCandido ignores characters' depth from the series and makes their motivations seem juvenile. He takes us into River's mind only to tell us she's bored. Bored of what? Bored of the ever-present Alliance threat? Bored of the guilt that her brother gave up his life to save hers? River the bored school girl that's way ahead of her classmates is understandable. But, River the bored psychic fugitive privy to a secret that can change the 'Verse is not understandable. I flung the book when River repeatedly kept thinking that Simon is "too stupid to live."

He makes Inara seem like a school girl. Her decision to leave Serenity at the end of Firefly was something I would consider character defining; something she did despite of and because of her feelings for Mal. But, in the book, she just remembers leaving as doing something stupid -- there is no hint of WHY she left and what it meant for her. There is no depth.

To have a script that oozes personality with every word turned into a mind-numbing slog is a tragedy.

It's like reading a lazy adaptation of the script with some padding thrown in to make it long enough to be a novel. There is just no subtlety. Everything is either laid out bare or made dramatically mysterious. The script's stage directions offer more insight than this novel. I don't recommend purchasing it except to re-fuel your "holy crap, someone got paid to write this?" reserves.

Maybe it's not entirely his fault, though. Just as book-to-movie adaptations are usually bad, maybe the reverse is also true. The actors and the script really spoiled me.

By the way, if you want indepth essays on the series, lookup _Finding Serenity_.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Strange reflections on a masterpiece, September 30, 2006

By 

G. Varghese "(Joe)" (Elmhurst, IL) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Serenity - The Future is Worth Fighting For (Pocket Star Books Media Tie-In) (Mass Market Paperback)

Need to emphasize that I LOVE the Serenity/Firefly 'verse. One of the biggest tragedies of modern television is how a unique, fresh and special series got cancelled by Fox, and then (in my opinion) the movie gets launched with an unfounded belief that underground "buzz" would launch this movie to huge sales. So, with that said - what I didn't like about this book was the author's interpretations on how the characters on Firefly think and are perceived. For example, in the book everyone hates Jayne. But, being a fan, I don't think it's that straight-forward. Like this, there's something or the other that I just don't believe was Whedon's intent when he created the characters. All in all, this is a pretty good movie novelization, with great detail and nice job relating incidents in the movie with the TV series. But, really should have been co-written with Josh Whedon to be 5 stars.