Firefly - The Ghost Machine

No cover — James Lovegrove: Firefly - The Ghost Machine (2020, Titan Books)

Published Aug. 28, 2020 by Titan Books.

ISBN:: 978-1-78909-224-0

(1 review)

Winner of the 2020 Dragon Award for Best Media Tie-in Novel

The third original novel tying into the critically acclaimed and much-missed Firefly series from creator Joss Whedon.

Some hot property Mal’s crew desperately need another payday, but not desperately enough to transport a Blue Sun flightcase to Badger, no questions asked, when the area is swarming with Alliance spacecraft equally keen to regain the stolen property. Yet Jayne refuses to miss out, and sneaks the case aboard Serenity.

Lucid Dreams Within hours of secreting the case Jayne suddenly finds himself back on the Cobb homestead with his brother Matty miraculously cured of the damplung. Wash is at the controls of the highest-spec cruiser money can buy, the billionaire head of a ’verse-spanning business empire. All of the crew but River are soon immersed in vivid hallucinations of their deepest desires, while their bodies lie insensible on the ship.

Fantasies …

Winner of the 2020 Dragon Award for Best Media Tie-in Novel

The third original novel tying into the critically acclaimed and much-missed Firefly series from creator Joss Whedon.

Some hot property Mal’s crew desperately need another payday, but not desperately enough to transport a Blue Sun flightcase to Badger, no questions asked, when the area is swarming with Alliance spacecraft equally keen to regain the stolen property. Yet Jayne refuses to miss out, and sneaks the case aboard Serenity.

Lucid Dreams Within hours of secreting the case Jayne suddenly finds himself back on the Cobb homestead with his brother Matty miraculously cured of the damplung. Wash is at the controls of the highest-spec cruiser money can buy, the billionaire head of a ’verse-spanning business empire. All of the crew but River are soon immersed in vivid hallucinations of their deepest desires, while their bodies lie insensible on the ship.

Fantasies gone sour Wash’s empire begins to crumble; the Cobb ranch is under attack by merciless bandits. As everyone’s daydreams turn nightmare, Serenity floats on a crash course towards a barren moon, with only River standing between the crew and certain oblivion.

1 edition

Browncoat Fox reviewed Firefly - The Ghost Machine by James Lovegrove (The Firefly Series, #3 of 8)

Lovegrove amazes again with this sci-fi focused tale

5 stars

Even after 8 releases now in this series published by Titan, The Ghost Machine remains one of the few with a very sci-fi oriented plot. As Lovegrove had also written the previous entry, Magnificent Nine, I was quite optimistic going into this book as I had really enjoyed the second entry in this series.

Initially, as I recall, while reading this book, I felt a bit disappointed, and the only reason for this is because much of the story doesn't really happen. As the teaser states, a mysterious machine is somehow responsible for rather lucid dreams and that constitutes much of this book. However upon completing the novel, there were no regrets. This was based on a distinctly sci-fi sort of premise, which is great to help prevent the western angle from dominating the span of all Firefly stories, but most importantly, the dreams themselves are a huge contribution to …

Even after 8 releases now in this series published by Titan, The Ghost Machine remains one of the few with a very sci-fi oriented plot. As Lovegrove had also written the previous entry, Magnificent Nine, I was quite optimistic going into this book as I had really enjoyed the second entry in this series.

Initially, as I recall, while reading this book, I felt a bit disappointed, and the only reason for this is because much of the story doesn't really happen. As the teaser states, a mysterious machine is somehow responsible for rather lucid dreams and that constitutes much of this book. However upon completing the novel, there were no regrets. This was based on a distinctly sci-fi sort of premise, which is great to help prevent the western angle from dominating the span of all Firefly stories, but most importantly, the dreams themselves are a huge contribution to the Firefly universe.

Being dreams they are not canonical history of events for anyone; nevertheless, they are rather precious because of what is in those dreams, and what is happening. For every character involved, the reader will gain immense insight into the lives of everyone. For some, it's about the past and their previous lives, while for others it will be about what they may have wished life was like, instead of what it is on Serenity. This is a massive dose of character development in the sense of learning so much more about the crew, and since that is one of the strongest suits of the entire show, it must be why this book might hold as one of the overall favourites among fans.

Additionally, River's role in this tale is interesting as it is crucial, but given her unique condition and backstory, any new development or insight about River Tam is always a treat. This is a rare opportunity to see River in a way she would otherwise never be seen before, but made possible thanks to the driving plot of this story.

Although The Ghost Machine does not ultimately build upon the story of Firefly going forward in terms of the ongoing lives of the crew of Serenity, this may be the one story that unveils more depth to the characters than any other single story ever will.