Firefly – A Celebration (Anniversary Edition) Review

• 27th Sep 2012

I’m not sure I know anyone who has watched Firefly who didn’t love it. I came to it rather late through Serenity, which is odd considering I am a huge Joss Whedon fan (I still shout the praises of Buffy to anyone who will listen). It didn’t quite captured me the way Buffy did, maybe because I started with Buffy at a younger age, maybe because Firefly only had that one season to grasp it’s viewers. However there is no doubt it is an amazing piece of television. As is the Whedon way an ensemble cast work perfectly together, a genre is hooked onto and morphed into something new, the script writing is intelligent and never patronises the audience and the attention to detail throughout the whole season is astounding.

In another situation which makes me feel old Firefly is now celebrating its 10^th anniversary and this beast of a book has been released to commemorate this. I shall assume if you are looking for more information about this book you are a huge Firefly fan already and I really don’t need to tell you anything about the show. Quick answer is yes you should buy this book but if you have the Firefly: The Official Companion Volume 1, Volume 2 and Firefly: Still Flying you will be miffed.

So why do you want this book? Firstly the visual presentation is just delicious. The stroke me leather-effect binding, the high quality paper and the beautifully presented content inclusive of colour photographs and drawings. Even if you never bother to read this book it just looks really damn good unlike the companion books which just look like cheaply made annuals.

Second reason to buy this is the price. Years ago something like this would have cost a pretty penny, but coming in at retail of £35 and knowing you can get it slightly cheaper on an un-named world dominating website makes what you get for your money very worthwhile.

Third and what some may say is the real reason to purchase this book is the content. If you’re a hardcore fan this book is Firefly porn. It has everything you could ever want to spend hours pouring over; scripts (including un-filmed scenes), notes on the episodes, interviews with actors and writers, characters analysis, episode analysis, costume design and analysis, entire sections on the weapons, set-design, maps of the ship and even a section on a kidnapped monkey. Part of what makes this book a pleasure is the utter love and commitment that went into Firefly and into this book. From watching it on screen to reading this book you really see that every little last detail was thought through on the show.

My fourth and rather shallow reason is the inclusion of the facsimile banknote from the Firefly universe. It’s nice touch. There are “unseen” photo prints included too but personally these hold no interest for me and wouldn’t be a selling point.

The reason not to buy this book is that it is a compilation of the three books I mention above. However if you already own them I’d be inclined to sell them and invest in this one. You aren’t getting any new content but it is wrapped up in a much nicer package. This is a compilation of the past 10 years three publications about the show, it would have been nice for there to be some new material.

What I am sure you’ve already garnered from my review is that if you’re a Firefly or Whedon fan and have a taste for the pretty this would be a great purchase. Although Firefly is not number one in my heart I feel my interest has been re-piqued and I will certainly be spending some time re-watching it after reading this book

Lauren Cracknell

Firefly – A Celebration (Anniversary Edition), by Joss Whedon, Titan Books. Published on 28th September 2012, £35.00.