Firefly - the Magnificent Nine

No cover — James Lovegrove: Firefly - the Magnificent Nine (2020, Titan Books Limited)

384 pages

English language

Published Oct. 10, 2020 by Titan Books Limited.

ISBN:: 978-1-78565-831-0

(1 review)

An old flame of Jayne Cobb's, Temperance McCloud, sends a message to Serenity, begging him for help. She lives on the arid, far-flung world of Tethys, and bandits are trying to overrun her town to gain control of their water supply: the only thing standing between its people and dustbowl ruin. Jayne tries to persuade the Serenity crew to join the fight, but it is only when he offers Vera, his favourite gun, as collateral that Mal realizes he's serious.

When the Serenity crew land at a hardscrabble desert outpost called Coogan's Bluff, they discover two things: an outlaw gang with an almost fanatical devotion to their leader who will stop at nothing to get what they want, and that Temperance is singlehandedly raising a teenage daughter, born less than a year after Temperance and Jayne broke up. A daughter by the name of Jane McCloud...

2 editions

Browncoat Fox reviewed Firefly - The Magnificent Nine by James Lovegrove (The Firefly Series, #2 of 8)

Jayne fans rejoice

5 stars

After Big Damn Hero, it seemed the bar of standards was set high, much like the original show and its legendary legacy. Magnificent Nine presents a plot that is very much reminiscent of the western formula that the show often called upon. Similarly to the first book, this plot is driven by the crew aiding one of its own members with a dilemma specifically involving him.

This plot will dive somewhat into Jayne's rather unknown past to increase the depth of his character beyond what was revealed in season one, and the main antagonist in this one was a real treat. There had been some criminals and other blokes that were more on the immoral side of the line such as Adelai Niska, perhaps Burgess, and "YoSaffBridge", but the one in this story makes a mark, too.

Introducing new characters must be a challenge for these novels, given that they …

After Big Damn Hero, it seemed the bar of standards was set high, much like the original show and its legendary legacy. Magnificent Nine presents a plot that is very much reminiscent of the western formula that the show often called upon. Similarly to the first book, this plot is driven by the crew aiding one of its own members with a dilemma specifically involving him.

This plot will dive somewhat into Jayne's rather unknown past to increase the depth of his character beyond what was revealed in season one, and the main antagonist in this one was a real treat. There had been some criminals and other blokes that were more on the immoral side of the line such as Adelai Niska, perhaps Burgess, and "YoSaffBridge", but the one in this story makes a mark, too.

Introducing new characters must be a challenge for these novels, given that they will not have a frame of reference from the TV show by definition. However I felt Lovegrove executed the creation of this story's foundation with its new players as well as it deserved to be. Looking back on all the novels, this is one of the ones I would be most inclined to re-read. Another shiny novel indeed!