Is it cold where you live right now? It’s cold where I live right now. Really, really cool. It’s so cold that the heavy cream my husband accidentally put in the freezer was still so solid three hours after I took it out that if I’d thrown it at a window, the window would have shattered.

What I’m saying is, I wouldn’t mind a jaunt to… pretty much anywhere else. Except Hoth. Hoth probably isn’t any better. I’m not sure it’s worse at this point, but it’s definitely not an improvement, and what’s the point of running away if it’s not to something better, warmer, and, perhaps, a little more exciting?

Being the good geek I am, I’m taking a stint with some space pirates.

I don’t mean the bad guys. You do a run with them and you end up dead or a slave in the mines on Kessel or on Higgin’s Moon having to listen to hymns written to Jane Cobb. I mean the rogues with hearts of gold. The ones who pretend their edges are sharp but, when someone’s in need, that soft, squishy center oozes out. Okay, fine, maybe it takes the promise of a reward or bounty to get the heart of gold beating, but once it’s pumping, it leads the rest of the body in the right direction.

I think, like many geeks, my first two choices of crew would be: Han and Chewie and the crew of the Serenity under Mal Reynolds. And while actually making my dreams a reality is a little beyond my means or even Elon Musk’s means, Insight Editions and Titan Books has, at least, made it possible for my brain to board the Falcon or the Serenity and run away to the stars.

Hidden Universe Travel Guides: Firefly: A Traveler’s Companion to the ‘Verse by Mark Sumerak and Livio Ramondelli (Insight Editions, 2018)

I absolute adore this series (I previously had a chance to take a look at the Marvel entry), which is a sort of an encyclopedia with entries for each of the planets mentioned in Firefly. Rather than sticking to the standard sociopolitical fare, though, the Hidden Universe guides have sections on “What to Wear,” “Nightife,” “Etiquette,” “Shopping,” and other fun tidbits, as well as gorgeous illustrations by Ramondelli to bring each planet to life.

The best part of the guides, however, are the annotations, written in the “voices” of the Serenity‘s crew members, which Sumerak captures perfectly. Each is printed in an individualized font, which the graphics folks did a great job designing, based on, I assume, the character designs and personalities from the show.

The Traveler’s Companion to the ‘Verse lets the reader immerse in the minutiae of Alliance planets from the Core to the Rim, letting the mind go exploring when the body is tapped in a cold house in Pittsburgh. It’s also a great resource for writers working on developing their world-building skills as an example of world building done right.

The Serenity Handbook: The Official Crew Member’s Guide To The Firefly-Class Series 3 Ship by Mark Sumerak (Insight Editions, 2018)

I’m a huge sucker for books like The Serenity Handbook. I love when creators care enough about what they’ve made to craft detailed backstories of not only people but also ships and planets and books and stuff. The Serenity, for example, is a Firefly Series 3; the Handbook has the specs not only on that model but also the Series 1 and the Series 2. We get to see each section of the ship both in schematic form and via set photos and crew profiles “written” by those respective characters and annotated by both those who love them and maybe those who… don’t so much.

There’s a lot more to creating a story or a script than readers or viewers ever know. The writer has to know everything about a world, down to the smallest details of which nut or bolt goes in which section of panel or when that panel comes apart for whatever reason, it will come apart in a way that makes sense. That bolt may never make it onto the page or into a frame, and the reader or viewer may never think, “Wow, that looked perfect!” but they will notice if it’s wrong. It’s a wonderful thing for creators when they can make use of all of that work and hand it to someone like Sumerak to compile into a manual that fans then get to explore.

Like the Hidden Universe Travel Guide, The Serenity Handbook is a great resource for writers: not for you to use what’s in here as such (don’t do that, that’s stealing) but to help you figure out what you need to know about your own ships (so that when your ship in inevitably horrifically damaged in an attack, you can explain the effects and what needs to be done to fix it) and your characters (to make them believable, forgivable, likable, or – for that matter – despicable).

Firefly: Big Damn Hero by James Lovegrove, Original Story Concept by Nancy Holder, Consulting Editor Joss Whedon (Titan Books, 2019)

I don’t always read novels and comics that continue the legacy of properties I love. Sometimes, I’m okay with things being left where they were. Yes, Firefly ended too soon and yes, Serenity left things open for follow up, but it’s been a while and I’ve found other things to fill the hole in my heart and I’ve come to terms with it. I know there was a comic but I’ve heard the continuity was… skewed and, truth be told, I liked the continuity where it was, thank you very much, and I have enough to keep up with what with Marvel and DC and small screen and big screen and that delightful Green Lantern animated series everyone hated on, I don’t know why.

Anyway. Big Damn Hero. This Firefly novel is set during the series and is one of three Titan has planned (the other two are scheduled for March and October of 2019, respectively). It focuses on Mal and shifts back and forth between the “present” and a deal going quickly bad (shocker, I know) and his pre-browncoat past on an out-of-the-way moon where he spends the majority of his time making trouble and can’t wait to leave.

I loved it. It was like reading a lost episode of the series. I’m not sure how folks who didn’t watch Firefly would feel about it – probably the way a lot of us (even those of us who love Star Wars) felt about Solo – respectable heist flick but little attachment to the characters. But if you did like Firefly, you are going to love this novel. Lovegrove captures the personalities, the interactions, and even individual speech patterns perfectly, and he clearly studied up on the universe and its history.

I am very much looking forward to the rest of the series.

Happy reading.