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missroseroseAccording to the author's afterword, this was written based on an outline by Joss Whedon. I found this statement particularly interesting, as the graphic novel itself struck me far more as a writers'-bible character outline than an actual story in its own right. Does it answer our questions about Book and his past? Mostly, yes. Does it make sense within the context of the character and the series? Sure. Does it bring any new insight to the character, or even stand on its own as an interesting story apart from the series? Disappointingly, no.
The structure is a little reminiscent of Memento - presented as a near-death recollection of various formative experiences in the life of the man who became known as Derrial Book, it starts close to the most recent time we saw the character and moves backwards through time, tracing his fall from grace, his meteoric career, and his origins in reverse order. This sounds like a fairly thorough exploration, and indeed it could be - if more than four or five pages were devoted to any given stage in Book's life. We get the bare bones of what happened, but very little in the way of ramifications - either externally, or (more importantly, for a story of this type) internally. How did his meteoric rise in the Alliance ranks (and the experiences and relationships he must have had therein) change his outlook on the war? How did the real-life consequences of his plan to help the Browncoats affect his feelings towards their cause? There's a lot here that could be explored but just...isn't. It's not that we need every single moment of Book's turmoil spelled out for us, but as it is we're given almost nothing about his thought processes, simply left to draw our own conclusions based on his later actions. Which, while a perfectly valid method of storytelling, seems odd for a character-based tale as it does nothing to help us see things from the character's point of view.
The author also states his desire to do justice to the character created by Ron Glass, but the almost complete lack of depth to the novelized character bespeaks "timid respect" rather than "equal interpretation". Frustrating as the loss of potential here is, however, now that the character's origins are known (and so much more about him left open), I'm certain the more talented members of the Firefly fan fiction community will be willing to fill in the blanks. Maybe I'll give it a go myself if I feel inspired enough. C-
The structure is a little reminiscent of Memento - presented as a near-death recollection of various formative experiences in the life of the man who became known as Derrial Book, it starts close to the most recent time we saw the character and moves backwards through time, tracing his fall from grace, his meteoric career, and his origins in reverse order. This sounds like a fairly thorough exploration, and indeed it could be - if more than four or five pages were devoted to any given stage in Book's life. We get the bare bones of what happened, but very little in the way of ramifications - either externally, or (more importantly, for a story of this type) internally. How did his meteoric rise in the Alliance ranks (and the experiences and relationships he must have had therein) change his outlook on the war? How did the real-life consequences of his plan to help the Browncoats affect his feelings towards their cause? There's a lot here that could be explored but just...isn't. It's not that we need every single moment of Book's turmoil spelled out for us, but as it is we're given almost nothing about his thought processes, simply left to draw our own conclusions based on his later actions. Which, while a perfectly valid method of storytelling, seems odd for a character-based tale as it does nothing to help us see things from the character's point of view.
The author also states his desire to do justice to the character created by Ron Glass, but the almost complete lack of depth to the novelized character bespeaks "timid respect" rather than "equal interpretation". Frustrating as the loss of potential here is, however, now that the character's origins are known (and so much more about him left open), I'm certain the more talented members of the Firefly fan fiction community will be willing to fill in the blanks. Maybe I'll give it a go myself if I feel inspired enough. C-
